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Mary stormed through the door of her home, anger flowing through her. While she was on her carriage ride, she had suddenly realized what an idiot Colin was, and how angry she was at him. The servants seemed to sense that and had stayed out of her path as she went to Colin's room.

She shoved the door open, not knocking, and headed straight towards Colin, who was still laying on his bed writing.

He looked up when she came in. "What are you doing in her? I thought that the ball went on for much longer then this. You should go back there."

"Don't," Mary told, seething, "tell me what to do. I was at the ball and happened to meet a very interesting girl by the name of Angela Thomas, and her brother, Henry."

Colin avoided eye contact with her and said. "Oh, that's interesting. I hope you had a good time with them."

"Oh, I had a good time with them, especially Angela, but she told me the strangest story about how you and your father owe her family a great deal of money, and how you made an agreement with them that if you didn't pay them back in a year, that Angela and Henry would move in with us and take all our extra-non-essential money and use it to pay off the debt."

Colin opened his mouth to speak, but Mary held her hand up. "Don't speak, I am not finished. See, Angela said that it has been a year, and you still haven't paid off your debt, so they will be moving in next week. Isn't it wonderful, Colin, we get to have some new house guests for a while."

Colin looked down, sighed, and then spoke. "I know that you must be very upset right now, but I wasn't thinking when I borrowed the money. My father and I needed money, so we asked them to help us. Father needed less, since he moved to America, but I needed a little bit extra to make ends meet while he was gone."

"And were you thinking when you signed the contract, Colin, hm? Were you?"

Colin shook his head. "No, I guess I wasn't. I thought that with the money father was going to make in America that it would be enough, but time passed and we forgot about the agreement. We have given them money here and there, but I forgot about the one year contract, until recently. That was why I had you go to the ball alone, so you could show that we still had money and would pay them back soon. I didn't know that Angela and Henry would confront you about it, but I guess they are more bold then I thought."

Colin looked up at Mary. "I am sorry that you had to find out like this."

Mary looked at Colin, her anger slowly going away. "But Colin, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to be worried about it. I wanted you to continue being happy, and not have to worry about debts and payments."

"But Colin," Mary said as she sat down on the bed, "that is what marriage is all about, not keeping secrets like that from each other. We need to be open and honest with each other about everything, money included, because when spouses hide things from each other it creates tension and anger, like what has just happened to us. Please tell me about everything that goes on with the money books, and if we are in trouble, tell about it so we can work through this together, please?"

Colin nodded and sighed. "I guess I will have the servants prepare two rooms for our new guests."

Mary nodded, and then stood up. "I should go to bed now, it is getting late. Well, good night."

"Good night." Colin answered.

Mary walked back to her room, changed and climbed into bed, suddenly very tired from her long day.

She decided that she didn't like the situation that she was in, but she could make do. And to make matters a little bit better, Colin had talked to her she was his wife, instead of a possession for the first time in months, so all in all, that made up for it.

She then fell asleep, dreaming of a time when she and Colin were in the garden.

How did you all like this?! I have been busy, so I haven't been able to update in awhile, but I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, no matter how short. I hope you liked how I made Colin nicer this time. Maybe they are falling back in love, hmm:) Well, till next time, BYE! Li Li