The Betrayed Lady Winters

by Emma Linfield

  “But you did not speak to him for very long.” Lord Winters felt confused. “You left him after a few moments.”

  “Yes, because of his arrogance.” Ivy nodded fervently. “He did not speak to me well at all.”

  Lord Winters knew that he would have to handle this delicately. His daughter and her strong opinions had caused him many issues over time. “I understand that, but first impressions are not always right…”

  “It is not just that. There is more.” Ivy moved closer to her father, wanting him to see just how serious she was. “I have heard that he also has a gambling problem and that he needs a big dowry.”

  Lord Winters did not think this was correct. He had researched Duke Merrick a lot before inviting him to the party to ensure that he was a suitable match for his daughter, and he had heard nothing of the sort.

  “Who has said this?” he demanded. “I do not think it is the case. Duke Merrick has a very successful business.”

  “But how much do you know about the shipping trade?” Ivy demanded. “Are there not ways that he could disguise his gambling? Maybe getting married is the next step in covering his tracks.”

  Lord Winters did not know what to say to that. He did not ever like to associate with less than savoury business types, but he knew they existed. Men who had gotten themselves into financial trouble, often through the use of gambling, became desperate enough to do anything to cover their debts. To him, Duke Merrick did not seem the type of man to do that, but he could not be certain. He could not guarantee that was not the case.

  “Father, I do not want to spend any more time with him,” Ivy insisted, pressing the point further. “I do not like him, I do not want even to consider getting married to him. I will never be able to trust him.”

  This was what Lord Winters feared, the last thing he wanted to do was make his daughter unhappy, and by looking into her eyes, he could see he would be doing just that. Maybe she was a little stubborn and opinionated, but if she had made up her mind, then he did not want to do anything to change it.

  “I will speak to him,” he eventually told her decidedly. “Duke Merrick has expressed an interest in spending more time with you, so I will be sure to let him know that is not going to happen.”

  Lord Winters paused, waiting for the moment that Ivy might back down and give him just one more try, but it was instantly clear from the flash behind her eyes that she was sticking to her demand with this one. He rose from his seat, thinking that his wife would have been proud to see their daughter being so decisive. They were alike in a lot of ways, Ivy’s mother was also a very determined woman, one who could have changed the world if she had lived longer. He had to let his daughter make her own decisions.

  “Please go back to the party and speak to other people, I know Duke Merrick is not the only person who wishes to make your acquaintance. I will speak with him now and clear things up.”

  Ivy nodded and agreed with him, but she did not head into the hall right away. She first needed a moment alone to get her thoughts together. Plus, she did not want to witness her father talking to Duke Merrick, that was something she simply wanted to happen without her there. She wanted to forget she had ever met him at all. Ivy was simply grateful that she did not have to see him again. Thank goodness she had worked up the courage to speak to her father to sort this out before it got more complex.

  As for speaking to other men, well that was unlikely to happen anyway, but Ivy had already asked too much of her father today, she could not do more. For the rest of the night, she would have to play the doting daughter, whatever that took.

  Chapter 3

  Ivy did not leave her bedroom again until she heard a lot of commotion coming from the downstairs area, and that was only because curiosity had gotten the better of her. If there was some drama going on inside her house, she needed to know what it was. Especially if it would end up being the sort of thing that everyone talked about for days and weeks afterward. She did not want to miss out, so Ivy left the safety of her bedroom in a hunt for whatever it was. She would curse herself forever if she missed it out of fear.

  Walking down the stairs, Ivy immediately noticed that not one set of eyes were upon her. She was certainly not the center of attention any longer, but somehow that was not the good feeling that she expected it to be. It created a small ball of panic in her chest as she tried to figure out what captivated everyone instead.

  “What is happening?” Ivy asked the first person that she got near, but they were too distracted to answer. “What is going on here?” She suddenly noticed that all eyes were focused on something in particular, but she did not have the height to see over the heads of her father’s guests. “What is everyone looking at?”

  Ivy parted the crowd, people moved as they let her in to see what had caused all of this, and as soon as she got her answer, she understood why. No one knew how to find the words to explain; they simply let her see because that was easier for them. How could anyone explain the scene that lay in front of her without crumbling?

  “Oh, my goodness.” Ivy’s hands clapped loudly to her mouth in shock as she drank it in. “Father!”

  Her father, the man she loved more than anyone else, lay unconscious on the floor in the middle of his own ballroom, as two men dragged him up onto a board. His eyes had rolled into the back of his head, his skin had taken on a very pale color, he looked like he had no life in him. The sight was unlike anything that Ivy had seen before and it made her feel ill. How could this be? Her father never got sick; he saw illness as a weakness, and he was never weak.

  “Is he… is he dead?” she stammered out desperately to anyone who would listen. “What happened? How can this be?”

  It was not so long ago that she was speaking with her father, having a very normal conversation with him in his office, and there was no sign whatsoever that he was about to be sick then. He appeared to be absolutely fine, the picture of health just as he always was. Ivy did not know how long she had been upstairs, hiding away and avoiding the party, but it definitely wasn’t long. Not long enough for her whole world to change.

