So, I think I was right with there being something to the Mr. Atkins angle, this starts off with Martha alluding/talking about how, a sort of shady version of him, was the star of her fantasies but now Theo is replacing him and that makes her panic. Fantasizing about the local curate, naughty girl!
The pig came jogging from behind the house, clearly scenting opportunity.
I make no guarantees that this pig doesn't show up as a Romancies Favorite Secondary character nominee.
“Don’t berate yourself so. I don’t want to hear it. You were mistaken in what you expected, and now you know better. We learn that way, don’t we?
This is said by Theo to Martha and what a conversation we could have on how Theo, and a lot of us, give so much love and understanding to others but never that same leeway to ourselves.
Her smile went through him like a fever-chill. What a strange, strange thing, to give a woman such pleasure without touching her.
I'm one of those reviewers that has put "too much sex" in their reviews before and I know some take this as prudishness but what I'm also saying is that the couple didn't have enough emotional depth outside the bedroom. Especially in historicals, I'm showing up for the delicious mental and emotional banter and foreplay. I love how this line gives us some heat through mentally developed emotional heat.
How did one go about saying these things gently? “You’re not a bad man, Mirkwood. I do think you have promise. But while I find I can be cordial with a man who lives for pleasure, and even come to feel a certain regard for him, I cannot, in the end, truly admire such a man. And I don’t care to give myself up to a man I don’t admire. Pardon my frankness.”
Yeeeouch! Martha hasn't learned the old 'honesty without tact is cruelty'. Martha's not purposefully cold and rude, she just never learned better, kind of like Theo isn't purposefully ignorant and spoiled. See what the author did there? Similarities between characters that can create bonding and areas for them to make the other better.
It could have been worse. He didn’t beat you. He wasn’t cruel. That stern self-reproach never did have the bracing effect one would wish.
We get more on Martha's coldness, specifically towards Theo in the bedroom, her husband had a drinking problem and it lead to him forcing himself on her and then not remembering the next day. Martha was thawing towards Theo but then tasted alcohol on his breath and this caused her to grow frigid again. But they talk about it and through that conversation she cracks open even more than before. Building blocks for character growth!
I would say this was probably the, for lack of a better word, slowest group of chapters. We finally learn that Theo is 26yrs old; such young characters for how mature they and the story feels. We also get Martha learning that Mrs. Weaver is pregnant and mentally making a note and vaguely planning out in her mind if she bought the baby if it was a boy to pass off as her own. It's methodical and cold, at the same time in line with Martha and sort of not as she's learned some emotional intelligence. I don't know, she's at the core a very analytical person, so maybe it does fit.
Theo's spending the night now, they're talking more and their sex is getting better and less insert slot A into slot B. There's only 40% left and still feels like a good amount of work needs to be done between these two, curious what is going to happen!
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