A Siren’s Melody: Love and Family Book Two

by Wells, Nancy

  When after an hour or so had passed and no one came to check on her, she became suspicious. If Shane’s identity were discovered, the whole house would have been in an uproar by now. Either he had left through a secret passage or he had somehow convinced everyone to leave her alone. The former case was a bit farfetched, but the latter was highly unlikely because Margaret could never be stopped even if she was held back by thick vines.

  She was not aware of secret passageways in her house, but she had confidence in his skills. If he could enter her room without alerting everyone, he could leave the house in the same manner.

  She wiped her tears and put on a mask as he had asked her. She put a radiant smile on her face and went out to face the world.

  She found her mother and sister in the music room where Margaret was practicing on the piano while her mother listened to the music with a serene expression on her face. She knocked at the door, alerting them to her presence.

  “How is your headache, Isabella?” her mother asked, smiling secretly.

  The maid had done as she had asked her and lied to her mother, but her mother was not fooled by her lie. Her mother was aware that she was meeting with him in secret but was not calling her out on her lie. She appreciated her mother’s discretion more than her own mother was aware because it gave her an excuse to hide everything from her sister.

  “My headache is gone, Mother,” she said with a smile on her face.

  Her mother smiled back, believing the lie she was feeding her. She went inside the room and sat beside her sister on the bench. She laughed, sang and played the piano with her sister, fooling everyone that she was truly happy. She realized the burden Shane must have been carrying all his life. She was breaking inside with one deception while he was living a lie ever since he was a child for the sake of his brother.

  Chapter 9

  Weeks had passed, yet there was no sign of him. For a minute she believed God had spared her the agony of facing him and severing ties with him, but there was no such luck when it came to heartbreak. He arrived on the day of her sister’s birthday.

  They had invited a few select people who were willing to come. Those people included the duchess, Willy, the duke, their butler, Lord Harley, Shane, and a few other people whom she had never met before. While everyone was celebrating her sister’s birthday, she was trying to avoid eye contact with Shane because she was a coward. He did not behave rudely with her, which made her feel even guiltier. There was no sign of malice or disdain on his face. In fact, he was talking merrily as his usual self with Margaret and Willy and even offered her a respectful smile when their gazes collided.

  “The children adore him,” Philip said.

  She had not seen Philip coming towards her nor standing beside her. She was so engrossed in self-pity and faking other emotions that she did not take notice when he left her mother’s side.

  She had the utmost respect for him from the very beginning, but after knowing about his involvement in saving a child from a group of malicious people, her respect for him had increased tenfold, yet she could not ask him about his valiant efforts in saving a child because it would lead to his inquiries she had no right to answer. She could not tell him the identity of the child he had saved, because it felt wrong to her that Russell remained unaware of his savior while the rest of the world knew his dark secret.

  “He is a good man,” she said.

  She did not mean it only in the sense of his love towards the children. Shane was a nice person in more than one way. She had expected him to give her a cold shoulder after the way she behaved, but he did not hold a grudge against her. She could not understand how he could be so cordial towards someone who had accused him of being a heartless jester. She had pointed her anger at him, yet he smiled at her when he entered their house today. He was an enigma.

  “You are right,” Philip stayed silent for a few seconds and then said. “How do you differentiate between the brothers?”

  She had no clue as to how she was able to differentiate between the brothers, but there was a strange pull that was only present in the presence of Russell. Their souls were able to recognize one another. Their attraction had reached a point where it surpassed the physical level and reached an emotional level.

  She was standing at a crossroads at that moment. She could either tell Philip the truth about her true feelings or feed him a lie. The truth would unburden her soul, but the lie would save her the trouble of explaining things when she severed her ties with Russell.

  “I cannot tell the difference between them,” she said. “They are both exactly the same. I guess I should have thought about that before.”

  She put a fake look of concern on her face to deceive Philip. They were not the same to her. Only one of them could make her heart skip a beat.

  Philip’s response was cut off by the sudden shriek of a feminine voice. Margaret ran towards the entrance in an excited state. Everyone in the room looked towards her sister and then at the reason for her overexcited state. Russell was standing in the doorway with a box of chocolates and new books. He had arrived for her sister’s birthday and had brought gifts too.

  When he looked up towards the crowd, searching for her amidst all others, she hid behind a bouquet of flowers. She wished he would forget about her for the rest of the party and she would not have to break his heart before all these witnesses, but luck was not on her side.

  “Are you hiding from me, my Siren?” Russell asked amiably, coming around the bouquet of flowers.

  He turned her around in one sweep and took her mouth in a hard kiss. He had missed her all these days. He was afraid she had become the only thing that could quench his thirst. She returned his kiss with more fervor than him, but only for a fleeting moment and then she shoved him back. He took a step back, puzzled by her behavior when she raised her hand and slapped him hard across his face. The sound of her hand against his face reverberated in the whole room, hushing everyone in its wake.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, holding a palm to his face.