  “Excuse me, Ma’am,” one of the doctors, who have already been fetched, said to her, trying to get her to move out of the way. In her panic, she had blocked them in. “We must get this man to a hospital immediately. He needs urgent medical attention. We shall have to go to the nearest hospital.”

  Urgent medical attention, surely those words had to be positive. The man would have worded things very differently if he were no longer living, and they would not be taking him to a hospital. But none of this felt very positive to Ivy. In fact, she felt the world was spinning and churning beneath her. Her feet were not on the floor; they were floating. Ivy’s head spun as she thought about how terrible this was. Her father was the only parent that Ivy had left. She did not know what she would do without him; she could not lose him now. She still felt much too young to tackle the world on her own. It was the very reason she did not want a husband yet. She was quite content to remain living at home with her family where she felt happy and safe.

  She was in such a state of shock, as was everyone else in the party, that no one contradicted where Lord Winters was being taken. Usually, the wealthy would be treated at home, but in his case, it appeared to be too severe for that. The nearest hospital was not a desirable place either, it was not the worst in the city, but not a place that anyone particularly wanted to find themselves, but if he needed attention urgently, then what could anyone do?

  “Where is Ewan?” Ivy asked desperately. Her eyes flicked over the crowd, but her vision had blurred with shock, and she could barely see anything. “Where is my brother? We must sort this out together?”

  No one gave her an answer; it was almost as if she found herself in a room of people who suddenly became mute. Why did no one want to tell her anything? What has she missed? Ivy racked her brain, but all she could think about was telling her father that she did not want to marry Duke Merrick. Had that caused him so m
uch stress that it had sent him to the medical room? If only Ivy could find her brother, she could get some answers.

  She pressed her back against the wall and watched helplessly as the men took her father from the room, effectively ending the party for her. She had wanted something to happen to put an end to all of this, but nothing to affect her family members. She had already lost her mother, was that not enough? She could not go through that pain again, and this time would be so much worse, because she remembered her father, they had a bond.

  Ivy’s fingers clawed at the wall behind her while her heart thumped loudly and painfully in her chest. Suddenly, the corset she was wearing felt tight and restrictive. It prevented her from getting enough air into her lungs. Ivy felt light-headed and nauseous. She wanted every single person to go so she could sort this out, somehow. Not that she had a plan to do anything to make this okay, she simply did not want to be surrounded any longer.

  “Are you alright?” Mary’s very welcome voice burst into Ivy’s brain. “This is a nightmare.”

  Ivy turned, and gave her friend a desperate look, tugging at every single one of Mary’s heartstrings. “I do not understand what has happened,” she pleaded with Mary. “I was not in the room.”

  Mary took a step back as she realized what she was going to tell her friend. It was something that would break Ivy’s heart, which in turn made her feel terrible. But the poor Lady needed to know.

  “Ewan has been arrested, did you not see that?” Ivy did not answer, but the way that all of the colour drained from her cheeks gave Ivy all the information that she needed to know. She knew nothing. Mary was going to have to spill it all. “The police officer believed that your brother poisoned your father.”

  “Poisoning?” That word barely registered in Ivy’s brain. “What do you mean?”

  “I did not hear it all,” Mary replied helplessly. “Only that they think your father has been poisoned, and for some reason, they think the person who would do that to him is you brother.”

  Could it be? Ivy despised herself for even giving that thought any space in her brain, but she did not like believing that the police would make a mistake. The law enforcement was there to keep everyone safe; society needed them, Ivy never had any reason at all to doubt them before. Would Ewan do that?

  But she already knew that he would not. Ewan had no reason to do such a heinous thing to the only parent they had left. He had as good a relationship with their father as she did. As far as Ivy was concerned, they were an extremely close-knit family. None of them had any need to do something terrible to one another.

  But if it wasn’t Ewan, then who was it? Someone else had to have done it, and it was probably someone who remained in the Winters’ home, exclaiming in fake sympathy as her father was carted off to the hospital to be taken care of by doctors who might not be able to save his life. He could die, and the killer would be here.

  “I need everyone to go,” Ivy told Mary rapidly. “I need to be alone; I need to figure this out.”

  “Are you sure that you want everyone to leave?” Mary replied cautiously. “Because once they do, you will be completely by yourself. With your father in the hospital and your brother locked up…”

  Ivy did not like the idea, she was never one for being completely by herself, but she could not stand these people around her any longer either. She would not be able to trust any of them knowing that someone meant her father harm. The staff would be in the house anyway; there would be people about.

  “I want to be alone,” she told her friend determinedly. “I will be able to think then.”

  “I shall get my husband to clear the place out; you should get your space now.” Mary knew that Ivy could fall apart now, which could manifest in many different ways. Her family had been through enough tonight, the Winters’ name would be dragged through the mud enough with all of this, she did not want to make it worse. Not that it could get much worse… “Maybe go to your bedroom until the house has cleared out.”

