The London Affair

Chapter Six: Anna

In the present ambiance of the small room, Peter stared at the woman he loved, "Maria please I need to speak to you," he declared in a pleading voice as if he would die without her. At this a harsh crimson color flashed across Robert's face "don't take her away from me, she's the only other woman I have loved, you're not taking her away from me like you did with Anna."

A puzzled but then knowing expression washed over Maria's face. "Anna? The protagonist in your novel? That Anna!"

As he heard these words, Robert's countenance reached new heights of enraged. "You wrote about her, she meant that little to you. It wasn't enough just to steal her from me, you had to desecrate her memory!"

"Dear merciful God, your Anna's other love the young lieutenant? The young lord and the young lieutenant, it all makes sense."

"You wrote about me too," snarled the general?

"Christ, you make yourself such a martyr. I didn't steal Anna from anyone, you left or does your memory fail you general?"

"I went away to war, I had no choice. I promised her, I would come back but it was too late, she had already died, both she and the baby," replied the general as a tear fell down his cheek.

At the mention of the word, "baby," Maria's face turned white. "baby, baby? There was a child?"

"Yes," declared Robert almost choking on the words.

"Who's child was it?" Maria cried faintly, she would have fallen to the floor if Robert hadn't been there to catch her. She quickly wrestled away from Robert.

"Mine," Peter cried in a quivering voice. " Anna's father was the groundskeeper of my estate, when I was a boy. I grew up with Anna, I always loved her. But she soon became smitten with a young soldier that was in the area for military exercises. However Robert soon went off to war, he didn't write."

"That was because I had been injured, I couldn't write to her but I thought about her every waking moment."

"Anna thought Robert had been killed, I comforted her and we eventually grew closer and she fell in love with me. When she was with child, I was willing to acknowledge the child and marry her, I was so in love with her, I was going to give up my title, everything for her. I didn't care what my father did. I didn't care that she was a groundskeepers daughter. In the novel, I made her the farmhands daughter just to protect her identity if it was ever published. Before I could propose and before she had the baby, my father was called away on urgent business to London and took me with him. When we returned we learned Anna and the baby had died in childbirth, no one knew I was the father."

"It was the worst day of my life, I came back from the war a few days after the funeral and I discovered all of this," chimed in Robert somberly.

" I too missed the funeral and I was never able to speak to her father, he resigned as groundskeeper the day before we got back from London," cried Peter. "But the point is I love you Maria and yes those letters you found were from her but I love you now isn't that enough? I should have told you the truth. That's why I ended the engagement, because I thought you could never be happy with me having such a secret. However I do not believe that's true anymore, I believe we can be happy together, I love you," Peter declared locking eyes with Maria.

"Maria, I know I should have told you about Anna and I admit that was a mistake but we are about to be married, please do not forsake our love," begged Robert as he fell to his knees and grasped Maria's hand!