The de Vere Inheritance

Chapter Five - 28th June 1632

"I'm not going with you Eric, when you next leave Paris."

"Don't talk nonsense Elizabeth!" Eric cried. "What; you're going to stay here alone? Or are you going to take up rooms in your father's house? Is this some scheme of his eh? Some scheme that he's plotted in which you stay and he gives you whatever you want? He wouldn't give you money would he; because of me? I heard you coughing into the night. No money for your tonics?"

The cold laughter was harsher on Elizabeth's ears than any other sound he had ever made. "I didn't take his money because he spoke ill of you. You are my husband and I am a loyal wife. I'm not going with you because I'm sick of all of this travelling Eric. I'm sick of always being on my guard, tired of having to leave with sometimes only a few moment's notice! Think of how much money we've wasted in new things because so many times we have had to run with only the clothes on our backs. You know I've been ill and all of this travelling about is not helping me. The doctors have said so too."

Eric sighed heavily and moved to take a seat beside Elizabeth on the couch. "Paris does not strike me as the best place to try and recover a little if that is what you really wish Elizabeth! If you'd like I can rent a house in the country somewhere; anywhere you like. That way you won't be forced to live under the city smog. Cities are dirty rat infested places. The country would be better for you!"

Elizabeth clenched her hands into fists where they lay in her lap. "Don't you understand anything I try to tell you Eric? I do not feel up to travelling into the country! I do not feel well at all! I want to stay in Paris and spend time with my father! I want to visit the bathhouse as the other Parisians do and I want to make some real friends. I want to have a home for a while! I can't keep your secrets any more Eric. I can't go on as we have been all these years. I am still your wife legally but we are not even friends any more. You slight me at every opportunity and take pains to ensure I am always locked up wherever we stay. I have no one to talk to, no one who is purely there to listen. I've tried so hard to be a good wife to you Eric, but I'm struggling here! Can't you see that? Can't you see that all this stress is not helping me to get better?"

Eric stood and paced the room as Elizabeth spoke, and she was sure he would have some smart comment to make once she had finished. "Has your father put you up to this to throw my nose out of joint? What, so you want an annulment, a divorce? What?"

Elizabeth stood too, feeling at a disadvantage when Eric could shout over the top of her head. "I don't quite know what I want in terms of our marriage Eric. If I thought you'd return to the young man I married then I would of course be prepared to try and work things out, but I fear that man is gone forever! Don't you recall those happy days we had at home in England? All those wonderful summer afternoons spent running around the lawns of Barnham house? You and I, and Harry and all of the others? I married you because of who you were back then. You're just a shell now. God I think even Harry is a better prospect than you now in some respects!"

"Oh go and have Harry then if you really want to!" Eric roared as his anger began to swell. "I know he'd not say no, but then he never has to anyone! God Harry's the biggest whore I know! If you want to be used and tossed by the wayside then go to him!"

"I don't want Harry!" Elizabeth exclaimed as Eric turned on his heel and headed for his bedchamber. "I never did, that's why I married you!" She stopped in the doorway and watched as Eric tore off his shirt and threw it onto the floor uncerimoniously. He grabbed another from his opened trunk and stuffed it over his head and pulled it down. He threw a doublet over his shoulders and grabbed a stiff collar to pin to his shirt and stormed past Elizabeth, nearly knocking her over in his haste to leave. "Where are you going?"

"To find a bloody drink and a card table!" was all the reply she got before the parlour door slammed and she heard Eric clattering down the stairs. A few seconds later, the door to the lodgings was slammed too and she was all alone. She did wonder at Eric hoping to find a card table so early in the morning, but then Eric always had a knack for smiffing them out.