Chapter 49 #2
“No doubt she was daydreaming of fishmongers as she drew her last breath,” her mother said carelessly.
“And when you are dragged out of the river, everyone will assume you are a suicide. Just another unfortunate brought low by sin. No doubt everyone will conclude that Edgar confronting you in that den of iniquity is what drove you to it.” She looked so proud of her plan that Caroline felt rather sick.
“You would do that to Edgar?” she asked in a low voice.
“Edgar betrayed me!” her mother burst out before collecting herself once again. “But no matter. Once you are dealt with, I can deal with that little schemer, Diana, and he will soon forget her. If he does not…” She shrugged.
“If he does not?” Caroline prompted.
“Then I will get rid of him too,” her mother said breezily. “Like I did his father, and yours before him.”
Caroline’s breath caught in her throat. It was horrible.
Horrible. Mama was a murderess. She felt frozen before her like a mouse confronted by a coiled snake.
“It won’t do you any good, you know,” she heard herself say in a voice that sounded far calmer than she felt.
“You will never get your hands on my money now.”
“What do you mean?” Her mother’s tone was sharp.
“Did you not see the name of the offices from which I emerged? As soon as I found out that I am the true heir of Benham, I made a will. It is signed and dated, and I left none of it to you or to Edgar.”
Her mother stared at her, draining of color. “You lie!”
“It is quite true, I assure you.”
“Lies!” her mother insisted shrilly. “I won’t believe a word of it!”
The carriage came to an abrupt stop at this point, and even as Caroline lunged for the door, it was wrenched open wide.
“Miss Caroline!” a red-faced Reg puffed. She launched herself at him and he just about managed to catch hold of her and break her fall before she hit the ground. “Get in that hackney!” he said, thrusting her behind him.
Clambering up from her scraped knees, Caroline gave a desperate tug at her skirts, which appeared to be caught on something. Glancing back over her shoulder, she realized her screaming mother was desperately clawing at them from the floor of the carriage.
“Over there, miss!” Reg bellowed, pointing to a hackney cab pulled up against the pavement about a hundred yards away. He only had the chance to get the words out before Sidney Price fell on him with an angry roar.
Wrenching herself free to the sound of tearing fabric, Caroline dodged around a passing carriage.
They were near a busy crossroads, and a driver brandished his whip and yelled at her, cursing her for a stupid fool.
Ignoring him, Caroline weaved through the traffic, intent on her escape before she heard her mother’s voice upraised in fury, close on her heels.
“Get back here, Caroline! How dare you defy me, you wicked creature!” she shrieked. “I will make you rue the day you were ever born!” Mama looked like a demented scarecrow with her soiled gown and her dirty hair.
She was never going to stop, Caroline realized. She had lost all reason, and all appearance of sanity had now slipped like a mask from her true self, revealing the horrible truth. Mama was a monster.
Taking a fortifying breath, Caroline wheeled about to face her head-on.
Her arms shot out and she shoved at her mother, hard, with all her might.
Mama’s face looked so shocked by Caroline daring to lay hands upon her, that she went reeling backward without any resistance at all, an expression of the utmost surprise upon her face.
Her scrawny body flew backward into the passing traffic and there was a blur, a sickening thud and a crunch, and someone screamed. Caroline covered her mouth with her hand and turned her back to it, breathing fast. Oh God, she thought, closing her eyes tight. Oh God. She was going to be sick.
Dragging some air into her burning lungs, she made a break for Reg’s hackney cab. She only breathed it out once her fingers closed around the door handle and she hauled herself inside, panting hard.
“Gerwyn Street!” Reg shouted to the driver as he lumbered into the cab behind her.
“Oh Reg,” she quavered. “Did you see…?”
“It weren’t your fault, miss,” he said staunchly. “They were a pair of villains and no mistake.”
Well, she could not argue with that. “Are you very hurt?” she asked, looking at his bloodied nose and swollen red face.
“It’s nothin’, miss,” he said with a warning glance toward the driver. Taking his meaning, she drew the handkerchief from her cuff and wrapped it around his bleeding knuckles. He must have given as good as he got and that was saying something.
“That man,” Caroline said urgently. She turned to look out of the window and spotted Sidney Price lying in a heap as people started to jump down from their carriages to investigate the figure lying prone in the dirt.
“Don’t look, Miss Caroline,” he said. “It’s not a sight for a lady’s eyes.”
“Reg,” she said in a shaken voice, “I hope you realize you saved my life this day. Is he—?”
“I dunno and we ain’t stopping to find out,” he answered promptly.
Caroline twisted about and managed to get a last view of her mother lying still under the wheels of a halted carriage.
It gave her a terrible flashback to Sophy lying dead under the pergola.
Tears sprang to her eyes. Poor Sophy. Poor dead Sophy who had died in her stead.
Her tears were for Sophy, she realized numbly, not Mama.
She sat back in her seat and took a deep breath. “Reg, please call up to the cabbie. I do not want to go to The Citadel after all, but to Gervaise’s uncle’s house in Melbury Square.”