Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ada was preoccupied with her thoughts as she started down the stairs the next morning.
She knew she needed to talk to Jonny. She didn’t like leaving things hanging, uncertain, and whatever she had with him was just that.
She just wished that she knew what to expect from him, knew what options existed between them.
Did she even want anything from him? Every time she tried to keep herself from him, she was drawn back again and again, and he had disappointed her every single time.
It was confounding.
The upstairs landing had been rather quiet this morning, she noted as she reached the bottom of the stairs, where servants were bustling to and fro, carrying flower arrangements and furniture.
Was her mother hosting some kind of party?
Ada hoped not. She did her best to avoid most parties her parents wanted to attend, and it was difficult to make excuses when they were at her home.
“Mother?” she called out.
“In here!” came her mother’s voice, filled with excitement and, if Ada was correct, a bit of trepidation.
Ada pushed open the dining room door, coming to an abrupt halt when she saw who was within the room.
The first person she saw was a rather ill-at-ease David. Next to him was his mother, his father on her other side. They stood when Ada entered, her parents looking at her with expressions she assumed were meant to warn her not to do what every instinct inside her was telling her to do – flee.
“Good morning,” she said cautiously.
“Good morning, Ada,” David said, stepping forward, although Ada was fairly certain she had seen his mother poke him in the side first.
“What a surprise to have you visit so early in the morning,” she said, taking her own place between her parents, feeling rather trapped with one of them on each side of her. She lifted the cup of tea that had been placed before her to her lips.
“Today is a special occasion,” her mother said with a smile that appeared to be rather forced. “We have some news.”
“You will be married today,” her father said abruptly, causing Ada to spit out her tea.
“Ada!” her mother chastised, but Ada didn’t care about her lapse in manners, intentional or not.
“I will be what?”
“I know it is rather unconventional,” her mother said with a slight wince, “but it is not as though we haven’t known that this was coming for some time.
Now would be a very prudent time to marry, and with the Carters’ agreement, your father secured a common license so we do not have to wait for the banns.
You are to be married in a few hours, so eat quickly as we need to get you dressed. ”
Ada looked across the table at David incredulously, ignoring their parents for a moment.
“Do you want this?” she asked him, causing her mother to suck in a breath.
“Of course,” he said, looking even queasier, if that were possible.
“David,” Ada said, leaning forward, “we both know that neither of us wants to marry the other. Why are we doing as they tell us to do?”
“Now, that is quite enough,” David’s father said, but Ada didn’t let up her insistent stare, even though David refused to meet her eyes.
Finally, he sighed, looking to his parents before he turned to her.
“There is no point in keeping up this pretense. It is true that Ada and I have no wish to marry one another. But Ada, it doesn’t matter.
For both establishments to be successful, we need each other.
We need your family’s connections, and your family needs our legitimacy. ”
“Many a company has successfully partnered without marriage,” she said through gritted teeth.
David’s father cleared his throat.
“We decided that the marriage would show a united front. Some of our customers have had doubts about our ability to work together, given past volatility in our relationship. This would show that we have mended any previous concerns between us.”
Ada looked from her mother to her father, to David’s parents. All of them were truly willing to sacrifice their children’s wants so that the business would do well?
“It also secures the succession of our company,” her father continued. “I have no sons of my own, so this will ensure that I have someone to help me with it in the future.”
Ada nodded quickly. That had always been her parents’ greatest concern. That they didn’t have a son. She should have been that boy, but here she was. A pawn.
“Well,” she said, placing her hands on the table, standing. “I appreciate all of this collusion without my agreement, but I decline. Unfortunately for you, you cannot force me to marry against my will.”
Her father placed his head in his hands while Mr. Carter stared at her grimly.
“I’m afraid that I cannot allow you to decline.”
“And just why not?”
“Because,” Carter said smugly, “if you do not go along with this, then you will leave me with no choice.”
“Please,” Ada said, lifting a hand outward. “Tell me what you are threatening.”
“I will tell the police that you were the one who shot Barker Blackwood.”
It seemed all the air was sucked out of the room as Ada felt all eyes turn on her. She didn’t back down, meeting their gazes one at a time, finding no one was surprised. So, they had all been discussing this behind her back — how to ensure her compliance.
“And just why,” she said through gritted teeth, “would you think that I shot Barker Blackwood? That is absolutely ridiculous!”
“Inspector Finch came to us to match the gun and ammo,” her father said in a low voice. “I knew immediately where those bullets had come from. Combine that with where your friends were that night…” He shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard to determine.” He met her gaze. “I trained you well. Too well.”
