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“Yes, it would appear so.”

“Now, will you please sit and finish your meal?”

Emma could not believe how uncaring he was about it all, as if he expected to tell her what was happening and in response she would simply accept it and move on. She had never been that way with him, if anything she had been the exact perfect opposite, and she was not going to change simply because he had slipped a ring onto her finger.

“No,” she replied, “and you mustn’t expect a discussion about it, either.”

“You are being ridiculous.”

She snapped, forcing her chair under the table with a force that she had not even known that she was capable of. Even Levi looked at her for a moment in a sort of stunned silence, before leaving his seat and pushing it under in a more controlled manner.

“Do you know what is ridiculous?” she asked, “The fact that you are so willing to put the superstitions about a dead man before the wishes of your living wife. It is not as though I am asking for the world, only for some company while you are away in your gentlemen’s clubs, or your brothels, or wherever it is that you go.”

“Do you honestly believe that I am frequenting brothels? I have been here all week, for a start.”

“Yes, because I was keeping you happy. Now, I am making you angry, so where will you go?”

She was mostly trying to prove a point, but a part of her also wished to test him. She wanted to know what he would do, if given the freedom to do whatever he wanted.

“I will go where I always go,” he nodded, making his way to the door, “and I will leave you to wonder just where that is. You can decide whether you see me as a loyal husband or not.”

He left without another word.

CHAPTER 26

Levi had thought that there was an understanding between himself and his wife, but it appeared that he was wrong.

He never would have thought that Emma could think so little of him that she would expect him to frequent brothels as a married man. He thought he had shown himself to be a good husband, one that was good to his wife at least, and he wondered just what he had done to make her not see him in that light.

He realized, as the carriage arrived at Leonard’s house, that it might have been because he ran at every opportunity. It hadn’t been his plan to leave, but when Emma had accused him the way she did, he did not know what else to do but take time away. He knocked on the door, the butler welcoming him in without question, and then he went straight to Leonard’s study.

“No,” Leonard said the moment he saw him.

“Leonard, please, I–”

“Go home, Levi. I can see that something has happened, and I cannot keep supplying you with alcohol each time you are unhappy. It is not fair to your wife.”

“My wife pushed me to come here. You do not understand.”

Leonard tipped his head back and sighed. “You may stay for an hour and no more.”

Levi nodded gratefully, entering the study and taking a seat. He did not say a word, as he had no real intention of telling his friend about what had happened, but Leonard was already eyeing him carefully.

“So you say your wife sent you here,” he said in a measured tone. “Are you going to tell me what you did to deserve that?”

“Must I have done something to warrant it?”

“Yes. She wouldn’t have been able to remove you from your own home if not.”

“She… she accused me of frequenting clubs and brothels, which I do not.”

Leonard chuckled at that, looking him in the eye with amazement.

“And so you have decided to prove her wrong by leaving her at home at night? What are you hoping that she thinks of you because of this?”

“I didn’t think about that. I simply wanted to be away for a while. She will think less of me because of it, but I couldn’t stand another moment beneath the same roof. I'm trying to be a good husband, but how can I do that when she is always asking more of me? I went to the ball, I am trying to mend things with my mother, and now she is asking for children.”

“Is that such an awful thing to want as a wife? Levi, she knows that you are trying, but what good are you when you cannot simply discuss issues when they first arise? Must you force her for the rest of her life to wait for you to run away and then come home?”