by Anna Edwards
“No.” My father steps forward toward Victoria. I can see her hands shaking as she struggles to maintain her composure and keep up the web of lies we’re weaving. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but this must be one of the first times she’s seen our father since he gave her away. I’ve always visited her alone because she never wanted to see him. Why didn’t I question everything sooner? I’ve been so blinded by the affection I have for this man who doesn’t deserve it.
“Did he hurt you badly, my little one?” He strokes his hand down Victoria’s face, and she lets out an anguished cry.
“He was horrible, Daddy,” she whimpers, and he pulls her into his arms. “Shush, my darling girl. It’ll be better now. You’ll never have to see him again.”
“Thank you.” Her voice cracks as she replies.
Next, he turns to Tamara.
“And you?”
My father steps toward Tamara, and I say a silent prayer for her to continue our charade until I can figure out a better way to get us to safety. Someone must have heard the gunshot and reported it. Police must be on the way. We just need to buy more time.
“They spin lies and draw you in to the point where you don’t know what the truth is anymore.” Her voice is almost robotic, but the tears trickling down her cheeks tell of the emotions crashing through her body.
“Lies. You’ve been surrounded by lies all your life, haven’t you?” My father is in front of Tamara, now, and he reaches out to touch her cheek.
“Far too many.”
“Hmmm.” My father hums as he strokes down Tamara’s cheek and across her shoulder bone. “Lies about your birth, lies about your friends, and lies about your mother.” The last word is said with such malevolence it freezes even my own blood. It has the opposite effect on Tamara though. It ignites her blood into a fiery tirade directed at our father.
“You bastard, don’t you dare mention my mother. I know what you did. I know just who you are.” She brings her fist up and aims it at him, but he catches it and twists her around, so she’s pulled close against him. “It’s time for Daddy to take what’s his,” he says as he leers at her, and I realize for the first time the true level of his depravity. When Joanna told me William called her Tamara, it’s now obvious to me that it wasn’t William who said it but my father.
“No.” Victoria reacts before I can. She lunges for her friend and sister but is pulled back by one of my father’s men. She punches and kicks out at him until he knocks her over the head with a gun, and she falls as if lifeless into his arms.
“Get them in the car,” my father orders. I try to step forward, but I am prevented from doing so by a gun raised in my face and two men pulling me back. My strength can’t match their numbers. The man holding Victoria drags her to the car. Tamara is handed over to another man and is hauled screaming toward the same vehicle. They are pushed into the backseat, and it speeds away.
My father steps toward me.
“Such a disappointment. You could have ruled at my side, but I won’t have the weak with me. I’ll be the King of Oakfield by the end of the day, and you…” He looks at the man pointing the gun at my temple. “…will be dead. You shouldn’t have fallen for the whore. Mind you, her pussy is wonderful. I’m the one who took her first, and I’ll continue to take her for as long as I allow her to live.”
Despite being held at gunpoint, I lunge for my father but never make it. The men surrounding him stop me and throw me to the ground. A hail of fists thump into my body and face as I watch my father get into a vehicle and depart in a screech of tires. He’s won. I’ve lost my sisters and possibly my wife if my father’s words mean he’s also taken her. I should’ve listened sooner.
Everyone steps back, and the man who originally held the gun to my head then steps forward. He points it down at me, and I know this is the end of my life. I’ve failed in my pledge to my wife. More car tires screech, and the man pointing the gun at my head suddenly flies into the air and lands with a thud on the ground. His body twisted and broken. The two men remaining, set upon the new vehicle, and I see Nicholas and William emerge from it. Both have weapons drawn and make quick work of disposing of the two men. Nicholas throws his phone to William,
“Call Matthew Carter and get him to send in a clean-up squad.”
William nods and flips open the phone.
“Where are Victoria and Tamara?” He looks past me at the car.
“My father took them, a few minutes ago. They went that way,” I respond indicating the direction I saw the vehicles take.
Nicholas curses but still helps me to my feet. I lean forward and cough up a little blood from the beating.
“Get Matthew to trace Victoria,” Nicholas orders William
“He broke their phones,” I inform him.
“My wife is a walking tracker. Do you think I’d let something so precious be left vulnerable? Don’t worry. I’ll have a location for her in a few minutes, and we’ll go and get her. Let’s get back to the house and clean you up. There’s someone waiting to see you there.”
“Who?” Nicholas helps me into his car as several other cars sweep into the section of the road we’ve just committed chaos in. The occupants of the vehicles emerge and eagerly set about cleaning up. This is all alien to me, and it feels like I’ve suddenly become embroiled in a James Bond film.
“Your wife.” Nicholas smiles at me. “She escaped your father and probably saved your life.”
“What?” I stumble into the car, and we drive back to Oakfield Hall with me sitting in a daze of disbelief. My wife survived—we have a chance. We just need to save my sisters to get our happy ending.
Chapter Twenty
Joanna
I don’t think I’ve ever begged time to go so quickly. I just want to know what’s happening as I pace up and down the living room of Oakfield Hall. My hands are shaking, and I keep humming to myself to settle my nerves.
