Lady Clementine

by Marie Benedict

My husband’s discerning eye perceives all but the threats standing right in front of him, and it seems that I may have to serve as the sentinel of his personal landscape and the gatekeeper of our shared ideals and our marriage.

why is it that she feels like she has to be the only one saving her marriage? and him at all times. I wish that men weren't so stupid to not see that marriage is breakable like a glass vase so you have to take extra care with it.

His scolding tone infuriates me, as does his use of my formal name. I am not his child. Does he really think that I will disappoint him? Has he forgotten how hard I’ve prepared these past three years to work alongside him? Throughout my two pregnancies and confinements, I’ve continued to study the stack of political tomes and daily newspapers that he assembled to fill in the patchy education I had before attending Berkhamsted. During the freer periods in between, I’ve chiseled away at my natural reticence—my sometimes crippling nervousness, in fact—by honing my speaking skills, first campaigning for Winston and later meeting with labor groups on his Liberal endeavors. All this while entertaining in the manner expected of the president of the Board of Trade and later the home secretary, serving the expensive Pol Roger champagne for which Winston has a penchant, no matter the strain on my tight budget, on half the income promised for these roles and a dwindling stream of royalties

from Winston’s books. I have smoothed his way over our dinner table countless times when his bluntness offended, and I have forged cordial connections that will serve him well. The long-faced, narrow-eyed Violet, who I now know from personal experience lacks finesse and bears a prickly manner, could never have achieved what I have in such a brief time, if ever. I’ve done everything in my power to create the home life of his dreams and to become the political partner of both of our dreams, and all that while bearing him two children and recovering quickly from those births. How dare he underestimate me!

she is an amazing women and she has every right to be angry at him for what he said.

He ignores my question, instead making a demand of his own. “I need you to listen to my speech.”

he seems to ignore her and her opinion on things that are not political a lot. with no care in the world.

After all, some of the Parthenon’s greatest portable treasures—its marble statues and friezes—were removed by the Earl of Elgin a hundred years ago and are housed in the British Museum.

if you ever want to learn anything about a country's history just go to the British museum they have anything important to history there

Pivoting back to the entrance to the parlor, I see Winston standing in the doorway. He walks toward me and reaches for my hand. Facing Violet, he says, “Please understand, I would pick Clemmie again and again and again.”

He’s far from perfect but he loves her

But suffering came whether or not I was worthy.

It suits him to ignore my foibles and view me as a sculpture of a perfect wife and mother, because a sculpture doesn’t have needs or desires. A sculpture doesn’t ask anything of him.