The Fledgling

by Jeanie P Johnson

  “Actually I discovered my parents left me money after all,” I told him.

  “Then I should come and resume my Godfather duty to you,” he offered.

  “I have renounced you as my Godfather,” I told him. “My parent’s solicitor has taken over my welfare, and I have a worthy guardian now. I no longer need your services, not that I ever really had them.”

  “You are looking much better, these days,” he murmured.

  “No thanks to you! I fear that your son is much like you, and if the two of you do not watch your step, I shall report both of your treatment of me to the authorities. Consider yourself lucky, that I don’t.”

  Aldridge frowned at me. “You ungrateful winch, had we not taken you in, you would have been living on the streets!”

  “Which, I believe I would have preferred, to living in your house,” I told him, and then turned away.

  “What have you brought me?” Tamara asked, at my shoulder. Sheldon and Vance were still at her side, and I smiled at all of them.

  “You will have to come outside to see,” I told her. “I had my groom take it to the stables.”

  “What?” Tamara asked, looking puzzled.

  “Come see,” I told her, and she and Sheldon, along with Vance followed me out to the back.

  Sam was standing at the stable doors, holding my present in his arms, and as soon as Tamara saw it, she let out a delighted giggle. It was a soft white puppy, which would grow into a large dog, later on. “I got him for you to protect you from danger,” I told her. “You must always keep him at your side, and teach him who your enemies are. I hope you will discover who your enemies are, before it is too late, though.”

  Sheldon gave me an angry look, but Tamara was cooing at the puppy, as she took it from Sam’s arms. “It is a wonderful gift,” she smiled.

  Vance patted my hand. “It was kind of you to think of my sister’s safety,” he told me. He knew I wanted to save her from Sheldon, when the time came. I just hoped that Sheldon wouldn’t do any further damage to Tamara’s reputation, before I could put my plan into action. “I hope you are not planning another visit to Heather Ridge House, any time soon,” I whispered in his ear. “You must make sure Tamara cannot be alone with Sheldon again.”

  “I will make sure of it,” Vance whispered back. “Someday, I hope you will feel comfortable enough with me to tell me what it is that you know.”

  I knew I never would, so I merely smiled at him. “We should probably go back to the party, before your father starts to worry about Tamara,” I suggested.

  Tamara showed Sam an empty stall he could put the puppy in, and told him to find a pan to put water in for the pup. Then we all started back to the house, to join the rest of the guests. Tamara was chatting happily to Vance about what she should name the puppy, and I felt a restraining hand on my arm. I turned to Sheldon, who had detained me, and I glared at him.

  “Please unhand me,” I murmured. “I have nothing to say to you.”

  “But I have something to say to you,” Sheldon growled low in his throat.

  “I do not wish to listen,” I said, shrugging his hand away, but he held fast.

  “You do not know how devastated I have been since you left,” he groaned. “I realize how cruel I had been to you. I regretted it at once. Only you were threatening me. I love you, Floriana . It has always been you I loved.”

  I gave a low laugh. “You had a very strange way of showing it, Sheldon. I don’t believe you even know what love is. You have it mixed up with giving girls tests that degrade them. I was innocent, and you knew it. That is why you were able to persuade me. I pity Tamara. Because if what you say is true, you are only marrying her for her money, you never would have married me.”

  “I was torn. I so needed Tamara’s money and my father had already demanded that I marry her. I thought I could use the tests to have an excuse to turn her away, but I knew my father never would have allowed that, and once I started the tests, I couldn’t stop.”

  “Because you enjoyed your power over her, as much as you were enjoying your power over me. Whether it was wrought by love or twisted desire, it matters not. I could never love you, Sheldon,… never!” I twisted free of his grasp and tried to catch up with Tamara and Vance.

  “I’ll never stop loving you, even if I do marry Tamara,” Sheldon whispered in my ear.

  “You are wasting your breath,” I told him. “And you don’t deserve Tamara, any more than you deserve my love, which if you ever had, you shall never have again.”

