Chapter 24

Feeling dejected and disillusioned with the Northrup family, I  sat in the drawing room of my parent’s tobacco plantation home.  It felt both good to be there as well as a bit odd and uncomfortable.

I was admittedly stunned when my new husband opted to send me off in exile without him.  He tried to explain that it would only be for a short time while he smoothed things over with his mother, but it didn’t sit well with me.  Not one bit.  I was of the opinion that he was cowering to her.  Having assumed that I’d married a strong man, I found this fact disconcerting.  The way that he and his father bent to her demands was outrageous.  It was the type of behavior that I’d be hard pressed to encounter in modern times.  Not from something as simple as upsetting the woman by pointing out her wrong doings.

I was even more surprised to discover that Bart and Jason remained in the house while I was sent away.&n