Chapter 23
She should never have come with him. Hope knew the moment she saw his father’s thunderous face, and the pinched mouth belonging to his mother, that things might have gone a lot better for Gus if she’d stayed away.
She’d seen her own parents angry, her father with a temper that she’d not believed anyone could outdo, but Gus’s parents, especially his mother, were almost hysterical.
‘This, this wench is trying to ruin you, Gus! Don’t you see?’ his mother said.
‘You don’t speak about the woman I love like that!’ he yelled back, his face so red Hope thought he looked like he might explode.
‘As I see it,’ his father said, much more calmly from the other side of the room, ‘you have one option.’
Hope reached for Gus, wanting him to stay calm, to listen to what his father had to say. They could walk out through that door and say what they liked to each other, but if they were in his father’s house, she knew the only way he’d respect them was if they listened.
Gus looked to her, and she gave him a faint smile, hoping he knew how much she appreciated his defence of her. If he wanted to show her how much he loved her, then he’d certainly done it.
‘You destroy all evidence of your absinthe production, and you cease supply immediately,’ his father said. ‘The authorities will find nothing if one of your clients ever gives your name in connection with the substance, and we can pretend this never happened. Chalk it up to a youthful mistake.’
‘You call my business endeavour a youthful mistake?’ Gus asked.
‘We all know the prohibition of absinthe is an overreaction by our government, when it’s a drink that is no more dangerous than the gin produced by our family!
I’m filling a need, and that need is proving to be extremely profitable.
I thought you, of all people, might applaud my business acumen. ’
Hope held her tongue, even though there was so much she’d like to say. But Gus was right. Everything he’d said was true, and she needed to sit quietly and support him.
‘Our family will not be involved in any illegal activity, and that is final!’ his father boomed, the entire room seeming to reverberate with his voice. ‘Business acumen would have been keeping your head down and doing the job I’ve employed you to do!’
But his mother’s words, although quietly spoken, were far more hurtful than anything his father could have yelled.
‘Son, this isn’t who you are,’ she said. ‘If you weren’t keeping such unsavoury company, if you’d only met a nice girl from within our—’
‘A nice girl?’ Gus exploded, making his father’s outburst seem tame.
‘Are you even looking at the beautiful woman standing beside me? And she has a name, Maman. Her name is Hope, and whether you like it or not, she is the woman I have chosen. Hope is the woman who will be your daughter-in-law, whether you like it or not, and I will not hear another word said against her!’
‘Gus,’ his mother placated. ‘Please, she clearly has you in her grip and—’
‘Hope carries my child. So say what you will, but nothing is going to part us. Nothing.’
Gus’s breath was ragged, his chest rapidly rising and falling, and Hope’s heart was racing as she looked around the room: at the despair on his mother’s face, at the rage on Gus’s and the coldness of his father’s. This was not how she’d wanted them to find out she was expecting.
‘You have a week,’ his father said. ‘A week to decide whether you will stay in our family business or face the consequences of your illegal enterprise.’
Hope took Gus’s hand and led him away before he could say something he regretted, and if there was one silver lining to her going with him to see his parents, it was that she had been there to see how truly awful they were.
She’d thought her own father a monster, but it turned out that Gus’s was, too. He might not hit them, but he was a monster, nonetheless.
Two days later, Hope saw first hand just what a monster Gus’s father truly was.
The barn had been destroyed. It was as if wild animals had been let loose, knocking glass bottles from benches, smashing holes through pieces of equipment that Gus had taken such pride in.
Even the painting of the fairy that she’d worked on for countless nights while Gus had laboured well into the dark had been ripped from the wall, the precious canvas sliced clean down the middle.
Everything they’d worked so hard for was gone.
‘Who?’ she cried. ‘Who would do this?’
‘There’s only one person who would do this, Hope,’ he said, as she saw him cry for
the very first time, tears coursing down his cheeks. ‘My father.’
‘But why? Why would he destroy everything? How could he do this to you?’ To us?
‘Because he can,’ Gus said. ‘He wants me to see what he’s capable of.’ He shook his head, still looking around, his face showing his anguish.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’ Hope wrapped her arms around him, holding him until his body began to soften, her cheek to his chest. Her heart felt like it was going to break as she sensed a shudder of emotion pass through him, before he cleared his throat and held her tight.
‘What does he want?’ she asked, as she pulled away enough so that she could gaze up at him.
‘He wants us to stop what we’re doing,’ Gus said. ‘He wants me to fall back in line and work for him, to do what he tells me to, and I’m afraid that if I don’t…’
Hope stared at his face, waiting. ‘If you don’t, what?’ she asked, her breath catching in her throat as she wondered what he was about to say.
He tightened his hold on her, his mouth against her hair as he let out a breath. ‘If I don’t, I’m worried he will try to put the blame on you, and I won’t stand by and let him do that to you, Hope. I won’t.’
Hope trusted him more than she trusted anyone else in the world, and the months she’d spent with Gus had been the happiest of her life.
But if his father was capable of doing this?
If he would do this to his son? Then she didn’t want to gamble with what he might do to her, especially not now that she was expecting.
Because she knew that if he put the blame on her, the consequences would result in her arrest.
‘Why don’t we clear up all the mess?’ she asked, as he pressed a kiss to her head. ‘I can’t stand the thought of leaving it looking like this.’
When she glanced up at Gus, at the light dancing across his face from his torch, she saw his hesitation.
‘Come on,’ Hope said, pulling away. ‘Let’s at least sweep up the glass and put everything right,’ she said.
Gus stood for a long time without moving before finally coming over to help her.
But as she reached for a broom, she caught sight of one bottle that was unbroken, on the edge of the bench.
She reached for it and tucked it into the pocket of her coat.
It was all they had left from their months of hard work, and she wasn’t leaving it there.
Hope knew that their situation was even worse than she’d thought when Gus came to her the following day, his hands fisted at his sides and anguish written across his face.
‘You’re leaving?’ she asked. ‘Please, Gus, there must be another way.’
‘The only way we can survive this is by getting as far away from here as possible,’ Gus said. ‘I need to secure our customers and assure them that nothing will change, that we will still fulfil their orders. I need to look for somewhere else for us to work from, somewhere my father won’t find.’
‘But what if I’m not safe here?’ Hope asked, as panic rose inside her.
‘If I’m not home in four days, or if anything happens when I’m gone, then you take all the money from the safe and go,’ he said, folding her in his arms, his lips warm against her forehead. ‘You go to the little hotel on the outskirts of town. You’ll be safe there, and I’ll know where to find you.’
‘But what if you don’t come back?’ Her voice was barely louder than a raspy whisper.
‘I’ll come back,’ he said, his voice as steely and strong as hers had been soft. ‘That’s not something you ever need to worry about.’
She nodded, knowing there was nothing she could say or do that would change anything. All she knew was that she didn’t trust his parents, that there was no way they were going to accept her, no matter what Gus might think. Especially not now.