by Shirl Anders
She grasped the cloak quickly, looking confused as she mumbled, “Yes, Law.”
“You stay right there. I will only be a moment,” he said once again firmly.
Affinity only nodded as he reached for the door handle blocking the view inside the carriage as he quickly got out and closed the door.
“Leave the carriage there,” Law said to his driver and footman as he turned toward the woman huddled against the side of the stables. He approached her slowly, but it was too dark under the stable eves to tell much more than that she carried a small bundle against her chest.
“S-Sebastian sent me,” she managed through chattering teeth.
“He is a good man, a good friend, he was right to do so,” Law replied softly.
“Me bellswagger pimp wants to take my babe!” the woman cried, then she nearly collapsed.
“That will never happen,” Law vowed as he reached forward to hold her upright.
In the carriage, Affinity hastily put her cloak back on, wrapping it around her tightly. She did not care at all for nearly being caught in the midst of torrid sexual activity. Her entire body shivered with the thought, and she realized she was only so brave in these new sexual adventures.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a paper she had there, then she unfolded it carefully and laid it on the seat opposite her. It was better for her seduction if she left now, she told herself, even though she did not want to. Really, she never wanted to leave Law again. But she had to act like a mature woman, not a besotted little girl and a mature woman would depart now, leaving the tantalization on the high road. She needed to withdraw to see if Law came to her next. If he came to her next for nothing more than to see her and not to retrieve anything like his journal as he had last time, then he came to her freely, just because he desired to.
“Yes, yes,” she mumbled, that was the way of it, so reluctantly, she opened the carriage door on the opposite side away from the view of the house and stables and she quietly got out of the carriage. Then she silently slipped away into the night.
Affinity snuck past the steaming carriage horses and out the open gate at the back of Law’s townhouse property. She clutched her cloak tight to her body, suddenly wishing for clothes beneath its folds. However, she walked briskly down the shadowy sides of the alleyways and that helped warm her. She continued quickly, until she reached the back of her uncle’s property where her footsteps faltered.
“Oh no,” Affinity muttered. The entire townhouse was lighted. This had never happened before, her uncle went out most evenings, but he always returned quietly to his study, then to bed. Affinity tried to tell herself there could be many occurrences for this display and that she need not be in any of them.
In the four years she’d resided with her uncle, he’d asked to see her only a handful of times during the daylight hours and never once at night. They could hardly be called close to each other. He barely tolerated her presence as a begrudging part of his duty. Affinity had finally understood that her father, before his death, and his brother, were bitter enemies and her uncle’s feelings carried onto his brother’s child.
Affinity bit her bottom lip looking up at the brightly lit townhouse, wondering how she could sneak in now without being caught. “Calm down,” she muttered, admonishing her alarm. “Think it through.”
Really, her uncle employed very few servants in the house and if she could sneak through the back door to the kitchen, then she could hurry up the back stairway to her room. She had to take the chance that the house being blazoned with light had nothing to do with her. Truly, her uncle would not show her that much notice if he found her missing. Still, some unsettling intuition made her stomach queasy as she stepped forward to sneak into the house. All she could think of minutes later was that she might have made it, but that was before she realized it would not have mattered.
Bless Aunt Fuchsia, and so late at night, she’d been as startled as Affinity was when Affinity entered her bedchamber and found Aunt Fuchsia there. Of course, Affinity realized later that Aunt Fuchsia had been ordered to sit there for just that purpose. Then, just as Aunt Fuchsia exclaimed in a high-pitched voice at her entrance, Affinity heard.
“Is that slut there, Fuchsia? Get that whore down here immediately!”
Affinity gasped at her uncle’s bellowing voice and the words as Aunt Fuchsia began weeping loudly. “Terrible, t-terrible,” Aunt Fuchsia tittered.
Affinity immediately heard the clomping of what she assumed was her uncle rushing up the stairs. All she could think of was that she was not wearing anything beneath her cloak, nothing else made sense, besides the rising panic of being in danger. Then, her uncle was there barging into her room, as she back away from him. His normally florid face was mottled even more bright red and he carried a long belt in his hand, while his gaze was livid.
“Selling yourself on the streets!” Uncle Redgrift shouted. “Like a common slut! I knew no better offspring would come from my bastard brother!”
Aunt Fuchsia wailed and scurried to the corner, as Affinity raised her hands to Uncle Redgrift as though to hold the force of his rage at bay. “What is it, uncle? What has happened?” Affinity cried, as her uncle marched forward snatching a wad of her cloak as he raised his hand holding the belt.
“No whore! No slut will live in this house! Do you understand me?” he bellowed, and when the belt came down across Affinity’s side, she did not yell out, she was too stunned. Her uncle swung her around, tugging harshly on her cloak, until the tie gave and it pulled free. She did cry out then, wailing in horror, as her uncle again bellowed.
“Slut!” He brought the belt down on her back making her scream in pain as she tried to cover her naked parts with her hands. “Out of my house! You are disowned!” Redgrift shouted.
