The only reason to marry is Love - A Sanditon fanfic

Chapter 3: A very bad idea

"Then we drove to Scotland, got married and returned here. End of story", Sidney concluded and emptied his wine glass.

Babington cocked an eyebrow, looking amused.

"Not so fast, my friend. This certainly does not sound like an end. It sounds very much like the beginning of something."

"I can assure you it is not, at least not in the sense you seem to imply. I saved her from that place, which she is very, er...grateful for. Now we simply need to live under the same roof and get on with our separate lives."

"Get on with your separate lives?"

Babington chuckled.

"Parker, you are the most private person I know. You never let anyone in. Now you have gotten yourself a wife, a woman who will stay in your house..."

"One which am completely indifferent to, may I point out."

The double doors to the parlour suddenly opened and the men turned their heads towards the unexpected intruder.

Babington stared at the woman standing there. Through a window, the sun shone on her from behind and transformed the delicate fabric of her white muslin dress to become semi-transparent and made the loose dark curls framing her face look like they had caught fire. She reminded him of a saint with a halo, though a very tempting saint.

He shifted his gaze to look at Sidney and found the other man's eyes fixed on her with an expression of befuddled awe. Something Babington never had seen on his friend's face before.

"I am sorry, I didn't know you had company."

She excused herself with blushing cheeks, then spun around on her heels and left, closing the doors behind her before Sidney came to his senses and got around to introducing her properly.

"Indeed, you seem very indifferent to your wife, Parker", Babington smirked. "Because I assume that was her? I can see why you couldn't resist being her knight in shining armour."

"Shut up, you do not know what you are talking about. I can assure you she is nothing to me."

"Have you consummated the marriage?"

"No!" Sidney's eyes flashed. "I wouldn't make her do that. I want nothing of the sort from her. I just couldn't leave an innocent girl, a gentleman's daughter, in a brothel to be passed around. I want her to think of me like... a brother, or a guardian perhaps. I only want her to be safe."

"Whatever you say. Why don't you go fetch her so we can be properly introduced?"

"I think we had better leave her to herself. We are not really on speaking terms at the moment", Sidney muttered.

"You are not?" Babington burst into laughter. "And why is that?"

"She is less than thrilled to be Mrs. Parker."

"My friend, for a man who claims he wants his life to remain exactly as it was, I think you got more than you bargained for when you married that girl. Now tell me what happened when you went to Gretna Green."

"If you insist upon it."

-o-

"Make me your wife?! Why?"

It was actually a bit offensive how repulsed she seemed to be by the idea. She stared at him and her brown doe eyes suddenly turned hard as flint stone, her lips into a straight thin line.

"Before you get all upset, please hear me out. I was awake all night thinking about this."

"Really? The one time I woke up you were sleeping in that armchair, snoring like a pig."