Complications by Clare Jayne

Author:Clare Jayne [Jayne, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meroda Publishing
Published: 2016-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

AMELIA WOKE hoping the previous day had been a nightmare - it did not seem possible that her father was suddenly gone - but the silenced clocks and black drapes around the pictures told her otherwise. The dining room, laid out for breakfast, was empty and she went in search of her mother, finding her in her father’s study.

Mrs Daventry was in a chair at the desk frowning at a handful of papers. Without looking up she said, “People will want payment for bills. Your father would expect me to handle this but I do not know what to do.”

Amelia pulled another chair up to the desk. “Then we will do it together.”

Her resolve quickly faded to fear. Neither of them could make sense of the various receipts and bills - did the money need to be paid or had it already been paid? How much money did they have and where was it invested? Mr Daventry had been in charge of all such matters and had never mentioned the subject to either of them. Surely only men understood such things? Yet sometimes a woman inherited an estate from her father or husband so there must be some way of getting it to make sense.

They eventually gave up, defeated, and Mrs Daventry said she would make an appointment with the family man of business who would hopefully be able to explain to them what money they had and what to do about expenses and bills.

Amelia set about writing a notice to go in the Edinburgh Gazette stating where and when the funeral would be held and there were a few distant relatives who would also need to be informed.

The breakfast in the dining room remained uneaten.

* * *

“I believe I expressed myself badly when we last spoke,” Mr Nathaniel Fenbridge said as they played a game of billiards in Benjamin’s home. “When I mentioned nearly getting engaged, what I meant was that as easy as it would have been to do as everyone expected, I would have been unfair to myself and to the lady in question if I had. Sometimes one’s heart leads in a different direction.”

Benjamin tried to take this in. The words seemed a confirmation of his own feelings but he had been wrong so many times it did not seem possible and, after the picnic, his hopes had been destroyed entirely.

Fenbridge continued, “May I ask why you were concerned about your future?”

“My father wishes me to marry.”

Fenbridge stared at him. He seemed taken aback by this announcement but otherwise Benjamin could not read his emotions. “Who?”

“Someone of good family, the wealthier the better. Other than that, anyone would do.”

“What do you want?”

This was the moment; the choice between two paths. Should he tell Fenbridge of his feelings or should he lie and say he was perfectly amenable to the idea of marriage? He opened his mouth, still with no idea what to do, and the words came out of their own volition: “I do not ever wish to marry.

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