Learning
“Ooh, that was so exciting,” Bethany said as the two of them walked out of the house arm-in-arm. “My first luncheon with a duke and duchess.”
“Oh, stop. Niece! You have certainly luncheoned with an aunt and uncle before!”
Bethany grinned. “I am so enjoying this visit. You are the most fun of all my aunts!”
“I am the most young of all of your aunts, so that is hardly any surprise. Do you think you are learning what your mother sent you here to learn?”
Bethany stopped and stared at her. “What did Mother tell you?”
“She didn’t tell me anything. She wrote my husband, and she implied, ‘strongly implied’ he says that you were coming here to… I forget how he put it… but basically, learn about married life and living away from your parents before you came out. Coming out is an important time in the life of a young woman, you know. It means your father is ready to receive offers for your hand. Any passing Duke…”
“Oh, Stop! As if any duke would offer for me.”
“Well, I certainly didn’t expect one to offer for me. Indeed, I don’t think any of our dukes are currently unmarried. Perhaps you will catch a baron.”
“Oh, stop. So, if it’s your job, tell me about married life. What have you found the hardest? I mean,” she said, blushing, “That you can tell me about and isn’t gossip or anything.”
“Well,” Hadassah said, slowly. “It was very, very hard losing Esther right before the wedding. I had counted on her to be here with me. I feel very alone. Which makes your visit so wonderful, obviously.”
“I have found it hard… well… your time isn’t your own. I guess it never was, what with school and all, but I guess I had gotten used to not having to account for my time. And, well, this is straight out of Scripture, isn’t it, but I am having to learn to adjust all of my goals to meet his desires, I mean,” she said, blushing, “his goals for the house and all. Do you know he doesn’t like soup?”
“What?”
“No! Forbids it being served in the house. When he’s here, obviously.”
They walked on for a few minutes, and then Bethany asked, in a nervous voice, “Is it hard, being married?”
Hadassah sucked in her breath. “It is,” she said, finally. “But, look you, it should be. Each time, in our life, we get more responsibilities, our life gets harder. But it gets better, too. Who would want to still be an infant, being carried about and getting our napkins changed? Having a child will be hard, being awakened at all hours and feeding him, turning from side to side all night.”
“And marriage?”
“Marriage is hard. He is… he is a new person to me, and it is shocking… living with someone so intimately. And I feel like I hardly know him, though we share a bed…”
“And breakfast,” Bethany said, grinning.
“That is, perhaps, our best time of day. We read our mail, of course, and eat… but he has shared more with me… in small snippets… you know how men are… then at any other time.”
“And… and your feelings?”
“Oh, dear… mixed. I read it in a book somewhere… you can’t stand it when they are there, and you can’t stand it when they are gone, but there is a certain new happiness that I can’t even describe.”
“Even though… he’s older?” Bethany asked, in a flat deception.
“Even though everything,” Hadassah said. “Esther’s journals have been helpful, and my mother’s letters. Oh, she gave me quite a shocking scold the other day. I was complaining in a very careful way, but she wasn’t fooled.”
“About the way he walks in on you? I mean, is that what you were complaining about?”
“No, not at all. I find it most awkward sometimes, and I am often embarassed. But there is something about it. It’s like he has some fear. It’s like… it’s like he’s afraid that I will kick him out, and he’s always ready to give a retort. But, of course, he never needs to. I have quite gotten used to it… Nara and I, poor dear, have quite gotten used to it.”
Bethany sighed. “I wonder what I will have to get used to.”
“Something quite dreadful, I doubt not,” Hadassah said. “But you will be quite happy regardless. Now, up here is a pond for us to swim in.”
“Surely not?” Bethany said.
“Now, no arguing. It is quite a nice pond. It has a nice shallow area for you.”
Thank you for coming round Arthur’s Substack. I hope and pray it will be a blessing to you.
Arthur publishes with Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid: A Christian historical fiction chapter book about four orphans who go to live with their aunt on a dairy farm.
The Bobtails and the Cousins: The sequel to Preacher’s Kid. The aunt has married, and the cousins come to visit. Meaning town kids dealing with chores and manure and…
The Bobtails go to France: The sequel to cousins. The Bobtails, and Preacher’s Kid, get to take a trip to New York, London, Paris, and a small town in France. To get some cheese.
and
No Ordinary School: A brilliant but socially clueless boy gets recruited for a special school. Where he makes a lot of money, gets a girl, and solves a mystery.
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations. The book is a series of essays on how modern politics has gotten the wrong prescription for the wrong diagnosis.
Quite a few chapters of the Bobtails and No Ordinary School are here on this substack as audio.
I also write as Von, and I encourage you to check out that substack. There is a lot of theology and politics there, as well as quotes, poems, other articles, and links to other Science Fiction. But ‘Von’ also is publishing some serial books and stories. Much more adult and serious books than here, for the most part. Some of them.