When Love Comes Late

Among the Qin family a wife's position can be held by a stand-in until the real one comes back, and Arabella took that place. Theodore Qin said "Marry me" to her when she had nowhere left to go, and in return she agreed to stand in for Cordelia and keep the title of Mrs. Qin for her. Arabella went into it as an unspoken contract, money rather than feeling. They lived together four years. Arabella kept to her part quietly and asked for nothing beyond what was agreed. Her heart moved sometimes and she pulled herself back each time, reminding herself what it actually was between them. Then Cordelia came back to the country. Arabella kept her promise and left Theodore's world, and Theodore was the one who regretted it.