"Jack? What's going on?" Panic rushed through Corrie. "Is Christina alright?"

"Yes, yes, Christina's fine." Jack dismissed her worry with the wave of a hand. "But get your coat. We're going to the doctor's office."

Corrie balked at the prospect. "Jack, I don't...I should stay here. There's a lot to do, and-"

"Oh, quit your worrying. Dr. Benjamin's gone for the day, it'll just be you and me and Hannah and Christina. Now let's go, don't make me drag you."

Corrie acquiesced and followed Jack out of the post office into the chilled winter winds that whisked from the sea through Irvington, scattering the remnants of fall leaves across the streets. At the doctor's office, Christina and Hannah were already sitting down to a meal of rolls and salted ham, meager rations in support of the war effort.

Jack settled down at the makeshift table in Christina's room next to them and began to eat while Corrie remained in the doorway. "What's the meaning of this? You demanded I come here just to have lunch with you?"

"Well, you haven't spent much time with us since Edwin left," Christina teased. "I'm going to blame that on the rumors about you and Dr. B."

Corrie felt her face redden; the rumor mill had left no rock unturned in trying to conjure a possible reason for Edwin's abrupt departure, and despite the town's love for their young doctor, he had been named the prime culprit.

Jack harrumphed. "Rumors? Of course that's all they are."

Her eclectic aunt ignored Corrie's pointed glare as Hannah jumped in, clapping her hands together. "Oh, stop your silliness. We had a much more important purpose in having you for lunch. This," she announced with sobriety, "is an intervention."

Corrie frowned. "An intervention? What are you talking about?"

Christina paused in her eating to look at Corrie, her eyes near mirrors of her sister's. "Cor, Edwin is no good for you. Perhaps you can't see it, but we can. I don't care what the consequences are, you have to be free of him."

For a moment, Corrie froze in place as her blood ran cold. Panic seized her and she resisted the urge to flee; Edwin was the last person she wanted to talk about, and to hear yet another opinion on what she should do was paralyzing.

"Chris, just leave it alone," she finally murmured hoarsely, backing out of the door.

"Corrie, wait," Christina said, and as much as she wanted to ignore her, Corrie stilled and stared at her sister. "I know you've been subject to an unfair share of gossip since he left, but this...if you don't end things now, you may not have another chance."

The pressure on her chest returned with a vengeance along with that feeling of being unable to escape. She was trapped in a labyrinth with Edwin and everlasting spinsterhood her only possible destinations.

"Edwin's not so bad," Corrie argued as much to convince herself as her friends. "He was always so kind to me in New York, and it was kind of him to visit me here."

Jack snorted. "After months without letters or calls or anything."

"He did write," Corrie defended though she did not mention the sparseness of the vapid missives he had penned.

"While he was here, all he did was demean you, speak for you, and put you in uncomfortable situations," Christina continued. "I saw your face when he proposed. It wasn't the face of a girl being swept off her feet by the love of her life. If David had proposed to me..." she trailed off. "You didn't want to marry him, Cor. You still don't. He doesn't love you."

A flash of rage washed through Corrie. "We don't all get a chance at love," she retorted. "He might not love me, but he's stayed by my side through everything. That's enough."

Is it enough? Is constancy, loyalty without love enough?

Hannah inserted herself into the conversation, "He hasn't stayed by you! Where is he now? He left you, Corrie. That's not loyalty."

You're alone. Corrie knew it was true; even her friends and family had turned against her, taking sides in the choice that was hers alone to make.

"Chris, if I don't marry Edwin, I'm going to be labeled a harlot and a spinster. I'll never have a chance to marry, nor will I be able to return to my college in New York."

Corrie felt desperation slipping under her skin; she didn't want to marry Edwin, but she saw no other choice. They would be happy. She would make them be happy.

"So you don't want to marry him!" Hannah declared. "We knew it. Plus, I'm not so certain you would have no other chance at marriage."

Hannah smirked at her and Corrie refused to let the hope her words engendered fill her thoughts. Dr. Benjamin would never want her, not after everything that had happened with Edwin and certainly not if she ended their engagement and her name was tarnished beyond repair. No matter what personal feelings he had for her, no man in his right mind would associate with her. She would be ostracized from his life to avoid any tinge of scandal. Corrie herself knew that she would do the same thing, so she couldn't blame him. There was no hope for her and Dr. Benjamin even if she ended her engagement.

"You know what I'll become if I'm the one to end the engagement," Corrie murmured, her voice nearly hoarse.

A moment of silence enveloped the four friends. No matter what they knew to be truth, Corrie would be committing social suicide to end the engagement. Few were that daring for the sake of love, and Corrie would only be chasing freedom, not love.

"Isn't your happiness worth more than your reputation? Mine certainly is!" Jack stated.

Jack had surrendered her reputation for the sake of living life the way she liked, and though Corrie often envied her, she imagined that Jack had to get lonely living on the edges of society. And it wasn't as if breaking the engagement would bring her the promise of happiness. What had Edwin done that was so terrible? He was suspicious of Dr. Benjamin, and though Corrie had done nothing wrong, her heart had certainly warranted such suspicion. Was he so wrong to wish for her complete devotion?

"What has he done that's so wrong?" Corrie asked. "I know he's sometimes insensitive and tactless, but he is still good to me. He's offering me a life in New York that I could only dream of."

"Corrie, he treats you like a pretty accessory, like a piece of property he's claimed. Don't you remember the way he yelled at you?" Christina demanded.

Corrie closed her eyes at the memory--the harsh accusations at her, Dr. Benjamin, even Christina. The ferocious tirade. The possessive, murderous light in eyes. "She's mine." With his engagement ring, it was as if he had stamped her as his possession so that no one else could have her; she felt as if she didn't even belong to herself anymore.

"I...I promised him. I promised to marry him," Corrie whispered.

Could she break her promise? Would she?

"If you don't end it now, you're subjecting yourself to a lifetime of unhappiness," Christina whispered. Corrie looked at her sister as she asked the question echoing in Corrie's soul. "Is this what you want?"

Corrie shook her head, trying to eradicate the question from her mind. She could no longer entertain the dismal thoughts of her future or ignore the picture of Edwin's face, crimson and raging as he had screamed at her just a few days ago.

"I...I have to go," she murmured, turning on her heel and running out of the room.

"Corrie, wait," Hannah called after her, but she ignored her, running for the door and for the bite of the winter air to distract her and bring her to her senses.

Swinging the door open, Corrie burst through it and collided with a man's chest. Her face blazing, Corrie looked up into the sapphire eyes of Dr. Benjamin. No. She couldn't face him--not right now, perhaps not ever. She couldn't bear to see his disdain for her, or worse, his pity.

"Miss Walker, are you alright?" he asked, steadying her arm with a hand.

The concern in his voice only deepened the raw wound inside of her. "I'm fine," she murmured, hating the shakiness of her voice. "I have to go."

Evading his gaze, she wrenched her arm from his grasp and walked quickly towards her home. She heard her call after him, his voice joined by his sister's, but she did not turn around. When she saw the front of her parents' home, she burst through the front door and caught sight of her mother standing in front of the telephone.

Anita's face was drawn and severe. "Cornelia, there you are. Mr. McAlister is on the phone."

~~~~~

Okay, I love this chapter. Mostly because Aunt Jack would totally lead an intervention. What do you think she'll say to Edwin? What will he say? Stick around for the next chapter! And be sure to vote and comment!

~ Hannah