  I caught up with Tamara and Vance. “I hope you will excuse me,” I mumbled. “I am feeling tired, and should return to my home.”

  “I will walk you to your buggy,” Vance said. “I wish you could stay longer.”

  Vance took my arm and led me through the house. I noticed Connor was talking with Aldridge again. He caught my eye, and I nodded towards the door. He nodded back, and then went back to talking to Aldridge.

  “You must come back soon to visit me,” Vance insisted, as he helped me up in my buggy. “I wish you didn’t have to leave so soon.”

  “I could not abide being near Sheldon,” I admitted. “I only came to give him and his father a shock, because they know I could do them damage, if they are not careful. I also wanted to rub in their faces that I was not the helpless innocent they believed me to be, when I came asking for shelter. Please promise me you will keep your sister as far away from Sheldon as you dare. He doesn’t even love her. He admitted it to me, not only now, but when I was at Heather Ridge House. It is only about her money, and if he doesn’t love her, I fear how he would treat her once they were married. After all, he claimed to love me, and yet he…” I stopped myself. “He did lock me in the tower room,” I finished up.

  “It was a horrible thing to do to you,” Vance, said, kissing my hand.

  “You should go back. I don’t trust Sheldon alone with your sister,” I begged, and he bowed his head, and turned back to the house.

  Sam whipped up the horses, and the sound of their hooves clopping over the cobbles reminded me of the time I rode in the wagon with the old man and the dead people. How my life had changed since then. I gave a shiver. I could not wait to get revenge on Sheldon and his father. I just hoped that it didn’t take too long to put my plan in action, because both Sheldon and his father knew I was still around, and they could not help but remember how they treated me, and wonder what I planned to do about it? But to them, I was probably a mere child, and in spite of my wealth, they most likely thought me too inept to do anything but be angry at them.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I sat at the piano, playing. I had to distract myself somehow, so I played every song I could remember how to play. The music washed over me, and soothed me in a way that nothing else could. Sally had already gone to bed, after turning down my bed, and me assuring her I could tend to undressing myself. The house was quiet, except for my playing, that echoed throughout the three story structure. The town house was only a third the size of my parent’s house, but thinking about returning to my own house troubled me because of the memories that would remind me of my parent’s death.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I jumped, thinking I had been the only one in the room. “You play beautifully,” Connor said, as I turned to look at him. I hadn’t heard him come in. “No, don’t stop,” he encouraged. “I was enjoying listening to you.”

  My fingers continued to coax the music out of the keys, until the piece I had been playing was finished. Connor clapped. “Did I tell you how lovely you looked in your new clothes and your hair on top of your head? The shock on your Godfather’s face, when he saw you enter, was worth being there tonight.”

  “Did you arrange a game?” I asked anxiously.

  “Don’t get excited. I have to get him to trust me first. He suggested I come to Heather Ridge House in two weeks’ time to meet some of his card playing partners, when I told him my interest in learning how to play. He seemed eager to teach me all he knew,
” Connor chuckled. “You will have to furnish a purse for me to lose in the learning,” he winked, “but I will speak to my cousin about it, when I apply for house hold expenses.”

  “And then what?” I asked, wanting everything to be over with, so I could keep Sheldon from Tamara for good.

  “We just play it a day at a time, and let him start getting over confident about his ability to beat me at cards. I have to discover if he is partial to cheating, or plays the game honestly. You will have to be patient, my little ward.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “You just focus on your studies, and being a young woman of consequence, and let me make the decisions that have to do with Aldridge Bogart.”

  Connor took my hand, and pulled me over to the settee, sitting down beside me, as he gently pushed me down on the sofa. “I believe it is time you tell me the whole story about why you are determined to ruin Aldridge Bogart, and his son,” he said softly, giving my hand a squeeze. “I only know of you being locked in the tower room, and being used as a servant. Unless I know the extent of your treatment, I will not feel justified in trying to ruin a man who already seems to have financial problems as it is.”

