Page 36 of Unseen
LOVE AND OWNERSHIP
B y the time Aunt Adelaide’s arrival was announced, I felt quite mad.
A night of fitful sleep lay behind me, filled with dreams of drowning, of Azriel laughing at me, mere inches above my face, the sheer pane of water separating us.
Now, with my aunt waiting downstairs and the maid looking at me with mild concern on her face, my hands shook and my throat was dry.
In my state of near-insanity, I almost longed for Azriel’s presence, some sort of buffer, someone to lean on in the face of my aunt’s fury. With him by my side, at least I would not be alone.
A ridiculous notion.
Azriel could have his arms around me and I would still be alone. He had proven as much the previous night. Instead, I squared my shoulders and went to the drawing room, awaiting the throwing open of doors and the mad flurry of my aunt to descend into the room.
She did not disappoint.
Her face was twisted into an expression I had never before seen on her sweet, round face. Her cheeks were fire red, her eyes narrowed, her mouth set in such a firm, white line, her lips had completely disappeared.
The door was slammed back against the wall, the harried maid shaking her head with wide eyes as she rushed in behind my aunt.
“I’m sorry, madam, I-”
Aunt Adelaide rounded on the poor girl, her finger darting in the direction of the hall. “Leave us!” Her voice dripped with sheer poison, and the girl wheeled backwards instantly, barely a squeak of acquiescence before the door was slammed in her face.
Aunt Adelaide spun back to face me, and I noticed now how disheveled her clothing was, her bonnet on an angle upon her wild hair. She had truly come to London in a hurry, and I wondered what hell the poor staff aboard the coach had been put through on her journey.
“Aunt Adelaide.” I gave her a tight smile, and walked towards her. “It is so lovely to see you.”
“Do not play the innocent lady with me, my girl.” She looked about the room theatrically, tapping her foot. “And? Where is the cad?”
“My husband is not here.”
Aunt Adelaide scoffed, throwing her hands in the air. “Of course, the coward can’t even face me!”
“It is at my request that he is not here, Aunt. I felt it better we talk alone.” I gestured to the chaise, but she ignored me, staunchly holding her place at the door.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done, Evangeline? What a state your father is in?”
I, too, remained standing, determined to keep a level eye with her. “It is regrettable that my marriage has caused such an uproar, Aunt Adelaide, but I am sure that, in time-”
“No.” The word was short and sharp, carrying with it all the enmity of my family. “There will be no in time , my girl. ”
“There must be, for what is done, is done, and you must accept it.”
“I must do no such thing.” Aunt Adelaide took two steps towards me, coming to a sharp stop, as though fearing that being in too close proximity to me would have my sin burning her just as it had me.
“I was there, when your mother died, I saw your father in the deepest depths of grief and despair. And I can assure you, that pales in comparison to how he finds himself at this moment. He is completely distraught. To hear his only child has become a fallen woman? That she has eloped with not just the greatest womaniser London has ever seen, but her own stepson no less? All while she is in mourning? A mourning that came to pass mere weeks ago!”
“You must all know that we did not plan this.”
“I should certainly hope not!” Adelaide shook her head, aghast. “For what kind of person could even conceive of planning something like this?”
“Aunt Adelaide, please, you must understand, the situation is not as simple as you think.”
“No, it is very clearly as simple as I think.” She raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down. “My naive niece was drawn in by the handsome philanderer, wooed by sinful pleasures of the flesh, and threw herself at the feet of the devil himself.”
Humiliated tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them back quickly. “That is a cruel thing to say.”
“Well, I beg your pardon if you expected me to come here and be kind to you. You will not find me so.” She sneered at me, her hands on her hips. “Oh no, do not tell me that you truly love the boy.”
“He is not a boy, and yes.” My tongue was heavy as I lied. “I do love him. I love him more than I ever thought possible.”
“Patently outrageous.” She jabbed her finger into her open palm. “This here, what is going on in this house, it is a sin, and I will not stand for it, Evangeline. None of us will.”
“You have no choice but to stand for it, for Acton left me nothing.” The words spilled out of me, dredged in hopelessness and anger. “ Nothing . Do you understand?”
Aunt Adelaide frowned at me, clasping her hands together and shaking her head. “No, I do not understand. What are you saying, girl?”
