Chapter Thirty-Two
Janelle spent the night before her wedding with her brother Alexander. He’d arrived mid-afternoon from Cambridge, his tawny hair curling wildly around his unshaven face, with a smile of warmth that heated a very, very cold place around her heart.
“Hullo, cow girl.” It was a reference to the first time she’d met Mrs. Sundy and the very first baby she’d help birth—a calf that had come largely all on its own.
“Hullo, ignoramus,” she returned, squeezing her brother with all her strength. He didn’t even flinch, which meant he’d grown stronger. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I made it in time for tea.”
“And I’m grateful for that.”
With a last doting look at one another, the two siblings entered the library for tea, just as they had as children.
It was the three of them today. Not even Aunt Esmee or Uncle Jonathan were allowed.
Thankfully Lord Benedict was working, but there was a quiet kind of insult to Lord Benedict’s parents who were left to find their own entertainment on the day before the nuptials.
Either way, her father didn’t seem to care as he glowered at them, his black eye swollen and his jowls quivering with fury.
Both she and Alexander had been trained to say nothing until spoken to, and so Janelle served tea while Alexander silently defied their father by sprawling in his seat.
His eyes were deceptively languid, and Janelle thanked God that no matter what happened in her future, as of tomorrow morning, she would be out from under her father’s thumb.
That thought hit her broadside.
In the morning, she would be free of her father.
And though it gratified her that Gabriel had taken a fist to her father’s face, it nevertheless changed nothing in the dynamic between herself and her parent.
If anything, it entrenched his animosity even further.
The only one who could make a change to that was her.
And to that end, she set down the teapot and refused to pour.
“Father,” she began, her tone clear. “In the morning, I will be quit of you—”
“I’m leaving school,” her brother abruptly declared. It was a rush of words, meant to forestall whatever Janelle was about to say. Her little brother was protecting her by diverting the discussion, but she couldn’t let him take the heat for her. He still required her father’s money to survive.
“Alex, you don’t need to—”
“Actually,” he said, his jaw firming. “I left it months ago. I’m working on steam engines for the navy.
Brilliant work, very exciting.” He pulled what looked like two metal cogs out of his pocket.
“This is a bolt and a nut made out of metal. Look at the precision of the thing! Every one perfectly made, exactly the same. Tiny pieces of metal can be cut now by a machine, and when a piece goes soft or breaks, a new identical one can be popped in. No fuss. Can you imagine it?” His eyes sparkled with delight.
“You don’t have to hand cut a new engine.
Just pop in another gear, and you’re back to work. It’s marvelous!”
She’d never seen such enthusiasm in her brother’s face. She leaned forward to see the strange metal lump. “Alex, that’s—”
“You will stand and explain yourself!” her father bellowed.
Odd how even the greatest noise had no effect if one is already braced for it.
This was her father’s usual command when he was out of sorts.
He would force them both to stand before him, their hands rigidly at their sides while Alexander was forced to repeated Latin phrases or stammer through philosophical treatises, whatever her father determined was appropriate for a gentleman’s education.
And indeed, it was exactly the kind of brutal instruction that had gotten Alex into Cambridge to study despite his apparent interest in games of chance and women of loose morals.
Except this time, Janelle had no intention of standing to attention, and neither apparently, did Alex.
“I am explaining,” her brother drawled. “There is no need to bellow.” And though his posture appeared insolently relaxed, Janelle saw the tension in his jaw and the fury in his eyes.
“But since you interrupted my discourse, Father, perhaps you could explain how you got that black eye.” He leaned forward slowly.
“Did Janelle finally have enough and pop you one proper?”
Her father’s response was quick and brutal. His favorite attack was a lightning-fast punch to the jaw, followed by a heavy blow to the belly. She’d seen it often enough to know it was coming, but she’d never been able to stop it. Her brother did.
He leapt out of his chair with a cat-like grace. While their father’s punch was extended, he gripped the man’s arm and wrenched it around. The momentum of the second punch had already begun, and somehow Alex used it to spin their father around.
And then, Alex landed a heavy uppercut that sent their father flying, straight back into his chair. It was only by quick reflex that Janelle managed to get the hot teapot off the tray. Otherwise, the thing would have overset and spilled everywhere.
“Good catch,” her brother said, not even winded.
“Where did you learn that?”
He winked at her. “There’s lots that I’ve been doing lately.” His tone was light, but she heard the fury underneath. But unlike the explosive moody boy she remembered, this man was calm, even as he moved to tower over their father. “Move and I’ll only knock you back again,” he said in a flat voice.