  I let out a long sigh. “I will tell you about the tower first, and how it all ties in to what happened to me,” I said quietly. “I read Sheldon’s great grandfather’s first wife’s diary, while I was shut up in the tower, after I found it under the mattress. It seems that cruel treatment runs in the family.”

  Connor looked at me with expectant, kind eyes, the green that was always so startling when he stared at me, intently, seemed to soften to a warmer glow, in the light of the lamp beside the settee. I began telling him of Claudia and her imprisonment in the tower. Connor’s eyes darkened as he listened to the story, only asking a few brief questions, as I related what I had learned about her. When I had finished, I took a deep breath, and forded on with my own story, starting with when my mother told me to go to my Godfather.

  When I came to sensitive information, I would find myself hesitating, not wanting to tell Connor, of how Sheldon had tricked me into taking tests with him. It was hard for me to actually explain what he did during the tests, and how I felt when I allowed him to use them on me. But he seemed to understand, as his face looked grim, and then towards the end, when I told him about how Sheldon punished me, and then brought Jim to the tower, Connor pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me.

  “You needn’t say another word,” his voice shuddered against my hair, as he pressed my head down on his shoulder. “This is why you refuse to ever marry, isn’t it? But is it because you could never bear to be with a man like that again, or because you do not feel worthy of anyone loving you?”

  “Both,” I admitted. “I don’t think I would do well as someone’s wife. I am too independent, and outspoken. I defied Sheldon, and look what happened to me? And he wasn’t even my husband! How would a true husband treat me if I displeased him? Besides, I am no longer a virgin. No man would want me, even if I did want to marry someday.”

  “A true husband would be a loving protector of your honor, and want to keep you safe from the kind of treatment you received from Sheldon and his father. I am sorry that your innocence was so brutally shattered. But you have plenty of time to grow up and perhaps learn to look differently on life and love in the future. You seem to be good friends with Tamara’s brother, Vance. He appears attentive, and loyal, considering he is trying to help you. Does he know what happened to you?”

  “Only that I was a servant that got locked in the tower room, but he probably suspects more than that happened to me. I didn’t tell him all of what happened to his sister, only that I thought she had been compromised. I did not know how much to tell him, for fear he would try to kill Sheldon, if he learned the truth.”

  “Yes, that is probably wise of you,” he murmured, in my ear. “But for now, you must put it all out of your head. You are still young, and should enjoy your life, and in a few years, when you become of age, I am sure you will change your mind about becoming a wife.”

  “No more than you will change your mind about becoming a husband,” I threw back at him.

  He gave a laugh. “We shall see,” he said. “My reasons for never marrying, are quite different than yours. You need time to heal, where I have more practical reasons for not taking on a wife.”

  Eventually, Connor released me, and encouraged me to go on up to bed, and try not to worry about anything. In a few months’ time, he would have Aldridge Bogart right where he wanted him.

  “And what are you going to do, once you have taken Heather Ridge House from him?” he asked, as I stood up to go.

  “I am going to turn it back into the house it deserves to be, but if Aldridge, or Sheldon want to remain there, they shall remain as my servants, and do the work to put Heather Ridge House back to the glory it once knew, while knowing it shall never belong to them again,” I smiled. “I am just concerned about Chandra. She was not a part of anything, and I do not want to punish her.”

  “We have plenty of time to decide,” he assured me. “But for her father and Sheldon, I believe it will be a fitting punishment, I suppose, considering Aldridge was insisting Sheldon marry Tamara in order to accomplish the same goal, while living on her money for the rest of their lives.”

  “I may even make Sheldon live in the tower room,” I said, as I left the parlor, and I could hear Connor laughing behind me.

  The weeks began to pass, as Connor gained Aldridge’s trust, and I became better friends with Vance, before he was expected to leave for school.

  He and Tamara and I, spent many fun days together. Tamara’s puppy was growing up to be a good sized dog, which she named Goliath, and it followed her about, wherever she went. I was happy to see the love she had for the gift, and knew Goliath would grow up to protect her.

