by Lilah Rivers
She started over, but Mr. Lindsey stood up in a swift, angry motion, and she backed away again.
“You are just going to leave?” he shouted in demand.
Others in the tavern turned and looked at them and Amos was far too aware that they were being watched with interest. He was greatly embarrassed by the actions of his companion.
“Please, Mr. Lindsey. I am not sure what it is like in England, but in America, we do not react this way,” Amos said, thinking that his wife would never behave this way.
No, he knew in his heart that this was not a cultural response, but rather that Mr. Lindsey was a man who had no control over his anger. This was not the way that he would have anticipated a gentleman to act, no matter where he was from.
“Anyone would respond this way if their rightful property was stolen from them,” Mr. Lindsey demanded.
Keeping his voice calm and respectful, his tone even and gentle, Amos proceeded as best he could.
“I do not know what it is that you believe I have stolen from you, Mr. Lindsey, but I assure you that you are mistaken. I have taken nothing,” Amos said.
“You have taken everything. Everything that I was meant to have,” the man insisted.
“Will you please just tell me what you are talking about?” Amos asked, his frustration difficult to keep at bay.
“I am Lord Linton,” he said, spitting the words as venomously as any viper.
“L-Lord Linton?” Amos asked in disbelief.
“So I can see that you have heard of me, after all,” he said.
“Wh-what do you want?” Amos asked, his voice betraying the anxiety that welled up within his chest.
“I want Gemma Temple. I want the woman that I rightfully own,” he said.
Amos stood, straightening his back in as defiant a manner as he could. He observed his foe, thin and reedy with dark, greasy hair, a thin mustache, shorter than Amos by a finger’s length.
Amos was far broader and stronger. He knew that he could defend Gemma from this man, but he had never used violence in all his life, and he had no desire to start now.
“You do not own Gemma. No one owns her. She is a free woman, someone to be admired and respected,” Amos said.
“Ha! You are a foolish man. Are all Americans so ridiculous or is it just you?” Lord Linton asked, those beady eyes filled with enough arrogance to make Amos hesitate.
No matter how strong Amos knew he was, Lord Linton was clearly overconfident in his ability to hold his own. And a prideful man was certainly dangerous enough.
“What I do know is that not all British citizens are as arrogant as you. Gemma has a kind, gentle heart,” Amos said.
“She’s as prideful as they come,” Lord Linton scoffed.
“Maybe she appears somewhat cocky at first, but I have gotten to know her well enough to see beyond that. She is kind underneath it all,” Amos said.
“You have been taken in, Mr. Thompson. She has fooled you. She tried to fool me into thinking that she does not want me, but why wouldn’t she? I have all the wealth in the world and I deserve her. Had you not had her spirited away by Miss Collins, I would have been married to her by now,” he said.
Amos was astounded by the lies that Lord Linton told himself. It was amazing that he could actually believe them, that he could convince himself that he really was someone that Gemma wanted to be with.
But Lord Linton was a remarkable figure in many ways. None of them good.
“I am here in Tucson to take Gemma back to England,” Lord Linton stated, as clearly as could be.
“I have been charged with protecting Gemma. She and I have already married and the Scriptures make it plain that it is my duty to take care of her. I will never, ever let you take her or hurt her,” Amos said, standing his ground.
Around them, he still felt the eyes of the others at the Tavern. But he sensed that they were hungry for this drama, this conflict that played out before them. He wondered if any of them would assist him in protecting his wife, but felt confident that they would not.
Lord Linton relaxed and smiled for a moment, as if he knew something that Amos did not.
“If that is the case, Mr. Thompson, then I have little choice other than to make sure that you are not able to stop me.”
Before Amos could reply, the weak, relaxed figure of Lord Linton tensed up and his arm swung sharply into Amos’s jaw.
Amos stumbled back for a moment but lost his balance. As he fell backward, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head just as everything turned black.
Chapter 26
“But you are not listening to me!” Gemma shouted, standing and pleading with her mother and father.
“That is enough,” her father said in a firm voice.
“It will not be enough until you hear me. Lord Linton is cruel, he is threatening and filled with hate,” she said, having abandoned all attempts to be calm and restrained. She no longer cared what her parents thought of her. She wanted only to be assured of her freedom from Lord Linton.
