Chapter 44 Jahleel—Mean, Stupid Man
JAHLEEL—MEAN, STUPID MAN
As much as I hate that Lydia can’t escape the room, I’m glad that the snake Palmers doesn’t notice.
I meet him in the middle of the study away from my desk.
The proud charlatan with his nose aloft looks around.
“Where are the famed chess sets? Tavis used to say you’ve collected the rarest and most expensive ones and put them on display wherever you went. ”
“Well, he might have been wrong. Everyone can be wrong.”
“Torrance, you asked me to meet you at ten. I assume you have my money.”
I’d pull out my father’s pocket watch, but this fool might ask for it. “I believe it’s 9:50. Nothing like an early thief.”
“I’m no thief. Just claiming what should be mine. Why are you almost whispering?”
Leaning on the cane, I say I don’t want to waste my breath. “Sit in a chair.” I move to one left from the surgery party. “You want twenty thousand pounds of the money I made from my investments, from a business you’ve never worked. How is it yours? Remind me.”
Refusing to sit, he stands, luckily with his back to my desk—Lydia’s hiding place. The man’s neck above his wilting cravat is red like a beetroot. “I’m the aggrieved party. I should be paid for my pain.”
Acting like I’m checking my coat, I say, “I hear you bungled the one opportunity to help Wilcox Coal grow.”
The man bears a smug look. “I’ve bungled nothing.”
“Oh yes, according to Tavis, you ruin everything you touch. And you let him die knowing it.”
For the first time, Palmers looks uneasy.
“Mrs. Palmers is here. Lovely woman. I see you brought her tonight.”
He nods but goes toward my cabinetry where I once housed liquors and pain medicine. The wood gleams with emptiness.
“Does your wife know you forced your son to steal from Wilcox Coal to pay your taxes? Even made him siphon funds for the ill-tailored smock you’re wearing.”
“He told you no such thing. Torrance, he’d not betray me.”
“That’s the thing with fathers and sons: we learn from them by their actions and omissions.
” I pull from a coat pocket the list of debts that Tavis had encumbered onto Wilcox Coal.
From another, I pull his father’s current debtors.
“I paid off and settled your son’s creditors once.
I was quite surprised that you have debts with the same people, most starting their tabs within weeks of Tavis’s death and my payment. ”
“Coincidence. Tavis loved to gamble.”
I offer a shrug. “Da, is true. But my steward has been bored recently. He enjoyed digging through numbers and talking with the creditors and some retired tax assessors. Those men only mentioned you. Then I realized Tavis covered for you.”
“Those are lies. My son is dead. Dead men can’t talk or be a witness.”
“Yes, he’s dead.” This time, I say it with remorse.
“But the dead do leave clues and sloppy ones convincing records. Do you think Mrs. Palmers wants to hear this? Does she want to know you’re the type of man to ruin a young woman, a family friend in your care, as you tried to do to Katherine in St. Petersburg? ”
“Everything comes back to that bigamist, that liar. She turned Tavis against us. She made him liberal.”
“Liberal enough that she tried to help. She did the books for Wilcox Coal. She knew what Tavis was doing with the money. She let him, thinking the company would grow beyond the debt.”
“She knew?” Palmers seems befuddled about why a wife would try to help her husband’s family. Then he grunts. “No. I don’t care what she told you. I want the money. And why are you still whispering?”
“Don’t want just anyone listening. And I do care, because Katherine didn’t cut Tavis off from the Wilcox coffers.
They were dry from helping you stay out of debtors’ prison.
Then you made Tavis take that stupid bet with a horse without training.
It bucked and fatally injured him.” I fold my hands and cough to cover the shifting under my desk.
“How does it feel to send your son off to be slaughtered? Did you collect the hundred pounds?”
“He took the bet of his own free will. How was I to know the horse wouldn’t clear the fence? I didn’t want Tavis to fall and break his back.”
I pull up a sheet of parchment, listing them out. “You risked his life for these debts?”
Palmers swallowed hard. “What’s done is done. Katherine committed fraud. Twenty thousand and the coal company is a new start for everyone. Tavis would agree.”
“Of course he would. He never stood up to you.”
“It’s that jezebel’s doing. She turned him against me. Tavis wouldn’t have had to take the bet if he just pilfered from the coal coffers.”
“There was nothing left to pilfer. He had some decency, so he took a foolhardy bet instead of stealing the deed to the Wilcoxes’ house. The woman you wish to insult tried to keep a son and his family’s honor and nearly destroyed her family’s company.”
