The Lonely Wife
Page 34
She fastened the belt of her dressing robe and drawing the hood over her head went down the stairs and unlocked the front door.
She went down the steps and Edward came towards her. ‘I couldn’t sleep,’ he explained.
‘Nor I,’ she answered. ‘I have to ask you to wait a little longer.’
He nodded; it was as if he had expected it, as if he had come especially to hear the words she was saying.
‘Forgiveness?’ he said, then murmured, ‘I understand. It’s only right and proper. It’s who we are. I said I would wait and I will.’
‘We’ll wait together,’ she said softly. ‘Until the time is right.’
He took her hand in his and drew it to his lips, and with his other he embraced her waist and drew her close, his cheek touching hers, and together they danced beneath the moon’s silver light.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I have read often of Mrs Caroline Norton’s remarkable life, which has influenced my thinking of Victorian women whilst writing fiction of that period. She was a society woman, a social reformer, a lady, in fact, born into a grand though penniless family.
She had many powerful and influential friends including important political figures, such as Lord Melbourne, who were drawn into her continuing chronicle, upsetting the powerful in Parliament as she strove for the right of women to control their own lives and to consider their children as belonging to them as much as to their husbands.
In 1837 she filed to the courts on The Natural Claim of a Mother, following her husband’s decision to remove their children from her care, as was his right at that time.
August 1839. The Custody of Infants Act was made law, giving custody, after court petition, to the mothers of children under seven, providing they had not been proven to have committed adultery. In 1873 the Act was changed to allow access to or custody of children below the age of sixteen.
1858. Marriage and Divorce Acts became law. Women could petition Parliament for divorce on the grounds only of their husband’s incestuous adultery. Prior to this, women could not divorce their husbands under any circumstances, though men could divorce their wives.
Caroline Norton wrote several books including a novel based on her own experiences, A Story of Modern Times, which drew much acclaim. Alas for her, her husband took their children to Scotland where the custody law did not apply and she never saw them again.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Victorian House by Judith Flanders, Harper Perennial, 2004
Various internet sources for information on Mrs Caroline Norton, writer and social campaigner.
To my editor Sally Williamson; copy and production editors Vivien Thompson and Nancy Webber and the whole of the dedicated Transworld team, I thank you all.
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With only his determination, Mikey makes his way to London to seek a better life for his family. Whilst there, he meets Eleanor who he recognises as the daughter of the lawyer who ruined his life. Desperate, they band together forging a new life for themselves on the streets of London.
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Transworld is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Bantam Press an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © Valerie Wood 2020
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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ISBN 978-1-473-57142-6
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