Well. Surely you don't blame him for wishing to rise on his own? You are naturally perturbed by his duplicity in keeping it from you, as anyone would be. But I can understand why he might have done. You would have offered him a rise in salary or some other temptation to keep him. And it might have worked for a while, dearest, but a young man of Crispin's talents can't be expected to remain your clerk for the rest of his days. And perhaps he has met someone, as you suspected, and remembering your conversations with him while he was seeing Miss Kirke made him realise he had to take a position where he could dictate his own hours or manage what he needs to start a family. After all, it is a sizable promotion, and something he couldn't do if he'd continued with you.

It's certainly a bad hex, husband, and I know it's a terrible inconvenience to you. But I think that what is really troubling you is that he did not enlist your help, nor obtained your approval, before taking this decision. Isn't that right? What does Ari say about it? (And no, I did not mean to imply that you need him to analyse you, only that talking with him always seems to steady you.)