“Why can you not obey us?” her father asked, appearing ready to lose any restraint that he still had.
But just as she was about to unleash the fullness of her own emotions, Gemma heard a knock at the door.
Her mother and father glanced over towards the door of the living room, which was closed. But they all recognized that there was someone outside of the house who was ready to interrupt their meeting of angst and sadness.
“I should see who that is,” Gemma said, swallowing the lump of emotion in her throat. She did not wish to continue in this fight with her parents. This interruption was most welcome.
“Be quick about it,” her father said with a sigh in his voice.
Gemma nodded and made her way through the door of the living room. She wondered who else might be showing up and if her husband would be coming soon.
As she opened the front door to the house, she was met with the face of someone she had not even considered in that moment.
Gemma gasped.
“L-Lord Linton?” she asked, the fear overwhelming.
Everything that she had been afraid of was coming to pass. Lord Linton had shown up at the house. After this time of stalking her, leaving her roses with threatening messages, all of it. He had finally come.
Her mother and father were sitting inside, awaiting her.
Had they arranged all of this? Had they come to distract her so that Lord Linton might show up and the three of them could take her away? Was this their plan all along and she had been foolish enough to fall into the trap?
“Wh-what are you doing here?” she asked, backing away.
“Please, my dear, do not look at me that way,” he said, standing calmly and looking so innocent with his eyes wide and peaceful before her.
“I was afraid that you had come. What are you doing here? Why can you not just leave me alone?” she asked.
“You need to ask me that?” he asked, sounding as though his feelings were hurt. “My dear, I am here because I wish to be your husband. I want to take care of you, to protect you. That is my duty. Please, do not deny me. I care so much for you,” he said.
There was such a strange attempt at comforting her in his voice that Gemma almost wondered if she really had misunderstood Lord Linton all this time. Why was he being so kind?
She had been terrified of his appearing, but now that he was here, he was actually speaking gently to her, as if he really cared about her. There was compassion in his face and in his timbre.
Gemma had never seen this side of Lord Linton and she did not know what to think of it.
“Lord Linton, please. I ask that you release me from the bond that my parents arranged with you. I know that you wanted us to be married, but I have already married, you see. I am happy here. I do not believe that we could ever be happy together,” she said, appealing to his senses as best she could.
“Why do you say that? Why are you so certain that I could not make you happy?” he asked
.
“We are far too different. And, if I may be so bold as to say it, at times you have frightened me. I do not think we were meant for one another,” Gemma told him openly.
“I frighten you?” he asked.
“The things that you say. About owning me and the letters that you send with the roses. They are all terribly frightening. And harsh. I do not think that you would ever be kind to me and I cannot pretend that I trust you or that I love you,” Gemma told him, standing there in the doorway.
She knew that she ought to invite him in, to sit with Lord Linton and her parents so that they could all discuss the matter together. But the idea of it, of sitting with him and having to listen to them all tell her that she should come home to London was just too much. Gemma could not bring herself to do anything even close to that.
“Those letters were all in jest. You believed that I was really that cruel? Oh, Gemma, forgive me. I thought all along that you understood I was only teasing you,” Lord Linton said.
Gemma looked at him with suspicion. She could not quite believe that, even if he did try to convince her of it. There was no way that Lord Linton really meant that he had only been joking about all of it.
His letters had been far too harsh for her to believe that he was only teasing her. No one would be that cruel out of a mere joke. Gemma wondered what exactly Lord Linton’s game was and what he was expecting from her if he was going to behave as though he was perfectly innocent when they both knew that he had written those threatening letters.
More confused than ever, Gemma opened her mouth to tell him that her mother and father were inside when she saw a change come over his face.
“What is it?” Gemma asked, feeling frightened by the cloud of rage that she saw boiling underneath the previously calm demeanor of Lord Linton.
He gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw.
“You are coming with me,” he said, seizing her wrist and pulling hard on it, dragging Gemma out from the door and into the daylight.
“Let me go!” she yelled.
“You are mine by right! I have a claim on you and nothing is going to stop me from taking you back to England to be my wife,” he insisted.