I attempted to close the distance between us, but when I reached out to take her hand, she jerked it away. “He left me nothing. He left me destitute. The annuity, the endowment, it’s all gone.”
Adelaide bit her lips together and shook her head. “No, you are mistaken. He signed an agreement, your father has a copy of it in his study. I have seen it myself, I was there when they signed it.”
“Acton signed a new testament, a year ago.” I tried again to take her hand, but she turned away from me shaking her head. “Aunt, please, you must listen to me!”
“No!” She rounded on me, her finger darting in the air. “No! I will not listen to you, you are lying to try and justify your marriage!”
“That is what you think of me?” One lonely, hot tear could not be held back, and slid down my cheek.
“You think me so cold and cruel that I would lie about my family’s destitution?
That I would see my father cast out onto the street only so I could secure a handsome husband?
You were my mother in almost every sense, and this is how you speak to me? ”
Adelaide put a hand to her head, shaking her disagreement once more, throwing her hands up and quickly clasping them together again. “Evangeline, I am sure you are mistaken. The agreement was-”
“That I bear him children.” I interjected, and shrugged my shoulders.
“Two years into our marriage, he had given up hope of me bearing him an heir. So he went to his lawyer, a disdainful fellow called Mr Fisher, who stood in this house and laughed and mocked me as he told me that the will had been changed. Acton left me my jewels, and his mother’s tapestries. Nothing more.”
Adelaide’s mouth fell open, so shocked was she that for a moment she could not speak at all. She put a hand to her chest, and gasped.
“My god. How could he?”
“Because he held all the cards, and we, none.” I hung my head, my cheeks burning. “I failed in my duty to him, as a wife.”
“But you lay with him? Like I instructed, remember? You knew what to do.”
I laughed bitterly. “Yes, Aunt, I knew very well my duty. And I fulfilled it, every time he required it.”
“Then I do not understand why you did not bear a child.”
“That is certainly neither here nor there now.”
“No!” Aunt Adelaide rushed at me, taking my hands and shaking her head. “No, listen to me, if we take you to a doctor, who can confirm that you are healthy, and able to bear a child, then we can contest that will.”
“What?”
Adelaide nodded emphatically. “Yes! If Acton felt you had failed in your duties, but we can show that it was not your fault, then the will is null and void. Or at the very least, we have a case. And your… marriage is not a necessity. We can have it annulled.”
“No.” I shook my head, pulling my hands from hers. “No. That is not possible.”
“Evangeline, be reasonable. No one need ever know.”
I scowled at her, taking two steps back. “No one need ever know? So what are we to do while we wait to see this doctor? While I live in this house, as both a widow and a wife?”
“This is not the time to think of yourself.” Adelaide snapped, drawing herself up and straightening her bonnet. “You must think of all of us, what this marriage has done. How it has made us look.”
“Made us look?” I did not mean to shout, but it was too much.
It was too late. The years of hurt, of abandonment, the deep pit of dread that had pooled in my stomach since the day my engagement to Acton was announced - they all came bubbling to the surface.
“How it made us look? How do you think it made us look when you all married me off to a man old enough to be my grandfather?”
Adelaide’s mouth dropped open in outrage. “How dare you!”
“How do you think people spoke of us, when you all stood by and let that man, that old man, take a young maid to the altar, and make her his wife?”
“There was nothing to say, Evie, it was a valid marriage!”
“For whom? For me?” I jabbed my fingers into my chest, sure I looked wild now, but not caring all the same. “A valid marriage for me? All the books you read to me as a child, not one had a prince charming with thinning white hair and a walking stick!”
“You are being ridiculous now!”
“You were all ridiculous! You all sold me like a cow, to be bred so that you all may keep your comfort!”
Adelaide sputtered, her cheeks flushing violently purple and the veins at her temples popping out under her pale skin. “You ungrateful, insolent girl! You were handed off into a good marriage with a decent man who treated you like a queen!”
“He treated me like dirt, just as he had all his other wives! But all you saw was the money! That is all you and my father ever saw, and thank God he gave you a pretty daughter to sell off to the first wealthy man who came calling!”
Adelaide charged at me and slapped me hard across the face. “You spoiled little madam! How dare you speak to me in this manner!”
The doors flew open once again, and Azriel strode into the room. His blue eyes were blazing as he came to my side, taking my hand and looking intently into my face.
“Are you alright?” He asked in a low voice.