Page 46 of Unseen

“There, that will have to do, we cannot keep her ladyship waiting,” Mary said, her eyes wide and her tone almost reverent.

A short while later, Azriel reappeared at my door, looking dapper in a suit that was certainly not soaked with water and lavender oil, a blue cravat at his neck that made his eyes even more startling.

“You look stunning, beloved,” he said as he offered me his arm, completely cool and collected, not at all concerned about what this visit from my aunt could mean.

I, on the other hand, was a bundle of nerves.

Aunt Adelaide was sitting by the window in the drawing room, and regarded us both with pursed lips as we passed through the door.

“Aunt, how wonderful to see you,” I said as she rose to her feet. “We were not expecting you.”

“I thought it best not to announce my arrival.” Adelaide looked Azriel up and down, wrinkling her nose.

“Sometimes surprise is the best form of attack,” Azriel said with a charming smile, taking my aunt’s hand and bowing his head to it.

“It is wonderful to see you, in any case. Beloved?” He gestured to another chair, waiting for me to take my place before sitting down beside me.

“And how may we be of assistance to you today, Aunt?”

Adelaide bristled visibly at the word ‘aunt’, and clasped her gloved hands in her lap. “My family and I have been speaking. ”

“That’s hardly unusual for a family,” Azriel said lightly, and even through my anxiety, my lips twitched as I threatened to break out in a laugh at his brashness.

Aunt Adelaide looked as though her head might burst. “We have been having rather stern words.” She sniffed lightly, giving her head a quick shake, then her displeased gaze landed on me. “Would I be correct in assuming you and Mr Caine have been living as husband and wife?”

“She’s asking if we make love,” Azriel murmured as he leaned closer to me, though still loud enough for Aunt Adelaide to hear, and my cheeks flushed violently. “Feel free to answer, but perhaps hold back on the sordid details.”

“Sir!” Aunt Adelaide’s voice had dissolved into an outraged squawk, and she spluttered almost comically. “Your behaviour is positively outrageous!”

“I am not the one who has emerged unannounced at another person’s home and proceeded to ask the finer details of their marital relations, your grace.” Azriel gave Adelaide a wicked smile, reaching over to take my hand. “I do wonder why this information should even concern you?”

“It is alright, Azriel,” I said quickly, lest my aunt actually explode into a million tiny pieces all over our drawing room. “We have been living as husband and wife, of course.”

“And am I to assume you are pregnant?”

A quiver ran through my lips, my eyes burning to match the heat in my cheeks, and I shook my head slowly. “No, I do not appear to have conceived yet.”

The veins in Adelaide’s forehead calmed down ever so slightly, and she jerked a fan from her purse, waving herself frantically as the purple hue left her cheeks. “I see. And this despite relations that should lead to a child.”

“Madam,” Azriel barked, his hand curling protectively around mine. “I will say it once more, I do not see what any of this has to do with you or your family. ”

“And you would not understand because you do not understand tradition, boy,” Adelaide snapped, her gaze dripping with venom as her lips pulled back in a sneer.

“Your father, who was he? An opportunist who came into money through fortuitous marriages and the slyness of a fox. We all know he swindled his way through every business he could in this town, and that is all.”

“Aunt, that is enough,” I said sharply, but Adelaide would not be stopped.

“Your father, you, all of your ilk, none of you understand what it means to have been the backbone of this great land.” Adelaide squared her shoulders, lifting her chin proudly.

“We stand for tradition. The old England, where a name meant something. Where the lands you owned meant something. You would never understand that, what it means to walk into a room and be announced as someone who is known, who is respected, who is-”

“Broke?” Azriel interjected, and I felt as though I was going to choke.

“You sit here, and speak of tradition, as though it still means anything. The old England indeed, where you bartered and traded off your own children for your benefit, where not one of you ever lifted a finger or did an honest day’s work. ”

Adelaide chortled loudly, her curls bouncing beneath her bonnet. “And what would you know of an honest day’s work, Azriel Caine?”

“He has done good works amongst his tenants,” I said, holding steadfastly on to Azriel’s hand.

“He has provided for those who had less than him, when they were in need. He has seen to it that children have received the care they required.” I looked at him, and he met me with warm and adoring eyes. “He is a good man.”

