by Anne Gracie
Melly looked shocked. “But what about Papa? You can’t leave him like this!”
The doctor sniffed. “There’s nothing I can do for him anyway. He’s dying!”
There was a stunned silence.
“Dying?” Melly whispered. Grace put her arms around her.
The doctor jerked his chin at Sir John’s swollen abdomen. “His liver’s hugely swollen. My guess is it’s cancer of the liver. That or consumption. If he coughs blood, you’ll know which. Either way, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do.”
“But we can’t do nothing,” Grace said.
He shrugged. “Give him laudanum for the pain. In increasing doses as the pain worsens.”
“If there is absolutely nothing anyone can do, then why were you bleeding him?” Dominic asked in a cold voice.
The doctor looked uncomfortable.
“You did enjoy it, didn’t you?” Grace accused him.
“I’m leaving now,” he blustered.
“Yes, you are,” Dominic agreed. “You’re leaving Wolfestone.”
The doctor gave him an uncertain look.
“Leaving the entire district,” Dominic clarified. “I don’t think you’re any sort of doctor at all. And I won’t have a man who enjoys the drawing of copious quantities of blood treating my people.”
Grace noticed the word if no one else did. My people.
The doctor’s eyes bulged with shock. “You can’t do that!”
Dominic fixed him with a cold golden stare. “I am Lord D’Acre and I won’t have a bloodsucking leech on my land, mistreating my people. You have two weeks.”
“How dare you—”
“One week, then. And if you’re still there after that I’ll send my men around to remove you and your charming wife!” He paused. The man was staring at him in shock. Dominic added, “And if you’re not gone by the time I count to three, I’ll give in to my overwhelming desire to throw you bodily down the stairs. One, two—”
Abdul loomed up behind the doctor, crooning in a sinister voice, “Give the bloodsucker to me, I beg of you, sir. In my land we know what to do with such as these.” He gave the doctor a terrible grin. “It will be my pleasure to—”
The doctor gave a frightened screech and scuttled from the room.
Abdul winked at Grace. “That got rid of him.” He turned to Melly and said in a solicitous voice, “Now, who shall we bring in to look after your father, Miss Pettifer? Do you have any preference?”
Melly’s blank look showed she hadn’t thought about it.
From the door, one of the Tickel girls piped up, “Granny Wigmore’s the best healer in these parts.”
Abdul nodded without turning. “Thank you, Tansy. What do you think, Miss Pettifer? Shall I send for this Granny Wigmore person?”
Melly looked at Grace for guidance.
“She can’t be worse than that doctor,” Grace told her. “And she’s clean and knows more about herbs than anyone I know. Plus I like her, Melly. She’ll be very comforting to have around.”
Abdul bowed. “Then Tansy will run like the wind to fetch this herbal granny for you, sitt.” And Tansy did.
GRANNY WIGMORE TOOK ONE LOOK AT SIR JOHN AND MUTTERED, “The consumption he said it was, did he? Or cancer? Well it might be, and it might not be.”
She lifted an eyelid and peered into Sir John’s eye. “’E looks proper liverish to me.” She looked at the inflamed swelling on his stomach and wrinkled her nose. “That ’un be the source o’ the problem, I reckon. It might be a boil, or it might be sommat worse. We must wait and see. I’ll poultice it and we’ll see if aught comes out.”
“What might come out?” Melly asked nervously.
The old lady wrinkled her face up. “Whatever’s ailing yer pa, young miss. Whatever’s ailing yer pa. I hope.”
Sir John opened his eyes and said in a weary voice. “Then get on with it, woman.”
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Sir John was back in the land of the living, for now, at least.
UNDER ABDUL’S EAGLE EYE, MRS. STOKES, ON HER METTLE, PUT ON an even more excellent dinner that evening and the next, but still Melly just picked at her meal. Grace watched her, concerned. It was not like Melly. Her father had grown no worse under Granny Wigmore’s treatment and he at least was taking liquids.
