Then we drove back to London to Jack's lodgings. How different it was on this occasion!
Jack was laughing.
"The deed is done," he cried. "Oh, Sarah, my love. There is not a happier man in the whole of this city."
"Nor woman," I said.
He took my cloak as he had before. He threw it on to the bed. The new life had begun.
Life was wonderful. We were together all the time. I was deliriously happy. He was all that I had believed him to be. He might have been impatient with me, for I was very ignorant, indeed completely unworldly; but he initiated me into the pleasures of loving in the gentlest and most tender way.
Indeed, my innocence delighted him.
We were in his lodgings for a week. His servants below were very unobtrusive. They would come at a certain time to ask our wishes and apart from that we saw little of them.
We only made one excursion into the streets during that week. And that was to visit the coffee house—not in Covent Garden, for Jack had a fancy to go to Tom's in Change Alley. If we went to Will's, it would be too close to the theater and we should see some of my old acquaintances. He wanted no intruders, he said. He wanted us to be entirely alone.
For a week we lived in this state of bliss and then he said he was going to take me away. He had told me he had a little place not far from Oxford Town. He would take me there. There we should not be disturbed by acquaintances and could continue this blissful existence. London was a dreary place just now, but soon they would be making it habitable again. Jack had heard that the King and the Duke were most interested in the matter. They had called in that fine architect Christopher Wren and were putting their heads together. Later we would come back and enjoy a fine city with wide streets, with most of those plague-infested houses gone forever.
So, to the country we went.
It was a wonderful life, living in a pleasant country house, not exactly large nor yet small. There were a few servants—as unobtrusive as those in his London lodgings—and we settled down to the idyllic life.
We rode into the countryside, and went and ate in inns. We lay in the meadows and it was all rather like a dream.
It could not go on like this. We would have a home soon. That was what I wanted. I knew so little about him. When I questioned him he would answer briefly and quickly change the subject.
"Sometimes I think you are a man of mystery," I said.
"Men of mystery are very attractive, I have heard."
"That may be, but a wife should know something of her husband."
"My Lord Rochester would tell you that the less a wife knows of her husband—or he of her—the happier they are likely to be."
"These clever comments do not apply to ordinary people."
"But we are not ordinary, my darling."
"I want to be. I do not want to be smart like my Lord Rochester. Is he a friend of yours?"
"An acquaintance."
"He is very cynical, I gather from his verses."
"He is extremely clever. That is why the King suffers the young rogue. The King will forgive a man a great deal if he has wit."
It was always like that. Whenever I wanted to talk about him, I would find the subject changed to something else. Only occasionally, when I awoke in the night, I would think how little I knew of my husband and ask myself why it should be so. He knew of my home on the Willerton estate, that I had come to London with Kitty and what had happened to me ever since ... but with the coming of the day, there he was, laughing, merrily thinking of some new ways of making me happy.
The days passed quickly. We had been at the house in the country for nearly three weeks when I noticed that he had become a little preoccupied. And then, one afternoon, when we had ridden off and had tethered our horses near a stream and had gone to its edge to sit awhile, he put his arm round me and said: "Sweetheart, I have to go away for a little while."
"Go away?" I echoed.
"It is a matter of business."
"Business. I did not know ..."
"That I had business? My dearest, why should I burden you? It's a matter of my estate."
"What estate? Your estate?"
"My place in the country."
It was the first I had heard of it.
"I did not know ..."
"Most of us have such places. They are managed by ..."
"People like my father."
"A good manager takes over most things, but there are times when one's presence is needed."
I knew of such things. Had it not been so at Willerton House?
"When shall we leave? I long to see the estate."
He was silent for a while, and then he said: "It will be easier for me to go alone."
I was amazed. I said nothing. He drew me closer to him.
"I can get up there quickly, settle things and then come back." He hurried on, as though fearful that I might ask questions. "I have to go back to London first. We'll leave tomorrow. You will stay in the lodgings while I'm gone. It will not take more than a week or so to settle the matter."
I felt a terrible alarm. He was going to his home ... his estate ... and he was not taking me with him. There seemed no reason why he should not. Was I not his wife? I wanted to know his family. It was my family now. I had the sudden feeling that I was being shut out.
"Why cannot I come with you?" I insisted. "I want to see the estate. I want to meet your family. You have not told me anything about them. What family have you?"
"Oh ... only brothers."
"What do they say about our marriage?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "They are concerned mostly with their own affairs. Look here, Sarah. I shall only be away a short time, then I shall be back and we will talk over everything. We'll make plans. I did not want to think of anything else during this wonderful time except that we are together. Do you understand?"
"Oh yes, but ..."
"Let's forget all this. We must be happy together. Now, no more of my parting. I shall be back before you know I have gone. I tell you what I intend to do. Early tomorrow morning, we will start for London. I'll take you to my lodgings. You will be well looked after there. You think of what we shall do. I shall expect well-laid plans by the time I return. It's going to be wonderful, darling. Don't look sad. Everything is in order, I tell you. Think about it. Where shall we live? You love the old city, do you not? Life is going to be better than you have ever dreamed of, I promise you."
"I wish you did not have to go."
"So do I. But these things happen, you know. Being away from you will be torture, but think what it will be like when we are together again."
"But ..."
He put his finger on my lips in a playful gesture. "Do not let us talk of miserable parting. I forbid you to talk of it. There! Husbandly authority. You promised to obey me, you know. I insist. We are not going to spoil this night by thinking of tomorrow."
A week had passed. I felt desperately lonely without him. The days seemed unendurable. I saw little of the servants who were in their quarters below. One of them came up as before in the morning to take my orders. Often I compared them with Martha and Rose and I thought how I should like to see them.
I was so delighted when the week came to its end and I was expecting Jack to return at any moment. I thought it would be like him to want to surprise me and I expected to hear his voice calling me.
Instead there was a letter from him.
My dearest.
This is a sad, sad disappointment for me. I cannot return to you for another week. I miss you so much. But never mind, we'll make up for it when we do meet. I cannot wait for that.
God bless you, my darling.
Your ever loving.
Jack
My disappointment was intense. I felt wretched and uneasy.
I had not gone far from the house as yet, but now I decided that I would go to Drury Lane. I would go and see Martha and Rose. I should enjoy telling them about my wonderful marriage and how happy I was and how my husband had had to leave for a little while on important and urgent business. When he came back we were going to find a house in London. He had a place in the country but he had insisted that we should also have a residence in London.