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“God, you utter disgrace,” Ryan hissed with cold contempt.
Mabel threw Arthur a dour look as well, her gaze equally as condemning. “He has been selfishly sitting in his study without a care in the world. This is all his fault. He seems determined to ruin the entire family. I have no idea what he thinks he is doing, but we are quite clearly surplus to requirements.”
“What caused it?” Ryan squatted down so he could look up into the woman’s misery laden eyes.
“I have the finances to try to fix,” Arthur replied dully.
“I am not talking about you, Arthur,” Ryan snapped disinterestedly. He looked at Mabel. “What made her run?”
Mabel sucked in a breath. “He seems determined to marry Sian off to that Cedrick fellow of Wilhelmina’s, just because Wilhelmina has told him to, and told Sian this morning that he has made his mind up. He is afraid of his sister, you see? She holds something over him that he just cannot fight.”
“Do you know what?”
Arthur slunk back into his study.
Mabel shook her head. “Whatever it is, Wilhelmina knows she can get away with anything. She asks for more money; he finds it from somewhere and gives it to her without question. He has taken to selling things from around the house now. Do you know that? We have tailored the spending down as much as we can and recycling and repairing practically everything we can. Anything of value is gradually disappearing yet Wilhelmina turns up and demands more money or this bill to be paid or money for something else, and Arthur just hands it over. Now, she has told him that she demands our daughters are married off because
she deems it so. I think it is just because she wants any money Arthur has to be spent on her rather than his daughters. Anyway, she has made it clear that she wants them married and has palmed Sian off with that awful Cedrick. I have tried to tell Cedrick to go home, that he is not welcome here, but all three of them ignore me.”
“What has Arthur told Sian? What has her so upset?”
“There is to be an announcement in the newspaper, of her engagement to Cedrick, apparently. He has arranged it,” Mabel whispered, throwing a condemning look at the now empty study door. “God, I hate him.”
She couldn’t withhold her tears after that and was so busy giving in to them that she didn’t see Ryan’s wince. He had no idea if Mabel meant she hated Cedrick or her husband but didn’t ask.
“I will be back soon,” Norman mouthed from behind Mabel before quietly letting himself out of the room.
“Sian objected again.” It wasn’t a question.
“You didn’t see her face, Ryan. She turned into someone I didn’t recognise and ran out of the house as if the hounds from Hell were on her heels. She was whispering something about rather being dead. Then it started to rain, and she hasn’t come back. She has been gone for two hours, but we cannot find her anywhere,” Mabel gasped around her tears.
Ryan immediately turned to leave only to stop and look back at Mabel.
“Come on, you may as well come with me,” he suggested gently.
Mabel didn’t hesitate to fetch her shawl and followed him out of the house. “Where are we going?” she asked when he led her across the garden to the low stone wall which bordered the property.
“I will leave you at my house where the staff can take better care of you. Let’s leave him to stew in his own juices. It will do you good to get out of there for a while, and away from Wilhelmina. Where is she by the way?”
“She went into town with Cedrick. They should be back anytime,” Mabel replied.
“Take a word of advice from me; stay away from the house for a while. I will leave you at my house and then go and see if I can find her.”
“Would you?” Mabel eyes lit with hope. “You are ever so kind.”
“Why would I leave her out there?”
“Well, it is good of you to show so much concern for her. You have shown more concern for her welfare than her own father has,” Mabel replied.
Ryan mentally cursed. “I think I might know where Sian is. I will round up some men to help look for her anyway. If we find the girls, we will send them back to my house rather than home. They can’t be running around in this weather either. Where are Martha and Lucinda likely to be heading, do you know?”
“I didn’t see which way they went. I think Lucinda may have gone to the stream. It is where they usually like to sit when the weather is nice. I doubt any of them will go back to the house until they absolutely must. Nobody likes being there now that Wilhelmina is there.”
Ryan nodded. “If I find them, I will bring them back. I won’t return without Sian, so I may be gone a while.”
Several minutes later, Mabel found herself inside a luxurious parlour, staring at an empty doorway. Sliding into a seat, she listened to Ryan’s retreating footsteps and turned to stare blankly into the fire. Now that she was truly alone and unlikely to be disturbed, Mabel caved into the misery that had plagued the last several years. It was time to make a few decisions about which direction her life was now going to take. One thing was certain, she couldn’t pretend to love her husband anymore.
Ryan raced across the fields as fast as he dared allow his horse to run in the middle of the storm. It was foolish for anybody to be out in such atrocious weather but that wasn’t what concerned him. All Ryan could think about was Sian, and what he was going to do if anything happened to her before he could find her. Or, worse, what Cedrick would do if he found her first. He doubted the man would be sitting in front of the fire without a care in the world, not with Wilhelmina determined to marry him into the family. He would be out here, undoubtedly under the harridan’s orders, doing everything possible to hunt down the woman he would undoubtedly do everything to ruin just to force her into marriage to him.
