“Be careful, dear husband. I’m not the weak bird you think I am” 

 When Brian entered the house and climbed the stairs in a hurry, he didn't notice Sophie, who was reading in the living room.

The wood was crackling in the chimney and it produced a nice noise of a romantic atmosphere as if flames were talking to you through the lines of the book, but it wasn’t a reason to be totally out of reality and not to notice what is happening around.

That’s why the young woman left the book on the coffee table when she heard her husband’s carriage stopping in front of the house and lifted the glance toward the entrance to see him coming. She waited, but Brian didn’t show up to greet her.

“What’s happening?” wondered Sophie and a kind of strange feeling sneaked in her chest. She never felt such anxiety before and for the first time, she also felt that she was short of air.

It wasn’t because of being afraid to lose Brian. She never loved him and he neither, but between husbands was a saint agreement that they had never violated: “no matter what’s happening, we don’t have to forget to say hello to each other,” were Sophie’s words when they got married and since that day 7 years already passed without breaking that rule. Till today.

The slammed door on the second floor made Sophie realize that Brian wasn’t in a good mood. “Problems in business?” she wondered, but from what she knows businesses are fine, and even if something happens, he will solve it in a blink of an eye, as always.

“Then it’s personal,” thought Sophie, and a kind of trace of anger was sketched on her face and the same anger that was revealed on her face started to boil inside her too and Sophie clenched her fists, while she was slowly shaking with all her body.

She always knew about Brian’s affairs, but she never said a word about this, because she was guilty and she also learned in time to not pay attention to what are saying the waggy tongues about him and his new lovers, because there were many, but this time, something deep inside her was telling Sophie that the one who is now next to Brian is trying to take her position of the legitimate wife and it was something that Sophie will never allow.

Sophie was born ill. “Something is wrong with her heart,” the doctors told her parents, but none of them knew what exactly it’s wrong. But what was the most painful was the doctors’ conclusion about her future: “her body is too weak to pass through a pregnancy. If she gets pregnant, she will definitely die and with her will die her child”. It’s why she decided to never take such a risk and she made this decision at the age of 15.

In the beginning, she cried a lot. She loved children and she wanted one, but she wasn’t willing to risk her life to give birth to another, that’s why she decided to live. She even thought about entering and monastery, but being the only child, she decided that will be too painful for her parents and she quickly gave up on such a stupid idea and because of a strange reason, something that was inside her head, but she couldn’t explain in words, she decided at least to be somebody’s wife, but time was passing and the gossip about her illness had quickly spread in town and Sophie remained unmarried.

“It’s because nobody wants a barren wife,” Sophie heard her mother saying to her husband, one day, in their large library, among a rain of tears, and her mother’s words totally broke Sophie inside and she decided to do whatever she needs to do, to accept whatever she needs to accept, but only to leave that house because she was hurt, she had been betrayed by her own mother who hadn’t enough faith in her own daughter and because of her illness, she also started to blame the girl.

One day, while she was passing through Central Park in London, she saw Brian sitting on a bench and talking to some lady. He looked so charming that day, so manly and Sophie decided that he had to be her. She didn’t even know his name, but he became her caprice that she had to accomplish at any cost and she made it.

Being her father’s beloved daughter, Sophie could convince him to agree to her marriage with the stranger she saw in Central Park and Edward did everything to please her. And because of this, he accompanied her to all social events that were active those days, to all the proms, he asked everybody in town who that man could be, but they couldn’t find out who the stranger was.

Till one night of late December, at the prom organized in the Palace of Luis Chesterman, when Christine presented Brian to Edward, Sophie finally could find out the name of her caprice.

To obtain that marriage, Edward gave her a lot of dowers, but not because of this Brian accepted this marriage. For him, it was more important to get on well with the Government People and who better than Edward Anderson Bell, the Prime Minister of England.

With this marriage, Brian obtained a lot of business and political relationships, but he didn’t get a wife.

Right from the first night after their marriage, Sophie closed the door in front of his nose, telling him that she will never sleep with him because she didn’t want it and if he needs the warmth of a woman, he should find it out outside of their house. And Brian did it. He found that warmth outside his home, because inside his house was living something cold with the name of Sophie Anderson Bell.

But Sophie resulted to be a good business partner. She had a sharp mind and she could “smell” good businesses from far away and having also a lot of acquaintances in town she helped him a lot to increase his income. But something was missing and in time Brian understood what it was: he wanted a child, but she couldn’t give birth to one and this broke Brian inside.

Sophie thought a lot about this and one day when Brian was painting in his room, she knocked on the door. “I can accept a child of yours in this house only if he won’t have a mother,” were her words that surprised a lot Brian.

“You know that I can’t have one with every person I meet,” were Brian’s words. “I need to have a successor, but through his veins cannot flow an ordinary blood and I’m sure that none of the women from higher social class will accept to give birth to a child and to abandon him”.

“What about asking Christine for help?” asked Sophie this time. “She definitely can help you with this.” But her thoughts made Brian get angry.

“How could you say this, Sophie? You know that I won’t ever ask Christine for such things. She has a devilish mind. If I do this, then I won’t ever be out of her power. I’ll better give up on the idea of having a child than to be at the mercy of that woman,” and after saying this, Brian left the house and the slammed door was heard behind him that day too.

He missed for about 3 months after that quarrel. Sophie knew that he went to spend some time in the countryside only not to see her and she decided to not bother him. When he returned to the city, she just simply greeted him and they never talked about it again, but she knew that he didn’t give up on the idea to have a child and she was waiting for the moment when he will bring a newborn in their house, but days were passing, and years too, but no child had been brought in Beneath dwelling and Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t against raising a strange kid, but she was jealous of this idea. She had been an adored child all her life and she couldn’t accept the idea of sharing Brian’s affection with somebody else.

‘What’s going on with Mister Beneath?” Sophie asked Bardain when the teamster entered the house carrying a box with fruits and vegetables.

“I don’t know, Miss Sophie,” simply answered Bardain and walked on his way. He was an old fox and he knew that this question hadn’t been for no purpose and he wasn’t willing to betray his master, because Bardain was a faithful man, but he was faithful only with the Beneaths and Sophie wasn’t one, she was just his Master’s wife and nothing more.

But Bardain’s answer didn’t satisfy Sophie and she decided to find it out by herself. She hesitated for a few seconds until climbing the stairs, but finally, she did it and knocked on Brian’s room door.

“I don’t want to talk right now, Sophie. Please, leave me alone!” But it wasn’t a good reason for Sophie, so she entered. Brian was standing in front of the window, with a sour look and with clenched fists. Her daring bothered him, but being a gentleman, he couldn’t tell this in her face.

“What’s happening, Brian?” asked Sophie while staring at her husband, but before he could say something, she continued. “Don’t tell me that nothing is happening, because I don’t believe you. In these 7 years since I’m your wife, I learned to know you and this is not your usual mood. You are involved in something and I feel that this something also relates to me. Is it about another woman?”

“And if it is so?” simply asked her Brian.

“Then I’ll ask you to stop this immediately. It isn’t according to our agreement,” she said while looking proudly into his eyes.

“I won’t,” said Brian. “I’m sorry if this hurts you, but this time I won’t step back, Sophie. You are my legitimate wife, but you never could enter my heart and my bed as she did, and only because of this you haven’t the right to ask me to leave her”.

The world collapsed over Sophie. Of what she feared the most had happened: another woman took her place next to Brian and she didn’t know it, and now he is asking her to leave him alone, while he is suffering because of an intruder, a rival that is trying to break into her house and if she does nothing, then the other one will achieve her goal. And Sophie fell unconscious to the floor.