All Our Lives ✔

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I was my father's sole heir.

I also needed a husband to claim my inheritance.

I could not even enter his home — leave the house of my uncle freely — until I was a married woman.

It wasn't an issue that the estate would enter into my husband's name. Not at all. I was after a different inheritance, something only accessible through the home in which I was raised.

The husband I chose was at least ten years my senior, casually cruel — and not nearly as charming as he thought. He crushed men to feel bigger than he was but did not present the same threat to women, seeing himself as a knight in shining armor.

"What would the gentleman before me say to a young woman in need of less-than-holy matrimony?" I asked of William on the night we met, the meeting entirely orchestrated by me. A slip and him just there, ready to assist. And more than willing.

His response was just the one I was looking for. "He would kneel before such a woman."

My forwardness, in fact, was just what he was looking for. "Such manners..."

Already a wealthy man, William would benefit greatly from the marriage. I called him a mountain among the stars — complimenting his strength and character, he must have thought. I simply thought he was tall, as all the males in my family were below average in height.

I was sheltered in some ways. In others, my knowledge might have shocked.

When he found me with Vera — improperly dressed and giggling, he was very confused. It was new to him... he needn't have known that it wasn't new to us.

His and mine was not a romantic association. It was business, which he knew much of. My displeasure at discovering his unfortunate attachment to me would be great, something of which he was also aware, but increasingly opposed to concealing.

"Isn't she divine?" I told him, sliding Vera's hair from her shoulder to kiss it. "May I introduce you to the beauty of my life?"

It took time, finding what I was after — the manor had more secrets than even I possessed. I thought it would be best to keep him occupied.

In the end, he became unbearable.

"If I had not agreed to her... would you have left me?"

"Husband, why bother with what isn't?" I said.

Vera became unhappy.

"Do you think there's something he has that you do not?" I asked her.

"Well, I can think of one thing..."

"Oh, you and your humor — I could strangle you!"

"Strangle away..."

I assured her again and again that there was a purpose here, and he would not be an enemy, for he would be well-compensated for his trouble.

But animosity grew between them. He often mocked Vera, ignoring the anger I only showed privately. It had to work; there was a need for at least a temporary peace, as I could no longer stand to hide Vera away.

William's rage spilled onto others, for as I had predicted, he did not wish me to see its full extent; he loathed the idea of being thought a boor by his wife. No amount of closeness satisfied him, despite the fact that we were always meant to stand on opposite ends of the same string — even that, only until the string was cut.