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“You talk as if you were any better. I saw how you yourself waited for any news of Aphrodite.”
“Touché.” He chuckled, but the smile on his face faded. “I did wish to speak to you on another matter.”
“What?”
“Datura.”
The joy in me faded as well. “Has it happened?”
She had been tried and sentenced with a capital punishment. However, it had not been carried out yet.
“No, I interceded.”
“You what?” I gasped. He, of all people, advocating for Datura? “Clearly, you are the one not in your right mind.”
“Maybe.” He chuckled and took a deep breath. “Gabrien wrote to me.”
My shoulders dropped at the reminder that while she was a nightmare for us, she was his mother.
“She is still Gabrien’s mother, and how could there be any semblance of peace between us if I wrote to tell him of the death of his mother not even a month after his brother’s passing? He begged me to have her spared that punishment at least, and seeing as how your Theodore worked to spare her as well, I believed that not doing so would brand me cruel.”
He was right.
“So, what is to happen to her?”
“Theodore will provide a statement to the court attesting to her state of mind. They dismissed that before, as her crime was just too great. However, they shall listen to me. She will be punished for her crimes with confinement one town over.”
“Gabrien will still be able to see her,” I replied, and a strange feeling filled me when I thought of the position he was in.
“I will go see her moved to another prison today.”
“Can I not come as well?”
“Verity, let me handle this, and you think no more of it or her. It is over. She shall never be able to disturb our peace again. I heard you are even sleeping through the night once more.” He beamed, though it was not altogether true. I had new medicine given to me. While my nightmares were no longer as bad, they had not simply vanished as I wished them to.
Before I could answer, the door opened, and in walked Aphrodite. “Evander? Do you not have things to attend to in town?”
“I was telling Verity the truth of it. And now I shall go.” He rose to his feet and went to his wife. “Show me out?”
“Have you lost your way?” She giggled.
“Yes.” He outstretched his arm to her and turned to me. “Verity, I will—”
“Evander,” I said as I, too, rose to my feet. My injury was still rather sore but not so much I could not stand. “I understand you mean to protect me, but I truly believe I will not be able to rest until I see her punished with my own two eyes. Right now, she is just somewhere in my mind. I must go. Please allow me.”
He said nothing, just stared at me for a long time before nodding. “Very well, but you shall wait in the carriage until I say otherwise.”
“Thank you.”
Theodore
The marchioness said she had not yet begun to apply pressure; I did not realize at the time what exactly she meant. However, my first week back in London gave a clear indication of her power and influence.
“Hello, Dr. Darrington,” a lord greeted me on the street.
“Good morning, Dr. Darrington!” Two ladies giggled as I passed.
“How are you, Dr. Darrington?” The shopkeeper waved.
“Good lord, it is as though I am not even here,” Henry said from beside me as he watched them all with the same bewilderment as I did. “Not even a nod to me. Me!”
“How on earth did word spread like this? Was there a paper?” I asked him, nodding again to another man who greeted me. I feared I would strain my neck at this rate.
“I do not know about others, but my mother called the modiste a few days ago—I believe her name to be Mrs. Marie Loquac. Anyway, she went on and on about your time in Everely and all your heroics as though you were part of some epic. She told of how you were given extensive property by your father and thousands upon thousands of pounds. Said you were dripping in gold and silver but were still so kind-hearted that you dedicated your life to aiding those in need. She even said you saved the magistrate’s son, Simon Humphries, from a deadly disease.”
“A what?”
“Apparently, he was covered in boils bigger than rocks from head to toe, blind in one eye, and deaf in one ear, and everyone was at a loss for why until you came and cured him completely.”
“There were no boils, no blindness or deafness, nor was he deadly ill from anything other than stubbornness and too much drink. I told the man to refrain from port and brandy. Advice he did not listen to, by the way.”
