Ghost of Christmas Past by Rebecca King

think that it would be possible.”
    “ I want you to understand that when you had the accident, my
life also changed completely and went in a direction I could never
have foreseen. I came to see you after the accident but was only
allowed in once or twice. You were heavily sedated with laudanum
because of the pain so weren’t even aware that I was there. Then,
about a month after the accident, I arrived at the doctor’s office
and heard you. You were in considerable pain.” Her cries had echoed
around the walls of the doctor’s house and had been so pitiful that
he could still hear them to this day. “I asked to see you but the
doctor wouldn’t allow it. I came by each day still, but was never
allowed in. My father kept sending me notes demanding that I return
to Bainbridge, but I couldn’t stand the thought of it. He even came
to the inn to see me but I refused to answer the door. In the end,
I tried to force my way in to see you but was told that you had
refused to see anybody. I pleaded with your uncle, but he
stalwartly refused to budge on the issue. Then one day, when I
arrived at the doctor’s office I was told that you had asked to
move to the country to continue your recovery. I don’t know if you
had gone by then but, in spite of my best efforts I couldn’t get
any details about where you were or how you were. I was eventually
told that John had left the tavern in the village but nobody knew
where he had gone. With no idea of where you had disappeared to I
was left with little choice but to accept that I had lost you. I
left the doctor’s office with my world in pieces. One moment we had
been destined to wed, the next I not only had to deal with the news
that you had been badly injured, but then to lose you as well.” He
shook his head sadly. “I hadn’t been able to do a damned thing
about it. I didn’t know what to do or what to think. I ignored all
of my father’s demands to return to Bainbridge, and moved to the
nearest large town where I found an inn and took to my room with
several bottles. I eventually sobered up and realised that I could
either go home and live a shadow of a life I didn’t want, or go my
own way before my father disinherited me completely. I used the
last of the funds I had available and bought myself a commission to
the army.”
    “ But you didn’t want to marry me,” Thea protested with a
frown. She remembered the conversation she had overheard the night
before the wedding between Rupert and his father. When Rupert
merely looked at her blankly she knew that he had no idea what she
was talking about. She took a fortifying sip of her wine and slowly
began to recount the awful meeting she had overheard that had
shaken her to her core.
    ********
    “ I have said that I will go along with it and I will. Just
leave Thea to me,” Rupert growled and glared belligerently across
the width of his desk.
    “ The contacts have all been signed. All you have to do is turn
up at the church, say the words in the right place and return here
for the celebrations. As soon as the guests have left you and Thea
can take up residence in Weatherby. Her parents have already moved
into the Dower house.”
    “ We have already been through this father, so what is your
point?”
    “ The point is that this marriage isn’t a love match, we know
that, but you have a duty to this family to ensure that we are not
sullied in any way, shape or form. That includes tarnishing your
reputation with that odious mistress of yours.”
    “ I have told you that Barbara is my business, not yours. Leave
her to me.”
    “ I am just saying.”
    “ I am just saying too. I will deal with Barbara. That is
nothing to do with you.”
    “ I know you don’t want to marry Thea, but she is more your age
and will give you the children you need to fulfil your duties to
the family name. Do what you want about your mistress, but keep it
discrete. Your shenanigans around town have already drawn the
censure of the gossips.