“So it’s true. You’ve reconciled. She spun her magic and made you a champion. How could you and Tavis love her so much? She’s nothing. Just pay me, and I won’t bother you again. I’ll disappear, and you can keep pretending that half of you is as good as all the rest.”
I step closer to him, farther from the desk because I know the man is about to be foul. “How about you go on your way and never bother Katherine and the Wilcoxes again?”
“Why? So you can honor a whore? Are you even sure, Torrance, the child is yours? Loose women will lie about anything to get money.”
Smiling in his face, I whack him with my cane. I strike him hard and fast across his leg like a spanking. “Disrespect Katherine again, and we will meet at dawn. You know I’m a good shot. All Torrance men are.”
Rubbing his leg, he backs up.
“Now you see, you made me lose my temper. A gentleman should never do this. Go on your way, and I’ll make these debts totaling roughly ten thousand pounds go away.
You’d have a new start. I’ll give you an extra hundred to move out of the city.
I hear Bristol is looking for swindlers.
Your prejudiced attitude would do well there. ”
“You’re quick with a cane against an unarmed man, but do you think you could silence me? One word in a public event and the former Lady Hampton will never recover her reputation.”
“Be smart, Palmers. Leave here with something.” I draw out the statement Ashcroft drafted to keep Katherine safe from accusations. “There are enough debts to send you to debtors’ prison. Don’t you want to be safe? That’s all anyone wants.”
“You wager too much, Torrance.” He crumples the paper. “Might’ve left all well and done if you’d get her to give me Wilcox Coal. But this is a bigger fight. Women like her, deceivers, should not be able to use men—”
“And make them better men!”
Palmers grumbles. “Torrance, I want the company, the money, the whole twenty thousand pounds, and the house on Ground Street, too. Agree, or I will expose this jezebel tonight. She’s a bigamist and a liar. She deserves nothing.”
“Then you get nothing. And you better hope that I forgive this second outburst.” I point my cane at his chest. “Leave, now. Never think to bother her or our family. If you do, you will live to regret it.”
“I’m broke, but I have time to make her pay. I’ll ruin her. Even if it takes years, I will have my due.”
Time and years—those are my greater enemies. I’ve put Palmers in check. Now, I must end the game. “You’ve been warned. Leave now while you have a shred of dignity. I’m getting ready to give a toast to my daughter. I don’t want to see your face in the crowd.”
He sneers. “I’m going to watch this fine toast to the brat and her whorish mother.” Palmers starts to leave. “And tell the mistress, hiding under the desk, to keep quiet about what men say.”
The door slams behind him.
I rush back to the desk. I hope Lydia has not heard most of this. “Come out now, Lidochka. It’s safe.”
She does, smoothing out the wrinkles settling in her skirt. “He’s mean.”
“And he’ll not leave, not before he tries to embarrass your mother tonight.”
She fists her palm. “Just toss him out.”
“Nyet.” I loosen my grip, easing my tense fingers from the handle of my cane. “Men like Palmers won’t disappear. He thinks life owes him something. This type of evil doesn’t go away until it’s fully exposed and neutered.”
“That means you will punish him? Those big words again are confusing.”
“Yes, Lydia, I will ensure he is punished.”
She looks at her gloved hands. “He doesn’t just hate my mother because you and Tavis loved her?”
“Lydia, I don’t know why it’s so hard for some to understand that I will champion a beautiful—”
“Blackamoor woman. He yelled that to Tavis. He used other bad words. And the Palmerses never saw about Tavis when he was sick. Only ever came once.” For a moment, her head dips. “Katherine is too nice for them.”
I raise Lydia’s chin and bless her forehead. “You’re getting older. Though we shelter you, you have eyes and ears. You might know about the prejudice your mother has faced. That’s one of the reasons I forgave her for hiding you.”
“Gossips and stern men are awful. No wonder Aunt Georgie is afraid to sing in public. Or Scarlett has to wear disguises to make people better. Gossip and mean people are stupid. Make them go away. Banish them.”
“Men like Palmers will always be present. The hate is their problem. I pray we see a day when this changes.”
“Maybe that’s today, Papen’ka. You have a toast to give soon. And I’m not going to miss a moment. I know you’ll fix him, and I’ll help.”
She holds out her hand, and I take it—father and daughter are ready for war.