“Even if it was my gun, that doesn’t mean I shot it,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest before looking at her father. How could he have told Carter what he had deduced? “Are you truly going to allow him to threaten to turn your daughter over to the police?”
“If you shot a man, Ada…” her father said, before shaking his head. “There’s nothing I can do. I know that your friends are involved in this. I told you that you should distance yourself from them.”
Her mother stood, looking at her imploringly. “You have to do this, Ada,” she said before her voice dropped to a whisper. “You don’t have much of a choice. It could ruin your life… and your friends’ as well.”
Ada’s stomach dropped, swirling, sinking as the fight began to dissipate, despair taking its place. She thought desperately, but the more she did, the more she continued to come to the same conclusion. Her mother was right. She couldn’t put anyone at risk.
She only had one option.
And all she could think about was Jonny.
“I will go get dressed,” she said. “I’m not hungry anyway.”
Before anyone could stop her, she ran from the table and up the stairs. If nothing else, she had to explain, so that at least he knew what was happening, what he had meant to her.
For as much as she had tried to deny it, most especially to herself, she wasn’t just falling for him.
She already had.
Jonny looked up from his desk as a boy came running into the shipping office.
“What’s this?” he asked as the boy handed him a folded piece of paper.
“Don’t know.” The boy shrugged, holding out his hand. Jonny searched his pocket for a coin but didn’t give it to him quite yet.
“Who’s it from?”
“A lady,” he said. “Told me to give it to you. That’s all I got.”
“Fine,” Jonny said, dropping the coin into the boy’s hand before tearing open the paper. His eyes skimmed the words, his heart dropping the further he got through it.
Jonny,
I’m sorry to do this in writing, but I don’t have much choice, as I cannot escape this house.
Not before my fate is sealed. My parents and the Carters know the truth about what happened to Blackwood and they are using it to force me into marriage to David.
I need you to know that I don’t want this.
I don’t choose this. But if I do not follow through, the Carters will make the secret known and I fear that they will bring down everyone else who was involved with me.
I will always treasure our time together.
Be the man you truly are, deep within. The man you always were before Blackwood tried to take it from you.
That was the man I was falling in love with.
Yours,
Ada
The letter fell from his fingers as he stood in shocked silence.
He had told her to marry Carter, time and again, and yet, now that it was actually coming to be, he had never known such despair. He stumbled backward, reaching an arm out to hold himself up on his desk as he struggled not to be sick.
It would be one thing if she had chosen this, but to know that she was being forced into it….
“Jonny? All well?”
He looked up to find Fawkes walking toward him, and he quickly straightened.
“It’s… I received a message that is… troubling.”
“Oh? Is everything well with your family?”
“Not entirely.”
He expected Fawkes to tell him to leave it be, to put it aside and focus on his work.
Which is why he couldn’t have been more surprised when Fawkes pressed his lips together and nodded toward him. “Go do what you can. I’ll look after your responsibilities.”
Jonny’s lips parted. “That is… generous, but I cannot just leave. I do need this job.”
“Your job will be waiting for you. If you stand here looking as you do, you will scare off any customers. Go.”
“Thank you,” Jonny breathed, still more shocked than he could put into words.
He didn’t know where he was going when he stepped through the doors of the shipping office and into the weak sun filtering through the clouds.
He wouldn’t get anywhere if he went directly to Ada.
Even if he was allowed through the front doors, what was he going to do?
Demand that she put a stop to the wedding?
From the sounds of it, she had no say in it anyway.
He ran his hands through his hair as he realized there was only one option.
It was one he was not entirely pleased with, for it meant he had to do something that he hated doing, with every part of his soul.
He was going to ask for help.
He switched directions, turning from the docks toward Tommy’s blacksmith shop. It was close to where they practiced, and his friend was bound to be there at this time of day.
When he burst through the door into the well-organized shop, the song Tommy was cheerfully singing came to an abrupt stop at the interruption.
“Jonny,” Tommy said, blinking at him, before exchanging a glance with Minnie, who was on the other side of the room, organizing tools. “What are you doing here at this time of day?”
“Tom,” Jonny said, breathing hard from his sprint. “I need your help.”
Tommy’s lips turned into one of the largest grins Jonny had ever seen on him, which was saying something, for Tommy always had a jovial expression on his face.
“Why, Jonny,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that for a very long time. Now, what do you need us to do?”