Chapter 6
When the first rays of morning sunlight peeked in through the window, James was still unconscious. He did not hear the sound of the door to his chamber opening; Edwina was too stealthy for that.
When she slammed it behind her as loudly as possible, though, that was more than enough to wake him.
His eyes flew open, and he tried to sit up, but in doing so, he lost his balance and rolled off the bed, sprawling on the floor with a pained groan.
From the look of him, he could scarcely decide which agonized part of him to clutch at first: His head or his leg.
He twitched and mewled and roared incoherently, like an aggrieved infant who’d been awakened from a nap and was throwing a tantrum.
Edwina folded her arms and waited for him to finish.
When his anguished sounds had subsided, and it looked like he might be on the verge of pulling himself together, she cleared her throat.
“It appears you were in the middle of something when you lost consciousness last night, eh?”
He peered at her suspiciously with bloodshot eyes. “What? What on earth are you talking about?”
She inclined her head toward him. “Your clothes, James.”
James looked down at himself and blushed. He’d clearly been in the process of clothing himself when the laudanum had gotten the better of him and made him forget to finish. His tunic was half-buttoned, and only one leg of his trousers was on.
He was not wearing any underclothes.
He seized the blanket from his bed and covered himself up with it, spluttering angrily, “This is why a woman such as yourself should knock and wait to be invited in, rather than imposing as you seem so eager to do! How dare you stand there and gawk at a man in his natural state? What sort of noblewoman are you supposed to be?”
“The sort who is utterly disinclined to tolerate your harsh words or foolishness,” she retorted, unimpressed.
“And if you wrongly believe that I am titillated in any way by the sight of your naked form, you are deeply flattering yourself. A man in your condition holds no interest for me, except inasmuch as I am bound to do all I can to save you from yourself.”
“Ah, now we come to it,” he chuckled darkly. “You believe you have some magic words you can utter that will cure my leg and improve my disposition, is that it?”
“There is no magic in my words, sir, but you will hear them nonetheless and perhaps be the better for it. Or did you think that putting on fresh clothes would make you look like less of a dreadful embarrassment to yourself, your brother, and your entire clan?”
“I’ve heard those words my entire life,” he growled, “from people far more gifted at hurling insults than you are.”
“And now, it seems, you have lived up to them at last,” she replied coldly. “How nice for you.”
“If I choose to spend my time in my own room, minding my own affairs, that’s my business! It is not for you or anyone else to interfere.”
“Not even for your own good?” she challenged.
“No one knows what’s ‘good’ for me better than I do. No one is more familiar with my own mind than I am. Anyone who claims otherwise is a bloody fool.”
“Very well, then,” she answered reasonably, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Let us say that you are correct in that regard.”
“For pity’s sake, woman, will you not at least take your leave long enough for me to get properly dressed?!” he demanded.
Edwina smirked. “No, I don’t believe I will. I think I quite prefer you this way. Unguarded, a trifle ashamed of yourself. Perhaps it will make you more inclined to listen to what I have to say.”
“Or perhaps I will stand up, heedless of my own nakedness, and fling you out of the room by your hair,” he responded darkly.
“That first part would certainly be entertaining,” she tittered.
“Do you think you can summon the nerve to actually do so? Also, that is the second time you have threatened me physically, and it may as well be the last. We both know you aren’t going to be violent with me.
Your brother and sister-in-law would never forgive you for such a thing. ”
“You’d be surprised what my brother is willing to forgive,” he muttered.
“No, again, I do so hate to keep contradicting you, but I don’t believe that’s particularly true either,” she countered.
“Looking at the sorry state of you—last night and now this morning—I think I am starting to understand precisely how much your brother has been willing to forgive in terms of your behavior. But the fact that I have been summoned here means that his forgiveness has come to an end.”
“You cannot compel me to do anything I do not wish to do,” he informed her, “so get the hell out of my sight, will you?”
“Ahh, the age-old cry of the unhappy child!” she retorted, smiling. “‘I do not want to, and you cannot make me!’”
“I am no child!”
“Then cease acting like one!” She was on her feet again in the blink of an eye, her voice crackling with anger.
“If you wish to be treated as a grown man, summon some self-respect and show me! Do not sit there on the floor like a helpless infant, ranting and scowling and shaking your fists! For heaven’s sake, man, do you not want anything more for yourself than this? ”
“There is no more for me than this,” he told her sullenly. “No walking, no running, no riding, no fighting, no courting. Nothing but this room and this bed.”