The soft murmurs of a waking baby in the bassinet beside me draw my attention. Nicholas left in such a hurry he entrusted the care of his daughter to me while supervised by a stern looking butler at all times. Apparently, it’s the nanny’s day off, but she’s making her way back from visiting her cousin in Oxford as a matter of urgency.
Little Rose coos after her sleep before getting a bit more disgruntled when her mother doesn’t appear. I look at the butler, and his eyes widen in fear of the tiny human in the crib.
“What’s wrong with her ladyship?” he asks, and I try to stifle my amusement that a young baby is being formally referred to as ‘her ladyship’.
“I suspect she needs changing and feeding.” I go over to the cot and dangle my hand in. I’ve taken a quick shower after my assault and wrapped myself up in one of Victoria’s dressing gowns, so I’m clean. Little Rose looks up at me with a squint, trying to focus. Her crying becomes a little more panicked when she realizes I’m not her mother or father.
“It’s all right, little lady.” I bring her up into my arms and rock her gently. “Daddy has just gone to get your mummy and Uncle Theo. They’ll be back soon.” I pat under her bottom to feel her diaper, and it feels full.
“Is that uncomfortable? Let’s get you changed while Mr. Alfred arranges for your bottle to be brought up.” Before she left, I was told Victoria requested some milk for Rose. Alfred quickly disappears to retrieve it, and I’m left with a grumpy baby. I carry her over to the changing table and quickly make her more comfortable. We then settle down in a chair and wait for the milk. I can’t help but fall instantly in love with her. A perfect angel born into a world of chaos. I can only hope she’ll have a better future than the one her mother and I have experienced.
The door to the nursery opens and a tired looking Nicholas walks in with a bottle. I stand and hand him his daughter. He looks like he needs her.
“What happened?” I’m too afraid to ask, but I know I must.
“The Viscount has taken Victoria and Tamara. We saved Theo, though.” A noise behind the Duke distracts m
y attention, and I see my husband leaning against William. He’s been wounded.
“Theo.” I run to him and fling my arms around him. I’m trying my hardest not to cry, but an anguished sob leaves my throat.
“It’s ok. I’m all right.” He kisses the top of my head. “You did so well escaping and getting here. I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m sorry,” I whimper into his chest.
“I know the truth now. We can put a stop to this,” Theo reassures me. I feel the room close in with the tension, and the three men surrounding me look urgently down at the phone in William’s hand.
“What is happening with Victoria and Tamara? Have you called the police?”
“No,” Nicholas replies curtly.
“We’ll deal with it our way,” William adds, and I don’t dare ask what he means even though in my heart I already know, and it won’t be pretty.
The mobile in William’s hand rings, and we all freeze and stare at it for a few seconds before he answers and puts it on speaker.
“William Cavendish.”
“It’s Carter.”
“You got them?” The conversation is clipped and straight to the point.
“We’ve got an issue with the tracker. Hamilton must have his own people with links to MI5. Only they could block the signal .” The dominant voice from the other side of the phone explains.
William looks at his brother. Nicholas comes closer and asks,
“What are you doing about it?”
“Everything I can. I wanted to give you a quick update. Ryan and I are going to go and get some answers from the grid itself. You’ll have to give me another hour, and then I’ll have a location.”
“I don’t know if we have an hour.” Nicholas cradles his daughter who’s happily sucking on her bottle, unaware of the tension in the room.
“I’ll have to bash heads together harder, then.”
The phone goes dead.
“Who’s that?” I question.
“A friend,” Nicholas replies, not giving me anymore than I need to know. “I’m going to sit with my daughter. Fetch me when he phones back.” The Duke turns away, effectively dismissing us from his presence. William directs us out of the room and down the hall to a spare bedroom.
“You can freshen up in here, Theo. There’s a change of clothes in the wardrobe as well. I’ll be downstairs in the study. I’m going to go through all the papers Tamara has on the Viscount. Hopefully there’ll be something in them that can give us a clue to their location.”
Theo nods at him, and says, “I wish I could give you more. We’ve already checked the one location I knew about. I’ll keep thinking of others. We’ll find them.”
William doesn’t say anything. He just flicks his ear and nose before marching off down the corridor while Theo leads me into the room.
“We should be doing something,” I plead with him, but he shakes his head.
“Nicholas and William know what they’re doing.”
“But they are so calm, and with what he’s capable of…” I falter on the last words. Does my husband truly understand what his father can be like?
“William and Nicholas are anything but calm, believe me. They are prepared to end this to save their wives. Don’t mistake deadly intentions for calmness.” Theo pulls his shirt off over his head, and I notice the bruising on his chest. He rubs a hand over it and looks at me.
“I’m starting to learn what my father is capable of. I think you need to tell me the rest.”
My stomach drops. I knew this moment would come but the thought of reliving my nightmares in front of my husband scares me more than the actual abuse itself. I’m scared of losing him. What if he doesn’t love me anymore as a result of what his father did to me? I slump down into a nearby chair
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Theo shakes his head at me. “My own father!”
