AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Thirteen
Ariadne walked home, her heart heavy with dejection. The way the clerks had humiliated her and objectified her body made her feel sick. They had made one thing clear—they would never allow her to advance on her journey to make the patent a reality.
She looked skyward. It was filled with heavy clouds that seemed to get darker by the second. “I feel so alone, Pa. I wish you didn’t leave me alone.” So many things had gone wrong in the last few weeks. The blackmail letters. And now this. It was as if the world was out to punish her for some unknown sin.
For the past few months, she had tried every possible way to care for both Leda and Emma but it was becoming harder by the second. And after the soul-crushing rejection today—
Ariadne knocked on the door to the flat and Leda opened the door almost immediately. “Oh, Ari where have you been? We were expecting you for hours now. You know those letters have us worried.” They had received about five until now, each more threatening than the other and the only suspect so far was Mrs. Tula.
Emma came out of the kitchen, cleaning her hands on a rag. “I told her not to worry about you, office work always takes a lot of time.” She turned to Leda. “But Ariadne is smart. She always gets the job done.”
“I couldn’t,” Ariadne said, balling her fists. Frustration sunk heavily under her skin and anger was replacing her disappointment.
“What do you mean you couldn’t?” Leda frowned.
“I failed, Leda,” Ariadne said. Something inside her was breaking. “I couldn’t register the patent.”
Emma and Leda looked at her in stunned silence. Their expectation lay heavy on her back. She knew she had failed them today and she couldn’t bear to stay here another minute. “I’ll be in the studio,” she said and left the apartment again.
Rain had started to patter down the roof but Ariadne paid no heed to it as she made a dash toward the studio. Wiping the mud off the bottom of her shoes, she entered the room. She cleaned her face with a rag as she walked into the studio and switched on all the lights. She blinked against the sudden brightness. Everything was how she had left it. But she had found out that none of it summed up to anything in the world out there.
As thunder crashed somewhere in the sky above her, her own sadness gave way to anger. Rage, unlike anything she had felt before threatened to split her asunder. “I did everything right,” she said to herself. “Things were supposed to get better.” Red-hot anger made her veins thrum and her head began to throb.
They had turned her away without giving her much thought and for what? Because she was a woman. The unfairness of it made her want to—
She picked up the nearest thing she could lay her hands on and smashed it on the floor. But the action did little to calm the fire inside her. She wanted to raze through everything and be done with it. Her knees gave out and she sank to the floor. But she didn’t cry. She couldn’t cry. She wouldn’t let the world break her.
There was a sudden knock at the door and Ariadne looked up. She was not expecting anyone, let alone in the middle of a thunderstorm. A thin prickle of fear made her worry. The blackmail letters were always at the back of her head.
Ariadne looked up and was surprised to see that her unexpected visitor was none other than Lord Brexley. “My Lord,” she said. She got up on her feet but forgot to curtsy to him. “What are you doing here?”
Lord Brexley walked into the studio, his cane tapping against the hard floor. “Is it a bad time?” He appraised the contents of the box, the chunks of wood that had scattered around the room at the impact.
“No, no, not at all. What brings you here?” she asked. The anger dissipated just as quickly as it had taken root inside her. Besides he wasn’t the one at fault here. Lord Brexley had been nothing but kind to them.
“You look terrible,” he said solemnly. “What happened to you?” he asked with some concern. Ariadne scoffed. Where would she begin? Society seemed to work to subjugate her and look down at her and other woman. It was like having shackles around her feet, every step painful and heavy.
“Nothing that concerns you, my Lord. But thank you for asking,” she said. She didn’t want to bring him into her problems. She knew the solution he would offer and she wanted nothing to do with it.
Lord Brexley raised one brow. “All right. If you don’t wish to share your troubles with me. As for what brings me here, nothing in particular. I just wanted to see how you were faring since my last visit.”
“We’re doing fine, my Lord,” Ariadne said. “Unfortunately, I have nothing to offer you here.”
“That’s fine,” Lord Brexley said. His eyes roved around the studio, as he took in the inventions that were splayed out all over the rectangular room. Some of the bigger ones were covered in sheets that were now covered with grime and dust. “I had every intention to head to your flat but I saw the door ajar and came here instead. This place has always fascinated me. However, this is the first time I’ve been inside.”
“This was my father’s whole world,” Ariadne said.
Lord Brexley nodded. “I knew your father well when he was still one of the doyens. Although I will confess that I was merely a boy when he was cast out and as such wasn’t acquainted with him. As soon as I heard of the terrible blow fate had lent him, I knew I had to help. He was a proud man and he told me he didn’t need my help when he clearly did.” He shook his head. “I had nothing but good intentions toward your father and now you, of course.”
“That’s very kind of you, my Lord,” Ariadne said and she really meant it. And even though the man had their best intentions in his heart, Ariadne wasn’t at all comfortable taking him up on it.
“What happened to all of these?” he asked. Ariadne looked around the studio and felt embarrassed at the state of it. She had been consumed with repairing the lamp and forgotten all about the rest of it.
“Most of these are in working order. They’ve just been forgotten with time,” she said. An idea struck her suddenly. Maybe she could do something about the rest of the inventions. Surely she could find a place where they would be useful.
Lord Brexley nodded. “You know, I’m quite the inventor myself,” he said. He tapped his knee, which drew Ariadne’s attention to it. I’m wearing braces underneath. They help with my bad leg. Can you tell?”
“I can barely notice it,” she said.