At the end of the meal, Mrs. Stokes’s niece, Enid, knocked on the dining room door and entered looking worried. “Excuse me, m’lord, Reverend, ladies, but I’ve just now come from Sir John’s chamber, collecting his dinner tray—”
Melly jumped up. “Is something the matter—”
“Oh no, miss, he’s—he’s the same as ever. Didn’t eat nothing, but Granny’s been makin’ him drink herbal tea all day, and he has kept that down, which is a change. Apart from that, he’s just as he was this morning. Only . . .”
She twisted her apron nervously. “Only I was chatterin’ on a bit, meaning no harm—he’s an easy old gentleman to chat to. But—” She glanced at Abdul and then Frey. “I was talking about Mr. Abdul here, and then I let slip that we had a vicar in the house as well as an ’eathen. And now he wants to see the vicar. Alone and at once.”
Melly gasped and Grace and Dominic exchanged glances.
Enid added, “I’m sorry, miss. I know I wasn’t s’posed to say.” Abdul waved her out.
Grace moved to sit beside Melly. She took her hand. “Melly, there is no reason to think the worst—”
Melly started to sob.
Frey set his napkin aside and rose from the table, saying in a calm voice, “Now, Miss Pettifer, there’s no point fretting when you don’t know what he wants. I’ll go up and speak to him—it was remiss of me not to have introduced myself when I first arrived. Just you sit there and have a nice cup of tea. I’ll talk to you when your father has finished with me.”
To Grace’s amazement, Melly valiantly gulped back her sobs and nodded. “Tea would be nice,” she managed, and Grace signaled to Enid to fetch a pot at once.
Frey went upstairs and introduced himself to Sir John. He’d never met the man before, but though he was shocked at how thin and fragile the elderly gentleman looked, he was also encouraged by the alertness of the old man’s eyes.
“Can I get you anything, sir?” he asked.
Sir John waved the offer away with a grimace of pain. “Pull up a chair, my boy. I’ll have some of that filthy stuff later.” He gestured to the little bottle of laudanum on his bedside table. “Addles my mind though, so I’ll wait till after I’ve said m’piece.”
Frey sat down, folded his hands, and waited. Sir John gave him a thorough inspection. “Netterton, eh? I knew a Humphrey Netterton slightly when I was young. Your father?”
Frey nodded. “Yes, sir. I am named after him.”
“Good fellow, your father. Sorry to hear how he died.” Sir John sniffed. “Knew your Uncle Cedric better in those days.” He shook his head. “Never would have believed it when he became a parson, of all things. Not Ceddie Netterton.”
“He’s a bishop now, sir.”
“Good God! What’s the world coming to?” He grinned at Frey. “Is he frightfully pompous?”
“Frightfully.” Frey grinned back.
“Still a parsimonious old lickpenny?”
“Indeed he is, sir.” Frey was starting to like this old gentleman very much.
“Ah well, he hasn’t changed as much as all that, then. Neither have I, more’s the pity. I can’t hang on to money, he can’t spend it. So, about this business with m’daughter.”
“Sir?”
“I want you to call the banns on Sunday. Her and D’Acre. It’s all arranged.”
Frey frowned. He hesitated, but he couldn’t not speak up. “Sir, please forgive me if this sounds impertinent, but—”
Sir John waved a thin hand. “You’re goin’ to tell me Melly doesn’t love D’Acre, and he doesn’t love her? I know all that.”
Frey opened his mouth to speak again and again, Sir John interrupted, “You’re goi
ng to tell me it’s not fair on my girl to arrange a marriage when she was a child to a fellow she doesn’t know, that she ought to be able to choose her own husband.”
“Well . . . yes, sir.”
“Well, don’t. I know all that but I have my reasons.” He gave Frey a candid look. “I’m all rolled up, my boy. Skint. Not a shillin’ to m’name and in debt to the eyebrows. If I’m to save Melly from the consequences of my folly I have to get her married. Prefer not to force the issue, but needs must . . .”
“I see.” Frey saw only too well. Poverty was a trap and he couldn’t blame Sir John from wanting to keep Melly out of it.