“I wanted to. I don’t know if I can explain it. I was kept hidden for a year for a reason. He had to condition me, so I couldn’t think for myself.” I get up from the chair again, finding it really difficult to talk about what happened. I’ve been instructed not to say anything and accept I’m the Viscount’s property to do with as he wants. I no longer have a right to a thought of my own, but I do have thoughts, I’m having them now, and it scares me so much.
“I have to try and explain this to you, don’t I?” I say pacing the room.
“Yes,” Theo replies despondently.
“When I was brought to the house, the same one we were married in, I was placed naked in a small basement room. I was left there for weeks with nobody to talk to. Food and water were thrown my way, but I wasn’t addressed. I had to do all my business in a small bucket, which was occasionally emptied. I had nothing to read, and no concept of what night or day was. The only sounds around me were the noises of the building itself. Do you know how noisy an old house can be? It’s deafening at times.” I stop pacing by a window and stare out at the green pastures below. “Eventually your father started to visit me. He didn’t speak to me. He’d just stand there at the door staring at me. This went on for another couple of weeks. Everything was starting to blur by then. It could have been days, but to me, it felt like weeks. I was starved of the sound of humanity…starved of the sound of a voice no matter what it said. I would have begged to be called a whore if it meant I heard something other than the creaks of the house. One day, he did talk to me, and it was like a choir of angels rejoicing hallelujah. Do you know what he said?”
I shift position, so I can see Theo’s face. His breathing is even, but I can tell he’s trying to control his emotions. His fists are tightly clenched, and there is a tic in his jaw.
“I don’t.”
“On your knees.” I lower myself down to kneel before my husband. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was stunned. I just stood there, so he shut the door and disappeared. He didn’t come the next day, or the day after that. I craved for him to return. How sick is that?” I allow my hands to fall at my sides and hang loosely while bowing my head, so I’m looking down at the floor. “He came back after three days and said the same three words, ‘on your knees.’ This time, I obeyed. He’d won and broken me. Over the next few weeks, months, I don’t know how long, the same treatment was repeated. If I didn’t do something he wanted, I would be left alone in the darkness until he reappeared, and I obeyed. The first time he wanted me to give oral, I didn’t hide my teeth enough, and he thought I was going to bite him. I was beaten black and blue and left alone for so long. I thought I’d been abandoned, and left to die. Food was minimal during that time, and I rationed the portions I was given. I remember when he returned I was so grateful to see him, especially as he brought me a small bar of chocolate. It’s stupid.” I can’t stop the tears. I’m sobbing now, but they are freeing and needed. “I allowed him to come down my throat three times that day. I swallowed every bit of him and was rewarded with a speech of how I was a dirty little whore, and that the next time he came to see me, he would be taking my pussy over and over again. I should have hated what he said to me, but I didn’t. I wanted more. I wanted him to call me every degrading name in the world. I didn’t care because at least someone was talking to me.”
It’s Theo’s turn to get up, this time. I don’t look up from my bowed position. I just listen to the sound of his feet as they march to the bedroom door before hearing him furiously pull the door open, and then slam it shut behind him as he leaves.
I let out an anguished cry and collapse down into a ball on the floor. I knew he would hate me. I’m disgusting. How can anyone crave the sort of abuse I did? A loud masculine roar comes from the hallway, and I shrink further into myself. A deafening thud pounds into the wall, not once but twice, and is followed by smashing glass.
“I’ll kill him,” Theo yells, and there are more sounds of breaking glass.
“Enough.” There is another deep voice, and I recognize it as Nicholas’. “Save the anger for when we find him. Between the three o
f us, we’ll tear him apart limb from limb.”
The hallway goes silent for a few minutes, and then the door opens again, and Theo re-enters the room. He comes straight to me, and sweeping me up into his arms, he carries me to the bed where he brings my face up to meet his.
“You’ll never bow before anyone again. You’ll stand proudly upright as a strong woman. I’ll fill our entire house with noise. It will never be silent again. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry I didn’t realize the truth sooner. I’m just glad he arranged for us to marry, so I was able to get you away from him for a while.”
I can’t stop the whimper on my breath.
“No.” Theo shakes his head. “Please tell me he didn’t.”
“I wish I could. He came to me the night after we first made love. It was him who gave me the photo and demanded I give it to you. He’s been playing games from the start. He told me I had to get pregnant with your child.”
Theo pushes away from me in disgust.
“That’s why you pleaded with me to take you on our wedding night.”
“I was so scared. He told me what would happen to me would be worse if I didn’t do it. Then he started threatening your life. I’m scared of him, Theo. He’s a monster, and I don’t know how to get out from under his shadow. Even now if he walked into this room, I'd fall to my knees and let him do to me what he wants. I don’t know how to say no.”
Theo places his head in his hands. When he looks back up at me, I can see tears in his eyes.
“Don’t you see. You’ve already saved yourself. You did get away from him. You came here. That was you beating his rule. His spell on you is broken.”
He comes back to me and kisses my lips passionately and then places his hand over my heart.
“This is what gave you the strength to beat him. Love…our love. You are free, Joanna. You’ve just got to start believing it yourself. There is no more silence in the world. Even if it’s quiet, you’ll hear the sound of the beating of your heart entwined with mine.”