Chapter 2
My Brother's Keeper
Henry read Catherine's letter and as he read he noticed it did not give all the details about his father's illness. Of course he was planning to leave Dublin in a week's time. But now he needed to pack straightaway. He thought of letting his brother Frederick know yet what could he do so far away in India? If Eleanor already knew then he should think that she would have already told him. Nevertheless he needed to start packing to get back to England and to Catherine whom he had not seen in six months. He missed them, he thought about Thomas and how much he must have grown while he was away.
In India Frederick decided he would not think of her. He asked himself how he managed to become the village idiot. She lived a world away in Paris on his salary. They married for the sake of the mistake they made. He would do anything to get away from her. He received word earlier from Eleanor that their father had taken ill. She stated that she herself had not all of the details. He wanted to come back to England but the ghosts of his past haunted him. He had not told his father about his marriage to Isabella Thorpe. The family; especially the mother, had cornered him. They would tell his father the Colonel about their illicit affair bringing on scandal letting it be known that he had coerced her. Their child had been born a girl. His younger brother managed at least to sire an heir. Damn it all! I am my father's son. He decided to go home. He hoped and prayed he would not see that nitwit of a wife of his.