Cheshire Park

8

Early in the morning Lady Gilmore called Charlize in her room.

"How can I serve Your Ladyship?", asked Charlize, Lady Gilmore addressed her: "When I have first arrived at Cheshire Park I have been impressed by your manners, so rare to find in servitude people. I thought you were a good-natured lady. And yet you haven't even been able to be discreet", catching the allusion Charlize said: "If you are referring to Sir Cheshire...", Lady Gilmore intervened: "In our previous conversation it seemed to me you have understood you must not forget your own place!",

"I do not forget it, milady",

"Yet I have heard rumors that seem to prove otherwise!",

"...I believe Your Excellency should discuss the matter with Sir Cheshire, milady", Charlize said in awe,

"I have decided to speak to you about it because you appear to be a clever maid. Am I wrong, perhaps? Because if you were truly clever you would understand you could gain more by in living in concubinage than you could in the marriage",

"Concubinage has never been an alternative for me",

"I have met other women such as you, ambitious women, who know how to use their beauty...", Charlize was outraged by her words, "Thee are wrong about me, milady. I have never asked anything of Sir Cheshire",

"Do you really believe that given you have good manners you could be presented in Society? Would you want to be looked with contempt by all the people? Or would you want Nicholas to be object of wags?", perplexed Charlize did not answer, "Are you aware if he receives guests for supper you cannot sit at his table? You shall not endure all this being his 'kept woman', you will have all to gain: a comfortable life, a property of your own... and you won't face humiliation and wags",

"...Do you think I can be bought?", Charlize muttered indignantly, "I was born in a different land than your own and in a different condition, but I am an Irish Catholic as Your Excellency is. And I find Thy words outrageous!",

"Is it me insulting you? You, willing to expose my nephew to public dishonor?", said Lady Gilmore annoyed, "I cannot believe Nicholas wants to shame the Good Cheshires Name for a wife to be ashamed of in public!", Lady Gilmore, altered, dismissed her in frenzy.

Lady Gilmore's words upset Charlize, although she was aware of the difficulty it entailed for Nicholas to marry her, but in her innocence she had believed her manners were enough not to embarrass her or Nicholas. Now she had the doubt that perhaps she was asking too much of him.

Meanwhile Lady Gilmore conversed with Nicholas about it. "Nephew, the concern for what I have heard urges me to ask you for clarifications", she said to him, "In the house there are rumors of a marriage between you and that maid",

"And it is right, indeed. I have decided to marry Charlize",

"You have such a weak character, nephew! Any other man if he were you would have taken that maid without qualms! Instead you, who have offered her an alternative, which would have made her wealthy and respected, you have received a refusal from an ungrateful woman and because of that you decide to submit yourself to her demands!",

"It is because I respect Charlize. If I did not respect her how could I claim to love her?",

"And are you not considering your future? Considering your children's one? Children who will be the same color as her. Do you believe any family would be willing to intermarry with them or embrace them?",

"I do not expect a smooth future",

"I have always thought you were a responsible man. That you would have honored the Cheshire Name... not you would be misled by the a young woman's ambitions!", Lady Gilmore took her leave of him.

However, the noblewoman was a crafty person and she still had resources to try to keep Charlize in distance from him.