Bonds of Matrimony

by A C J McKechnie

  “But if it happened so frequently surely they had to have known. Why didn’t they do more to protect you?”

  “What can they do if nobody reports it?”

  “You didn’t report it to anyone?”

  “Are you kidding me? How many of us do you think would win against these guys, Mr McCormack? What do you think we could do if it came down to some sort of legal battle? What do you think would happen to a maid who accused a politician, or an actor, or one of the most powerful businessmen in the country of soliciting the staff? It wasn’t worth the battle. So you tell them ‘no, thank you’ and you promise not to tell management if they don’t try it again.”

  “And that works?”

  “No. But it means that you don’t get into trouble, you don’t get accosted, molested, or raped by men who think that they’re above the law, and the hotel doesn’t lose a high-paying client.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” he said angrily and watched as Ellie looked at him in slight bewilderment.

  “That’s how the real world works,” she said blandly.

  “Who?” he suddenly asked, and Ellie looked at him in confusion. “Who propositioned you? Tell me who they are,” he demanded and watched as her eyes widened before she shook her head violently.

  “No.”

  “Yes,” he declared.

  “No. I’m not naming names.”

  “I need to know,” he declared.

  “No. You don’t. Nothing happened. It doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters to me!” he said fiercely.

  “Because I’m your property!?” she shot back.

  “Because you’re my wife,” he ground out at her. “If I have to work with or run into one of those men I want to know.”

  “If you have to work with or run into them then there’s a good chance that it’s for the benefit of your business. Are you really willing to damage or jeopardize it?” she demanded, and he clenched his jaw as he thought of that. Yes, he was in actual fact, but he didn’t like letting Ellie know that she had that sort of power or control over him, so stayed silent.

  “You never finished telling me about Oscar,” he prodded, and she sighed again before telling him about the man approaching her on the dance floor as Clive went to get a drink.

  “Why did you dance with him?” he asked.

  “I didn’t know how to say no. He was just there all of a sudden, and I couldn’t get away without causing a scene,” she said with a sigh. “When he pulled me in close I thought that something was wrong, but then presumed I was overreacting, so just endured it.”

  “What else happened?” he asked, and she looked away shyly. An unusual emotion for his wife to display. “You need to tell me all of it, Ellie.”

  With a sigh she then repeated what Oscar Langley had said to her about Zach’s behavior during the evening, and he clenched his jaw, attempting not to groan in frustration. He knew that he’d been avoiding his wife through the night, but hadn’t realized how obvious it had been to everyone else, how speculation would abound about the reasons why.

  “So I was getting kind of angry at that point. The man was being incredibly insulting with all his speculations and everything.”

  “So you took a knee to his groin?” he asked with a raised brow.

  “No, not then.”

  “Why not?” he asked with another raised brow and a slight smile and saw her glance up at him in surprise.

  “You mean I’d have been allowed to then?” she asked with her own small smile.

  Shrugging, he replied, “I have to admit that I might have hit him if he’d said it all to me.”

  “And acted like a child?” she said, and Zach winced at his cruel words to her from earlier. “No. He promptly decided to explain to me how we’d met. Apparently everything made sense to him and he had it all figured out.”

  “How close to the truth was he?” Zach asked in interest and watched as Ellie laughed humorlessly.

  “Completely off the mark. Apparently you were one of those clients of The Palatio looking for extra services and I was smart enough to get marriage in exchange for it,” she said, and Zach found his brows slamming down over his eyes as she did so.

  “What?” he gritted out.

  “Oh yeah,” she said with wide eyes before promptly repeating everything that the man had decided was the truth about the pair of them.

  “At which point you got violent,” he deduced and watched as she shook her head again. If being branded a prostitute wasn’t enough to get her back up what the hell had he done that made her lose it?

  “No,” she said with a sigh. “I mean it made me darn angry, but I would have just walked away if he’d have let me at that point,” she added, and Zach found himself feeling even worse about calling her childish. She’d put up with a hell of a lot more than he would have in the same circumstances.

  “I never should have called you a child,” he said sincerely and watched as she looked up at him in surprise before shrugging. “But you’re going to have to tell me what did cause you to finally snap, Ellie.”

  “Well, he went on to tell me about your flaws and all this other stuff about how I’d get bored and lonely and feel neglected,” she explained, and Zach frowned over that. There was a good chance that Oscar would spread the rumor that Zach wasn’t man enough to satisfy his wife, and he clenched his jaw again over that thought. “So he told me that if I needed any suggestions of how to pass the time then he could give me some.”

  “I’m guessing that he didn’t mean tennis or squash,” Zach said drily, and Ellie shook her head sadly. “What did he say, Ellie?”

  “Do you really need me to repeat it?” she asked almost desperately, and he just nodded at her before she sighed and told him verbatim what Oscar had told her he could do to entertain her. After hearing the man’s words repeated Zach was disappointed that Ellie hadn’t done more damage.

