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Kenver frowned, unsure what she might mean.
“You can send Sarah to live at this house. The Terefords are friends of hers after all. It would make sense. We will provide an income for her while we have the marriage annulled. What a good idea, Kenver.”
Kenver was speechless for a moment.
“Ah,” said his father. “Yes. A fine idea, my boy.”
“I would never send Sarah off to live alone.” He couldn’t believe he was obliged to say this.
“She could return to her parents once the marriage is dissolved,” said his mother.
“In disgrace,” Kenver answered before he realized that he was being pulled into discussing this as if it were an actual plan.
“Well, really, Kenver, if she had not schemed to entrap you…”
“There will be no annulment. We will not mention it again.”
“But it is an elegant solution,” said his father.
“To a problem that does not exist.” They seemed to think of Sarah, and of him, as no more than counters in a game. “There are no grounds for an annulment,” Kenver declared. He stared at them, particularly his mother. She had put every obstacle in the way of a true marriage, but she couldn’t be certain that she had succeeded in keeping them physically apart. He kept his gaze stony and did not look away.
After a while, her eyes wavered. “Do you care nothing for how we feel?”
She gave him the woebegone look that had eaten at him since he was a small boy. He felt it. But he wasn’t the only one involved here. He was standing in defense of his wife. “As much as you do for Sarah’s feelings, Mama,” he replied. “The way you treated her at the fete was deplorable.”
“Kenver!”
“Yes?”
They stared at him with fuming resentment.
“Our things are packed,” he added. “I have ordered a wagon to take them to Tresigan.”
“I shall forbid it to go,” declared his father.
“You have no power to do so. The carter is a friend of mine.”
“I’ll see that he…”
“A man who is not dependent on Poldene for his living,” Kenver interrupted. He had made sure of that. “Should you try to make trouble for him, I will explain your petty malice to all and sundry.”
“What has happened to you, Kenver?” asked his mother. Her expression was tragic. “This is all that girl’s fault. She has made you hard and cold.”
Could she not see that insulting Sarah did not help her case? Or that Sarah’s presence in his life had done exactly the opposite? Sarah had woken him up to the coldness that surrounded him. Didn’t they see it? If it was explained, wouldn’t his parents want things to be different? “You treated Tamara shabbily, you know,” he said. “Have you ever written her since she married? She is your daughter.”
“If Tamara says…”
“I didn’t write either,” Kenver interrupted. “I followed your lead without thinking. But I intend to make up for that now.”
“You will desert us after all we have done for you,” replied his mother.
“I do not wish to be at odds,” he went on. He did care about them. They were his family. “I would be happy for us to live in harmony. When you receive Sarah with respect…”
“This is all her fault,” his mother repeated. “You never treated me so before you mether.”
“What you mean is that I did not argue with you and did as I was told.”
“As you should,” said his father. “We know best.”