Redgrift used the belt striking wickedly against her body to move her out of the room, down the hall, and down the stairs. Each lash of the belt made her scream and her near nakedness in front of him, the servants, and her Aunt Fuchsia made her die inside with shame, as he struck her back, buttocks, and legs, until she stumbled into the entryway falling onto her knees. It was then through her pain and tears that she heard the damning answer to all of this.
“Lord Hartley saw you with half a dozen men set to fornicate at the boxing match!”
Oh God. The voice outside the boxing match, Affinity thought, as her uncle whipped her body curled into a ball on the floor. Sometime later, her uncle must have stopped beating her and she must have lost some consciousness, because the next thing she knew she was being jerked upright by her hair. Her uncle dragged her through the open front doorway, and then he shoved her, releasing her hair as she fell down the front steps. She landed in a heap at the bottom, and then her red cloak plunked on top of her.
Her uncle was spewing so many horrible things that she blanked out most of them, but one thing she remembered clearly was his snarl, “Never come back here, you slut, or I will have you arrested as a whore!”
Chapter Fourteen
. . . I, Affinity Redgrift, do swear before the Lord Almighty that I freely entered into sexual congress with Lawrence Fabier. I swear that I am no longer a virgin having taken my maidenhead on my own to prove my free choice. I do not want, nor do I accept, any monetary or marriage conditions on our affair and this signed missive can stand as clear evidence to that, and said missive shall reside as proof in Lawrence Fabier’s hands . . .
“By god, and she signed a legal paper attesting to it.” Law chuckled fondly, yet what amazed him the most was Affinity’s choice to apparently freely breach her own maidenhead. He remembered seeing the godemiché on her bed that night. By God, she was astounding.
“Your grace, excuse me please.”
Law looked up as he folded Affinity’s note and he saw Nell. She appeared extremely upset and the hour was quite late. “Yes, Nell,” he answered, sitting forward in his study chair.
“Mrs. Todd, just came to the back door very upset, Sir. You remember her, she
says you helped her years ago?”
“Yes, of course,” Law answered expectantly. He knew Mrs. Todd was the cook for Lord Redgrift. He’d received much of his information about Affinity from Mrs. Todd. And suddenly an uneasy feeling settled in his gut.
“I just knew you’d want to know that Lord Redgrift beat Lady Affinity terrible tonight with a belt! Then, he threw her from the house, never to come back.”
“Oh my God,” Law exclaimed, coming to his feet.
“You see, I saw her tonight, Lady Affinity, sneaking out of the carriage and, Mrs. Todd, knew you’d asked after her.”
Law could barely think, he was that upset, but his servants and all the women and male prostitutes that he’d helped in the past kept a close network of information alive. It helped him immensely in his work and also in finding proper and safe placements for the ones that he helped.
“Beat her?” he asked tightly, he could barely breathe.
“Aye. Terrible like and she was near naked.”
Law nearly bellowed then, but somehow he managed to hold it inside himself.
“But, Mrs. Todd, cannot find Lady Affinity now. She snuck out front to gather the poor girl up and take her to her friends, but Lady Affinity was gone. Then, Mrs. Todd, tried each of her friends, but she’s not there. She’s so worried about her being hurt and out on the streets,” Nell said.
“We will find her,” Law uttered. “Pass the word to all we know to look out for her, but especially send Bart to Sebastian. Sebastian can spread the word quickly.” Law strode forward as he issued his orders, then he entered the hallway and snagged his coat and hat hastily. “I go now to search, but have someone ask Lady Affinity’s friends if they have any clues to where she might be.”
“Aye, Sir,” Nell replied.
Law grasped Nell’s hand. “Nell, you are so much more help to me here. Now you see how well.”
“I do feel it, yer grace, like I’m needed,” Nell said.
“And you are never to forget that. Oh and, Nell, please check on the new lady and her child. We don’t want to lose her.”
Law nearly ran out of the townhouse then, as though the devil chased him. He was devastated, his heart was breaking and his past was trying to rise up and swallow him. This was too close to Magdalena, if he’d just not dallied with a good woman, if only he’d been stronger. He knew the consequences. Why is it that one always thought it would not happen to them? All his recriminations could not begin to overshadow the desperate concerns that tugged at his heart like fire. They had to find Affinity. They had to!
***
Affinity stumbled. She could barely stay upright her body hurt so badly and one of her heels was torn off. She had to hold onto the clammy stonewall of the building that she lurched beside. She could smell the sewage of London’s lower end around her. She could hear the rats scurrying. But it meant nothing. Her mind was twisted with pain, both mental and physical. Was she really a whore? She certainly had been acting like one, blindly covering it with far-fetched fantasy, when the truth was, all she was being was sexually promiscuous. Her uncle snarling, “Slut,” kept ringing in her mind, until she sobbed and fell against the wall, barely able to hold herself upright.
“Lady Affinity,” Sebastian called gently, but the woman did not appear to hear him as she leaned crumpled and sobbing against the warehouse wall. Sebastian stepped closer, lifting his hand to lightly touch the woman’s shoulder. Either way, he thought, it was a woman in need.
