CHAPTER 20: THE HUSBAND’S FINAL OFFER
Richard called Eleanor into his study after breakfast and closed the door behind her.
He had placed her mother’s portrait on the desk beside a leather-bound account book.
Eleanor recognized the portrait as the miniature she had hidden in the greenhouse cellar.
Richard watched her look at it and asked whether she had planned a journey.
She said she had prepared belongings in case she needed to leave quickly.
He asked whether she intended to abandon her marriage.
Eleanor answered that she intended to protect herself.
Richard said no reasonable wife should fear her husband.
She asked whether a reasonable husband intercepted his wife’s letters.
Richard looked at the bundle she carried and said the correspondence had been withheld to spare her distress.
She replied that he had allowed her to believe Catherine no longer cared for her.
Richard said Catherine was unsuitable company for a woman of Eleanor’s station.
Eleanor asked whether he considered every friend unsuitable once she became independent of his judgment.
Richard refused to answer.
Instead, he opened the account book and pointed to a page showing money paid to her father’s creditors.
He said he had rescued her family from disgrace.
Eleanor acknowledged the payments.
She also said the payments did not purchase her obedience for the rest of her life.
Richard leaned back and offered a bargain.
He said she could retain the house, the clothes, and every comfort she desired if she dismissed Catherine and refused further contact with Daniel Hayes.
He also required her to sign Marsh’s statement acknowledging that her fears had been caused by temporary nervous illness.
Eleanor asked whether he would stop searching her rooms.
Richard answered that trust required proof of loyalty.
She asked whether he would permit her to read the estate records.
He said those affairs were not her concern.
Eleanor understood that his offer gave her everything except the ability to say no.
She told him she would not sign the statement.
Richard’s face darkened.
He said the county would believe a respected landowner before it believed a young wife accused of improper intimacy with a laborer.
Eleanor asked whether he intended to accuse Daniel publicly.
Richard said he had already spoken to the sheriff about suspicious conduct.
She asked whether he had evidence beyond a repair visit entered in Daniel’s ledger.
Richard said evidence was a matter for other men to judge.
Eleanor told him that he had just described his method more clearly than he realized.
He stood and reached for the portrait.
She moved to take it, but he placed his hand over hers.
For a brief instant the room felt very small.
Richard told her she should remember what had happened to the last woman who challenged him.
Eleanor looked at him without speaking.
He seemed to realize the weight of his words and released her hand.
He said he had meant only that Lydia’s departure brought unnecessary pain.
Eleanor asked whether Lydia had been his wife.
Richard answered that Lydia had been connected to him through an arrangement no court could now unravel.
She said a marriage record could unravel the question easily.
Richard replied that records sometimes disappeared.
Eleanor took her mother’s portrait from the desk and walked toward the door.
Richard asked where she was going.
She answered that she was going somewhere she could think without being watched.
He told her that the estate gates would remain closed until she became sensible.
Eleanor stopped and looked back.
She asked whether he meant to imprison her.
Richard said the restriction was temporary and necessary.
She replied that she would remember his exact words.
Then she left the study and went directly to Catherine.
She told her friend that Richard had threatened to keep her on the property against her will.
Catherine asked whether they should try to leave immediately.
Eleanor considered the guards near the gate and the servants who might be punished for helping.
She decided that they would not attempt a desperate escape without a plan.
Instead, she sent Ada to retrieve the copies hidden beneath the greenhouse tile.
She prepared a written statement describing Richard’s threat while the words were still fresh.
Catherine signed as witness to Eleanor’s condition after the conversation.
The statement would go to Abigail Mercer with the next safe messenger.
Eleanor had no certainty that the lawyer could protect her.
She did know that Richard had begun making mistakes as soon as she stopped agreeing with him.
