Page 40 of The Rake
“I am Margot Keating. I can pay…” Margot said. Her lips were tinged blue, and she looked close to fainting, but she fixed Pip with such a pleasing smile that for one ridiculous moment Langley almost felt jealous. “You look so familiar,” she continued, her words a little slurred as she tried her best to look at Pip’s face. For the briefest of moments Langley swore her eyes shifted back towards him.
“Come. You needn’t worry on that score. His lordship will cover any costs,” Pip said, pressing a drop of liquid past her parted lips. “This is a tiny amount of laudanum. Only the smallest of amounts. It should have the desired effect of getting you to rest. You just need to sleep. Remember you are safe now.” With that said, Pip took from his housekeeper the proffered blanket and draped it over Margot’s partly exposed body, before turning to stare at the two remaining occupants of the room. “Mrs. Wotton, would you go and make some strong tea for his lordship and me.”
The housekeeper slipped from the room silently. Langley was almost tempted to call after her a request for something stronger.
“She will live?” He moved closer to the now sleeping Margot.
“Aye. But it’s just as well you brought her straight here. I won’t always be able to treat another like this,” Pip said. His stare fixed Langley with a question.
“I can explain,” Langley said.
“You don’t owe me an explanation. It is thanks to you I am here, operating and running a business.” Pip sounded annoyed, despite how well-mannered his words were. “I am just shocked at the treatment of such a girl.”
“I didn’t do that to her. God. What do you imagine I do to my women?”
“I try not to.”
“Jesus, well not that. I would never hurt a woman. Ever.”
“But this one was put in danger.”
“She’s not a one. She’s…” He could not admit to Pip what she was, as he had almost called her, his Amazon. “Believe me, the man suffered for his treatment of her.” With a wry noise, Langley continued, “If she hadn’t screamed at me to stop, he would be dead.”
There was an uncomfortable pause, and the doctor stepped nearer, studying Langley’s face as if he might be able to ascertain the truth. There was a weariness to Pip’s features which had never amassed on Langley’s face, presumably because Pip actually worked for his living, whereas Langley just gave the impression of great activity with little to show for it.
“I don’t think I have ever heard you talk so,” Pip said, folding his arms over his chest. Suddenly a small smile appeared on his face, almost as if he found something amusing. A crease curving his features and removing the earlier fear. “Not about anyone that I can ever remember.”
“Well.” Langley was uncomfortable at the perceptiveness of Pip’s look. “You don’t move in my sphere.”
“True,” Pip said. “But then, since you’re my brother, I had hoped you might still think me worthy of a degree of consideration. We can talk about it, about her, over tea.”
CHAPTER 19
Margot felt the entire room around her spin, rather like she was a dancer set off on an endless loop. Distantly she could hear a murmur of voices, but she doubted she knew who they belonged to. Or even if they were male or female. There was a soft, glowing warmth from deep within her that made her feel numb to the outside world, and it was hard to focus on very much else. She knew her name was Margot Keating. There was the memory of her parents, but now when she dwelt on them there was the unmistakable feeling of being let down. Disappointed in them, or perhaps in herself, she wasn’t sure which. Her siblings… no, she did not wish to think about them, instead her mind filled up entirely with Silvester. And this made her want to smile. Her feelings for him expanded in this pleasant world, and when she called out for him, Margot was rewarded with the feel of her hand being grasped and the rough but familiar voice.
“Love?” It was the nickname he always used chiefly ironically, but perhaps there was a softness to it this time.
It took a great deal of effort to prise open her eyes, but when she did so, Margot was rewarded with the sight of Langley leaning over her. There were dark circles beneath his eyes, and aweariness resting on his face. But then he smiled, a half grin that tugged on the corner of his lips, and everything else seemed to fade away. Even the rest of the room, a space she had no memory of arriving in, seemed very unimportant. Unable to help herself, Margot returned the smile, probably looking extremely silly as she gazed up at him.
“There you are,” he said as her eyes tried their best to focus on him.
“Where am I?”
“Doctor Caton’s surgery.”
“Who?” She had not heard that name before, she could have sworn. Besides, she could see no one else in the room. Everything else around Langley was soft and unfocused, so if there was someone else present, Margot could not see them. It was daunting to think suddenly that was how she saw London now; it was insignificant compared to the importance of Langley.
There was a sigh, and then Langley moved closer and lowered his voice. “My brother, Pip, is Doctor Philip Caton. He sewed you up and gave you some laudanum.” When Langley pushed some of her damp hair off her forehead, Margot leant into his touch, enjoying this side to him. A sweeter, softer side to Silvester.
“Wait.” Her mind was slower, starved almost of sense. “You don’t have any brothers. Or sisters.” Her mind was scrambling, surely. She would not have forgotten that. She was certain she knew everything about his lordship, but here was something that was either a lie or…
“Yes.” Langley was practically bashful, shy perhaps. He sighed. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. But I do. Have a brother. My mother’s bastard lovechild.” He shifted and Margot realised he had sunk into a seat next to the bed she lay on. “Pip is six years younger than me, conceived when my father wasabroad so there was no chance for her to hide her indiscretion. So, in the end, she had to settle for hiding Pip instead. It destroyed my father.”
From somewhere far away there was a voice screaming, a lone call at a great distance was yelling something vital. This secret of his mattered beyond just the facts she realised as she stayed silently watching Langley. She could not quite work out why she was suddenly scared, but it dinted the happiness she felt earlier. Then it came to her in a rush—bastardy had destroyed his parent’s marriage. What would he make of her, yet another illegitimate issue?
“Your brother?” Was all she managed to ask.
“I helped him when I found out about him. My mother informed me on my eighteenth birthday. Pip had been placed in Southampton, with an old… well it doesn’t matter.” He looked around the room and Margot sleepily managed to lift her head, staring at her surroundings. A warm morning light was pouring through the partly drawn curtains, indicating it was a new day. “Paid for his studies and for his dream.” Langley waved his hand. “To be a doctor. That was the least I could do for him.”