But Frey felt he had to persist, make a push to see if he could sort things out. It was—it was his duty as a minister. “Do you realize that Lord D’Acre has no intention of making a normal marriage? It’s to be a convenient marriage, he tells me. A white marriage.”
The old man shrugged. “Told me the same. He’ll come around. And if he doesn’t—” He broke off. “Can you see my Melly trying to scrape a livin’ as a governess or some such thing? Fending off the randy sons of the middle classes?”
Frey was horrified by the picture. “No, sir.”
“So even if it is a white marriage, could be worse. D’Acre is young, good-lookin’, and has a kind heart. Even if he doesn’t come to love her, he won’t mistreat my girl.”
Frey said heavily, “Yes, I know.”
Sir John’s eyed him shrewdly. “How d’ye know?”
“I was at school with him. We’re friends.”
“Ah, then you think she’ll be safe with him, too?”
“Yes,” Frey admitted reluctantly. “Safe, but not happy.”
Sir John dismissed that with an impatient gesture. “From where I’m sittin’, my boy, happiness is a luxury.”
“Yes, sir,” Frey agreed bitterly. It was the same from where he was sitting.
Sir John gave him a hard look, but all he said was, “So on Sunday you’ll call the banns, then.”
“If Lord D’Acre agrees—”
“He’ll agree. Call the banns.”
“Yes, Sir John.”
Frey returned to the dining room. He glanced at Dominic, then back at Melly, and ran his finger around between his neck and his collar, as if it was too tight. “He wants me to marry Miss Pettifer to Lord D’Acre as soon as possible and wants me to call the banns.”
“What?” came from the throats of the three people listening.
Frey continued. “He has written to your local minister, Miss Pettifer, instructing him to commence the calling of the banns in your own parish also. I have it here, countersigned by me as witness. I shall post it as soon as possible.”
Melly burst into tears and ran out of the room. Grace followed her. Dominic swore and strode to the window. He stood, staring out into the night, then swore again.
“He looks shocking, Dom.” Frey said. “I think he’s dying and he knows it. He’s making a push to secure his only child’s future. You can’t blame him for that. Her circumstances are such—”
Dominic flung him an opaque look. “I know her circumstances, dammit!”
The two men stood side by side staring out into the night.
“He wants me to start calling the banns on Sunday.”
Dominic swore again. “Dammit, I’d settle a house and an income on her, but the stubborn old fool won’t listen to me and she won’t try to talk him round. He thinks she can’t look after herself.”
“Well, she’s very young and sheltered—”
“Don’t give me that. My mother was young and sheltered and she had to look after herself and a baby in a foreign country!”
“And look how that ended. She knows he’s dying, too, Dom. You can see it in her eyes. She’s agreeing to this in order to give her father peace of mind.”
Dominic flung him a hard look and resumed his pacing. “Blast it, she can’t possibly be willing to sacrifice herself and her future happiness—and me!—for her father’s peace of mind!”
“She’s a noble creature!”
Dominic made a rude noise.
“Then what are we to do?” Frey said.
Dominic resumed his pacing with a brooding expression. “For God’s sake, I told him the girl would be taken care of—what is there to complain of in that?”
“It’s all very well to speak of settlements, Dom, but Miss Pettifer would still be the butt of many sly and nasty comments.”
“What?” Dominic frowned.
“It will be bruited about that you took one look at her and paid out good money to avoid marrying her.”
“What rubbish! I mean the girl is plain, but there is nothing to disg—”
“Plain! Are you blind? How can you call such creamy skin, such melting dark eyes plain? And there is a sweetness of expression that—” Frey broke off.
Dominic was regarding him with raised eyebrows. “I see,” he said slowly. “You’re right, she’s not plain.”
“No,” Frey muttered. “She’s not. And all he’s trying to do is provide for his daughter.”
“By condemning her to a loveless, childless marriage!”
Frey clenched his fists and stared out into the night. There was just no answer to some problems. Or rather, money was the only answer.
