" Had imprisonment been freedom of another kind? She could not make her own decisions, which meant she had not had to think, or consider, take any responsibility for the results. The excuse was perfect. “I had no choice. I couldn’t fail because I was not allowed to try!” If no success were possible, then equally, neither was any failure. As an errant wife if she had left him then the law would have brought her back, if he had wished it. Perhaps he would not have. She had not tried. How childlike, in the ugliest way. It was not innocence; it was the abdication of responsibility. "

― Anne Perry , Revenge in a Cold River (William Monk, #22)