Taming the Wicked Wulfe (The Rogue Agents) (42 page)

“I don’t understand.”

“I think perhaps we should leave,” Tessa said, nudging Mikala.

“Yes, of course,” Mikala agreed.

A footman gathered up Edith on Gertie’s command and carried her up the stairs.
 
Gertie went upstairs to assist Edith.
 
Tessa and Mikala each hugged Rebekah, reassuring her that they would be there for her if she needed anything at all.
 
Soon Clarissa and Rebekah were the only ones standing in the entrance hall.

“You know I am not going anywhere,” Clarissa announced.
 
“Justin had business to attend at one of the estates, and the baby is too young to travel, so we are staying the night with Gertie.”
 
As if on cue, they heard a wail from the top of the stairs and Jace came to the landing looking very annoyed.

“Mama, when will the baby stop doing that?
 
I want to play with it and all it does is sleep and cry!”

“That is all you did as well, love,” she laughed.
 
“Zachary and Ivy are staying a little while longer.
 
Why don’t you make the most of their being here?”

“C’mon Zach!” Jace waved the other little boy to hurry up the stairs.
 

“You be sure and play with Ivy as well,” Clarissa said.

“I’d rather see the baby,” Ivy said.
 
“She’s so pretty, she looks like my dolly.”

“Well then, young lady, you come with me.”
 

Soon Rebekah stood alone in the entryway looking up the stairs, wondering if she had the energy to climb them and face what lay at the top.
 
She took a deep breath and slowly began to scale the stairs as if they were a tall mountain and at the top she did not know what fate awaited her.
 
Once she made it to the top, she cautiously walked down the hall, listening for sounds that would indicate which room her mother occupied.

“I’ll be back,” Gertie’s voice could be heard as she opened a door toward the end of the hall.
 
“Rebekah, come keep your mother company.”
 

When Rebekah’s feet felt stuck to the floor, Gertie impatiently crossed to her, took her hand and pulled her down the hall.
 
She pushed her into the room and shut the door behind her.
 
A fire roared in the fireplace, and her mother sat in a rocking chair bundled up in blankets, shivering.
 
Her chestnut-colored hair lay in loose, wet waves about her shoulders.
 
Rebekah felt as if she were suffocating and walked to the window.
 
The storm still raged, but the wind blew
 
in the opposite direction, so no rain filtered into the room.

“Gertie sometimes overdoes the mothering a bit,” Edith said.

“Yes.”

“Wulfe did not tell you about your half-sister?”

“He knew?”

“Yes.
 
Everything came out when he confronted your father about the accident.”

“Do not ever call that man my father,” she bit out.

“He was a good man at one time, a loving man.”

“Is that what got you through all those years?
 
Memories of what had been?”

“They are all I had besides you and Sarah.”

“How did you find out about this other woman?”

“When I was carrying you.
 
He kept calling out in his sleep a woman’s name, Gabrielle.
 
I thought it was beautiful, and in my naïvety I thought perhaps that is what he wanted your name to be.
 
It was coming close for you to be born, and I asked him if he had been thinking of names and he shrugged.
 
When I suggested Gabrielle for a girl and Gabriel for a boy, he became livid.
 
That is when I first saw the man he had become.
 
He attacked me and left.
 
He caused you to be born a few weeks early.
 
I was alone with a small child, unsure if I would survive your birth, but so very determined.”

“Where did he go?”

“His dear Gabrielle was expecting their child as well.
 
He went to her.
 
She had complications.
 
That is why he had been calling her name during the night.
 
She and the babe survived, but she could never have more children.
 
Nothing was the same between us after that.”

“I never knew.”

“No, I protected you girls as much as possible.
 
There were other pregnancies after that, but…”

“But what, Mama?”

“There were accidents, so many accidents.
 
He only used my body when he couldn’t have his precious Gabrielle.
 
Then if there was a child, he felt he was being punished, and he would beat me until it existed no more.”

“How many times?”

“I lost count.”

“I hate him.”

“I believe I do, as well,” her mother said, sounding sad.
 
“I only wanted to be a good wife and mother, and he kept taking that away from me.
 
I did my best to protect you girls.
 
Sarah was easy, she was so obedient, but you were another story.
 
You reminded me of myself.
 
I wanted to spare you the pain I had suffered.
 
I wanted you to have a chance to be a mother, to love your child and raise it without fear.
 
But he had to make a trip to London to see his whore.
 
Their daughter mentioned seeing someone who looked very much like her in town, only she was very much with child.”

“That is when he came for me.”

“Yes.”

“Is Gabrielle still alive?”

“I would guess so.
 
He still came to see her often enough.”

“What is their daughter’s name?”

“Aimée,” her mother replied staring into the fire.

Rebekah’s ears began to ring, and the room spun sickeningly.
 
She saw spots in front of her eyes.
 
It became difficult to breathe.
 
She thought she heard voices behind her, but she could not be certain.
 
She felt her grip on the window frame slacken, and then gravity was pulling her body to the floor.
 
Her head made contact with the frame of the bed, and then blackness engulfed her.

Clarissa and Gertie reached the room at the same moment after hearing the breaking of glass.