“First of all, these activities you mentioned? The ones you feel you have been deprived of? You could return to all of them if only you’d summon the willpower to stop feeling sorry for yourself.
I can help you achieve it if you will only allow me to.
And in listing your room and your bed as all you believe you have left, you have omitted one very important final thing: Your bottle of laudanum.
Which I intend to deprive you of as well, this very moment. ”
“I told you last night, there is no laudanum! Only wine!”
“And I told you last night that you are a liar and ought to be ashamed of yourself. Were you not a gentleman once? Did you not pride yourself on your honor? How does it feel to roll around on the ground and spew falsehoods?”
“How dare you call me a liar?!” he fumed. “What right do you have to waltz in here and make such outrageous accusations?”
“Very well,” she replied primly. “In that case, I shall have a look for myself. Where is the bottle?”
He looked at her balefully for a long moment. Finally, he grunted, “I finished it and tossed it from the window.”
“Oh, did you?” She moved over to the window and looked down. “Hmm, that’s funny. I do not see any broken glass to indicate that any such thing occurred.”
“Then someone must have picked up the pieces this morning!”
Edwina put her hands on her hips. “Now really, James, what a silly thing to claim! You know perfectly well that if I go down there to look for tiny fragments left behind, I won’t find any.
But perhaps you would prefer that I go to the trouble of looking anyway, so you might think of a better hiding place for the bottle?
Or did you honestly believe it would escape my notice, deposited under a heap of clothes in your wardrobe? ”
As she said this, she went to the wardrobe and reached under the rumpled garments, producing the bottle triumphantly.
“Give that to me,” he warned in a threatening tone. “Now.”
“I will do no such thing.” She pulled the stopper from the neck and smelled the contents, her nose wrinkling with distaste.
“Just wine, eh? Now, don’t you feel mortified, James, having lied to me so brazenly and stupidly?
Don’t you want more for yourself than that?
When was the last time you peered into a looking glass and felt any sort of pride or happiness?
When was the last time that you liked yourself, James? ”
“How did you know that the bottle would be in the wardrobe?” he asked, his lip curling scornfully.
“It was not difficult to imagine your thought process in your addled state last night,” she answered.
“You sought to make me believe you do not have any sort of problem, hence the new outfit. You probably felt you needed to steady your hands with another drop or two. Then you remembered that you needed to hide the stuff from me and since you were already at the wardrobe…” She shrugged.
“How is it that you know so much about these things?”
“Because I have studied, and learned, and seen examples of it firsthand.” Granted, it had just been the one example, but she saw no reason to share that with him at this point.
Better for him to continue to believe she was several steps ahead of him in all things.
That might make him less inclined to waste their time going forward.
“Which is also why I believe I can help you if you will let me.”
“If you truly want to help me, you will kindly return my bottle to me and leave me to it.”
“No,” she replied obstinately. “Rather, I think I will turn your lie into the truth.”
Edwina went to the window again, and before he could stop her, she threw the bottle down into the courtyard, where it shattered loudly.
“No!” He let out a choked scream. “How could you?!”
“Quite easily,” she informed him briskly.
“Now, if you are truly that desperate for the stuff, you may go down and lick whatever’s left of it off the ground.
Why not? You have already shamed and debased yourself over it many times over until your humanity is barely visible.
You have reduced yourself to a pathetic wretch, a shambling wraith.
Why not abandon the few remaining bits of your dignity and complete your transformation? ”
“You are a harpy!” he shrieked. “You are a blight! You seek to ruin me!”
“I seek to save you, sir. You want medicine to help ease your pain? I have some for you. However, I will not dispense any until you have had a few hours alone with your agony first and no juice of the poppy to help you ignore it. You must be ready to accept my aid—any aid—that I offer. Hopefully, you will be more agreeable to hearing my solutions later. Until then, I shall leave you to it.”
She turned on her heel, leaving the room and slamming the door again.
Then he heard a terrible sound: A click.
Like a key turning in a lock.
James went to the door and tried to open it but found that he could not. It seemed that during the previous night’s stupor, someone (most likely his interfering brother) had put a lock on his door to secure it from the outside.
He yowled with pain and rage, banging his fist on the door over and over until his hands were bleeding and he was sobbing.
Locked in his own room. Treated like a prisoner when the only one he’d sought to harm was himself.
How had it come to this?