  “And that was it?” he asked tightly, and she shook her head at him with resignation. At the move, Zach couldn’t help but groan and close his eyes. If he’d been mad a few minutes ago that Ellie had had to put up with lecherous guests at her hotel he was even more furious that she’d had to contend with even more from one of Zach’s peers, and right underneath his nose as well.

  “What else, Ellie?” he finally managed to get out and waited for the next bombshell.

  “Well, this is where perhaps I think that maybe it was my fault. I mean if I knew that we shouldn’t have been dancing as close as we had it wouldn’t have happened.”

  “What the hell did he do!?” he demanded and watched as she jumped in place before he tried to breathe in deeply and calm himself. When she didn’t look like she’d answer he grabbed her up close to him and said, “You were dancing like this, right?” he asked, and she nodded at him reluctantly. “So what did he do?”

  “Um … well, he was kind of whispering all of his suggestions to me,” she said, and Zach suited his actions to her words, recreating the scene.

  “Like this?” he asked against her neck and didn’t miss the little gasp that she emitted as he did so.

  “Um … yeah,” she said breathlessly. “And … well, I was getting mad. Just standing there,” she said, and Zach found himself getting distracted by the feel of his wife close up against him. “Then I started to feel his hands move,” she said almost breathlessly, and Zach moved his hands from her waist to around her back.

  “Like this?” he asked against her neck again and felt her shake her head slightly.

  “No,” she finally said. “They went in opposite directions,” she said quietly, and Zach closed his eyes as he let one hand slide down while the other went up. “Except the one that travelled north, so to speak, came around the front as well,” she whispered at him, and Zach stopped himself abruptly before his hands got to where he knew full well Oscar had placed them.

  “I get the picture,” he whispered against her neck again. “I need you to tell me right now if he did anything else, honey?” he
said and hoped to hell that the man hadn’t, because if he had Zach was going to kill him. As it was he was going to break more than the man’s nose when he next saw him.

  “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I just pulled up my knee and turned to leave.”

  “Somebody said that he called out an apology which is when you hit him,” he prodded where he was still resting against her neck and felt her shake her head again.

  “He did, but he didn’t,” she said, and Zach waited for the explanation. “He called out that he was sorry, and when I turned to look at him he smirked and added, ‘I didn’t mean to get you so riled up without being able to follow through right now, especially when you’ve got to go back to your husband tonight.’,” she repeated, and Zach pulled her closer to him as she finished her recital.

  “Stay away from him in the future,” he ordered and felt her stiffen against him.

  “I’m not an idiot,” she said sternly.

  “Forget about society and the polite rules and procedures,” he said, ignoring her comment. “I don’t care if people think you’re doing something wrong, don’t go near him. Turn your back on him. Whatever you have to do to avoid him,” he added more firmly. “He’s not getting anywhere near you again, Ellie,” he promised and felt her tense even further.

  “You don’t trust me,” she surmised, and he closed his eyes. If he denied it he’d have to explain that he was issuing the order because he didn’t want her to have to endure the man’s behavior again. Which was tantamount to admitting that he cared about her to some degree. Something he wouldn’t do. Besides which, he didn’t trust her. Not implicitly.

  He trusted her not to do anything to dishonor or embarrass him, but he didn’t really trust her. Not like a husband should be able to trust his wife. Unable to deny her charge for two reasons, he just pulled back away from her and looked down into her startling green eyes. There was a mixture of anger and sadness in them but he couldn’t do anything to dispel it so he simply backed away from her some more.

  “Is that all you wanted to know?” she asked crisply, and he nodded at her. “In that case I presume that I’m free to go to my room?” she said, and he knew that she’d phrased it deliberately to make it sound like she was a child being punished by him. Nodding his head, Zach watched as she turned on her heel and gracefully glided away.

  When she was no longer in sight he sighed a deep sigh and thought through everything that had happened tonight. Matters with his wife were complicated. Much more complicated than he’d ever expected them to be, because he was starting to admire her. To respect her. To care for her. And that was an incredibly stupid thing for him to do. Especially when the woman was such a devious character.

  Chapter Ten

  “Papa!” Ellie said in surprise as she answered her cellphone.

  “Ellie,” he returned, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

  “You’re calling early,” she remarked as she looked at the clock on her bedside table and noted the time. “You don’t usually call until around lunchtime.”

  “I was too excited to wait,” he said, and she furrowed her brow in confusion at that. “It was the big dinner last night, wasn’t it?” he prodded, and she closed her eyes, grimacing as she remembered it all.

  “Yes,” she replied and tried to smile, hoping to keep the fact that it had all been such a disaster from her dad.

  “So?” he asked expectantly. “How was it?” he said, and Ellie could hear the excitement in the man’s voice. In an effort not to disappoint him she thought over the night and picked out the parts of it that she could honestly enthuse over.

  “It was certainly different,” she said in a gross understatement of it all.

  “I’d certainly hope so,” he said with a laugh that turned into a deep cough, and Ellie found her concern piquing at the sound of it.

  “Papa? Are you alright?” she finally asked when the coughing fit had subsided.