  Everyone had gathered around them, watching the scene unfold. She hid her shaking hand behind her back, forcing as much venom and steel into her next words as possible. She knew her words would make him hate her, but she had to release him from their relationship if she wanted to see him happy. Shane had said she would have to let him go if her love was true. As devastating as the present situation was for him, it was crushing her tenfold, but she was not thinking about her own happiness at that moment. She was thinking about what was best for him and his peace of mind.

  “You are forgetting your station, Mr. Simon. I am a lady of elite society, not one of the many whores you frequently visit. You were just a passing fancy for me, Mr. Simon. You can never grant me what I desire. You were nothing more than a fling to a girl of noble birth. Did you really think a lady would marry a coachman’s son?”

  Russell was looking into her eyes, searching for the woman he loved and adored, but she was nowhere in sight. He was not standing before his Siren at that moment, but rather in front of Lady Isabella. There was no other explanation than to believe that all of this was a bad dream. He bared his soul to this woman, and she threw everything back in his face. He shared his darkest secret with her, and she humiliated him before the whole world. He could not believe that everything she felt for him was just a passing fancy.

  “Is this man troubling you, Lady Isabella?”

  She did not look at the person who had asked her the blasted question because she was busy watching the brewing anger in his gaze. She had wounded him deeply, which had been her intention from the very beginning, but it did not mean it was not heartbreaking for her. The gaze that always held love and affection for her was scorching her with fury. She knew it would not be easy to break his heart, but she had foolishly believed that he would not feel as much wrath and anger.

  “Forgive me, my lord,” he said bitterly. “I thought she looked like the whore I frequently visit.”

 
He turned around and left her in the care of her precious Lord Harley. He was better off without her. For the first time in his life, he had misjudged a person. He had believed her to be a kind and loving person, but she turned out to be a shallow person like the many noble women his brother pursued on a daily basis.

  He still could not believe that everything she felt for him was a lie. He was confident there was mutual understanding between them, but then he also believed she was sincere with him when she practically begged him to take her virginity. He had proposed marriage, yet she was insistent upon carnal relations out of wedlock. Maybe this was the reason for her impatience. She never intended to marry him. He was nothing more than a passing fancy for a woman of noble birth.

  He crushed the portrait he was holding in his pocket. She had once told him about her father’s portrait. That day, he had vowed to bring her that portrait before he formally asked her to marry him in front of the whole world.

  He had tracked her uncle and requested a meeting. Her uncle was not happy to hear that he had come to ask about his brother, which made him a bit curious. He could not believe her uncle would harbor such malice for his own brother. After much debate, her uncle had finally confessed to his brother’s involvement in crimes that tainted their family name and then showed him the portrait of his brother that was covered in dust and rolled around the edges when the servants fetched it from storage.

  When he had seen the face of a monster staring at him from the portrait, he was devastated at first, but then he realized that she had healed him. He did not feel ants crawling up his face and chest when he imagined hands on his body. He felt the loving and soothing touch of an angel who happened to be the daughter of a devil. To him, it seemed poetic justice from God that He had provided balm to his wounds at the hands of his tormentor’s daughter, but now he believed everything to be a deception. There was no justice for those who had endured suffering.

  “Shane,” Russell called his brother. “I need you, Brother. I need you by my side.”

  Russell was talking in code words with his brother. Shane had told him once that he would support him when he was in need and that day had arrived today. He was in need of his brother’s support. He might keep his head straight while he was surrounded by all these people, but only his brother would be aware of his true feelings. Shane would know he was bearly holding up.

  “Whatever you need, Brother,” Shane said.

  Shane was at his side in an instant. His brother was the only reliable support he would ever get in life. The rest of them would abandon him at one point or another, but his brother would never leave him.

  They left her house together. After a few more moments, the majority of the guests followed them too. There was nothing surprising about Elliot and his wife following him outside because they considered him part of their family. The only person who was not expected to follow them out was Margaret. Margaret looked at her sister with eyes full of hatred and went after him.

  As soon as they were out of sight, Isabella let go of all the bottled-up feelings. She wailed and bawled like a child after the man who had just left her house. He would never know the hell she was going through with his absence. He would forever consider her the noble lady who played with his heart and threw it away once she had her fill.

  “You should not worry what he said about you, Lady Isabella,” Lord Harley said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “A lowly person like him is not worthy of your tears.”

  She shrugged the hand off and whirled around to face the person who had the audacity to call him a lowly person. He might not have noble blood in his veins, but he was a better man than every single person of the whole nobility. He was the only person who had shown her kindness when everyone else treated her like an anomaly the day he had first met her.

  “He is not a lowly person,” she yelled. “He is a better man than you and everyone else who represents the nobility.”