  “I think I shall go outside.” Ivy lifted up her skirts and moved towards the door. “I would like some fresh air.”

  There was a prickle on the back of Ivy’s neck as she stalked outside, but she refused to give whoever it was the satisfaction of turning back around to face them. Of all the fears that she had, all the ways that she had reeled in her behaviour tonight, it was not her to do any damage to the family reputation at all.

  My father has been poisoned, she thought to herself, needing to find some way to process that. Right now, it felt like a horrible nightmare. His life might be in grave danger… and Ewan is being blamed.

  It did not make any sense at all; Ivy knew for certain that even if her brother did have troubles, he would never resort to that. He loved her too much to put her through any more than she had already suffered. He would not do it. So, that only left her with one question, and it was one that she did not like: who would do it?

  As far as Ivy knew, her jolly, fun father was a well-liked man. She never met anyone who did not like him, but maybe it was not a personal attack, perhaps it was something business related. There could have been people out there in the city who did not appreciate her father’s success, and maybe they wanted him to suffer the ultimate price for it. She had not heard of anything like this happening before, but she had read enough books to know that it did. There were desperate people in the world who would do anything for money.

  Whatever was happening, Ivy immediately knew that she needed to find out before her brother got into real trouble. If she could, she would have taken a carriage to the hospital or the jail to find out more, but she could not do that alone at night time, it simply was not acceptable behaviour. As horrible as it would be, she would have to wait until the morning before she could see anyone in her family.

  Please, keep them safe, Ivy tilted her head and looked towards the heavens. Keep them both safe until I can see them tomorrow. I will do anything if you do.

  Chapter 4

  “Lady Winters?” Ivy almost cried out in anger as someone interrupted her quiet moment of prayer. There were plenty of people around her, in the outside area of her home as they all waited for their carriages to leave, but none of them bothered to speak to them. Except for this one person. “I am terribly sorry to disturb you; I understand that this is a very difficult time. I just wanted to see if you are alright.”

  As Ivy turned around to see who was attached to that voice, she tried her hardest to keep herself calm. This was simply someone who wanted to offer her some kind words in this challenging time. She could not shoot them down for that. If this entire situation had happened to someone else, she would probably be the same.

  But then she realized who it was, and all niceties completely vanished. This was a man that she definitely did not like, it was a man who had treated her badly, and it was also the person that she had sent her father to speak to. Could this be him? The last person to see him healthy? He had a possible motivation for wanting to act in such a way. Maybe he really did not take rejection well, and the news that Lady Winters did not want to marry him was too much. He would have to be a terrible person to always carry poison with him, but it was not impossible.

  “You need to leave,” she told him coldly. “Everyone is leaving now as you can see, and I want you to go.”

  Royce took a step closer to Ivy, almost as if she had not spoken at all. He was such an arrogant man that even the words go now were not enough. It really seemed like it could have been him…

  “I just want to make sure that you are alright first. It is not right to leave a Lady in distress.”

  “I do not have time for this.” Ivy’s shoulders hunched up around her ears as she became increasingly defensive. “I do not know if you are aware, but my father has been taken to the hospital and my brother has been arrested for a crime that he did not commit. I am left alone with this mess. I do not have time to talk to a stranger.”

  Royce flinched at the word stranger, it appeared to Ivy that
it hurt him. Just because they had shared a short conversation, did not make them acquaintances, never mind friends. As far as Ivy was concerned, he was a stranger and that was all he would ever be. Unless the worst had happened. If he had done what she feared he might have, then he would become her enemy and she would do whatever it took to ensure his punishment.

  “I wanted to see if there is anything that I could do for you, but if you are going to be like that…”

  “Duke Merrick, your company is unwelcome,” Ivy snapped. Everything that she had been holding in since the moment she first met him came spilling right now. “You were incredibly rude to me earlier, the way that you spoke to me as if I was a lesser being made me feel very uncomfortable. Then, I learn that you have a lot of dark secrets including a gambling problem and a lot of debt, so I shall make myself very clear now. I will not give you a dowry; you shall not marry me for my family’s money. If that is your aim, then you should stop now.”

  “That is not what any of this is about…” Royce looked genuinely shocked. “I cannot believe that you would say that. I do not know where you are getting your information from, but it is untrue.”

  Maybe if the situation had been different, Ivy would have taken the time to hear him out. She was not usually one to jump to conclusions about other people’s characters without at least giving them a chance, but this was not another situation, and Ivy had a whole lot of other things to deal with.

  “People do not tell me things that are untrue.” She would not spill her name, but Ivy trusted Mary’s words implicitly. She did not think that her friend would lie to her. Mary had no reason to do so. “I believe that you are not who you portray yourself to be, and with everything else that has happened tonight, I do not think that this is a conversation that should even be happening.” The anger bubbled and boiled, it burned in Ivy’s stomach. “Did you not see my father being taken away on a stretcher to a hospital, nonetheless? Does that not tell you how serious this is? Did you not see my brother being arrested?”