  “I’m fine,” he managed to get out around some smaller coughs, and Ellie found herself even more concerned over his health.

  “Have you been to see a doctor yet?”

  “It’s fine, Ellie. It’s just a cold.”

  “Papa,” she said with a sigh of forbearance. “It’s not just a cold. You’ve had this for months now. It’s not going anywhere.”

  “And it’s wintertime, colds always hang about for longer in the cold weather.”

  “Then even more reason to see somebody about it,” she argued. “You don’t want to complicate it all by catching something else on top of it.”

  “Stop worrying, I didn’t call to have you treat me like a child. I called to find out about your evening,” he said with encouragement, and Ellie knew that the fight wasn’t worth it. So instead focused on the fact that her dad seemed to be so excited about her new life. A life that she hid the truth about from him. “So what was it like? What was Zachary like? What happened?”

  “It was all so grand, Papa. Everyone was so elegantly and finely dressed.”

  “And yourself? I take it that you had a new dress for it then.”

  “Yes. Zachary insisted that I get a new wardrobe more befitting a McCormack,” she said matter-of-factly. “Pauline was a great help as well, she helped me get ready for it and let me know what to expect.”

  “And was it everything she told you?”

  “Pretty much. It’s amazing though that there are so many people who have so much,” she mused.

  “I know, Ellie. But we don’t live in a communist state, there will always be different layers of society and classes. Just be grateful that you’re now one of the privileged ones,” he counselled, and Ellie stopped herself before telling her father that she’d happily go back to her former life if it meant getting away from her domineering husband.

  “So what happened first? Did you dance? Meet anyone famous? What happened?” he asked, and she smiled at his enthusiasm.

  “Dinner was first, and oh my goodness, Papa, the meal was amazing. Amazing and unlike anything that I’ve ever had before. The portions were tiny, but they were absolutely delicious, and there were so many of them. I have no idea what everything was but it was all so tasty.”

  “Did they feed you enough though?” he queried, and she smiled at that.

  “I think they fed us enough to allow us to be able to eat the next course that came our way. You never got that stuffed feeling, but I didn’t find myself hankering after a burger or anything at the end of it.”

  “What came next then?”

  “Then there were some speeches about the charity and all the good works it does with the money from the donors. It seems to be a worthwhile cause from what I could tell about it all.”

  “Then came dancing,” her dad surmised.

  “Then came dancing, Papa.”

  “Was it romantic?” he asked, and Ellie found her brow puckering over her dad’s manner. Could he really have forgotten how she’d ended up where she was?

  “Well, Zachary was busy talking to people about business, but he did introduce me to a friend of his,” she explained. “Clive was very attentive and helpful. Put me completely at ease and kept me entertained while Zachary was busy with the other men eager to talk shop.”

  “He didn’t dance with you?” he asked, and Ellie could hear the disapproval in his tone.

  “No. There were a lot of people there for him to talk to. I enjoyed dancing with Clive though. I thought I’d feel out of place, but I really didn’t when we were together. He was a genuinely nice man,” she said happily and paused when she heard silence on the other end of the line. “Papa?” she inquired.

  “I’m here,” he said but he didn’t sound quite as excited as he had at the start.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Everything’s fine,” he assured but she could tell that the tone was forced.

  “No it’s not. What’s the matter?”

  “I just remembered something, that was all.”

  “
What?”

  “Just something that Herschel said to me the other day. He heard of a job that might suit me. I was thinking of it,” he said, and Ellie narrowed her eyes in suspicion. He might not be able to see her, but she knew that something about that wasn’t true. Likely all of it, in fact, but her father was too stubborn to try to persuade to fess up, especially over the telephone.

  “Alright,” she said slowly at him. “Anyway, we then went home relatively early. The night had reached its end for me, and I think that Zachary felt the same way.”

  “I did think that you sounded remarkably well rested considering that you’d been out the night before,” he said, and she could hear that although he was trying to sound upbeat again, he wasn’t quite succeeding.

  “I’m not used to late hours, Papa. You know that. I’m still an early riser.”

  “I know what you mean. I’m still up before anyone else is as well. It’s hard to break the habit of a lifetime,” he said with a sigh.

  “It’s a pity that there’s nobody else there with you anymore though,” she said sadly.

  “That’s life, Ellie, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course I miss your ma but it was her time, and now it’s your time to embark on your new life. I know you love me and all I want is what’s best for you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you,” he said seriously, and Ellie found herself tearing up at her father’s words.

  “And it’s all I’ve ever wanted for you,” she returned.

  “Knowing that you’ll get everything you deserve is what I’ve always wanted. Seeing you married and settled is enough to make me happy and content,” he added, and Ellie smiled ruefully at her dad’s words. She’d been right to conceal the truth about how unhappy she was. He was alone right now, alone and with nothing to sustain him apart from the knowledge that she was fortunate in how things had turned out. She wouldn’t take that away from him.

  “You’ll have to come see us today,” she said suddenly.

  “Not on your life,” he declared firmly, and she found herself surprised at his reaction.