“I shall not go with you,” she cried out, the burning in her wrist an agony as she tried to pull herself away from him.
Gemma clung to the frame of the door, hoping that her strength would hold. But Lord Linton’s wiry frame was deceptive, and he was better at tricking her than she had thought he would be.
There was no telling what she could now do to escape him. His grip was far too tight, and she was not strong enough. Although Gemma tried with all her might to break free, she could not.
“Please, let me go,” she sobbed, begging him now that she was desperate and unable to free herself.
Then, finally, the moment of terror struck. As her fingers lost their purchase on the door frame, Gemma realized that she was completely unable to rescue herself. Lord Linton would take her away and she could not stop him.
Her parents were still in the living room, but she had not cried out to them in all this time, assuming it to be a part of their plan.
And as Lord Linton dragged her, she was shocked to hear the shout of her own name.
“Gemma!” her father called, rushing out after her.
“Stay back!” Lord Linton called.
Gemma was utterly confused as Lord Linton paused in his tracks, still holding her wrist in a painful grip.
Her mother and father looked horrified and Lord Linton appeared perfectly ready to do whatever was necessary for the sake of getting what he wanted.
“What are you doing here?” her father asked Lord Linton in disbelief.
It was only then that Gemma began to understand. Her parents had had no knowledge of Lord Linton’s presence in Tucson, nor the fact that he was there to take her away.
They had not been involved in this in the least.
“I am here to claim what is rightfully mine,” he insisted. “You were unable to deal with her, so now I shall tame her.”
“Tame her?” Gemma’s mother asked in disgust.
“Of course. She is mine, you promised her to me and now I must do whatever is necessary to ensure that I get what belongs to me,” he said.
“Mother, please,” Gemma pleaded.
“Let her go,” her father said, his eyes wide with shock as he appeared to understand that Gemma had been telling the truth all along.
“I shall not release her. Who do you think you are speaking to? I am Lord Linton, Duke of Walshire. I own half of London, Brighton, and Norfolk. What do you think you can possibly do?” He laughed at the challenge.
“Gemma…” her father said. She saw in his eyes the speechless regret, the recognition of his own mistake in not believing her sooner.
“I know, Father,” she said, gathering the apology from his voice.
“What do you want from us? How can we get you to release her?” her mother asked.
“I want only her. I have lost too many young ladies because their mothers and fathers thought they could stand up against me. But I subdued all of them. Now, I shall do the same to you, only I will get your daughter in the end,” he said.
Once more, Gemma knew that she had nothing left in her. But she did have the faithfulness of the Lord on her side. She let out a prayer, a cry to God, in her heart. She asked him to rescue her, to help her find freedom.
She thanked him for the gifts that he had given her since coming to America and for the loving husband that she had married. And finally, she asked God to allow her to stay in that happy marriage, to have the chance at happiness that she had been fighting for all this time.
“You cannot hurt us. We will tell everyone about you,” Gemma’s father said, his anger boiling once more, only this time directed at the right person.
“You may say what you wish, but I will only tell them that your daughter fled to America to live a salacious life before I graciously rescued and forgave her of that life of vice,” he said with a shrug.
He was unafraid. Lord Linton believed himself perfectly untouchable from the possibility of having his good name threatened. It was in that that Gemma realized how easily he might have managed to convince everyone else into silence.
Every young woman he had previously pursued, all of their mothers and fathers, each one would have been subdued by the threat against their reputations made by someone like him. Someone wealthy, powerful, and unashamed could get whatever they wanted because they would always be listened to.
“What if we manage to convince others to come forward? Gemma has told us that she is not the first. What would you do if everyone learns who you really are from all of the families that have been faced with this?” her father asked.
Lord Linton shook his head and clenched Gemma’s wrist tighter so that she cried out from the pain.
“There. Is. Nothing. You. Can. Do,” he said slowly and deliberately.
Gemma looked at the way her father’s nostrils flared, and his face grew red. But no matter how his anger burned, she also knew that he was stuck.
Gemma began to wonder if she was truly doomed to live this way forever. Would she have no choice but to marry Lord Linton after all?