Carefully and with excellent penmanship Charlotte finished up her letter, signed the bottom then looked to the calendar so she could date it.

February 28th, 1890 she scripted at the top of the paper with a sigh. As soon as she gave all of her teachers her letters of withdrawal it would be over. She had found out a lot sooner than she’d planned that her dream of what going to University was supposed to be, really wasn’t what it was. She had to face the facts that the other students were smarter than she was. They worked harder to get where they were and they deserved it more than she did. Her questions over a year ago of wanting to know why snow fell and what it was made of were never found out for the simple reason that upon entrance into the program a student was expected to know “basic”, “elementary” science like that. All of that was learned in prep school, so maybe that’s what she should have been striving for all along. She would have been better off going to women’s college and at least learning something. Instead she struggled, and was confused from her first class to her last. The only thing she was taking away from it all was shame. 

Things with Nick had started to finally look up during the past month. At first he couldn’t even look at her and would spend his evenings drinking at the pub with his University friends, but slowly he started to come around. He was now talking to her, and every now and then they would fall back into their familiar banter. She almost jumped for joy when he held his arm out for her while they walked to church past Sunday because it meant that he was finally ready to let her touch him and she couldn’t have been more grateful. He was another reason why she knew this all had to end, she had to be able to concentrate solely on Nick and stop thinking about herself for a while. She couldn’t believe that she had actually thought she would make it four whole years keeping up her elaborate plot. The only way it could have would be if she was single, but unmarried she would have never made it there. It was obviously not meant to be. 

Her first class of the day and her first departure from school was the literature course that she shared with Nick. Her plan was to attend her final class as sort of a goodbye then on the way out deliver the letter to the teacher and be done with it. For the first time ever she got to the classroom early, taking a seat near the front so she could hear the teacher better. She had sat at the very back to avoid Nick for so long that she was fairly sure she’d missed everything the man had said and judging by her grade that was the case. 

“Good morning everyone...” the Professor greeted as he walked in and almost immediately people started to settle into their seats. 

Charlotte did a quick glance around the room, seeing Nick up near the back quickly finishing up a conversation with the man beside him. She was thankful; all she needed was for him to sit next to her on her last day. 

The professor quickly got into his discussion and she was glad she finally got to hear it because he was a wonderful speaker. About an hour into the class there was a knock on the lecture hall door and the Dean of the University walked in flanked by two men in suits who Charlotte didn’t recognize. She wondered what was going on as the Dean spoke with the instructor then they quickly glanced around the room. 

Her heart jumped in her throat as the professor turned straight to her and pointed then they beckoned her to come down. She was glued to her seat, petrified of what was about to happen. It took a while but she was finally able to stand and make her way down to the front of the class, trying not to let her hands shake uncontrollably as she walked the stairs then bowed her head slightly in front of the Dean to recognize his authority.

“Are you Charles Russell?” Dean Downing questioned in a voice void of any emotion.

“Yes sir. What seems to be the problem?” 

Turning away from her, the Dean then addressed the classroom, “Gentlemen, we have been alerted to the fact that there is an impostor among you.”

All of the men in the room started looking around, wondering who was the person in reference. 

Charlotte couldn’t believe it, it was her last day. Her last day and she’d been caught! She went all that time scot-free and now they had finally caught up with her on the day that was supposed to be her final goodbye. She only wondered what was going to happen whether they would just ask her to leave or whether this was quite possibly her last day of her marriage as well.

“This man right here,” the Dean pointed to Charlotte whilst one of the suited men approached her, “Is actually a woman,” he revealed while at the same time the man behind her pulled off her wig then tore her fake moustache from her face to reveal her to everyone. 

The entire classroom gasped then went dead silent, and it was a lone voice from the back that could be heard over all the rest, a man named James who, aside from only one other person, was the most shocked in the room.

“Nick, that’s your wife!” James exclaimed, his eyes wide as he turned to his friend who sat stone faced and pale as a ghost beside him. 

“What did you just say?” Dean Downing questioned, looking up at James.

“Sorry Sir, but that’s his wife,” James repeated, pointing to Nick before slinking down in his seat. 

“What’s your name?” the Dean asked, now addressing the blonde who looked like he might pass out at any moment.

“Nick Carter, Sir,” Nick finally found the ability to reply, feeling like he was in some sort of haze, like in a few moments he would wake up and find out everything had been a dream and he wasn’t even married and hadn’t started school yet. 

