“No!”
Brent was living his worst nightmare. His heart dropped from his chest when Elly tumbled forward. He moved as fast as he could but it seemed as if his boots were filled with sand. As if he moved in slow motion. She lost her balance and plummeted down one step. Then another. And he was helpless to do anything to save her.
Gunfire blasted around him but he didn’t take time to notice, or care what happened to Waverley. He raced up the stairs. All he wanted to do was keep the worst from happening.
He reached out and prevented her from falling down the entire flight of stairs, but wasn’t able to catch her before she twisted at a harsh angle and slammed her head against the wall.
“Elly!”
He picked her up and held her in his arms then cupped his hand against the back of her head to assess the damage.
“How badly is she hurt?” Harrison asked rushing toward them.
“I don’t know.” Brent pushed the hair from her forehead. A stream of blood trickled down the side of her face.
“Here!” another brother said, handing him a clean, white handkerchief.
Brent pressed it to her temple and watched it turn dark with her blood.
Lady Lathamton rushed past them. “Bring her up here. We need to lay her down.”
Brent rose with Elly in his arms and followed Lady Lathamton down the hallway, far away from where Waverley’s body lay. The room was bright and cheery and seemed a perfect place for Elly to wake up.
If
Elly woke up.
Brent shook his head to clear it.
Of course she’d wake up. Elly was strong. She’d been through much worse and survived. Then Brent looked down at the bruises on her face. The ache inside his chest hurt even more. She shouldn’t have been the one hurt. She hadn’t done anything to deserve this.
“Has someone gone for a doctor?” he asked when he placed Elly on the bed.
“Yes. And Parkridge and Berkingham went for the twins,” George said. “They’ll want to be here.”
“Is there water in that basin?” He nodded to a small washstand on the opposite side of the room.
Fellingsdown rushed away and brought back the basin and several clean cloths.
Brent rinsed one out and placed it on Elly’s face. It removed the blood, which made the cut on her forehead appear less severe. But as he washed away the blood, the bruises on her face became more evident.
“Bloody hell,” he said, gently placing the cool cloth on the discoloration below her eye. “If the bastard weren’t already dead, I’d kill him over again.”
“He’s dead. Each one of us can attest to that. Although Parneston insisted we allow him to take the credit.”
Brent nodded, then wiped away another streak of dried blood. “We need to remove Elly’s shoes. I’m afraid her foot might be injured.”
George moved to the side of the bed. “Let me. I used to rub her foot when we were younger and it ached.”
He sat on the mattress next to Elly and lifted her injured foot. “She might not want you to know what her foot looks like.” He looked at Brent. “I was the only one she ever allowed to see it.”
“Then we won’t tell her.”
George nodded and worked silently until the laces were undone. When he finished, he lifted Elly’s foot to remove her boot. The minute he touched her foot she moaned.
“Ah, hell,” George said through clenched teeth.
“What is it?” Harrison looked at the foot, then uttered a curse even more foul.
“It’s all right, Elly, my sweet,” Brent said, holding her still. She tossed her head from side to side as she fought for a release from the pain.
When she calmed, Brent released his hold on her shoulders and turned his attention to the foot of the bed. The sight stole his breath.
Her foot was gnarled and misshapen but he’d expected to see something similar because of how she limped when she walked. He hadn’t, however, expected to see her bruised and swollen foot, or the blood that soaked through her stockings.
“Lift her skirt,” Brent ordered.
“We can’t. Elly would never—“
“Lift it! At least to her knees. Uncover both her legs.”
George didn’t argue further but slowly lifted Elly’s skirts away from her legs.
“Damn him,” he said again, then ordered Harrison to get more water and cloths.
“I wonder how many times the bastard threw her to the ground?” Harrison said when he returned.
“Several, from the looks of this,” George said.
They turned when the door opened. It was Lady Lathamton.
“The doctor’s on his way,” she said, closing the door behind her. “How’s Elly?”
“The doctor needs to hurry.”
Lady Lathamton rushed to the side of the bed. Brent saw her expression change the minute she looked down.
Tears welled in her eyes then trickled down her cheeks. Her expression changed to pity.
This was what Elly meant. People who didn’t know her considered her a freak. Strangers avoided her. But the people who loved her were the worst. They pitied her, and pity was the emotion she could least accept.
This was why she kept her disability from the world. This was why she was content with her life at The Down. Not because she didn’t like people – she loved people. She just couldn’t live with their pity.
“She’ll be fine,” Brent heard himself say.
“Of course she will,” Lady Lathamton answered, wiping the tears from her cheeks, then rinsing out a clean cloth and handing it to him. She rinsed out another cloth and handed it to George.
“I don’t think anything’s broken,” Brent said, pressing a cloth on Elly’s torn knees. “But I wish the doctor would come. Her ankle is swelling rapidly.”
The door opened and Spence and Jules ushered in the doctor.
“Doctor Brunswich, we’re glad you’re here,” Harrison said, greeting the doctor. “Elly’s had an accident.”
“Parneston explained about her
accident
. I’ll see to Waverley’s body when I’m finished here.”
Without pausing to greet any of the people in the room, the doctor looked down at Elly and asked, “Is Nanny Graybrim still here?”
“Yes,” Lady Lathamton answered.
“Good. Send her in to help me. The rest of you, out.”
Brent hesitated, but the doctor looked at him and in a softer tone said, “Go. I’ll send for you as soon as I’m done.”
Brent nodded, then followed Lady Lathamton and Elly’s brothers from the room.
