TITLE: Letters from the Country
AUTHORS: Brenda Shaffer-Shiring and Kathleen Speck. Kathy wrote the Torres letters, Brenda the Chakotay ones.
RATING: G (all audiences)
PARTS: 8/9
CODES: C/T AU
DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1.


From Chakotay Darrow, Viscount Trebus, Dorvan House, to Lord Thomas Paris, London
29 September, 18--

Dear Tom,

I have ended my betrothal to Kathryn. I know not, and care not, what may be the way of marriage in the fashionable set; I only know that I will not marry a woman whom I do not love. Especially as I have learned that there is a woman whom I do indeed love, and she is willing to have me.

I require your congratulations once again, Tom, for I am once again betrothed, this time to a young lady you know well, and I love well. Will you stand at my side when I take Belle Torres to wife?

Even at this remove, I hear your laughter! And yet, I assure you that it is quite true. Belle and I are to be wed in a month, and we are both in transports of happiness at the arrangement.

How, you will ask, did this come to be? In a curious way, I owe thanks to Lady Kathryn and her matchmaking plots. When we attended the recent ball at the Rikers', she presented a truly excellent candidate, an amiable and attractive young man from the Spanish delegation to St. James, one Miguel Ayala by name.

Where Kathryn's other attempts to find Belle a husband had fallen woefully short of the mark, Senor Ayala was such a suitor as to make any young woman's heart beat more swiftly; not past five-and-twenty, he possessed a darkly handsome countenance, a ready smile, and lissome grace. He was of gentle birth, of course, being the second son of landed gentry, and he had served in the Spanish navy as well. Moreover, he was quite taken with Belle, and openly proclaimed her such a beauty as to be the envy of all King Ferdinand's court.

Kathryn remarked, complaisantly, that even I could not possibly find fault with such a suitor. And yet, I took an immediate and passionate dislike to him, which increased in direct proportion to his attentions to Belle. I could not account for it; yet each time he took my Belle into his arms, my heart swelled with a jealousy that seemed like to burst it. He was dancing his second dance with her when the thought burst full-grown into my mind: here was a man who could take my Belle from me.

I was going to lose my Belle. It struck me with the force of a blow. Soon or late (more likely soon), if not to Ayala (likely to Ayala), then to another. She would leave me. And I could not bear to lose her. I could not bear the thought that no more would we dance together, dine together, ride together -- no more would her laughter sound in the halls of Dorvan House, nor her wit draw forth my own laughter.

Belle had been a girl and in my care for so many years that I came late to the realisation that she was a woman -- and later still to the realisation that she was such a woman as with whom I could be happy.

But she was my ward. I was her guardian. I was betrothed to Kathryn. And the forever-be-damned Senor Ayala was a far better match for her than I could hope to be -- young, dashing, handsome, all those things dear to a young woman's heart. She deserved someone as superb as him. I should allow him to court her, and grant my consent to their marriage.

I spent the rest of the ball heartsick and distracted, and when Kathryn, half-seriously, accused me of neglecting her, I acquiesced so meekly that she probably supposed I was ill.

'Twas much later, in the days after the ball, when my father told me that Ayala's advances did not seem to please Belle. His look at me was curious, and I could not interpret it.

And thus it was, when Kathryn came to call, that I told her that I would not accept his petition to court my Belle. Her temper, which you will recall was never gentle, flared up at once, and we quarreled bitterly over what she styled my "unreasonableness." It came to me then that, whether or not I must lose Belle, I had no desire to spend the rest of my years with a woman who so scorned my wishes, my feelings, and my powers of reason. And just so quickly, I told her that our betrothal was at an end. That, of course, infuriated her still further, but I no longer had to care.

I took my stallion, Voyager, then, and rode out over the estate whilst I thought.

When I returned to the house, Belle was waiting to greet me. So dear she was, and so concerned! There was an openness to her, a generosity of spirit, that I had never seen in Kathryn -- and that opened my own heart. Surely I must speak to her, though I did not know what I would say.

She took my hands there, in the entryway, took a deep breath, and said earnestly, "I don't want you to quarrel with Lady Kathryn over me, Chakotay."

"I promise you," I said, "that I will not quarrel with her again." She looked at me as if she were not sure how to understand my words, so I decided to enlighten her. "I will not quarrel with her because the affairs of my household are no longer her concern." That did not suffice, so I went on. "We are no longer betrothed, Belle."

For just a moment she began to smile, and the sight of it made my heart leap with hope. Then she pulled the lines of her face to sobriety. "Not because of me, I hope."

"No, Belle. Because of me." I squeezed her hands. "I do not love her, Belle."

She did smile then, and there was satisfaction in it. "I knew you did not."

"No," I said, "but there is a woman I love."

Her smile faltered a little then, but she said firmly, "Then it is her you should marry."

"And so I will, if she will have me." I raised our joined hands and pressed them to my chest. "Will you marry me, Belle?"

Her eyes widened in astonishment, and my heart slammed against my ribs, in fear that I had presumed too much. Then she grinned broadly, her eyes overbright. "Yes," she said fiercely. "Yes!"

So the matter was resolved. And now, for propriety's sake, Belle resides with her friend Kessandra whilst the plans for our nuptials are made.

Plans of which you are a vital part, old friend. Will you join us here at Dorvan in a month's time? We mean to be married on 27 October, and I am determined to have you at my side. But you must have stopped laughing by then!

Hoping you will respond as soon as you may, I am, ever yours,
Chakotay