May 28th, 1894 — Ainsworth Residence, Bartonburg

Married life had been quite agreeable thus far for Timothy. It helped that his wife seemed to have as much desire to copulate beyond their scheduled times than he did - which was zero. He had been correct in his hypothesis that Juliana Binns would suit him as a wife. They enjoyed intelligent debate, shared most of the important opinions in life and she didn't demand he go to frivolous events. All in all, he had great trust in his wife which had only made the guilt deepen that he had not been entirely truthful with her. Or more accurately, had kept a truth about himself from her.

They had been married for over a year now - he felt it was time. But he had hemmed and hawed a bit as this was not exactly something that was easy to reveal considering societys view on such things. There were even laws.

"I trust dinner was satisfactory?" He asked of his wife as their plates were cleared away and their chosen dessert served up. He had no idea how one might ease into the conversation he was intending to have with her.

Juliana Ainsworth

  

Juliana tried to consider whether there had been anything novel about the dinner at all. Truth be told she hadn't eaten much, and had only half been paying attention to anything on her plate. She'd spent most of dinner drafting a concluding paragraph for her latest paper (in her head — her mother had drilled into her the impermanence of bringing quill and parchment to the dinner table long ago). She supposed there must have been something of note if her husband was asking about it, because they were not the sorts of people who generally indulged in banal conversation, but nothing was coming to mind.

"Quite," she answered, which seemed safe to assume since he'd started the question with I trust. It had the correct answer embedded right there inside of it. "You found it so as well?"

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"Yes, our cook is adequate at what she does," Timothy said. He wasn't here to discuss their staff though. He was here to discuss something much more important and potentially tenuous if she did not react well. However, what he knew of her did not suggest a heavy veer into the latter. Perhaps some, after all, perhaps she would have liked to be married to a man who could one day find her attractive on a physical level despite them both having always been on the same page about this being a marriage of convenience between good friends.

"There is something I have kept from you for a long time and I have never felt right about it," he started, uncharacteristically having quite a lot of words to say instead of reaching the main point like he normally would.

Juliana Ainsworth