Bitter Oath (New Atlantis)(32)
‘I have missed you, sister,’ Liv declared with excitement.
‘How long has it been?’ Jane asked.
‘Four long months. We had to stay long enough to stage my death, and for me to say my goodbyes. Unobtrusively, of course. Except for Augusta and Portia.’
‘Your sisters know where you have come?’
‘Not exactly. They think we set sail for the New World. In a way, they are right.’
Rene was at Liv’s side now, his arm around her waist, looking happier and younger than she had ever seen him. For once, he looked more handsome than Julio, his bright blue eyes glowing with love.
‘Hey Frenchie, you pulled it off. Good for you!’
He leaned across and kissed her cheek, and for once Jane sensed no antagonism from Julio. He could feel the love that flowed between the couple in front of them. And it was no threat to him or his love for Jane.
‘Let us get that coffee at the Retrievers Lounge, and we will tell you all of our temporal paradox. I could kill for a decent espresso.’
‘What he means is our miracle,’ Liv supplied to the stunned crowd of well-wishers, who had all been at her wedding. ‘But I could kill for pizza, right now. 1810 made me realise how spoiled I was back here.’
‘Pizza and coffee… the classics that survived the apocalypse,’ Maggie said with a laugh.
With that they all turned away from the massive stone Portal, set on its cold sandstone dais, and followed the ribbons of light to the lift at the end of the cavern.
‘Home,’ breathed Liv, with relief.
‘Home,’ Rene agreed, kissing the top of her golden head.
Jane couldn’t stop grinning.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
Writing stories like this is fun, but knowing readers enjoyed my stories is even more fun. If you liked this novel, please visit my website www.nhysglover.com and tell me so! Or if you prefer to assist other readers in their decision to read this, or any of my other books, please go to your place of purchase and leave feedback. I read it all, and so do others.
And if you’d like a small taste of the next book in the series, keep reading… ‘The Titan Drowns’ is the story of three loves discovered as the Retrievers race to save victims of the doomed Titanic. The most exciting story yet, (in my humble opinion!)
Chapter One
Lizzie
10th March 1912, London, ENGLAND
Lizzie Faulkner stepped with trepidation into her employer’s old-fashioned study. The heavy furnishings, fussy Victoriana nick-knacks and blazing fire in the grate, made the high-ceilinged room unnaturally oppressive. The silent condemnation of the straight-back woman standing at the window only served to intensify the atmosphere.
Lizzie tried to draw in a deep breath to calm her jittery nerves, but she had cinched her swan bill corset so tightly that morning that she had barely enough lung capacity for shallow breath. Dizziness and panic threatened to overwhelm her.
‘Ah, Miss Faulkner, I am glad you have seen fit to join me at last. Are you feeling a little better?’ The words were polite enough, even compassionate, but they were delivered in a tone of such icy disdain as to make a mockery of any warmer feelings.
Mrs Peabody was a woman in her mid-forties, but her extreme thinness and tightly pinched features made her look ten years older. Her dark hair, liberally streaked with grey, was scraped painfully back from her face, and bound in a netted bun at the back of her head. Her fashionable, pencil-thin morning dress was made from expensive fabric, but the puce colour clashed badly with her complexion, and only added to her unattractive appearance. It was almost as if she went out of her way to look as hard and unappealing as possible.
‘Yes thank you, Madam,’ she whispered, ashamed of her own temerity. Where had the courageous blue-stocking gone, who had set her sights on scaling the peaks of male-dominated arenas? And who was this craven ninny who seemed unable to put more than two words together without whimpering? Life had torn away her childish confidence, and left her only too aware of her weakness and vulnerability.
‘I have received troubling information from below stairs,’ Mrs Peabody went on, her tone just as stony cold as before. ‘Would you care to make a conjecture about the nature of that information, Miss Faulkner?’
‘Ah, no Madam, I have no idea,’ she lied unconvincingly.
‘Then you are a liar as well as a fallen woman, Miss Faulkner. I have it on very good authority that you are with child, and as there is no ring upon your finger, and I have heard of no husband mentioned in the past; I can only assume that this child you carry is illegitimate. Do you deny it?’
Lizzie felt the room begin to spin, and she reached out to grab the edge of the desk to steady her.
When Jessie, the upstairs maid, had brought a jug of hot water to her room that morning, she had inadvertently seen Lizzie in her smalls, before she had time to don her corset. The girl’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head from the sight, and she’d turned tail and run, slopping water out of the jug as she went.
With stays, she had been able to disguise her five-month pregnancy, but without them the gentle rounding of her girth was apparent, as was the increased size of her breasts. Jessie was an ignorant girl, but she was wise about the ways of nature. The girl had known exactly what she was looking at, and been in a hurry to share her titillating secret about the uppity governess with the rest of the household.
‘I was taken against my will, Madam. It was not my fault.’
‘Hah! As if every girl in your condition does not claim the very same thing. Even if that were the case, you are still at fault for placing yourself in a position where such an attack could take place.’
‘Place myself in a position? Do you think I was walking the streets at night? I was in my own bed, here in this house. And I had to stay quiet, so that I did not frighten your daughters in the next room.’
‘Oh, Miss Faulkner, surely you can be more imaginative than that. Are you suggesting a man broke into our home for the single purpose of having his way with you, and that you did not struggle or tell of it the next day? Please, you think me a fool with such a story.’
‘No one broke in. And no one would have believed me, if I had told them the next day. I could barely believe it myself, though it happened to me.’
‘Are you claiming one of the servants attacked you?’ demanded the enraged woman, puffing out like a furious rooster.
‘Not a servant, Madam. It was the Master.’
The deathly silence that filled the room for a few long minutes was suffocating. Then, after several deep, calming breaths, Mrs Peabody drew herself to her full height and said, ‘How dare you!’
The words were as effective as a slap in the face, and Lizzie jerked back, trembling. However, her resolve, now that she had finally voiced her complaint, began to harden.
‘I dare because I have no alternative but to dare. And I know that it is not the first time such has happened to a young woman in this house. Two maids have been sent away because of their condition, in the last few years. And I never believed the rumours circulating below stairs concerning the Master, until it happened to me.’ Lizzie was proud to hear her voice was louder now, even if it was also tinged with hysteria.
‘If this were true, why did you remain in our employ? Surely, you would fear that it would happen again. I am assuming it was only once you claim this attack occurred?’
‘He… he sat on my bed after… after it happened and cried. He said I had tempted him, and he had been unable to withstand my siren’s call. But he swore it would not happen again, if I did not tell you. He said he would take care of me if I was to… ‘
‘Enough! I will hear no more. You girls come to me with your unfounded claims, and expect me to believe my loyal and faithful husband, who has no interest in such unseemly activities except for the procreation of children, would force himself on you and then cry? No, I say.’ Her voice rose in pitch and volume to override her victim’s.
‘Because one girl made that claim, you all think you can make it? No, I will not have it! Pack your belongings, Miss Faulkner, and leave this house immediately.’ Mrs Peabody drew in several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. It must have succeeded because, when she went on a long minute later, her voice was cold and calm once more.
‘Out of the kindness of my heart, I will pay you one month’s wages in lieu of notice, but that is only if you promise to keep your filthy lies to yourself, and make no further claim on this family. If you do not so promise, I will pay you nothing, nor provide you with a reference.’
Lizzie felt a fatalistic calm come over her. This was how she had expected this encounter to end. After more than a year in the Peabody’s household she knew the woman before her very well. For all her seeming strength of will, her employer hid her head in the sand about every matter that concerned her husband or her daughters.