Pick a Wife

Émile Vernet-Lecomte

It took less than a day for Zithia to leave the company of Tindle. He had been so hopeful about the two of them together, that he had read her all wrong: surmising that she would be amenable to his bed and care - and that as a heathen, she would welcome the protection and shelter and occupation he could offer.

However, in truth, she was terrified of him. Zithia’s mutism had become aggravated by the waves of nervousness that now possessed her - this panic poisoned her blood - and yet, amidst this confusion, she assayed just enough strength to dismount whilst they stalled at a busy feeding station.

This had not at all gone the way that Nathanius Tindle had imagined. He was too practical to see around any corners of possibility - seeing only ever what he wanted to see.

Rather than despairing, the would-be husband very quickly cut his losses, waited for the Lord’s day, and then went to the Cathedral to pick a wife from there. Three weeks later he was married and transporting his voluptuous woman back to the Fish and Chippery of Dearth and Dingle without a casual thought for the heathen he had left behind, who had nothing, and no one to protect her.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series