“That explains a lot,” one of the suited men replied. He was a large, portly man in a black suit with burgundy red vest and Nick could only imagine what kind of high ranking official this man was to be dressed as finely as he was.

Dean Downing pointed to Nick again, calling him forward with a flick of his wrist, “Bring your things,” he instructed then roughly grabbed Charlotte by the arm to lead her from the room. 

Everyone was still dumbfounded as Nick scrambled to get his books together, leaving behind his pen and ink before chasing the suited men, the Dean and Charles, his wife, down the hallway. By the time he caught up they had already entered the Dean’s office and he knocked lightly before being allowed to enter. He took off his hat and walked into the office, noticing that Charlotte was sitting in a chair in front of the desk with the portly man, who he would soon discover was the town magistrate, and the other suited man standing ominously behind her. 

“I wonder,” Dean Downing mused as Nick walked in, motioning for him to take the other seat in front of his desk, “If you might explain something to me.”

“Sir, I don’t know how I could explain anything I…” Nick had to stop to take a deep breath, his hands running through his hair, “I was as unaware as you!”

“I find that very difficult to believe,” the Dean remarked, putting a beige coloured folder down on the desk in front of Nick, sliding it towards him.

Nick looked at the man inquisitively, taking the folder away from him. He opened it and immediately realized that it was his school folder, the same thing he’d had to submit when he applied to the school with all of his information. As he got through the application though his eyes widened, this wasn’t his school folder; this was Charles Russell’s school folder. He shifted back through the pages again, almost compelled to check and see if every single word was copied from his own transcripts. Every grade, every class, every letter of recommendation they were the exact same as his. He couldn’t figure out how Charlotte would have gotten a hold of a lot of that information unless she’d gone through the originals that he had at his parent’s home.

Nick looked back up to the Dean with pleading eyes, “I swear to you Sir I knew nothing of this.”

Charlotte felt horrible that Nick was being blamed so she decided to pipe up, “It’s true! He didn’t...“ Nick’s hand clamping down over her mouth stopped her from finishing her statement and she gasped at how tight he gripped her jaw for a quick moment.

“You don’t get to speak,” Nick said viciously, “Every word out of your mouth is a lie so the last thing I want is for you to go trying to defend me. I’m very capable of handling this myself because I’m not a liar,” he breathed, calming himself before turning his attention back to the rest of the room, “I reiterate to you Sir that I was unaware. I’m just a lowly sheep and she’s the wolf.”

The Dean was surprised by Nick’s outburst but couldn’t say he blamed him. He believed the boy when he said that he was innocent in the entire affair and was now certain of it, “I believe you,” he spoke and Nick turned away from Charlotte, “Now we have the problem of what to do about this matter.”

“I can assure you,” Nick spoke confidently, “that she’ll be punished. Something like this will never happen again! It was only a few classes right?”

“A few classes?” the Dean asked with a hearty chuckle, “Mr. Carter your wife has certainly pulled the wool over your eyes because she’s been regularly attending classes since the beginning of October.”

Whatever colour was left in Nick’s face was now gone and he blinked slowly, trying to allow his brain to process all of the information. Suddenly things started to make sense, the letters, her visit in March, and her insistence on living close to the school, late night reading, spending extended periods of time with Sue, staying suspiciously for the week of exams when he was ill, and the cufflinks. Everything that had happened since the Christmas that he decided to finally chat her up was a lie. Their marriage was a lie, her love was a lie, and every gift she’d given him was all part of her fraud. 

“And punished she certainly will be!” the portly man suddenly spoke, introducing himself as Stuart Jameson, town magistrate, “We can’t let offences like this go with impunity. Look at what has been happening in the past few months; we’ve had women getting arrested by London Police, running around staging protests, it is deplorable! The town is getting a bad name, we need to make an example of people so that in the future no one will try this again!”

“I don’t understand,” Nick admitted. His mind was full of so many things he could hardly take in any more.

“It is illegal for a woman to attend an all male University, it is illegal to pose as someone you are not, it is illegal to produce fraudulent identification, and I intend to have Mrs. Carter stand trial for all of those charges,” Mr. Jameson explained, his chest puffed out proudly as if he’d just revealed the true identify of Jack the Ripper. 

