The Solemn Bell(22)

Someone else. Her words struck him dumb. He just…couldn’t fathom it. How could she have someone else? They’d only been apart for a few months. “You have a gentleman?”

“I have a lover.”

Brody thought he would be sick. It could not be true. “You’ve given yourself to him?”

“You mean, have we fucked? Oh, yes. Many times.”

He had to sit down before he dropped. Brody fumbled toward the kitchen stool like he was the blind one. His head spun. His stomach reeled. Sweet, innocent Angelica Grey did not say those words. She did not know those words. Whores spoke like that. Dope-girls begging for a needle spoke like that. Not the woman he loved.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” he sobbed.

She leaned her hip carelessly against the worktable. “I did. For three months. That’s a great deal longer than the few weeks we originally agreed upon. I was heartbroken. You’d put me aside. So, when another man came along, I vowed not to waste another chance at happiness.”

He dragged his eyes up to hers. So cold. Like a dead thing. “Does he love you?”

She laughed. She actually laughed in his face at the mention of the word. “Oh, Brody.”

His voice was sharp. “Tell me.”

She sighed, and finally said, “I don’t want love. I’m not sure I even believe in it.”

“All this time, while I was dreaming of nothing but you, while I was praying for the day when we could be together again, you were spreading your legs for another man. A man that doesn’t even love you!” He nearly spat. “Who are you, Angelica? What happened to the girl I fell in love with?”

“You abandoned her.”

“I did not! It took longer than expected to get back here, and for that I am sorry. But I never abandoned you. You abandoned me. My God, Angelica. You didn’t even try to wait for me.” When she didn’t argue, he barreled on, “I came back to ask you to marry me. I have a ring in my pocket that I hoped to place on your finger tonight!”

She looked like he’d slapped her. At last, his words hit home. The full weight of everything she had destroyed came crashing down upon her, and Angelica Grey crumbled. “You wanted to marry me…”

“I did. But not now.”

A tear streaked down her face. “No, not now. You couldn’t.”

Brody dragged himself to his feet. She was so small and pale in his shadow. She might have thought whatever sort of relationship she’d entered into was mutually beneficial, but Brody knew how men treated fast women. What chaps really thought of girls who spread their legs too easily.

How was Angelica going to survive, labeled as a whore and a slut? She could not possibly know what trouble she’d got herself into. There’d be no end to it now.

She might not love him, and he might not be willing to marry her, but if Brody walked out on her tonight, he might as well be putting her on the streets. Her house would be crawling with men looking for an easy lay.

“Angelica, you cannot stay here.”

She tilted her head. “Why not?”

“It may only be one visitor now, but eventually, he’ll brag to his friends—if he hasn’t already—and, some night, an entire group of them might come for you. Do you understand what I’m saying? A pack of men bearing down on you. Did you even know a woman’s body can take three men at once?”

Her unfixed eyes widened. He’d shocked her. Good. She needed to have some sense scared into her.

“They will use you, abuse you, and pass you around like a bottle of cheap whiskey. Oh, you’ll beg, plead, and protest. But they won’t care. You won’t be a woman to them anymore. You’ll be nothing more than a piece of meat.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’ve seen it happen. Say a respectable girl from a good family finds herself hooked on cocaine, or perhaps opium. She pays easily at first, but the price goes up. That’s how they get you—the dealers. Once they’ve hooked their claws into you, you’ll do anything for a taste. They know it. And you know it, too.”

He paused, debating whether to go further. He didn’t want Angelica knowing how rotten the world was. But, if he didn’t tell her, she might find out the hard way. “Eventually, the girl can’t afford her habit. Ah, well. Perhaps the dealer could strike a bargain—help them both out—just this once. But it’s never just once. Before she knows it, she’s on her back every night.”

Angelica shook her head. “That has nothing to do with me.”

“It’s the principal. Give it away easily, and it becomes a cheap thing,” he said. “Every time you let that man push into you, you cheapen yourself.” Brody grabbed her discarded, moth-eaten frock and pressed it to her chest. “Get dressed.”





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN





Brody tore down the country lane. Angelica had protested, but in the end, she admitted he was right. The man she gave her body to did not respect her. Men who respected women did not make them do the things she’d done—Angelica confessed some of her experiences on their drive toward Shrewsbury, and all he could do was shake his head. Brody had engaged in all manner of raunchy things over the years, but to know that sweet, innocent Angelica Grey had been subjected to such debauchery was almost more than he could bear.