Chapter 1

She watched as he walked away. Actually, her husband didn't walk, he waddled, like a child learning to walk. He not only waddled, he sweated, profusely.

There couldn't be any doubt as to where he was going. His prodigious rump slowly made its way across the expanse of Rosings Park. No doubt, he was going to bow at the altar of Lady Catherine, Charlotte thought.

Moving away from the window, she calculated she had another 2 hours before her husband returned. Two hours where she wouldn't have to hear his voice or his excessive flattery of Lady Catherine and her daughter. If she had to hear about the chimneys at Rosings, she might scream!

Two hours... that's what her life was now. Short spurts of freedom from the constant aggrevation that was her husband.

They had married 5 years ago. He needed a wife and she needed to not be burden to her family. It seemed like a good fit.

For a while, she was content. She had her own home; her own life. Back then, she could ignore her husband's fawning over the great lady or his embarrassing remarks. Back then, she had no romantic delusions. Back then, she had never known true loneliness.

She couldn't respect her husband. They had not had any children, which Charlotte could not determine whether it was a good or a bad thing. Her closest neighbors were the magnificent Lady Catherine and frail Anne. Her closest friends lived in Derbyshire and were happily married. Ah, Jane and Elizabeth...

They had married for love. They knew nothing of isolation.

At 32, Charlotte Collins could say, she knew exactly what being lonely without being alone felt like.