“Nellie,” Lady Lathamton said to one of the servants waiting in the hall. “Find Nanny Graybrim and send her in to help the doctor. Then go to the kitchen to have the footmen bring up plenty of warm water and anything else the doctor might need.”
“Right away, my lady.” Nellie bobbed a polite curtsy then rushed off to do her mistress’s bidding.
“We’ll wait for the doctor downstairs. We’ll be more comfortable there.”
Lady Lathamton turned to lead the way down the stairs but stopped when Fellingsdown’s voice interrupted. “Is your son all right?”
Lady Lathamton nodded. “Nanny Graybrim hid him in a toy chest. He thought they were playing a game.”
“Perhaps before we leave you could introduce me to him.”
Lady Lathamton’s face blanched a shade of white.
Brent thought she might refuse, but she didn’t. As if she realized having her son meet Fellingsdown was inevitable, she unclenched her hands and dropped them to her sides.
“Of course. I would be happy to have you meet him.”
The group had only taken a few steps toward the stairs before the nursery door opened and a small lad rushed out pulling Nellie’s hand. The minute he saw Lady Lathamton he dropped the young girl’s hand and ran toward them.
“Mother! Mother! Guess what?”
Everyone looked at the little boy running toward them.
“What?” Lady Lathamton asked lowering herself to the youngster’s level.
“Nellie’s going to take me to the pond to watch the fish.”
“She is?”
“Yes. Nanny said Nellie should take me for a walk because she has to help the doctor. Is someone sick?”
“No. A friend of mine had an accident and the doctor came to take care of her.”
“Oh,” the boy answered then slowly lifted his gaze as if he just realized there was a crowd of adults staring at him.
“Andrew. I’d like to introduce you to some friends of mine.”
The little boy with hair the exact dark shade as Harrison’s, and eyes the same color as Harrison’s took his mother’s hand and came forward. The resemblance between the Marquess of Fellingsdown and the boy was unmistakable.
She stopped in front of Fellingsdown. “Andrew, I’d like you to meet the Marquess of Fellingsdown. Fellingsdown, my son, Andrew, the Marquess of Lathamton.”
“Hello, Andrew.”
“Lord Fellingsdown.”
The boy executed a superb bow of respect, then waited for his mother to continue the introductions.
Other than a slight nod of each head when they were introduced, there wasn’t much conversation from any of them. They were all too stunned as they looked from Fellingsdown to the small lad standing in front of him.
“Are you friends of my mother’s?” the child asked when the introductions were finished.
“Yes,” Fellingsdown answered.
The boy seemed to ponder that answer, then decide it met with his approval.
“Did you know my father, too?”
Fellingsdown nodded. “Yes, I did.”
The young Marquess’s shoulders seemed to sag. “I wish I had.” There was a hint of disappointment in his voice. “I was too little when he died to remember him.”
The boy stopped and a smile lit his face. “Would you like to come with me to the pond to see the fish? Bertie said one of them’s as big as a sea monster, but I’ve never seen it.”
“Bertie?” Fellingsdown asked.
“He works in the gardens, and he takes me fishing sometimes.”
“Do you like to go fishing?”
“Oh yes. I caught a real big fish the last time. But Bertie had to help me. I wasn’t big enough to do it by myself. Some day I will be though.”
“Maybe we can go fishing sometime.”
“Oh, yes! I’ll even show you where the best place to fish is.”
“I’d like that,” Fellingsdown said.
“Did you hear that, Mother? Lord Fellingsdown wants to go fishing with me.”
“Yes, I heard. That’s wonderful.” She gave her son a quick hug then turned him around. “Go with Nellie now, and be good. We’ll have gingersnaps when you return.”
“Oh, boy,” he said as he skipped down the hall and out of sight.
No one said anything. Brent knew it was most likely because they were unable. Finally Lady Lathamton broke the uncomfortable silence.
“If you’ll follow me,” she said, “we’ll wait in the drawing room until the doctor calls for us.”
Upon that statement, she walked away from them to go downstairs.
“I’m going to stay here,” Brent said before Lady Lathamton had gone far. “The doctor may need something.”
That was the truth but he also wanted to stay close to Elly.
“I think I’ll go outside and wait for the twins,” George said, perhaps needing fresh air. Perhaps wanting to give Harrison and Lady Lathamton time alone.
“I’ll go with you,” Spence said.
“Me too,” Jules added.
Fellingsdown’s three brothers walked down the stairs and out the front door. Fellingsdown followed Lady Lathamton down the flight of stairs and to a drawing room below.
Brent stood on the balcony and began the worst torture known to mankind.
Waiting.
___
Harrison closed the drawing room door behind him but couldn’t find the courage to walk across the floor. Somehow, he knew when he discovered the truth of what happened that night nearly four years ago, it would be something he wasn’t sure he could live with.
“Cassie?” He swallowed past the lump in his throat.
The woman he’d loved his whole life stood on the opposite side of the room with her back to him as she watched out the window. Over her shoulder he could see a little boy skipping across the grass on his way to the pond.
“He’s mine,” Harrison said, not as a question because he knew the answer, but as a statement. It was important that he acknowledge his son even though he could never publicly claim him.
Cassie nodded without turning around. “Did you hear Waverley admit he’d drugged me that night?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t tell you what happened because I don’t know. The whole ordeal was a nightmare. I woke up in a strange room, in a strange bed, with a strange man. My head throbbed while a crowd of strangers pointed at me and accused me of scandalous behavior. I didn’t understand what they meant. I hadn’t done anything.”
She turned around to face him and tears streamed down her face.