Page 21 of Weave me a Rope
“I am well, thank you, Miss Milton,” the boy said.
“Cordelia. I will be your sister,” she insisted.
“I hope so, Cordelia,” John said, though his face showed his doubts. “You love my brother and I think you will be good for him. But the marquess is going to be furious.”
Cordelia shrugged. From what she had heard and seen of the marquess, he was a bully and a tyrant, but she did not intend to allow him to win. “I think your father overestimates his power,” she said.
John shook his head. “He is not my father. I thought Spen would have told you. My mother played him false.” His eyes blazed and his jaw was stiff, as if he expected her to repudiate him.
Cordelia wanted to reassure him and blurted out the first thing she thought of. “You must be glad. I know Spen is afraid of being like the horrid man, but you don’t have that worry.” Perhaps it wasn’t the ladylike thing to say. In fact, it definitely wasn’t. But it had banished the tight, grim look from John’s face.
“That is true,” he said. “I hadn’t thought of that. But Spen does not have to be afraid. He will never be like the marquess.”
Cordelia smiled. “That’s what I told him, John. I reminded him how kind he is to those who serve him, and how much his friends like him. And you and I, too. We love him, and we have very good taste, do we not?”
John laughed and began telling her stories about Spen. It was clear Spen was a hero to his younger brother, and she also got the impression that—apart from Spen—John had no one who cared about him.
He now had her, too, Cordelia determined.
“What will the marquess do when he finds out you are missing?” she asked.
John shrugged. “With any luck, he will assume I have gone back to school, or taken off for Rosewood Towers. That’s the estate in Cumberland where I spend my summers when the school closes for the holidays. The marquess never goes there.”He smiled, a soft dreamy look. “Spen always spends several weeks with me in the summer.”
“I thought Deercroft was your home,” Cordelia observed.
“It is the marquess’s seat, but none of us spend much time there. Except Lady Deerhaven, since her first confinement.”
Cordelia was diverted by the comment. “I did not know Lady Deerhaven had an older child.”
“The baby was born early and died,” John told her, mournfully. “They say the marquess was furious. He has not let her return to London since then.”
“The poor lady.” Cordelia’s distaste for the marquess could not grow any stronger, but this was a new low. To blame his poor, grieving wife for the loss of a baby. She hoped the lady would bear a live child this time. A daughter, preferably. According to the gossip Andrew had heard, Spen’s chief protection from his father’s anger was his position as his father’s heir, and Cordelia was afraid of what might happen if the marquess had an alternative.
At least now John was out of the evil man’s hands.
“I can’t help but feel I should have stayed at Deercroft,” John said. “Perhaps I could have helped Spen.”
“You could have been used to hurt Spen,” Cordelia pointed out. “Or do you not agree the marquess would hurt you to make Spen do as he is told?”
John sighed. “I do agree. It is just the kind of thing he would do. He has done it in the past. He once fired my governess because Spen had a bad report card. He beat me once because he wanted Spen to sing to entertain the guests at a house party. Spen said he would do it, but then…” John shrugged.
“He hates performing in front of an audience, he told me,” Cordelia said.
John nodded. “He thought Spen was embarrassing him on purpose, so he sent me away to Rosewood Towers. Themarquess thinks Spen’s love for me is a weakness, but that has never stopped him from exploiting it.”
“What a monster,” Cordelia said.
John chuckled. “Spen uses it against him, too. He has only to suggest there’s something I would hate, and then defy the marquess over something, and I get to do it. That is how he got me lessons with the vicar, instead of being left with no one to teach me what I need to know to be an officer. He let the marquess know I hated doing lessons.”
He frowned and shifted uncomfortably. “Then the vicar wrote to tell him how well I was doing, so he sent me to that horrid school. Still, at least there were lessons. I am going into the army when I’m grown, Cordelia.” He grimaced. “At least, I want to. The marquess probably won’t buy me a commission.”
Or he will jump at the chance to send you into danger, Cordelia thought but did not say. “We will keep you out of the marquess’s hands as long as we possibly can, John—at least until Spen is of age and can wed against the old man’s wishes. My uncle will provide you with refuge, and he will help us rescue your brother.”
John looked doubtful, but Cordelia was certain. Her uncle had never refused her any reasonable request, and he hated tyranny.
Still, she worried. It was all very well to assure John her uncle would help in Spen’s rescue, but what could they do? The marquess had the right to lock his son up if he wished, and even to have him beaten. Until Spen was of age, they could not demand his release, and her uncle was unlikely to agree to a less-than-legal approach.
She refused to let John see her doubts. Instead, she begged him for more stories about her beloved.
