Chapter 31
It was the crash that Isabel first heard where she sat in the Eastwynd library.
She was reading a confusing letter from Emilia right then, how her friend was urging her to listen to Thomas––almost like Emilia had already known what was happening. Which wasn’t possible, because no one had said anything about what happened at the ball three nights ago.
Maybe I’ve misunderstood her. Or she misunderstood… something?
But Isabel forgot all about it when there was a loud bang and crash, heavy objects colliding against one another. She jumped at the sound. Heart pounding, she heard a cacophony of noise follow and immediately hurried toward the front hall to see what on earth might be happening.
Voices were a raging rumble until she neared, finally able to start sorting out the noise.
“You’re a liar!”
“Get your hands off me! Someone help! Unhand me!”
There was a growling tussle and then glass shattered loudly, making her instinctively duck. She passed a servant doing the same thing in the hall. After ushering the girl away, Isabel hurried to the drawing room door––
The door was gone.
Rather, part of it was still hanging on a single hinge. The rest was gone. Splinters streamed into the room, all scattered about. She supposed that was the first of the large noises. As for the glass…
“Oh, Thomas!” she cried as she watched her brother lift a vase with both hands.
It wasn’t a particularly expensive or important vase.
Not that she knew of, at least. But the household had brought her fresh flowers the day after their arrival in that vase and she had grown rather fond of it.
A simple white porcelain covered in pink streams that looked like ribbons was too lovely to let anything happen to it.
Until Thomas lifted it over his head and threw it across the room.
Isabel gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. Words left her. Unable to believe what she had just seen, she stood there even as her brother dove further into the room.
Movement drew her closer. She tiptoed closer, bewildered over what could be happening. An intruder? Why weren’t the servants doing anything?
“Unhand me, you brute!” her brother snarled.
“Ow!” Shouted another voice she knew too well. It left her frozen in place. “Did you just bite me?”
“So what if I did?”
Sebastian’s growl sent shivers through Isabel’s body from the top of her head to the bottom of her toes. She swallowed and peeked in around the ruined door to see that her imagination wasn’t getting too carried away. Part of her wished that was the case.
But it really was him.
What is Sebastian doing?
“You’ll pay for that,” her husband was saying. “For everything you have done!”
“I haven’t done anything. You’re the problem here,” Thomas sneered. He grasped another object––this time a figurine of a cherub from the fireplace mantle––and flung it right at Sebastian.
Isabel couldn’t help but gasp in horror.
It was a very heavy sort of figurine, and too big to be easily deflected.
She couldn’t breathe even when she watched Sebastian move back in time to avoid––he honestly was swift on his feet.
However, she still caught sight of his ripped sleeve.
There was a red spot like blood on his left forearm.
“What are you doing, hiding?” Sebastian shot at him. “That is all you know how to do! Hide behind glass and lies!”
“O-ho, you dare?” Thomas snapped.
“Fight me like a real man,” her husband said with a snarl, making her think greatly of a beast right then. A fierce creature with a fury like that which she had never seen before.
It twisted her heart right then as she realized that this had come to mind.
That she had fought so hard to show her husband she didn’t see him like that, even though half of London used that name behind his back.
Her insides twisted. And yet was she supposed to feel for him?
Now, after all that had happened? After what he had done to her?
Last night was the first night I didn’t fall asleep from exhausting myself of my tears. I want to be rid of him. To be free.
Even as she had that thought, however, Isabel knew she couldn’t let this carry on. She couldn’t let the men fight. They were adults and they were not going to ruin her favorite drawing room any more than they already had done.
“Stop it!” Isabel cried.
Sebastian jerked back, bumping into the window and curtains as he looked up her way. At once his hands had loosened from their fists to drop down at his side, looking up at her.
The expression nearly made her want to burst into tears. So Isabel looked away as Thomas was starting toward him. “Thomas, I said, stop!”
“Isabel!” He huffed and turned slightly toward her while keeping his hands tight together like he was ready to enter a ring and box. “You shouldn’t be here. This isn’t your business. Let me handle this for you.”
“You’re done,” Sebastian told him.
A crude laugh escaped her brother. “You dare?”
“I mean it, Thomas!” Isabel ordered, feeling as though the world was imploding on itself. She couldn’t understand how the men were just about to fight one another. What had gotten into them?
That’s only the first of countless questions. Like when did Sebastian arrive? Why is he even here?
Seeing her brother wasn’t letting up, Isabel stormed through the room––barely avoiding broken glass––and moved in between them. She lifted her hands to both men’s faces. The sudden feeling of being a dear caught on a hunt washed over her, making her heart pound like crazy.
“Isabel, please.” Sebastian’s voice was quiet but rough. “Perhaps it is best if you take a step back.”
“No. No, because you are not going to fight someone much less experienced than you here,” Isabel added with a pointed look. He had the decency to look a little abashed. “You would seriously injure Thomas and we both know it.”
Except for Thomas, apparently. “What?” He argued. “I would do just fine. Move out of the way, sister. I told you what I would do. And my job as your brother starts with taking care of your husband.”
She whipped her head around to face him. “By breaking everything in my house? I don’t think so.”
His mouth dropped open like he was ready to argue. But then he glanced over his shoulder and his gaze caught on the nearby shattered glass. “Ah. It’s not that bad. We’ll be fine. Just give me a swing at him. I can prove to you––”
Overwhelmed with frustration and confusion and hurt, Isabel could feel her body shaking. But she didn’t let it stop her from interrupting to take charge of the room.
“No. You’re both stopping. You, you’re leaving,” she told her husband and then back to Thomas to say, “And you are personally cleaning up this room.”
“I’m not leaving,” Sebastian said as she started to depart. “Isabel, please! You must hear me out.”
