Chapter Fifteen
Thornton Tower
“It’s not possible! How can he do this to me?”
Zora wasn’t simply weeping. She was hysterical.
Edmund didn’t seem to have the power to calm his daughter, who was positively distraught.
He’d come bearing Patrick de Wolfe’s missive announcing the marriage of Titus and inviting the House of de Allery to a wedding feast, but Zora hadn’t heard that part of it.
As soon as Edmund read the part in the missive about Titus being married, Zora had gone into fits.
Now, Edmund stood in his daughter’s bedchamber, watching her go through the throes of grief.
She’d been standing in his solar when he’d told her of de Wolfe’s missive, but hearing that Titus had married had sent her running to her chamber with Edmund shuffling after her.
Now, he was watching her break her pretty things and tear her linens off her bed as she threw a raging tantrum.
“Zora, dearest,” Edmund said in a tone tainted with desperation. “Please compose yourself. You are going to hurt yourself!”
“I don’t care!” Zora screamed. “How could they humiliate me so? I am to be embarrassed for all to know!”
Edmund had to duck when a cup came sailing past his head. “Be reasonable,” he pleaded. “We hoped for a betrothal, my dearest. We spoke to Lord Berwick, and he told us he would speak with Titus, but Titus must have already been betrothed and his father was unaware.”
Zora turned to her father, hands extended like claws. “How could Berwick not know this his own son was betrothed?” she shouted. “Berwick promised that I would be Titus’ wife! He has gone back on his word!”
Edmund shook his head. “We tried to make it so,” he said. “I tried to make it so. I tried to do everything I could, but it was not enough. Titus is married, and all of the screaming in the world will not change that.”
That brought a primal scream from Zora’s lips and she rushed to her bed, pulling at the posters and rocking them so hard that the frame started to crack.
When it didn’t break, she climbed onto the bed and started jumping on it, kicking at the posts and losing her balance.
Then she screamed louder when she fell off the bed.
Edmund sighed heavily and dared to move closer.
“Lord Berwick did not give us his word, Zora,” he said.
“I wanted you to marry into the family as much as anyone, but even I know the man did not give us his word. There was nothing written that we could hold him to. Even so, Titus is married and there is nothing we can do. We cannot break the marriage up, so have your cry and be done with it.”
Zora was still sitting on the floor, her dark hair askew. She had paused momentarily in her tantrum, but it was only to catch her breath. She still had plenty of anger left to display.
“It’s not fair,” she said, real tears starting to form. “I knew Titus when I fostered at Roxburgh. He was sweet on me, I know it.”
“Then why has he never come to Thornton Tower to see you?”
Zora looked at her father in outrage. “Do you not support me in this?” she cried. “Do you not see that I have been wronged?”
Edmund simply lifted his shoulders. “I am sorry you are disappointed, my dearest, but there are other men out there who would be happy to have you as their wife,” he said.
“Men who can have your dowry, who will become lord of Thornton Tower when I am gone. You must think of the others out there who would be lucky to have you. In fact, Lord Berwick has invited us to Titus’ wedding feast. Think of the fine young men who will be there. They will be yours for the picking!”
Zora simply roared in response, a sound that came from what was left of her soul. That gutless thing deep inside her that was filled with selfish ambition.
“I’ll go to the feast and slit the throat of Titus’ wife,” she declared. “Whom did he marry? Does the missive say?”
Edmund still had the announcement in his hand. He looked at it, reading through it. “He married Lady Katiana de Edington,” he said. Then he looked at his daughter, shocked. “My God… He married Ansel’s sister.”
Zora suddenly lurched to her knees. “Katiana?” she repeated. “I know of her! I met her at several of the de Wolfe feasts back when we both fostered!”
Edmund nodded. “I do not know her,” he said.
“But her father must have solicited the betrothal from Berwick. He is allied with the man like we are. He must have approached Titus about it, because surely his father knew nothing. He would have said something if he had. Ansel has never mentioned it, either.”
Zora grunted as she climbed to her feet. “Ansel hates de Wolfe,” she muttered. “He hates the entire family.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because if he knew about a de Wolfe betrothal, he would have said something,” Zora said, exhausted from her outburst. “He probably would not have allowed his father to settle the contract had he known.”
Edmund nodded faintly. “Ansel tries to control everything around him,” he said wearily. “Even his father. I’m sure even his sister.”
Zora plopped onto her bed, despondent. “This isn’t fair, Papa,” she said. “Titus was meant for me.”
Edmund didn’t know what more he could say to her about it. “There is nothing we can do,” he said quietly. “It is over. We must think of someone else. As much as I hate to say it, would you consider Ansel?”
Zora scowled. “Him?” she sneered. “I cannot stand him. He’s rude and unhandsome, and he would make a terrible husband.”
“He would bring the de Edington fortune with him.”
“I have more money than he does.”
“True,” Edmund said, scratching his head. “He’s gone home to see to his dying father, and I do not know when he will return, if he will return, but given Titus de Wolfe has married his sister, I am certain he has been invited to the wedding feast. We shall see him there.”
Zora looked at him. “I do not care if I see him there,” she said. “And who says that I am going? It should be my wedding feast.”
“And yet it is not,” Edmund said, rather firmly.
“Zora, I realize you are disappointed, but I told you that all the screaming in the world will not change things. Because we wish to maintain a good alliance with de Wolfe and show there are no hard feelings, we will attend the wedding feast and use it as an opportunity to find you a young man you will want to marry.”
Zora hung her head. “Katiana,” she muttered. “Katiana. She was a little lass, plain, and without spirit. How could Titus choose her over me? I do not understand.”
Edmund scratched his head. “It does not matter,” he said. “We will attend the feast and you can see for yourself why he chose her. Mayhap he has a soft spot for plain lasses with no spirit. She is Ansel’s sister, so it is possible she is just as ambitious and conniving as he is.”
“She stole what was mine.”
“I will not argue this with you any longer,” Edmund said, becoming irritated.
“We tried to force a betrothal, but we were simply too late. We should have started long ago because, clearly, de Edington has bested us. He, too, had a marriageable daughter, and he managed to capture Titus de Wolfe. But there are many other de Wolfe males, and that is what we shall do when we go to Berwick for the feast. We shall make a list and I will solicit young men for your review. Titus was never good enough for you, Zora. You deserve an heir, not a fourth son.”
Zora didn’t say anything. She was too disappointed, too angry. Edmund had nothing more to say to her, so he wandered from her bedchamber, leaving his daughter sitting there to stew.
And plot.
Perhaps Titus wasn’t good enough for her, but that was whom she wanted. Ever since her father had discussed it with Lord Berwick, she had her heart set on it. Set on a man she hadn’t seen in many years, but that wasn’t the point. Zora always got what Zora wanted.
Except this time.
And she wasn’t going to stand for it.
She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to make Titus de Wolfe pay, but somehow, she was going to figure it out.
Perhaps at the wedding feast, she could ensure his wife was found in a compromising position.
It would be enough to ruin any newlywed dreams. Or perhaps she would accidentally set the woman’s hair on fire.
She’d hardly had any contact with Katiana de Edington back in the days when they both fostered at de Wolfe properties, but that didn’t matter.
Now, she had a vendetta against a woman she hadn’t seen in at least twenty years.
No de Edington bitch was going to usurp her place beside Titus.
They were all going to pay.