The two girls kept up an active correspondence, receiving and sending each other letters and notes several times a day, but it was not enough for Charlotte: she missed the few days when Vivian lived in Lillehus. In those days the two friends had been thick as thieves: the one who got up early woke the other, and they had spent the whole day together, from morning till evening, and had only parted when it was time to go to bed. But since Vivian had become a married woman, things had changed drastically. So drastically that Charlotte was desperate to see her and willing to visit her every day, but to every, "Can I come and see you, my dear? It's been so long since we've seen each other!", the girl would get from Vivian, "Alas! We are terribly busy this week," or "I am not feeling well. I hope to see you soon, my dear friend!".

Vivian's letters were sincere and full of warmth and friendship, but the bitterness did not leave Charlotte's soul. The bitterness of separation and feeling as if there was now a thin but strong wall between her and her friend.

"Perhaps it is my fault! I shouldn't have told her about the rumours about her husband! I should have kept quiet instead of hurting her delicate soul. Jeremy was like that before he married her. Marriage has changed him for the better, I hope. The way his eyes light up when he looks at Vivian. That's true love! I think I've hurt her by spreading these dirty rumours… Well, I can only reap the consequences of my own stupidity!" – "Alas, I seem to have caught a cold and won't leave my bedroom," Charlotte thought in despair.

Carefully folding the note, the girl went up to her bedroom and put it in the drawer of her desk, where she kept all correspondence from her friend.

"But I must answer her… I don't know what I can write if, ever since she left the new Mrs. Wington's church, my life has been a bore… And I thought I was going to spend all my days at their house from now on! And my parents still haven't come back… I'm all alone in this big, unfriendly town!" – Charlotte sat down at the table, put a blank sheet of paper in front of her, dipped her quill in the inkwell and wrote: "I hope you feel better soon. I confess I am coughing a little myself, but Sarah is preparing for me my favourite hot tea with lemon and sugar. 'My dear, I miss you. I pray to God to give us a chance to see each other. I have said it many times before, but I will say it again now: if you have something to share with me, please share it with me, because I suddenly feel like you are drifting away from me. With every letter you write, with every note you write. Please tell me I'm wrong. Yours Charlotte."

The girl folded the sheet of paper beautifully into a small note, sealed it with the seal of the Saltones' coat of arms, and, clicking Sarah, told her to give the note to the Wingtons' messenger. Then, rummaging through the drawers of her desk, Charlotte found the brief note which Anthony Cranford had left her when he left, and, resolutely taking a blank sheet of paper, she began to write him a letter, hoping to find from him answers to her questions about Vivian's present situation and her health. Her friend had been ill too often, and this was worrying Charlotte.

After writing two sheets of paper without even rereading it, she put the paper in an envelope, wrote the address of Devry Manor, where Anthony had gone, and, finding Mrs. Anderson, the housekeeper, gave her the letter to send. It was only when Mrs. Anderson took the letter and was out of her sight that the girl felt some mental relief.

"Anthony knows what is going on with Vivian. I'm sure of it,' thought Charlotte as she slowly climbed the stairs to her chambers. Her recently sunny mood had been replaced by gloomy grey clouds, and her desire for a walk in the garden was gone in an instant.

***

– Jeremy, my love. I beg… I beg you: let me go to Charlotte tonight. I miss her so much. If you like, we can go together and have tea with her and then go to the park," Mrs. Wington asked her husband with a shy smile, still holding her friend's note of despair and resentment.

Vivian wished she could run out of the house, stop the cab and go to Charlotte's. Or even just walk, even though it was at least half an hour's walk to her house in the bright sunshine of this year's hot October. She felt guilty for making her poor friend suffer, for she knew how attached Charlotte was to her. But Vivian deliberately invented reasons why she could not visit her, because she did not want her to see her as the pale, frightened woman into whom she had changed from a blooming and confident girl.

Every day spent at Wington Hall, and every night spent with her husband, brought her closer to the end of her life – that was what the girl thought, falling asleep in silent sobs and praying that she would have time to fulfil what she had sacrificed herself to Jeremy's fierce passion.

– 'No, my dear. You're sick. Look at yourself in the mirror, you look like a ghost. You need to lie down," Jeremy said with concern in his voice as he glanced down at her neck, which was wrapped in a light green silk shawl. – Perhaps your pallor and fatigue are signs that you are carrying my heir? – he added with a smile.

– No, my love, it can't be: it's only a fortnight since I bled," Viviane replied quietly, and put her palm to her forehead: "It's so hot! I'm sick of this heat!

– We got married three months ago, and you're still not pregnant. – Jeremy got up from his desk and approached his wife, who immediately tensed at his proximity. – I want you to have my baby, Vivian. – He lifted the girl's chin with his fingers and looked into her emerald tired eyes. – I want you to bear me at least three children.

– Three, dear? – She was surprised. – One would be enough for me.

– No. We'll have lots of children. I'll be a good father. I'll spend a lot of time with them, teach them riding, fencing and hunting," Jeremy smiled and kissed Vivian's pale lips. – And they won't have a governess. You will look after them yourself. They'll need a mother, not an outsider.

– But, darling, when I carry our baby-" "You must stop doing what you're doing to me!" wanted to say Vivian, but stopped herself in time, and instead said in a serious tone: – 'You'll have to move to another bedroom, because what we do at night could hurt our future little one, or I could even lose him. May we have many children. Or as many as God gives us," she smiled, thinking to herself that she wasn't going to give him more than two children.

– Of course you will. I'm ready to wait, my love. – Jeremy kissed his wife again, and then, pulling back the silk scarf around her neck slightly, he grinned crookedly. – When you get pregnant, I'll be dusting you off and satisfying my carnal desires with another woman. And you won't be able to object to that.

– Oh, my dear, I won't object to it, for it will be better for the baby," Vivian replied calmly. – Let us pray God to give us a child as soon as possible. But now I will take your advice and lie down. – She patted her husband on the cheek and, not hiding a broad smile of joy, went out into the corridor.

When she entered the bedroom, Vivian angrily ripped the cursed scarf from her neck and threw it on the bed. It was the third day she'd worn it, and in this heat it was torture. But the girl couldn't walk around with her neck exposed, as no one was allowed to see what Jeremy's passion and secret dark desires sometimes drove him to.

"Miss Vivian… how sorry I am for you! Oh, if only I could do something for you! – Jane thought whenever she saw Vivian's eyes red with tears. – But she dared not say it aloud, and only watched in silence the frightened ghost into which her dear friend was turning.