The English Wife Book Novels & Stories

his voice booming through the speakers. “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church… Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” He closed the Bible slowly, looked over the sea of faces, and smiled. “Now, you see, this is not a suggestion,” he said, his voice full of fire. “This is the divine order! This is God’s plan. A woman who listens to her husband, who obeys, who submits… she will be blessed. She will live in peace. But those who challenge, who question, who think they can be equal to the man God placed over them, they b

- a woman appears. "Mother, father is back, and he bought another mistress," he said to his mother as if he were an 18-year-old boy. "Aideen baby, go to your room now, okay? Mother will bring your milk there"- the woman in her mid-30s looked at her, but she looked down. Again. "Welcome to the family!" exclaimed the woman, Edward's wife, drawing Helena's attention to her. "I'm Veronica, Edwards's Wife!" she introduced herself as if Helena were merely a visitor.

As we approached a group of individuals standing near the arrival gate, my eyes fixated on the figure standing in the center. My breath caught in my throat, and my steps faltered as recognition dawned upon me. It was Ignacio, my Spanish husband, whom I had left behind in Spain under the pretense of starting a fashion line in New York. Cullen, unaware of the connection between Ignacio and me, approached him with a welcoming smile. "Ignacio, meet my wife, Brielle," he introduced, his voice filled with pride and affection. My heart raced, and I felt a knot tightening in the pit of my stomach. Ignacio's bewildered expression mirrored my own confusion and disbelief.

There is no break in her mouth. "I think I'm the mistress." I laugh because that's what I think. We're just married by paper. I am the Wife but I feel I am the one ruining the relationship. I can't stop myself from shaking my head. “What are you saying, Ma’am? You are married! ” she said to me. I did not speak. I can't just say anything about our contract. All the maids know about the rumors about us but they won't tell that s so I'm also comfortable somehow. They are afraid of being fired.

Just absolutely, immovably certain, the way a person is certain when they are standing on ground that belongs entirely to them. "Don't you dare," he said quietly, "touch my wife." The word detonated in my skull. Wife.??! I heard it. I processed the syllable. I understood the word. I spoke English, I knew what it meant and still my brain refused to assemble it into a sentence that made sense when placed next to Elena's name. I looked at him. Looked at Elena. Looked back at him. "Wife?" The word came out of me like it had been punched loose. Barely above a whisper. "What did you just..."

Yet now, here he was, trampling me underfoot for the sake of two mistresses. Even though I was seething beneath the surface, I replied in a calm voice, "Geoffrey, I am your wife, not your waitress." Geoffrey, however, let out a scornful laugh. "Wife? Have you made any money or solved any problems? You have neither Valerie's way with words nor Jennifer's brains. Apart from cooking and cleaning, what else can you do? If my grandfather hadn't forced me to marry you, do you think I would have ever wanted to be with you?"

Catching up to Uno, she stood in front of him and glared. "What?" "What if I punch your handsome face, Mr. Urquio! That maid was rude; she didn't mistakenly take us to a room that looked like a storage room. She clearly disrespected me, and you're going to do nothing?" Manuela complained. "Do you want me to fire her? I won't. She's one of my people in this manor." "So it's okay for them to disrespect me in your house? All your people showed their hostility towards me. Maybe our marriage is just a contract, but I'm your wife, right? They don't need to say whatever they want to me." Manuela said angrily.

“You should go back inside. She'll come around eventually.” To Ruth, this felt like a victory, and she considered it a significant achievement. But it wouldn't stop her from finishing what they had already started. Harthwore didn't know the full story. His wife had refused to tell him everything. If she had returned home crying so bitterly, then Ruth's retaliation must have been far harsher than he imagined. But perhaps things would have been different if his wife had listened to him and allowed them to handle it together. Regardless, things had worked out in their favor. Ruth now knew that his wife suspected her, yet she believed he was completely on her side.

Let her walk out feeling like she won something. Now that same sentence sat differently. Not like the final word of a woman who had lost. Like the quiet warning of a woman who already knew what was coming. And had chosen to tell me anyway. Something wasn't adding up. The woman I had been married to had been careful. Reserved. Always slightly apart from the world around her, like she was watching it from a distance she had chosen for herself. I had mistaken that distance for smallness. For a life that did not extend far beyond what I could see.