“I cannot fathom how it is,” she said at length, “that I am having this discussion with you, today of all days.” “Is that why Tarley settled Calypso on you? Because he wanted to preserve you as his? Because he wished to leave you with no excuse to turn to a man to look after you?” She turned her head and rested her cheek on her bent knees. “He was too dear a man for such selfishness. He told me to be happy. To love again. To make my own choice this time around. But I am certain he was thinking of marriage, not an affair with a man who dallies about promiscuously.” Alistair’s hand tightened on his glass, but he wisely held his tongue. “Men have so much more freedom,” she said on a long-suffering sigh. “If freedom is what you seek, why marry again?” “I have no intention of doing so. What purpose would it serve? I do not need the support, and since I am barren, I have nothing to offer men of suitable station.” “Financial considerations are valid ones, of course.