  Vance and I would sit for hours talking about my childhood, compared to his childhood, along with our favorite things. I told him of my plans for Aldridge and Sheldon, once Connor put the plan in motion. I just hoped it did not take too long for it to happen, because I didn’t want an excuse for Sheldon and Tamara to have, to be together again.

  I never spoke to Tamara about the fact that I knew what Sheldon had done with her, and she still spoke of their future marriage. She claimed she loved him, but I wondered if she still would love him, if she knew how he had tricked me into thinking he planned to marry me, not her. I did not tell Vance what Sheldon had done with Tamara, either, because it was Tamara’s secret, and if she had felt violated, she would have told her father, or Vance, and demanded they deal with Sheldon, but she never did. I think maybe she truly did love Sheldon. I just wasn’t sure if Sheldon loved her.

  The three of us became great friends, though, and I knew they would always remain my friends, even after I finally put Sheldon and his father in their place. Once that happened, I would tell Tamara what I knew, so she would never agree to marry Sheldon. Anyway, I hoped she would see reason, and never wish to marry him. I just wasn’t sure. If she still insisted, I would have to tell her the whole story of how Sheldon treated me, while I was at Heather Ridge House. I didn’t know if I was prepared to do that, because I did not want Vance to discover the complete story.

  I was impatient. It seemed that Connor was taking his time working at gaining Aldridge’s trust, and losing my money to him, as he gambled it away, pretending like he knew nothing about gambling. I began to wonder if he did know anything about gambling.

  “How long does it take to turn the tables on someone?” I asked Connor, when the time kept dragging out.

  “I plan to play him for his estate,” Connor explained. “Before he will ever put his estate on the line, he needs enough money to lose back to me, where it would justify using the deed to his home, in order to gain the money back. The money I am losing to him, will build up his bank, along with his confidence. Also, once I start to win, I have to lose a few hands, or he will see through the game, and stop playing. It is all about baiting him along, unt
il he is caught in the trap. That is going to take time.”

  “How much time?” I wanted to know.

  “I can’t say. I have to go carefully.”

  “But the longer you take, the more likely Sheldon will want to be with Tamara again. Vance will be leaving for school soon, and he will not be able to make sure Tamara and Sheldon are never alone.”

  “You do have a point, but you are the one who insists that I take him for all he is worth. I can’t do it over night.”

  “Do you know if he has mortgaged the house?” I said suddenly. I had not thought about that possibility. “I will bet he has, since he has little money to survive on. He got rid of most of his servants. What was he using to live on? He wanted Sheldon to marry Tamara in order to save the estate. Maybe it wasn’t just about restoring the house, but keeping the bank from foreclosing on him,” I reasoned.

  “I will have my cousin look into it,” Connor offered.

  “If it is mortgaged, he could not use the house for collateral, during a card game. If that is the case, I will just buy the mortgage out, and you can win all the money you lost to him back again.”

  “I don’t know why we didn’t think of this sooner? It would have saved a lot of time and effort,” Connor mumbled. “I should have thought of it myself. You are a very smart young woman, for your age.”

  “I just want this to be over with,” I told him.

  “And so it will, very shortly, I believe,” Connor promised me.

  The day I had Connor’s uncle buy out the mortgage on Heather Ridge House, I was ecstatic. Mr. Price assured me, that Aldridge would know nothing about it. All he was responsible for was paying the bank on the loan, which would be transferred into my trust. Now all we had to do was make sure that Aldridge did not have the funds to pay on the loan, so I could foreclose on him. Finally my plan was starting to fall into place.

  “There is going to be a game tonight,” Connor informed me. “I have decided to invite a person I know, to come. Aldridge will allow it, since he trusts me, and has won a lot of money off of me. But between my friend, and myself, I believe we will able to put Mr. Bogart into the poor house. It will go better, if I am not the only one having sudden luck,” he winked. “Only you will be losing what money my friend wins. It is up to you as to whether you want this to happen all in one night, or to take longer, by me trying to do it on my own,” he told me.