Nick sighed and looked down at his wedding band, wanting to take it off and throw it at Charlotte for being so stupid. She was about to get herself thrown in a workhouse all because she wanted to play dress up and pretend she was important. If he tried to defend her or convince Jameson not to try her then he would come off as a hypocrite and he refused to dent his reputation any more than it already had been. He had been strict when it came to Sue’s offences and by numbers alone Charlotte had surpassed her. He had to support the decision that the magistrate and the University was making to have a trial. 

“Sirs, would you please allow me a moment to speak with my wife privately?” Nick asked, looking between the three men who were in the room for their approval.

“Of course,” the Dean nodded and ushered the others out of his office to give Nick a few minutes.

The first few seconds were silent then Nick slowly turned to the woman sitting next to him, not knowing if he could even call her his wife because he didn’t seem to know who she was, “What have you done?” he fretted.

“I don’t know what to say,” Charlotte admitted through tears, her spirit completely broken. She felt like she’d failed everyone, and couldn’t stand to think that because of her Nick would probably have a poor reputation for the rest of his schooling. 

“Who are you?” he asked plainly.

“I’m Charlotte! Your wife, your friend, the person who you’ve known since you were a boy! I’m the same girl!” 

Nick could feel the tears burning in the back of his eyes but he resisted, not letting them fall, “You’re a fraud,” he whispered, “You’re no one, you’re nothing.”

“Don’t say that,” Charlotte pleaded, not knowing if she would be able to handle going through a trial and potentially a workhouse service without knowing he was going to be there when it was all over.

“You tricked me into loving you while you stole my life out from under me! Those references, those grades, those were not yours to take! I earned those! I worked hard every day of my life to make it so I could go to this school and you took all that to use for your entertainment! I was never anything but kind to you and you stabbed me in the back! You know why you had to steal all that information from me to get into this school? It’s not because you’re a woman and they won’t let you attend, it’s not that you didn’t have as many opportunities as some people, it’s none of that, you had to take it because you could have never earned it on your own. Never! You’re not smart enough to go to this school, you have never deserved to. Even if you were a man I would tell you that you lacked the intelligence,” Nick spat, his heart beating a thousand miles a minute as he fought to control his temper that was about to burst like a jar full of hornets. 

Charlotte knew he was absolutely right. He could have told her she wouldn’t have been successful before she even tried but he was too nice, he let her think she could do whatever she wanted when he always carried the knowledge that she just wasn’t smart enough. She wondered how often he had to dumb things down so that she would understand, but one thing she knew for certain was that he honestly believed that she didn’t love him.

“I know you’re smarter than me, I know your vocabulary surpasses mine, and your ideas are far more complex but if there is anything in the world that I know, and know without a doubt it’s that I do love you!” she protested, “All of that was true!”

“To me, not a word you’ve spoken since the day you came to see me last spring has been the truth. You won’t be able to convince me otherwise, and you won’t be able to put it right.”

“Will you at least come to the trial?” she asked, needing him to be there for her own sanity.

“Of course,” Nick agreed, “I’ll be there, and I won’t pity you. Unfortunately you’ll just have to deal with whatever that man out there thinks you deserve and to be honest with you judging by his disposition I don’t think it’s going to turn out well.”

“Don’t say that,” she cried, shaking her head at him, “Underneath all of your anger I know you still love me that doesn’t just go away!”

“Right now,” Nick sighed, “I feel absolutely nothing for you. Not love, not anger, not sympathy. Nothing, at all.”

Charlotte was lost. She had destroyed everything dear to her for the sake of her own personal satisfaction and now she was going to pay with potentially years of her life. She had expected if she got caught that the results would be a slap on the wrist and maybe some public embarrassment but prison? She had lost Nick forever, and would now be putting her family to shame. She wondered if they would ever speak to her again after this was all said and done. She wondered how she would even let them know.

“Will you send a telegram to my parents and let them know what’s going on?” she asked, hoping Nick would provide her with one last favour.

“Of course,” he nodded, “I don’t know what I’m going to say, but I’ll tell them.”

“Nick,” Charlotte whispered as she wiped tears from her eyes. She wanted to reach out and touch him but knew he would only pull away, “Will you ever be able to forgive me?” 

He thought long and hard, almost making her believe he wasn’t going to answer at all. Nick ran a hand through his blonde locks, pulling on the ends slightly as he really examined what his answer to that question would be, “Maybe someday I’ll be able to forgive you,” he finally answered, nodding his head slightly, “but I can tell you I will never in my life forget your betrayal.” 

At his words Charlotte didn’t care if they sent her to prison or sent her to hang because her life as she knew it was over.