Scoffing, Thomas said, “No, she’s not. There’s nothing you could say to fix any of this. You ruined any future you had with Isabel. You’re nothing but a liar and cheat, so you should leave at once.”
“This isn’t your house.”
Isabel’s hands balled into fists as she considered punching both of them. Would it hurt them at all? Or would it just hurt her?
“Stop fighting already!”
“He lied to you!” Sebastian thundered, shouting in a way to her like he never had before. The whole room seemed to shake. It left her shocked as she stared. “Thomas lied! And he tricked us.”
Part of Isabel dimly realized he wasn’t angry at her. Not exactly. He was angry about…
Thomas laughed and moved in front of him. “Don’t listen to a word he says. You can’t trust him. Remember what you saw in the conservatory? Remember that, Isabel?”
As her brother talked and tried to get her attention, reminding her of every little thing that was wrong with her husband, Isabel couldn’t help but note Sebastian wasn’t defending himself.
Was it because everything was true? She knew some of it was…
And yet he wasn’t trying to convince her in the same way that Thomas was vying for her attention.
Instead, Sebastian was focused back on her brother, fuming.
Why isn’t he saying anything?
“Thomas?” Isabel managed to say faintly.
“Yes, dear sister? Shall I have him tossed out?”
She tried to shake her head but couldn’t seem to move her body just yet. It didn’t feel like hers. Nothing felt real. It was all wrong. There was too much going on and she didn’t know what to make of it, not in this noise.
So she told him, “Do kindly shut up.”
A blustery sound escaped him. “Isabel! Why?”
“Because you’ve said enough.” Slowly she managed to crane her neck back to face him.
Thomas was red in the face, awfully put out.
It reminded her of the day in court where he attempted to justify every wrong thing he had done.
Her stomach grew queasy and she had to take a step back toward a chair.
Not ready to sit down just yet, but to have something to hold on to.
Thomas never moved but Sebastian did, taking a step in her direction before dropping his hand like he might have reached for her.
Like he was trying to protect her.
Letting a shaky breath escape, Isabel gathered her courage. “You may speak after Sebastian has said what he wishes. Sebastian?”
“You would let him––”
“If you cannot be quiet, then I will ask you to leave,” she snapped.
He jerked back in surprise and stared at her through wide eyes. But Thomas was silent, sullenly crossing his arms, as he turned to glare over at Sebastian.
Turning to her husband as well, Isabel nodded. “Please explain yourself.”
“I’m sorry,” were the first words Sebastian said to her.
“I should have been more careful and attentive to you. If you wish me to leave, I shall. But first, you must know that I don’t know the woman who thrust herself at me during the ball.
What you witnessed was a mistake. It wasn’t real.
If anything, it was a sour attempt to fabricate a lie. ”
Thomas scoffed. “Impossible.”
“It is unlikely,” Isabel murmured. She rested a hand over her stomach, trying to stay composed. Trying not to get her hopes up. “Can you prove it?”
“I can.”
Thomas grumbled as Sebastian paused to catch a droplet of blood from his knuckles. Once they were wrapped in his kerchief, he reached for a paper in his waistcoat that was neatly folded. “It was all a ploy to turn you… to turn us against one another.”
Isabel reached for the offered paper as Thomas let out a squawk. “It’s not your turn,” she reminded him.
“He is lying. It is all he knows what to do. Don’t read it, Isabel. It’ll ruin everything.”
“Will it ruin everything for me or will it ruin everything for you?” She felt the need to ask. There was a flash of guilt in Thomas’s eyes that left a bitter taste in her mouth. She glanced at Sebastian’s somber expression before opening the paper.
Only two lines were written out in a pretty scrawl. A woman’s handwriting. It was an apology for playacting that wasn’t supposed to hurt another a woman, only she had been duped into it. Signed… by Thomas’s mistress.
“I found her this morning,” Sebastian said when she looked up in confusion. “She confirmed she was led to believe it was a trick. Playacting. She wishes for a life on the stage. Thomas paid her a hundred pounds for it.”
Half of what I gave him just the other week. Oh dear. How… How could he? How could I?
Isabel dropped the paper. She didn’t need to read it again as the truth of it slowly sank in. Sebastian hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t had another woman. It was all a trick from her very own brother, the one whom she had slowly begun to agree to help.
“Why?” she asked, unable to keep the emotion from her voice.
Thomas’s anger shifted as he stepped back, uncomfortable by the visibility of her tears. His expression twisted when he glanced at Sebastian before slowly shifting into a slump.
Don’t look at him. Thomas, look me in the eye. Tell me what you did! I will hear it from your own lips. Sebastian and you are not in control here. It is me. Tell me.
“I didn’t… I wasn’t trying to hurt you.” His excuses only grew weaker. “I needed you, Isabel. You have everything now. Why couldn’t you simply share?”
“I would have if you had been truthful with me.” Seeing more clearly than she had in days, she realized, “You toyed with me. You mocked my husband. And you lied to Emilia as well, didn’t you?
” When he cringed, she had her answer. Overwhelming emotions collided within her.
All she wanted to do was break down and cry over how poorly she had been used.
Not yet.
Isabel forced her chin up. Despite the heartbreak, she managed to tell Thomas clearly, “This was your second chance that you have ruined. For what you have done, you have now lost me forever.”
“Oh, Isabel, but…”
There would be no standing down. “You wanted to ruin me again. But I will not bow this time. We are done, Thomas. Do what you will, but I will have no part of it. I never want to see you again. Give him what he deserves, Sebastian, for all I care. I simply do not wish to watch.”
“Isabel!”
Striding from the room with her head held high, Isabel went to clear her tears and find a quieter place to breathe. There would be much to clean up soon, but she needed some time to herself first. For it felt like she had lost her entire world, and it seemed unlikely she would ever recover.