Page 94 of Molly Boys

Reaching into the pleated leather folder on the desk and retrieving a thick envelope, he crossed the room and handed it to Everett before moving back to Hugh’s side.

Ev gazed at the envelope bearing his name, elegantly scrawled in his father’s handwriting, and fastened with a heavy wax seal bearing the family crest.

Breaking the seal, he withdrew a letter.

Everett,

If you are reading this, then I am dead, but before my soul can rest I have one more duty to discharge. You, Everett. The thorn in my side and the stain on my bloodline, my legacy. You may have wondered why I treated you so differently to your brother. It’s because I know what you are.

An abomination. I saw you as a boy watching the field hands with greedy, lustful eyes. I saw you and that friend of yours, Francis Tiverton, and the perversions you engaged in under this very roof. Why do you think I refused to allow you to return to Hillingdon and left you in school? Why do you think I have been so insistent on you joining the church? It’s to save your soul. If it can be saved.

I gave you a choice, and if you are reading this letter you chose wrongly. Did you really think it was that simple? That I would let you go running to Tiverton? To engage in that deviant behaviour?

No.

I have taken the liberty of writing several letters detailing the nature of your association with the current Marquess of Lichfield. If you deviate from my wishes in any way, Mr Phipps has been instructed to deliver those letters to all the newspapers, to the police, and throughout the upper echelons of society. Hugh and Mary will be ruined as will your friend Francis, and you’ll both most likely be imprisoned.

Once again, Everett, you are being gifted with a choice, which is more than you deserve. Join the church and maybe save your soul or take the other path and be the destruction of everyone you have ever loved.

Thomas Stanley.

Ev stared at the letter in his hands and let his father’s last cruel words from beyond the grave sink in. His father knew about him, had always known about him.

Ev allowed the paper to fall from his loose fingers into the fire, watching wordlessly as the pages were consumed. For several long moments, Ev stared at the ashes of everything he had ever loved slowly disappearing.

He had no choice. His father had finally won.

He turned to Mr Phipps. “You have the other letters?”

He nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Do you know what is in them?” Ev asked, his tone flat.

“No, sir. I have only been instructed to distribute them accordingly if the conditions are not met.”

“And those conditions are?”

“That you are to be ordained by the church and that you receive no financial assistance from anyone,” Mr Phipps answered politely.

“Those are the only conditions?” Ev pressed.

“They are,” he nodded.

Ev blew out a painful breath. Slowly he nodded his head. “Very well, I agree. I will take the vows and join the church, but I have two conditions of my own.”

“What conditions?” Hugh asked.

“There is a boy, a child I am responsible for, he stays with me no matter what.”

“What boy?”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m keeping him with me,” Ev replied firmly.

Hugh frowned. “He isn’t your illegitimate bastard, is he?” Hugh asked suspiciously.

“No.” Ev’s jaw tightened at his brother’s careless words. “He’s simply an orphan I have become fond of.”

Hugh’s eyes narrowed. “A servant?”