After their picnic, Emma returned to her bookkeeping duties, which ended up requiring far less of her time than she had originally supposed. As she finished up the job, however, she realized that while she would have to make frequent entries into her new logs, there really wasn’t any need to total up the accounts more than once a month. She sighed. Well, now she only had to worry about occupying herself for thirty days that month. February would be a blessing, she supposed.

Still, she didn’t want to complain to Alex. He was a very busy man, far too busy to spend every minute of the day entertaining his new bride. Besides, she didn’t want to give him the impression that she was unhappy with their marriage. So she decided to follow Belle’s example and take the route of intellectual improvement, and the next day she climbed up the wooden ladder in the library and pulled down a copy of All’s Well that Ends Well.

Three days later she was up to Cymbeline and furthermore, was convinced that she now needed spectacles. Shakespeare was all very good, but not at the rate of more than two plays per day. Rubbing her eyes, she put her book down and once again headed to Alex’s study and briskly knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Emma entered and shut the door behind her. Alex was in his customary position, seated behind his huge desk with a sheaf of papers in his hand.

“More about the sugar plantation?” Emma inquired politely.

“What? Oh, no, it’s an account of some lands I have in Yorkshire. What brings you by this afternoon?”

Emma took a deep breath. “Well, the thing is, Alex, I’m bored.”

He blinked. “What?”

“Not with you,” Emma said hastily. “But you’re ever so busy most of the day, and it’s really becoming quite a challenge to keep myself occupied.”

“I see.” He sat back in his chair, his expression somewhat perplexed. “What about all that bookkeeping I gave you?”

“It’s all very interesting,” Emma replied. “And it has taught me a great deal about Westonbirt, but I really don’t need to total the accounts more than once a month.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure that there is still plenty to do. What about menus? It always seemed to me that women spend a great deal of time going over menus.”

“I don’t know which women you have been watching, but it rarely takes me more than ten minutes to go over the day’s menus with the cook.”

“A hobby, perhaps.”

“Alex, I detest watercolors, I’m abysmal at the pianoforte, and if I read another book, I’m going to need extremely thick spectacles. I don’t mean to complain, but I have got to find something with which to occupy myself.”

Alex sighed. He had a lot of work still to do that afternoon. He was quite behind in everything. His courtship of Emma had diverted a great deal of his time and energy away from his business concerns, and he was trying to get caught up. To top it off, his estate manager for the Yorkshire lands had just written him with the news that a mysterious disease was striking down a large number of his sheep. His wife’s interruption was not well-timed.

“I don’t know, Emma,” he said, raking his hand through his hair. “Do whatever it is that married women do all day. I’m sure you’ll be able to keep yourself busy.”

Emma bristled as she pulled herself up straight. Was that a slight note of condescension she heard in his voice? Alex couldn’t have picked a better comment to completely needle her if he’d tried. She opened her mouth to say something and then clamped it shut. “I see. Well, thank you. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll try to occupy myself.” With that, she turned around and left the room.

Alex shook his head and went back to work.

Twenty minutes later Emma reappeared in the doorway, dressed in a forest green traveling dress. Alex raised his eyebrows at her change in costume but nonetheless offered her a benign smile.

“I just thought you ought to know,” Emma said, pulling on a pair of gloves, “that I am leaving to visit your sister for a week.”

Alex dropped his papers. “What…why?”

“It appears that I need to figure out what it is that married women do all day so that I may follow your advice and do it.” With that, she turned around and started to head for the front door where footmen were already loading a trunk into the carriage.

“Emma, get back here right now!” Alex called out dangerously, quickly eliminating the distance between them with long strides. “You are overreacting, and you damn well know it. There is absolutely no reason to leave me.” With firm pressure on her upper arm, he ushered her back into his study.

“Alex, I’m not leaving you,” Emma said sweetly, leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. “I’m merely going to visit your sister.”

“Damn it, Emma,” he ground out. “I don’t want you to go.”

It was all Emma could do not to throw herself into his arms and tell him that she didn’t want to go either. But even though this visit to Sophie had started out as a way to teach Alex a lesson, she now realized that she really did need to learn what married women did with their time because if she didn’t, she was going to go crazy. “Alex,” she began, “I will miss you dreadfully—”

“Then don’t go.”

“—but I really have to. I’m having a little trouble adjusting to married life.”

“You damn well are not,” Alex said indignant-

“Not that side of married life,” Emma said pointedly. “But I need to find something to occupy my days as well as my nights. I need to feel useful and I refuse to take up embroidery. Don’t you understand?”