Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
I march straight to the study and enter without knocking and scan the room, not at all liking what I am seeing. Lymington is comfortable in a chair by the fire, Father is pacing by the bookcase, and a man, a reporter, I expect, is at Father’s desk scribbling down notes. Tomorrow’s headlines, I’m sure.
‘Get rid of her,’ Lymington barks at my father without so much as looking at me.
‘Eliza, please,’ Father begs, coming to me as I throw Lymington the most contemptuous glare I can muster. ‘Now is not the time for your contribution.’ He takes my arms gently, and as I regard him, I see the dark circles under his eyes. I know them not to be through tiredness alone, but perhaps through worry too. ‘I have a deadline I must meet.’
‘But you mustn’t,’ I say, hoping to take away the strain upon his shoulders. ‘I don’t know how his handkerchief came to be at the scene of the crime’ – I absolutely do know how it came to be at the scene – ‘but the Duke of Chester could not have harmed Frederick.’
‘Eliza,’ Father sighs, closing his eyes to gather patience. His exhaustion may play in my favour because he looks without the energy to fight my persistence. ‘He murdered Porter in cold blood. His family, for Christ’s sake, and now an attempt on Frederick, too. The man needs to be stopped and the truth told.’
I look at Lymington, and I can’t say I like the thoughtfulness on his old, pale, crabby face. He knows. He must know about Johnny and me. Why else would he set him up like this?
I’m protecting you from the truth, Eliza.
‘Why did you promise me to Frederick?’ I ask my father outright as I return my attention to him. ‘What did he give you in return?’
‘Eliza,’ Father warns softly.
‘I paid for machinery,’ Lymington barks, struggling up from his chair, using his stick to help. ‘I paid for the machine that has made The London Times the biggest in the country.’
I gasp. ‘You told us all you used the last of the family’s money.’
‘We had no money, Eliza! Nothing! We were on the brink of ruin, the business failing.’
‘So you sold me?’ I whisper.
‘I bought us a better life.’
‘For you!’ I yell. ‘A better life for you, but for me?’
‘Oh shut up,’ Lymington mutters. ‘You should be honoured. My son comes from good stock.’
‘Why would you pay for a wife for him? Let him marry whom he chooses and desires.’ I refrain from mentioning Colleen out of loyalty to Frederick and nothing else. I would hate his father to cause him more hardship.
‘I have to pay because it’s the only way to secure our future. He needs an heir! One simply has to hope that the babe doesn’t bear its mother’s insolence.’
‘Or its grandfather’s cruelty.’ I snipe. ‘Why do you hate the Duke of Chester so? You told lies to discredit him, tried to have damaging news printed about him, and now you say he attacked Frederick?’
‘Eliza!’ Father physically shakes me. ‘Enough!’
I take no pleasure in Papa’s distress. None at all. ‘You cannot allow this to happen, Papa. You cannot print more lies about the Duke.’
His eyes clench shut, his face ashen. ‘I owe His Grace a great deal, Eliza.’
‘My money is the only reason you could purchase a machine to increase print runs.’
‘Pay him back, Papa. Give him back the seven hundred pounds and be gone with him!’
‘That wasn’t the deal,’ Papa breathes.
And now we are indebted to him forever.
‘I’m sorry, Eliza.’
I take a breath, swallowing hard, my reality hitting me so much harder than it ever has before. That is it, then. There is no happy end here for the Duke and me. I cannot change my fate or society’s expectations. ‘I will marry Frederick without further protest or defiance,’ I say, spitting out the words as though they are poison in my mouth. ‘I will be a good wife. I will give him as many heirs as the Duke wishes, boys and girls. I will live in Cornwall without complaint. But only if you guarantee Johnny Winters’ freedom and declare him an innocent man. Not just from the crimes you claim of this eve, but from all those he has been accused of before.’
Papa looks so utterly confused. ‘I know you don’t want to do this. You’ve fought me the entire way. You do not want to marry Frederick, so why would you do all of that for him?’
‘Because that man tried to seduce your daughter,’ Lymington scathes, and I look at him in shock. He did know. All of this to force me into marriage? To guarantee I will wed Frederick? ‘And she has fallen for it, like all the other brainless females he’s charmed into bed.’
‘My God,’ Father whispers, falling to his chair heavily. ‘Eliza?’