Emma, William and The Great Debate - Part II

Gossip Column #2

Emma loved the Cotswolds. They were her home. Daughter of well-to-do parents, she had been raised on a large country estate that had been in her family for over a century. Though she had travelled extensively, both within England and abroad, she had yet to find another town or village anywhere that had both the beauty and charm of the Cotswolds.  And she had made it abundantly clear to William, from the time he came courting, that while she had no special affinity for the house of her childhood, she would rather die a spinster than live outside the Cotswolds.

William, young and desperate to please the girl with whom he was madly in love, had said that he understood perfectly and that of course he would build her a splendid estate, just as soon as they found the right spot. But some part of his brain didn’t truly think she meant what she said. It was common for women to feel nervous about marrying and leaving all that was familiar. She would, he was certain, change her mind once they were married. He was very wrong.

"William," Emma said now, "do you believe that once you have me safely installed at that ancient pile of stone your mother calls a house, you can stall on finding us a place here and that I’ll come to see how truly marvelous Lincolnshire is and I’ll acquiesce? Are you perhaps hoping that I'll decide that when we inherit your family’s estate, I will be thrilled to modernize it and turn it into something truly splendid? That might have been true if the house was in the Cotswolds, but it isn't, so it's not."

This was delivered without heat, but with a steeliness of tone that few who knew Emma ever encountered. And William, upon hearing it, knew he was beaten.


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