They fell silent for a long time. After a while Frey said, “I understand why you’re unhappy about this marriage, but what are we going to do, Dom? Her father is adamant. He has instructed me to commence the calling the banns on Sunday.”
“Then I have until then to turn this thing around,” Dom said heavily. “And if I fail, call the banns and to hell with us all!” As if in some macabre toast, he and Frey drained their glasses.
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO TALK TO YOUR FATHER,” GRACE said into the darkness.
“I did,” Melly said after a moment. “I tried, Grace, I truly did.” Grace could hear her despairing sigh from across the room. “I talked to him again just now, but he won’t listen.” She added with a sob, “I’m sorry, Grace, I’m so sorry.” The darkness filled with the sound of muffled sobs.
Grace hugged the pillow to her, biting her lip.
The banns were going to be called on Sunday. Melly Pettifer and Dominic Wolfe’s intention to marry would be announced to the world on Sunday.
Only Melly had the power to change her father’s mind. And she was too paralyzed with fear to even try.
Melly feared that if she opposed his will, her father would die. She also feared that he would die and she’d be left alone and destitute. Melly could not think past her fears.
Grace could and it brought her no comfort at all.
She lay in bed, the thoughts spinning round and round in her head.
Her grandfather’s old vicious whispers taunted her. “Not you, Grace. Never you. You’ll die alone and unloved . . .”
She pulled the pillow over her head to block it out. It didn’t matter. She had been loved, even for just a fleeting moment. He hadn’t said a word, hadn’t declared himself, but she’d tasted ecstasy and passion in Dominic’s arms.
Most people never tasted ecstasy their whole lives.
She had. So what if it had been snatched away again? She had her plans to fall back on. She would still get to see the moon rise over the pyramids.
But the moon was distant and cold, not hot, intense, and golden like his eyes. And the pyramids were stone, not hard, warm flesh.
And he hadn’t ever actually said he loved her.
Slow tears welled, soaking Grace’s pillow. She scrubbed them from her cheeks and thumped the pillow into a different shape. She would not cry. She would not!
She would plan and think and try.
In the room across the hall a frail, old man tossed and turned, racked with pain and anxiety, fearing to sleep lest he die before his daughter’s future was secured.
Chapter Sixteen
Many women long for what eludes them, and like not what is offered them.
OVID
“HOW COULD YOU AGREE? AFTER ALL YOU SAID TO ME YESTERDAY morning, how could you just turn around and agree to let Frey call the banns next Sunday?” Grace and Dominic had met the next morning in the place where they’d first made love.
He frowned. “I know. It’s a damned nuisance. I had hoped to escape it. But it won’t affect you and me.” He caught her to him and kissed her. “Good morning, love.”
She pushed him away furiously. “Not affect you and me? What are you talking about? Of course it will affect us!”
“Well, if it upsets you so much, we shall leave immediately after the wedding.”
She stared at him, confused. “Which ‘we’ are you talking about?”
“You and me, of course. You’ve told me of your dreams: I’ll take you traveling. We’ll sail into Venice at dawn on the most beautiful yacht you’ve ever seen. I’ll take you to Egypt, and together we’ll watch the moon rise over the pyramids and—”
“After you’ve married Melly Pettifer?”
He nodded. “Purely for convenience and in a white marriage.”
Grace was thunderstruck at the barefaced audacity of him. “You expect me to become your mistress!”
He grinned at her. “Not become, love. You already are my mistress. Or have you forgotten yesterday morning already?”
She wanted to scream.
“Is that it? Do you want me to remind you?” He stepped forward and she thumped him as hard as she could on the chest.
He rubbed it. “Ouch! What was that for?”
She stared at him in disbelief. “I presume you don’t mean to insult me—”
He looked horrified. “Insult you? No, of course not! Is that what you think?” He reached out and hauled her against him. “I promise you there is no insult intended.” She tried to wrest herself out of his embrace but he effortlessly restrained her.
“I’m not letting you go until you understand.”
“I’ll never come to that sort of understanding,” she flashed.
“I don’t know how you think a mistress will be treated, but I promise you, you don’t understand. Just listen to what I have to say.”