Thank you for all the great reviews for this. You all brighten my day, and boy do I need it brightened today. Why must some people insist on talking about you behind your back? Its not nice and not smart. I'm not a vengeful person, nor one to hold a grudge but I'm pissed off.

End of rant.

Including this chapter, there are definitely three chapters left but I might add on an extra one. I suck at ending stories, and while I know that is going to happen from here to the end, I don't know how we're going to end.


Matthews and his wife worked together and managed to convince Frederick to stay with them for another two nights while he worked off the after effects of the liquor he had ingested and any symptoms of the storm he had been caught in on the way to their house.

By the Thursday, he was on his way to Edwards Parish in Shropshire; a quite, medium sized village in the south of the county that took Frederick two days to reach from Plymouth. By the time he got there late on Saturday, Edward was glad to see him but unable to go into depth in conversation due to his having a sermon to deliver the next morning.

Frederick sat in the front church pew next to his brothers wife, Lauren, listening to his brother go on and on about the subject of forgiveness and briefly registered Edward saying that the following weeks service would be about the subject of jealousy.

He spent Sunday afternoon meeting people around the parish before having dinner with his new sister in laws family in their house at the other end of the village, so there was no chance to talk with his brother then.

Frederick found that the time he spent on his own was beneficial though, and it allowed him to think through the situation he had gotten himself into and what the outcome might be. He tried to ready himself to a life with a woman he only found amiable. There was no use in fooling himself; he was not in love with Louisa and there was no guarantee that, over time, he would find himself so. If they where to be married though, he could not - would not - allow her to feel as though she was second best.

He would lavish her with all the attention she required. They where friends already and that is what they would be. He could see himself becoming fond of her, he already was, but love. He wasn't sure if his heart would be able to reach out to another.

When he finally talked to Edward about it, he was mostly decided.

He would give it a month before heading back to see the Musgrove's. Should Louisa still expect him too, then he would propose marriage to her and go through the rituals associated with marriage. He would be honest with her before hand though, let her know that although he cared for her, his heart belonged in whole to another and that perhaps she should wait for someone better to come along. Someone who could give her what she truly deserved.

Should he return, speak to her to find that she no longer felt for him what she had done in the pass, then he would apologise to her before making his way as quickly as possible to Bath where he would attempt to distinguish whether or not Anne had any feelings left for him.

His biggest worry was that she had moved on. He couldn't even begin to imagine what the past month or so must have been like for her, to have been around all the talk and suspicion; to have been asked her opinion on the match.

Harville's letter came late in the afternoon of his second week with his brother and sister. He was hiding out in the orchard when the young boy that Edward hired to help him around the house, came bounding to him, letter in hand.

It was long after the letter had been in his hands that he finally got up the courage to open it and read its contents. This small, insignificant piece of paper was possibly going to decide his future, and who he might spend it with.

Finding a comfy, dry spot below one of the tree's, he gingerly split the seal and pulled the pages apart. Harville had a good hand and the words where there in black ink, clear to make out, but still completely foreign to him.

It took him four tries before he was sure that he had read everything correctly.

Louisa was to marry Benwick. James Benwick.

He could hardly believe his eyes. Of all the possible outcomes, all the possible events that could occur out of this, he had never even of thought of that one. It was, unbelievable.

Leaving the sanctity of the orchard, he quickly made his way back down to the house his brother resided in. Once inside and free of his muddy boots - on the housekeepers insistence - he made his way to Edwards study and bade him to read the letter. Just to make sure he had not been seeing things.

Once Edward had confirmed it, he finally felt himself breath a little easier, as though a weight had been removed from his chest. He wanted to sing, he wanted to dance; he wanted to be in Bath already, to be near her, to see her, to hear of her. That was what he wanted.

Anne.

His brother was able to persuaded him to stay one night further, stating that if he stayed the night then he would be able to be in Bath by tomorrow afternoon in one days ride rather than having to stop for the night.

For the rest of the night he found it very difficult to settle. During dinner he found himself a more willing participant in the conversation round the table, the others being unable to see his leg bouncing up and down with shear nervous energy.

He shared a good cider and talk with his brother that night before going to bed. They talked a little more about the past and Fredericks plans for the future. They did not shy away from any subjects, and Edward found himself asking what he would do, should Anne not return his feelings, or have given them up to another?

"Then I shall be happy because she is happy," he said truthfully. "I shall drink to missed chances and rue what a fool I have been, but as long as she is happy, then I will be content. I should then make my way to the nearest port, find a ship that shall carry me and sail off into the distance and spend my days in far off places. "

"And if another comes along?"

Frederick shook his head. "There will be no other. It would not be fair to them when my heart still beats for another. It would not be fair to myself."

Although he thought his sleep might be fitful, Frederick slept peacefully through the night. Waking to the cocks crow the next morning, he was up before everyone else in the house apart from the elderly housekeeper, and managed to get everything done that was needed, before sitting down to a hearty breakfast.

Parting from his brother had never been easy. Each time one left the other for some reason or another, it always seemed to span into an absence of several years where correspondence was sporadic and patchy. He was determined, either way, that he would be back to see his brother.

Mounting his horse, he lead the animal down the lane and out of sight, his brother offering up a silent prayer for his brothers safekeeping, and for his heart.

Once out of the sight of the house, after taking one last look at the safe haven he had called home for the past four weeks, he spurred his horse into a trot and quickly left the small village behind.

He was on his way to Bath.