Dream: Placeholder Wife

I was not a character in this dream. I watched it in 3rd person, like a film.

I dreamed about a man of great wealth in the nineteenth century who took a pretty young woman as his wife. He was kind to her, and always treated her well. She came to live with him on his vast and beautiful estates and was given almost everything she could want. There were many servants working on the estate: kitchen staff, gardening staff, housekeeping staff. They were very loyal to the wealthy man. Though they were always kind to the young woman, they always made sure to maintain a professional distance despite her attempts to become closer to them.

Something was amiss. She sometimes caught her husband looking strangely at her when he thought she wasn't looking. The servants sometimes exchanged glances behind her back.
When she was brought to live in the estate, she was told not to go in a certain wing of the main house, by the back garden. The wealthy man told her that it had been his father's study. He wanted to keep it untouched in memoriam.
Packages were delivered to the estate every week. She never could never seem to find out their contents, even though she tried questioning the servants.

Her husband, over time, started to grow distant from her.

One day she decided to break into the forbidden rooms. She discovered a beautiful sun-filled bedroom and joining chambers. The walls were freshly painted white, and the furniture was painted with flowers. There were two armoirs filled with a woman's expensive wardrobe. Above the bed hung a portrait of a pretty young woman she had never seen before.

Her husband discovers her there several hours later, sitting on the bed, crying in confusion. At first he is angry and leaves for several minutes. But the wealthy man had always had an even temper and a reasonable nature, and he returned to the sun-filled room and told his young wife the truth.

He had always been gifted with the power to glimpse the future. He could not control it. It simply flashed, unbidden, before his eyes every once in a while. It was unclear how, but his staff of servants were in on this power. They were unnaturally devoted to the wealthy man, and had seen his future as well. They knew that the wealthy man would marry a woman named Emily, who was his one true love.

They also knew that the wealthy man would only meet Emily through the untimely but natural death of his first wife. He must marry this young girl. She would die. Then his real wife would appear.

His young wife listens patiently, crying silently throughout her wealthy husband's explanation. He told her now that she knew the truth, she had two options. She may leave and disgrace herself in divorce and return to her previous life of poverty. Or she may stay, living a comfortable life, knowing of her immanent death, knowing that she is paving the way for Emily's arrival.