Nomad Online

Thank you so much for your time Mrs Wentworth. Will you give our readers a brief introduction of yourself?

My name is Anne Wentworth. I am wife to Captain Fredrick Wentworth. A daughter to Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall. And sister to Elizabeth and Mary.

Who were you before you married Captain Wentworth?

I was a woman approaching spinsterhood. Life was dull and quiet, punctuated by outings and events. I had too much time to think about things that could have been. I tried my best not to dwell on things.

Instead I listened to the cares of those around me and tried to be a good friend, a dutiful daughter, a caring sister. It was difficult. My words often had no weight and I fear I was just merely Anne.

You said you had too much time to think about what could have been. What did you mean by that?

I met Captain Wentworth back when he was just Fredrick Wentworth. I was 19 years old. I had found the love of my life. But I didn’t know it then.

He proposed but my family was against the match. Fredrick had no fortune, no social status. He had just got into the navy and had yet to prove himself.

None of that mattered to me. But it did to my family and friends. Finally — and to my great regret — I listened to a close friend, who was almost like a mother to me. I was persuaded to reject his proposal, breaking both our hearts in the process.

I didn’t know mine wouldn’t heal. I didn’t know there would be this lasting ache or that I had to learn how to fill in the years without him.

Did your family change their minds when he proposed the second time? What made you resist being persuaded again?

No. My father is rather a vain and status driven man. He clings to his title and social standing too tightly. He would have thought my Fredrick looked a fright being so tanned from a life out on the sea. Even though Fredrick came back a self-made man, my family looked down their noses at him. That friend still raised her concerns.

But I wasn’t going to make that same mistake a second time. I was wrong in yielding to persuasion once. One that was exerted on the side of safety, not of risk. When I yielded, I thought it was to duty. But now I knew my mistake.

I had stood back, unsure of Fredrick’s affection for me when we met again. But I wasn’t going to let him go when I knew he felt the same way about me.

What would you say is the moral of your story, Mrs Wentworth?

The moral of my story is perhaps this. All the privilege I claim for my own sex — it is not a very enviable one, you need not covet it — is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone.

If I had a piece of advice however, it would be to take the chance when love comes by. Don’t let it slip through your fingers out of some adherence to duty or safety. Take the risk. Do not love longest without hope.

For bloganuary. Interview a fictional character.