  A flash of anger crossed Lord Harley’s face. He did not appreciate the way she was defending someone who had apparently tried to take unwanted liberties with her. She looked towards her mother and Philip, daring them to contradict what she said about Russell, pushing them to scold her for behaving rudely with a noble guest, but they did no such thing. They stayed rooted in their respective spots with a look of astonishment and disbelief. She dumped a man who was clearly in love with her in front of many onlookers and then started defending him before the same onlookers once he had left the premises of their house.

  “You are clearly in shock, Lady Isabella,” he seethed. “Otherwise, you would not stoop so low as to defend a man who attacked you a few moments ago and then compared you to a debauched woman.”

  Her face became ashen. In her attempt to break his heart she had made him look like a molester before so many people. If he figured out that she was the daughter of the man who tried to abuse him, he would consider it as a deliberate move on her part. He would believe that she was the same as her father. She had tainted his name and made him look like her own father. He would never forgive her after that.

  She could not speak or move at that point. She wanted to defend him, but the idea of him forever hating her was more than she could stomach. She was standing like a statue in the middle of the room when someone swooped her up in strong arms. She looked at the face of the person and found Philip looking down at her with concern. She did not realize that she was about to faint, and he had saved her from further embarrassing herself.

  “Forgive me, my lord,” he said, his eyes trained on her. “No one attacked the lady. He is her betrothed and it was just a row between two people who love one another. They will reconcile in due time. There is no need for making a small fight look like an assault on a lady’s virtue.”

  Philip did not wait for Lord Harley to respond and turned around to take her to her room, but she saw her mother talking to Lord Harley in hushed words. She did not hear the exchange of words, but she saw her mother pointing to the entrance, showing him the way out. She closed her eyes, satisfied that her mother was handling the situation. Her mother was cleaning up the mess she had created.

  Philip deposited her on her bed with care and kissed her on her forehead like he used to do when she was a child. It made her feel secure and loved at that moment. She had a suspicion that Philip was aware of her true feelings regarding Russell and that was precisely the reason he was not interrogating her at this very moment. He had raised her from early childhood. He knew her feelings better than the people who watched with amusement while she yelled like a lunatic. He had filled the void of a father figure in her life and she had never thanked him for that.

  Philip had filled the shoes of a father to Margaret as well. He had never made them feel worthless. He treated them as his daughters, raised them from an early age, made them realize their mistakes whenever they were taking a wrong step, and most of all, he never let them feel the absence of their father.

  “Get some rest, sweet child,” he said sadly.

  Philip switched off the light in her room and closed the door on his way out. She closed her eyes, but she doubted there would be any rest for her for a very long time. She would forever remain restless after hurting her one true love.

  She heard voices outside her room. Her mother was talking with Philip in a hushed voice, but she heard them, nonetheless. Apparently, their remaining guests were thrown out by her mother because they did not like it when a common servant picked her up and her mother did not appreciate when they painted the bond between her and Philip as an immoral and filthy act.

  * * *

  Russell was pacing in his room like a caged animal while his brother sat quietly to one side and let him speak the first words. No one else was allowed inside his room until he gave permission.

  “This place is suffocating me, Brother,” Russell said. “These walls, these streets, this whole sodding town is too much for me. You were right about her, she made my life complicated. I should have listened to you when you forb
ade me from pursuing her.” He was quiet for some time while his brother kept still and then he resumed his tirade. “The only thing that is left for me is to hunt down that weapon supplier and leave this town as soon as possible. In my pursuit of some mythical love, I ignored my job. I must rectify my mistake and focus my attention on things that matter. You can stay in this place for as long as you want, but I have to leave once that criminal is apprehended. Do you think I am taking the right decision?”

  He ignored the noises coming from outside his room. Whoever was on the other side did not care if he wanted to see them or not. If the noises were to be believed, the person was held back by the household staff of his friend. He did not want to see anyone until he had made his final decision and he needed his brother’s guidance in taking the next step.

  “I will follow you anywhere you wish to go, Brother,” Shane said sincerely. “If this town suffocates you then it suffocates me too. If you wish to focus on your career, then you will find me by your side. I respect your every decision, but all I ask in return is that we stay until Elliot throws the party he had been planning in celebration of his unborn child. You are hurting and no one else can feel your pain more than I do, but we owe it to Elliot and this household to participate in their happiness.”

  Elliot was the merciful angel who had taken him in when he needed security. He had been getting worse with every passing day after his father died until Elliot came along and offered them a safe haven. He was a homeless orphan, vulnerable to all the fiends that wanted to hurt him. He slept inside the newly built stable for two years with one eye open until the young duke took a liking to them and offered them a room inside his mansion. He owed a huge debt to Elliot, even if Elliot did not see it that way. Elliot saved him from a dark future and he would do anything for Elliot’s happiness.