Chapter 14 #2
Philip rolled his eyes and then, most surprisingly, leaned in and kissed Iris on the cheek. She widened her eyes in shock, and she caught Percy watching with keen interest. Then, he left them, and Iris was still frowning at how kind he was treating her.
What he said to me earlier… he meant it.
“So, now that the brute has gone, tell me true…” Percy leaned across the table. “How is this marriage, really?” He pumped his eyebrows, and Iris could not help but laugh.
“I told you already,” she said with a raised eyebrow in warning. “And from that, I will not budge.”
“Unfair!”
“But perhaps…” She looked about the back garden. “Perhaps a walk will loosen my tongue? I am yet to explore the estate, and I have a sense that you would make a perfect guide.”
Percy jumped to his feet. “You are right about that. Oh!” His eyes widened. “I take you have yet to explore the forest. The swimming hole?”
“I didn’t know there was one.”
“Let us not waste time.” He offered her an arm to link, and she took it gratefully. “After you.”
They walked together from the back garden and into the surrounding grounds of the estate. It was mostly flat farmland at first but on the horizon was a densely packed forest. That was their destination.
On the way, Iris told Percy of how she had come to marry Philip. She was sure not to talk down about Robert – even when she explained the scandal to him – and she was just as sure not to tell him of the difficulties concerning her first few days of marriage.
Mostly, she was just glad to have someone to speak to of Philip, a chance to get a better picture of who he was as a person and how she might better understand him and how she should act.
“He has a temper,” Percy agreed with humor. “But most of it is for show.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he is not the grump he pretends,” Percy laughed.
“Most of the way he acts is born from expectation. He has been the head of this house since he was sixteen, and with that comes pressure. And his father…” Percy shook his head.
“I did not know the man, but Philip has told me how strict he was. Not in a malevolent way, just the way that dukes so often are. He wants to do right by him,” he continued.
“And the softer side of him is at constant war with this.”
“I think I understand…”
“Trust me,” Percy told her. “Whenever he gets into a temper or acts as if the sky is falling, he’s as unsure of himself as you probably are of him.
But he always means well…” He smiled at what looked like memory, one which told of his feelings about Philip.
“And he will always apologize or admit fault if he goes too far.”
“He can be rather stubborn.”
“Oh yes!” Percy laughed. “Without a doubt.”
It all made perfect sense, and it paired perfectly with the man she was beginning to know. Philip had never been cruel to her, and where the things he said were sometimes confused, she could see how this was just him coming to terms with what he wanted and what he thought he should do.
As I always suspected, there is more to him than was first there. And truly, now I can’t wait to find out more.
They soon reached the forest and started through its brush. It was a wary journey, filled with fallen trees and overgrown bushes. But fifteen minutes later, they came to a clearing that had a deep pond at its center.
“Shall we…” Percy pumped his arms and pretended to dive in.
“You can.” She crossed her arms. “But you have lost your mind if you think I am joining you.”
They spent some time around the pond, the conversation simple and carefree. Mostly, it was Iris telling Percy of her own childhood, how hard it was, how overprotected she had been, and how her sisters had helped raise her with her mother. And her brother, of course.
But soon she found the conversation veering back to Percy and where she wasn’t sure if she should ask, for that might break Philip’s trust, she was also desperate to know.
“Percy,” she began carefully. “Might I ask about…” She hesitated. “And please, tell me if I go too far. But I was wondering… it is just that… Philip has not told me…”
“You want to know where in the name of all things did I come from?” he finished for her with a laugh.
She grimaced. “If it is not too personal.”
“It is perfectly fine,” he assured her. “And you should know. You are a part of the family, after all.”
Iris could not help but smile at that. I am… a part of this family. My family, as it is.
“You know that I am Philip’s half-brother?” he started.
She considered. “I… I assumed as much, yes.”
He nodded. “It is a touchy subject for Philip, and for good reason. My mother met my father when she was still married to Philip’s, just as she fell pregnant with me at the same time. Naturally, this caused a rift between Philip and our mother, and I don’t think he ever really forgave her.”
“Oh…”
“Which he hates himself for,” Percy noted.
“She died two years after having me, by which point Philip’s father had passed away.
And though he thought it was the right thing to spurn her for what she had done, as is the way with Philip, he also knew he should forgive her.
And I like to think he wanted to, hating himself that he never got the chance. ”
“That’s terrible,” she said with a gasp, her heart breaking at the thought. How strong Philip was, how confident and self-assured, to think that he had such sadness in his heart… it is no wonder he acts the way he does.
“It is,” Percy agreed. “And I like to think that is why he cared for me the way he did. I was two when our mother died, and where most would see it as a chance to spurn me, to turn their back and perhaps even send me away, Philip would not hear of it.” A smile touched his eyes.
“He was good to me. Better than he ever had to be, and for that I will always be grateful.”
“I can see how much he loves you.”
He laughed softly. “No easy thing, either. You can imagine the outrage that my birth caused, and how it threatened to undo all the work Philip’s father had done to secure the prestige of their name.
Most in Philip’s position would have erred on the side of caution and denounced me. But that was never Philip.”
Iris considered that a moment.
Mostly, she thought about the way Philip had grown angry when she’d visited the village, and what he had said of them. He seemed to think they were nowhere near as kind as she thought, and now she wondered how they had acted when they’d learned of Philip’s birth.
It was no wonder he felt that way. And it was no wonder he had been so furious with her.
Iris grimaced at the thought, feeling like an utter fool. Perhaps not her fault entirely, but it wasn’t Philip’s either.
“And that’s about all of it,” Percy sighed and clapped his hands together. “My wretched past and my brother, the white knight.” He laughed. “All that is to say that he isn’t nearly as bad as most seem to think.”
“No,” Iris agreed. “Not at all.”
By that point night had come, and with it so had darkness.
It started slowly, the sun setting so the sky changed from blue to light purple and then black. Iris and Percy found themselves in the forest when it was so dark that Iris could hardly see more than a foot in front of her.
“This is not good,” she winced as she tripped on a fallen branch, stumbled, and scraped her face against a stick.
“Nonsense,” Percy laughed. He kept one arm linked through her own as he guided her. “I grew up here. I could walk this forest with my eyes closed.”
“We practically are.”
He laughed further. “My point proven exactly!”
They were forced to work slowly. One step at a time. And more than once, a stray branch caught on Iris’ dress and scratched her exposed skin. She was certain she looked a fright, and was it not for Percy she might have gotten lost in the forest, doomed to stay there until the next morning.
But Percy was cheerful. He joked often. And in less than thirty minutes they were breeching the forest so the moon above shone down on them and they could see the manor in the distance.
“And just in time for supper,” he cheered. “Shall we race?”
“You better not!” she warned him.
He just laughed and continued to lead her home. And it was home too. For a week now, Iris felt out of place, a stranger in the manor that she worried would never feel as if she belonged. But today had changed everything and for the first time she was looking forward to what tomorrow would bring.
Just as she was looking forward to seeing Philip. As he was surely looking forward to seeing her.