She tilted her head as she regarded him with a mixture of curiosity and something else that she wasn't willing to name at the moment. She said softly, "In the eyes of the law, he and I are married. We ran off to Gretna Green. I made the mistake of thinkin' I fell in love with him. I cannot love someone like him. He's not a nice man. I regret my choice ta marry him but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have my Jacob. I shouldn't involve ye, sir... I... Ye're very good to me already. I am sorry to have even brought it up."

"Nonsense, you are a member of this household and a friend of mine. This concerns everyone at the estate!" Edward asserted with absolute conviction to her. "If you are still married to him on paper that is a simple enough matter to resolve. Have mister Lane summon the family barrister and let him know what needs to be done, he can handle the divorce for you." While this was perhaps not realistic for most people, Edward had money and where there was a bill there was a way.

"Divorce?" she said faintly, looking down. "I... well..." she paused and pondered for a moment. "What if they take Jacob from me and give him ta Angus? I couldn't bear it, Edward." It was the first time she said his given name out loud, and she hadn't meant to, but he had said they were friends.

"Well, I have no great understanding of the law, especially the British one, my experience has taught me that court cases more often come down to who has the best-paid lawyer more than anything else." The facts of the case were often damn near secondary to how well the case was argued. "And I doubt your husband's barrister would not be able to command nearly so high a price."

"Of course..." she said breathlessly, "but I do wish he would leave me be." She looked down at the letter, and instead of crumpling the thing up again, she pocketed the thing, deciding it best to keep it in case it was needed. "Why did I ever fall in love with such a fool of a man? Tis beyond me." She grimaced and stood up again, looking down at the work they had done together. "Thank ye... Ye don't have ta help me, sir, but I won't turn it down."

"Of course I do, it's the right thing to do." He looked at her mildly puzzled by her words and then blinked. "It is good you are keeping the letter, do you have anything else his written that could corroborate your version of events?"

"He wrote me before but it wasn't anything that could be construed as bad like this, just askin' me ta take him back. I threw that one in the hearth." She sighed and looked at Edward with her mouth curled downward in a light frown.

"That's unfortunate, I imagine it would have made it clear that he was the one who left and thus has no right to come back demanding things now." Edward said as he stroked his chin. It was clear his mind was working on the problem, problems they always seemed to be what brought him out of his fugue state. It was why he did his experiments and studies, something to work on to keep himself from going mad with self inflicted torment. "Either way, we can also have the barrister start proper divorce proceedings, I'd rather not have this man have any claim on you or Jacob."

She gazed at him thoughtfully and then folded the letter, smoothing out the wrinkles the best as she could before doing that of course. She looked down at what they were doing and said, "There isn't much I can do this moment... I don't even know where ta begin. But..." She looked down, "But I am frightened."

Edward placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "Entirely understandable. Go see Mister Lane. Explain the situation to him and have him send a letter to the barrister. He can start building your case for the divorce. The estate will handle the costs you have nothing to fret about."