The Sea Between by Carol Thomas

coastal trading, I’d still be in debt in twenty years’ time.’
    She glanced down at him. ‘A moment ago you said it wasn’t suitable for coastal trading.’ He was changing his tune now. ‘Anyway,does it matter if it takes twenty years to clear your debts?’
    ‘Of course it matters!’ He pushed himself to his feet.
    She folded her arms and looked away. ‘Well, it matters to me that I’d not see you for months and months!’
    Expelling another loud sigh, Richard turned her around to face him again, then leaned forward and kissed her forehead. ‘Charlotte, let’s not quarrel about it,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ll discuss it again when I next come home, when you’ve had time to think about it some more.’
    ‘And will you be thinking about it as well?’ she asked. ‘Will you be thinking about how you can spend more time with me? Or is it just I who must think? Think up ways of occupying myself while you’re at sea.’
    ‘Charlotte, the sea is my livelihood,’ Richard said patiently. ‘Much as I’d like to spend more time ashore with you, it isn’t possible.’
    ‘It would be, if you made a change to coastal trading.’
    ‘I’ve already explained to you why I travel long distances.’
    ‘Yes, you have explained. It’s on account of profit, which is apparently more important to you than spending time with me!’
    Richard tightened his lips. ‘Well, if that’s how poorly you rate my feelings for you, you’d better not marry me.’
    ‘I don’t intend to,’ she returned. ‘Not until you can assure me that you’ll spend a reasonable amount of time with me. I want a proper husband, Richard, not one I don’t see from one month to the next, whom I can only converse with by letter, who’s hard-pressed to remember his children’s names because he sees them so rarely. I want a marriage that is a marriage.’
    ‘So either I give in to your demands or else you won’t marry me—is that it?’
    She looked away impatiently. ‘They aren’t demands. They’re requests.’
    ‘Whatever you want to call them, they amount to the same!’ Silence fell. Shaking his head in exasperation, Richard strode down the hill about twenty yards, stood for a minute staring at his feet, then walked back up the slope to her. ‘We’ll discuss it again when I come back in a few months,’ he said coolly. ‘You can give me your answer then.’
    ‘And when we discuss it again, when you’re next ashore, will we be discussing how you can make some changes so that you aren’t away so much?’ she asked.
    ‘Charlotte, I want to marry you but I will not have you dictating to me how I should run my business affairs,’ Richard returned in the same cool, even tones.
    She looked away, feeling hurt and angry. He was more or less informing her that he had no intention of making any changes whatsoever to his comings and goings, and that she would have to learn to accommodate any domestic inconveniences they caused.
    ‘You can have my answer now, Richard. It’s no. And it’ll stay no until you make me a better offer than the one you have,’ she said shortly, and strode off.
    As she made her way down the hill to where they’d left the horses she looked back only once, to see if Richard was following her. He wasn’t. He was standing where she’d left him, watching her, expecting her to go back to him no doubt. She didn’t go back. She mounted her horse and galloped off. Half a mile further on she turned off into one of the side valleys, rode until she reached a spot where she couldn’t be seen, and burst into tears.
    Three hours later, Charlotte found herself at the centre of a second row; this time in the parlour, with her family. It was a casual question from her father that started it.
    ‘What time will Richard be stopping by tomorrow morning, Charlotte? I meant to ask him if he’ll buy me some decent tobacco if he comes across some. This stuff is very poor.’ Pulling out a small wad from his tobacco pouch, he