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“You are hurt!” She reached for my arm.
“I am fine.”
“You are not fine!” she said, parroting me with a stern look.
“My hand is a little bruised but nothing more.” I ignored the pain and got onto the horse first to prove my point, then pulled her up into my arms to sit in front of me.
“Are you all right?”
She nodded, and only then did I kick into the horse, the wind blowing the scent of her all around me. I was sure she could feel my heart racing at her back.
Oh, how I never wanted to let go of her, and I prayed that I was not riding her into more danger.
“I fear I shall never have a dull moment with you,” I said.
“Who wishes for a dull life?” she replied.
We arrived to find the duchess standing outside the house along with a few maids. In the duchess’s arms was the young Miss Emeline.
“Aphrodite!” Verity called out to her as we came closer. “What is happening?”
“She was in the house. I do not know how she entered, but now, she refuses to leave. Evander said she is threatening to hurt herself!”
Immediately, I got off the horse.
“Stay here,” I yelled to Verity as I ran into the house.
It was simple to see where I should go from where all the servants were looking—up the stairs. I went up, two by two, nearly slipping when I reached the top. I checked to the right and left for where to go before I noticed the crowd in the hall. Evander stood at the door with his butler before him.
“Make way! Make way!” I pushed them and finally saw the woman herself. She sat in a chair crying and muttering to herself, a pistol pointed at her head.
“How long has she been so?” I whispered to Evander as he glared at her.
“Since I arrived. She threatens to shoot if we enter,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “I have half a mind to let her.”
“That is not recommended,” I said, then looked back at her. She was just as Verity said, not in her right mind. “Dowager—”
“Stay back!”
“I am!” I said with my hands raised. “See, I am back.”
“They are the cruel ones!” she hollered, her entire body trembling. “All of them took everything. They took my son, my baby—”
Evander scoffed beside me and opened his mouth to speak, but I grabbed his arm. This was not the time to take account of who was right or wrong. His words would only provoke her madness.
“Do you not have another son, Dowager?” I asked her gently, remembering my conversations with Verity. “Gabrien. I have heard of him. I was told he is very kind and sweet and wishes to travel the seas one day as a naval officer. What shall become of him? Do you not care for him?”
“Of course I do!” she snapped, finally making eye contact with me.
“Then why would you do this? In his family home? Do you wish to haunt him forever?”
“No, I—they are the ones that haunt us!” She pointed to Evander. “He and his mother! All of them! They will not leave us be! They mock us! Always—”
“And Gabrien will be left to further mockery,” I said, taking one step in now. “My mother, she, too, was mocked and insulted. She, too, was hurt deeply by this world, by those with great status,” I continued, taking another step. “And she…did as you wish to do now. Do you know whom she hurt in the process? Me. The rest of the world moved on, and only I was left to remember. It was me the others insulted in her stead. I do not believe she wanted that for me. Do you wish that for Gabrien?”
“They shall already mock him for Fitzwilliam’s transgressions.”
“And you believe that twice the mockery is better?”
“I just…I just want…” She stopped. “I wanted what they had. Why was that wrong?”
“The answer you seek cannot be found with a gun,” I replied, stepping toward her. I outstretched my hand. “Please give it to me.”
She looked up at me and placed the gun in my hand.
“Get her out of my house now!”
Within moments, she was in the hands of the footmen and dragged from her seat.
“You will make her worse—”
“I do not care!” Evander shouted at me when I sought to stop them. She screamed as they took her from the room.
“She is clearly experiencing—”
“She shot at my sister! The woman you claim to love? And you wish to show her compassion because she is mad? She inflicts pain on others, and now we must comfort her? I do not endorse that type of treatment!” he snapped before following them out of the room.
He was not wrong. She could have killed someone, and not just anyone—Verity. The thought made me furious, but as I stared at the gun in my hands, my left bruised badly, I thought of my mother and felt relieved I had at least saved another young man from that same horror.