“This is how you treat your father, you fecking bastard!”
“If only I was,” he said grimly. “That would make things so much easier.”
“Don’t say that, Alex!” Janelle said as she set the teapot down. “You’re his heir. There’s money and a title—”
“I’ve money enough, Sister.” He swallowed. “I’m only sorry that I didn’t come back earlier.” His gaze roved over her face and body. “Did he hurt you badly? I should have protected you. I should have—”
“I wanted you to go.” She flashed him a smile. “I got my revenge, and I’m gone tomorrow.”
“Yes, you are.” He held out his hand to hers. “May I take you out to tea, Janelle? So we can talk without him?”
“Yes,” she exclaimed, amazed by the mature man she saw before her. When had her baby brother grown up? She was still adjusting her thoughts when her father attacked again. But again, Alex was ready for it.
He blocked their father’s fists easily, throwing the man to the floor this time. “Stop it, Father, or I will leave you too injured to walk her down the aisle tomorrow.”
“You filthy…” Curse words poured from her father’s mouth, but Alex turned his back on them. He held out his hand to her, and she stared in awe. He’d turned his back on their father!
“Quickly now,” Alex said. “He isn’t fast enough to catch me, but I don’t want him to grab you—”
“He won’t,” she said as she rushed toward the door, her brother’s long legs easily keeping pace.
“I’ll disown you!” her father bellowed.
“I don’t care!” Alex called back over his shoulder before he grabbed his hat from the hall table with one hand while hauling open the door with the other. They were outside in a trice and down the street a moment later.
Free!
My God, she had never felt so free. And yet even as she took full joyous breaths, she couldn’t help but worry about her brother.
Her father would disinherit him. He’d let the title pass on to Alex—there was little choice in that.
But he could see that Alex never received a penny of their considerable wealth.
“Alex—”
“Don’t worry,” he said as he patted her hand. “I can handle him.”
“But—”
“I don’t need his money. And he doesn’t scare me anymore.” His gaze dropped back to her as his brows tightened. “I’m so sorry it took me so long.”
“I have been fine. I am fine,” she said, investing all her strength into those words. Her heart was broken, her marriage a mystery, but she would be all right. Especially now that she saw what a fine man her brother had become. “Tell me everything,” she said.
“If you tell me first about Lord Benedict. Do you want to marry him? Shall I rescue you from him as well?”
The idea had its appeal. Like him, she wanted to be able to throw off everything of her old life and become Betty Gill completely.
But that would mean giving up her dream of a place for women to get medicines and deliver their babies safely.
It would mean never seeing Gabriel again, if only as a friend.
It would mean losing so much of what she wanted.
“I respect Lord Benedict,” she said. “A very great deal.”
“That’s not love. It isn’t even joy.”
“No,” she admitted. “But he is giving Betty everything she could possibly want.” Except love.
“Betty is still around, then.” His voice indicated worry, not disgust. That had always been his way. He never cared what she did. He only wanted her safe.
“Absolutely. And she has big plans.”
“Tell me everything.”
She laughed. They had so much to say to one another. “Buy me a Gunter ice, and I will.”
They talked late into the night. Indeed, she didn’t even spend the night at her home for fear of her father’s fury, but slept in her brother’s tiny flat while he curled up on the floor.
He escorted her home when the dawn was just breaking, and he waited outside her door as she bathed and dressed for her wedding.
She would have preferred that he walk her down the aisle, but in this, her father’s determination to uphold his image prevailed.
It seemed he had also spent the night elsewhere but appeared at the church door dressed and moderately sober.
He spoke not one word to her or her brother, and she said not one thing to him.
What was there to say? He was as unimportant to her now as an old pair of shoes.
She kissed her brother and waited for the music to begin.
Her true friends were Betty’s companions—Nanny, Mrs. Sundy, and Madame Florina.
But they could not serve as her attendants, so Aunt Esmee walked ahead of her as bridesmaid, and Janelle waited for her new life to begin.
But in that moment before she walked down the aisle, her father had one last thing to growl at her.
“You’ll be a countess because of me. Remember that, girl. I did this for you.”
“You’ve never done anything for me,” she said.
“Only to me for your own purpose. And I shall make sure that you never do such a thing to my children. And if you disown Alex, I’ll disown you.
Everyone will know that you are banished from the Earl and Countess of Atterbury’s estate like bad meat.
” She paused a moment so her next words could really sink in. “Remember that, Father.”
Then she began their walk down the aisle.