Aunt Adelaide exhaled noisily, and began to fan herself again. “Be that as it may, but a family like this could never understand just what a family like ours stands for.”

“And yet our money is good enough for you,” Azriel replied evenly, turning back to face her. “That you would not refuse, no matter that the method in which it was collected is not according to tradition.”

“We received that money in exchange for something far more valuable.” Adelaide shifted in her seat, her gaze avoiding mine.

“Which is what the family and I have been discussing.” She took a deep breath, folding her fan together and tucking it back into her purse. “I have come today with a proposal.”

Azriel crossed one leg over the other, and shrugged. “You have nothing to offer me that I do not already have.”

“Except an heir.” Adelaide refused to look at me, her determined expression fixed on Azriel. “Your wife has admitted to me that she lay with your father on many occasions.”

Azriel tensed beside me. “I would thank you not to speak of it.”

“She failed to provide your father with a child.” Adelaide’s face shifted, suddenly looking more self-assured, and my skin began to prickle. “Do you not find that strange?”

“Acton was old, Aunt,” I said, forcing myself to smile to hide the uneasiness that swept through me.

“Your husband is not, though, is he?” Adelaide’s eyes landed on me, and her smile was purely serpentine. “It is strange, don’t you think, that this is the second husband you’ve failed to provide a child?”

“It has been a month, barely.” My voice wavered, and threatened to crack, as all the fears that had run their course through my head not two hours ago resurfaced. “These things can take time. You know yourself, your first child was not born until well after you’d been married a year. ”

Adelaide’s eyes narrowed, and then bounced back to Azriel. “I propose to you today that you have your marriage to my niece annulled.”

“There are no grounds for an annulment.”

“And what of the grounds that you are barren, and unable to fulfil your wifely duties?” Adelaide’s gaze turned haughty, demeaning. “No man should have to be shackled to a woman unable to provide to him what God created the sacred union of marriage for.”

“That is still not a proposal, merely a request.” Azriel squeezed my hand. “One I have already vehemently denied.”

“I will offer you instead my daughter, Marguerite.”

Azriel’s booming laughter drowned out my horrified inhalation of breath. “Aunt Adelaide, you are a born comedian.”

“She is perhaps not as beautiful as your wife,” Adelaide said loudly to be heard over Azriel’s laughter. “But she is still a fair prospect, she has good teeth, and most importantly, she comes from fecund stock.”

“Did you hear that, Evie?” Azriel leaned close to me again, still chuckling. “Fecund stock.”

“I am sure you are aware that Evangeline’s mother only bore one child,” Adelaide went on, completely unperturbed and certainly ignorant to my horrified face. “And that she struggled to do. She lost five children before Evangeline was born, two of them being stillbirths. Both boys.”

Azriel stopped laughing, and took a deep breath. “That is tragic indeed.”

“Whereas I bore my husband five children, all living. Four of them are now married themselves, and I am myself blessed with seven grandchildren between them, and the eighth on the way. Marguerite is the youngest of them, only nineteen years old, and is sure to be as fertile as her mother and sisters have proven to be. ”

I could not speak, and the feeling in my stomach as Azriel dropped my hand was indescribable.

“Nineteen, you say?” Azriel uncrossed his legs, laying a hand on his knee. “That is rather young for her to leave your home.”

“The younger the better,” Adelaide said with a smile that was becoming more and more triumphant by the second. “You could have a child in your arms by next Christmas.”

“Indeed.” Azriel rubbed his chin, and I dared not to look at him.

He could not do this to me. He would not do this to me.

Not after telling me that children meant nothing to him.

Not when he had insisted that he loved me, that I was the woman of his heart.

He had promised me that he loved me, that he had chosen me.

But then I thought of all the men I had known in my life, all the filthy, debauched things they had done, and I felt ill as I realised that perhaps Azriel was just like the rest of them.

“And what would happen to Evangeline?” Azriel asked, and I bit my lips together to stop myself bursting into tears. He had only called me Evangeline once, in bed, when he was being earnest, telling me wanted me, only me, that he wanted to deserve me.

Adelaide smiled sweetly. “Evangeline would of course come home to Leicester to care for her father. Lord only knows the shame she has brought on the family means that her prospects are non-existent. No decent man would want her now.”

“You and your family have truly thought of everything.” Azriel nodded slowly. “Hmmm. It is quite the proposal.”