“What happened?” Gertie demanded, taking in Rebekah’s inert form lying on the floor, shattered glass all around her.

“I was telling her everything.
 
She asked for her half-sister’s name and then she just collapsed.”
 
Edith remained sitting in her chair, her blankets pulled tightly around her.
 
“I didn’t mean to hurt her.
 
I just thought she should know the truth.”

“All will be fine,” Gertie placed a soothing hand on the other woman’s shoulder.

“I will send someone up to move her to a bed and clean up the mess.
 
I will send for Lord Wulfe, as well.”

When a footman arrived to move her to another bedroom, he hoisted her in his arms, and paused at what he saw.
 
“Lady Gertrude, the lady has a head wound.”

Gertrude saw the bloody spot on the carpet, and then inspected Rebekah’s head when the footman moved clear of the shattered glass.
 
“I don’t think it is very deep.
 
I will go with you.
 
Edith, see that you stay put until all the glass is picked up.”

***

Thorn was going over the books when someone began beating on the door of the
Lady Luck
.
 
He sat there, ignoring it.
 
Whoever it was could come back in a few hours to lose their money.
 
Silence.
 
They must have gone away, whoever it was.
 
He started to pull out Walsh’s calling card to study it once more, but quickly replaced it when someone began beating on the back door.

Angry at being disrupted, he stood up and let the chair bang against the wall.
 
He made his way to the door and waved away one of the men who worked at the gaming hell.
 

“What in bloody hell do you want?” he demanded of the man that stood on the other side of the door.
 
He was wearing a livery Thorn knew he had seen before, but could not quite place.
 

“I am looking for Lord Wulfe.”

“You’ve found him.”
 
The man seemed to noticeably pale.
 
“Well, man what do you want?”

“I am to tell…I mean ask…I mean…”

“Yes?”

“You are needed at Lady Gertrude’s immediately.”

“Rebekah?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“The twins?” Thorn gathered the man up by his lapels and held him a few inches off the ground.

“I believe they are fine, my lord,” the man squeaked out. “I was only told to bring you as quickly as possible to Lady Gertrude’s house.”

Thorn let the man drop and ran to the mews.
 
He quickly saddled his horse to the dismay of several of the stable lads.
 
Then he was mounted and racing through the streets of London.
 
Damn, he could not remember the exact address where Gertrude lived.
 
He slowed the horse and tried to recall when the man in livery passed him and called, “Follow me!”
 
He said a quick prayer of thanks, because as they drew to a stop, he realized he would have ridden right past this house if not for the footman.

The footman ran up the stairs and opened the door for Thorn.
 
“Up here, my lord,” another man stood at the top of the stairs, directing him.

He saw a blonde woman, walking a fretting baby in the hall and immediately recognized her as Rebekah’s cousin, Clarissa.
 

“Lord Wulfe, I am so glad you came.
 
She’s in there,” Clarissa nodded her head.

He opened the door, and saw Rebekah lying very still on the bed.
 
Beside her sat Ivy, holding her hand, rubbing it.
 
When Ivy saw him, she clambered to her feet and ran to him, jumping from the bed to his ready arms.
 

“Uncle Thorn, she won’t talk to me,” Ivy sniffed, her eyes growing teary.
 
“And there’s blood.”

“Blood?”

“She hit her head when she collapsed,” Clarissa explained still attempting to soothe her fretting babe.

“Collapsed?”

“Her mother is here.
 
Her father is dead.
 
I am not sure what her mother was telling her, but it upset her enough that she fainted.
 
We have not been able to bring her round, not even with smelling salts.”

“Ivy, love, will you go with Clarissa?
 
Let me look after your Aunt Bekah.”

“She’s not going to die like Mama, is she?”

“No, love, I promise you she is going to be fine.”
 
He kissed the tip of her nose then put her on her feet and watched her leave with Clarissa.
 
He shut the door and noticed how stuffy the room was.
 
The rain had stopped, and a nice cool breeze was blowing.
 
Thorn opened the window wishing they were at their house, dreading what her mother might have told her.
 
Knowing he should have told her as soon as he had found out.
 
He turned her gently and examined the wound on the back of her head.
 
She had a gash and it would ache for a while, but a lump was forming and that was a good sign.

“Thorn?” she murmured.

“Yes, sweetheart, I’m here.”

“I don’t feel very well.”

“I imagine not.
 
You have quite a bump and gash on your head.
 
Clarissa said you fainted.”

“I never faint,” she said and then it all came back to her.
 
Her mother was here.
 
The Reverend was dead.
 
He had a secret family that he loved.
 
She had a half-sister named Aimée.
 
A half-sister that had been her husband’s mistress.
 
He had known about her and had not said anything.
 
“You knew,” Rebekah accused.

“The Reverend mentioned something when I confronted him.”

“Mentioned,” she pushed herself up and moaned as dizziness swamped her.
 
She felt the bile rise up her throat and tried to hold it back, but failed.
 
Just in time she felt a chamber pot placed into her hands as she lost the contents of her stomach.
 
She tuned out the world around her and just concentrated on trying to keep her stomach in her body.

“Here,” Thorn sat beside her and placed a cool, damp cloth on her neck and held one against her forehead.