The woman gasped through her frantic weeping as she tried to turn away from him, but suddenly she just collapsed. Sebastian barely caught her before she slumped to the ground and when he lifted her up into his arms, he saw that it was indeed Lady Affinity. It did not bode well that he’d found her in the lower end. It spoke of her spirit being broken more than her body. He knew his intentions immediately and where he had to take her. Law was his friend, but Lady Affinity needed her friends more now.
“Senorita, we will go to, the beautiful Brevity. You must hold on to me,” he murmured. It was interesting that his friend Lawrence Fabier knew Lady Affinity. It seemed the world moved in mysterious ways.
When Sebastian reached the steps of Lady Brevity’s stylish townhouse carrying Lady Affinity, it was as though the lovely Brevity waited for him by some intuition, because Brevity threw open the door and rushed to meet him, before his foot reached the first step.
“Oh, Sebastian you have found her!” Brevity cried, with her endearing lisp. “Bring her inside quickly.”
***
“I received your message,” Law said to Sebastian as Sebastian opened the door to Lady Brevity’s townhouse. Law stepped inside, not waiting for Sebastian to move or invite him in.
Sebastian stepped back with really no choice, saying, “She is with the doctor now.”
Law started immediately for the stairs leading up to the top floor of the townhouse, but Sebastian grasped his arm. “You will not keep me away from her,” Law said tersely. “But I am indebted to you for finding her.”
Sebastian gripped his arm harder. “Do you know your intentions, before you go up there?” Sebastian asked.
Law stopped trying to pressure his arm away from Sebastian’s grasp. “No . . . yes,” Law uttered, fighting the urge to see Affinity. Sebastian was right.
“I found her near the docks on the lower end,” Sebastian said. “She fell unconscious into my arms. I hear that her uncle called her whore, and a slut, and worse, he beat her.”
“Bastard,” Law snarled, slapping his hat against his thigh.
“A lady like she is . . . ,” Sebastian murmured, leaving the sentence hanging.
“Has been ruined,” Law said, adding one of the many sureties in Affinity’s life just for being attracted to him and loving him. Law lifted his head, staring intently at Sebastian. “Not if this man, this Duke can help it,” he said fiercely.
Sebastian nodded, patting Law’s arm. “Then, go see your woman. But I am not sure, my lovely Brevity, will let you.”
“Your lovely Brevity?” Law questioned him. “How did you know to bring, Affinity, here in the first place?”
“That, my friend, is a long story,” Sebastian replied with a humorous glint in his deep brown eyes. “And I will only tell if the ladies allow me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Two weeks later, Affinity knew that she was being courted and she was not sure how she felt about it. Her body had healed and Brevity had insisted that she could live with her for as long as she liked. Affinity had protested that it would taint Brevity’s reputation, however, Brevity would hear none of it. Not one of her friends would. They visited her each day and they all said that the motto of the Lady Rogues was through thick and thin. However, Affinity considered that not one of them realized how thick it could get. And then there was Law . . . In the first days she’d asked not to see him. But . . .
“Another love sonnet from the Duke and another bouquet of fresh flowers,” Brevity announced brightly, entering the sunroom where Affinity was sitting. Brevity carried a beautiful bouquet of flowers and set them on the table next to Affinity, then she handed Affinity the poem, hand written on lambskin paper. “Every single day for two weeks now, Affinity,” Brevity sighed.
“Do you think he is doing it out of guilt, Brevity?” Affinity asked suddenly.
Brevity sat down carefully in a chair close to Affinity and took Affinity’s hand. “That first night, Affinity, you regained consciousness, but the doctor gave you laudanum to sleep and the Duke sat beside you all that night, even though I told him you would not wake, he insisted.”
“He did?” Affinity asked in surprise.
“Yes, I was saving it to tell you at the right time.” Brevity patted Affinity’s hand. “And now, I also wanted to tell you that I must go out this evening. The trust lawyer of my parents’ estate always demands to see me regularly and I cannot put it off.”
“Of course, Brevity,” Affinity responded. “You need not worry about me, you are so kind to
me already. I just pray it will not bring you ill.”
“All things have a way of working out,” Brevity lisped, sagely.
Later that night, Affinity tossed and turned in her bed, then she finally realized what the problem was. Music. She could hear music. How strange, and it sounded quite close. Why in fact, she thought, it sounded as if it were playing inside the house. Affinity rose slowly from her bed and tiptoed to her bedroom door, listening as the music became louder, and then she opened the door. It was softly floating music. A waltz?
“What?” Affinity murmured, but before she could take two steps she encountered a very happy dog at her feet. “Beauty!” she exclaimed, reaching down to pet the eager setter.
“You call my dog, Beauty?” Law’s voice floated up from downstairs. “My fierce, brave dog named, Warrior, and you call him, Beauty?”
Affinity could not catch her laugh. She was startled at Law’s presence, even though she could not see him. But what he said was funny. She inched toward the bannister and looked down. Her breath caught at Law’s handsome face looking up at her. He was dressed as though he were going to a ball, in superfine black pants and tailored jacket and he looked like everything that was masculine and pleasurable.
Affinity said tentatively, “I cannot believe you call him Warrior . . . this sweetheart, and he is beautiful.”
Law smiled, and her heart tripped a beat. “Well then, your Beauty has a message for you, if you will look on his collar,” he said.