The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Twelve

Ellington Manor

Meadvale

Surrey

"Joshua thinks you should pray more," Sebastian Osborne informed his wife, rather out of the blue. He had invited Brogan to join him in his study after her morning devotions, as he was in the habit of doing most days, and they had spent the last half-hour bickering about his intentions with regards to the future of the Holy Order and even the Church. He would have described it as bickering at any rate. Brogan was in one of her moods, and she seemed to be deliberately disagreeing with almost everything he said to her. So, he decided to change the subject, and talking about the children was usually a safe place to go. "He seems to think that I am indulging you and that you would benefit from another hour or so?"

"He is entitled to his opinion...of course." Brogan replied in a tone that suggested her first born really ought to mind his own business. She was sitting on the small couch, the skirts of her dark green damask gown filling both seats, holding her cup and saucer in her lap. "And if you are determined to involve yourself in this mammoth restructuring of everything...no doubt you will want to give me something productive to do in your absence? What else could I possibly do to pass the time?"

"It is my duty to put things right, my dear...if I am allowed...and I know that you do enjoy your devotions..."

"Do you, indeed?" She huffed, raising her chin and turning her head away. He frowned as he put his own cup down on the small table beside his armchair, counting to ten as his wife continued to irritate him.

"We discussed it...after I retired...after we started having morning coffee together?"

"I think you will find that I was referring to the shorter length of my daily prayers...I said that I was enjoying praying less, Sir?" She insisted curtly, and he frowned some more. "And spending more time with my husband, which is usually a pleasure...when he isn't trying to work and worry himself into an early grave?"

"I think I would have objected to that opinion, Brogan...and admonished you for it... it is your duty to pray, dear." Osborne said, trying his best to sound stern, well aware of his own responsibilities towards his wife. He loved her dearly and wanted to please her, and yes, even indulge her a little, as they enjoyed the last of their summer wine, but he could never forget that she was a Daughter of Eve. Her occasional moods and tetchiness were simply signs of her weakness, which was why she needed to pray every day, to ask forgiveness for her sins and to earn God's love. He had not always been a good husband, he feared, because his work with the church consumed him completely, and he had really only married her for the sake of his good friend Harry Trevor, Brogan's late first husband. Osborne had been a confirmed bachelor, married to the church, and forty-four years old when he walked Brogan down the aisle. Harry's assassination had devastated everyone, but it left Brogan back in the hands of her father, with two young sons and a third child on the way. Obviously, she had to mourn Harry, but everyone knew that Drew Symonds would marry her off again, and Osborne was concerned about the children. Harry Trevor would not have wanted them brought up by a stranger, and with that in his mind, Osborne had asked Symonds for her hand. Brogan was not consulted about her future. It was really nothing to do with her, and Osborne certainly spent no time at all worrying about her happiness. He cared for the two boys, Joshua and Steven, and when little India eventually appeared, he adored her, but his relationship with Brogan remained formal, and a complete mystery to him. He did not love her, but he did not believe that mattered, because so many so-called love marriages ended in divorce. He was kind to her, he thought, and kept her well, but he was busy and distracted by more important things in life.

"You are too old to get so involved in all of this...kerfuffle!" Brogan insisted, ignoring his mild attempt at reproach and returning to the reason for her ill-humour. Everything had begun to change when Bellamy arrived on the scene, closely followed by Berenice. Osborne was close to his stepchildren, happily spending time with them whenever he could, but once he held his own son in his arms, his entire world turned on a sixpence. He was still busy, often still distracted, but his wife and his children brought love into his life. It had not changed his behaviour back then, not much, but he did start to think about Brogan's happiness. He did little things to please her. He bought her gifts, he discussed her routine with her keepers and made time to really talk to her, every day, even if it was only five minutes. And when he had his eyes truly opened, when Alistair Forbes took over from Kieran Radcliffe as President and Michael Winstanley started to hand his duties as archbishop over to his son, he had changed towards Brogan again, intending to cherish their twilight years together. But she did not make that easy, sometimes. Every time he gave her an inch, she tried to take a mile. "Our boys are giving up their careers for you...risking them, at least...although I will admit that you were right to act on the information your American friends discovered...but that does not mean that you have to be the one that clears up his mess, Sebastian?"