Page 106 of The Fighter who Needed Me
Brooks
London, England June 1813
Lily had him bring Persephone up to the room she directed him to and he gently laid her on the bed and held her hand as Lily directed everyone to get her what she needed.
Persephone’s mother climbed on the bed beside her and Brooks looked at the woman that everyone had thought was dead.
She looked from her daughter to him and she gave him a tiny smile.
Then she gently brushed Persephone’s hair out of her face and moved up higher on the bed, not wanting to leave.
Persephone had passed out from the pain and blood loss on the ride over, but he did not think she knew that her mother still lived.
Lily washed the blood from Persephone’s shoulder and then poured some whiskey over the wound, making Persephone cry out and thrash a little.
Brooks helped hold her still and when Lily started stitching up the wound, Persephone had gone back into a deep and troubled sleep.
The woman stayed by Persephone’s head and he knew that there were so many unspoken questions in the room that everyone wanted answers to.
When Lily finished her surgery and had wrapped Persephone’s wound in some clean bandages, she had Brooks gently lift her head to give her some medicine.
He obliged her and then Lily sat back, exhausted.
She looked at the woman who was silent and Brooks cleared his throat and she looked over at him.
“You are the man who loves my daughter. Aren’t you?” She asked him quietly and he nodded, “I am. She is my everything.”
She let out a breath and sat back against the headboard of the bed as if she could not stay upright.
And she probably could not. She was so thin and looked so frail but must have been the one who had given Persephone the strength she had.
The woman’s golden eyes met his again and he said, “Will you tell me how this came to be? We all believed you were dead. And for the longest time we thought Bruce and Kitty were Persephone’s parents. We only recently found out that isn’t the case.”
She nodded her head once, “I will tell all that I can.”
She gently pushed the hair from Persephone’s face again and let out a breath, then she looked at him and at Lily.
Lily said, “May I have the rest of the family listen to your tale?”
The woman nodded and Lily rushed from the room and then everyone piled in through the door.
Eden, Cole, Cabe, Nathaniel, Burk, Bran and Grant stood, and Eden sat in a chair next to Lily.
The woman looked around at the men and let off a sigh.
“Years ago, I was happy. In love and expecting a child that we wished for. Until I got the dreadful news that my dear husband had died. The shock was so much that I fell down the stairs and started my labor. But it was too early for my child to be born. Except that did not stop nature. She came anyway and was born silent, but after a little help, cried. She was tiny, but so perfect and I fell in love with her. But all was not well. Not in the house I was in. My dear maid had found out that my husband’s saddle had been found tampered with and that it had been Bruce who had saddled the horses.”
She looked at Brooks with her golden eyes full of tears and then she looked at her daughter, “That shock was enough to send me into a depression, and my own sister by law tried to kill me. She came in my room after I gave birth to you and tried to smother me with a pillow. She was not expecting me to fight back. And I am grateful it did not work, but the damage had been done. She told everyone I had died but had in fact hidden me away in their house. They had a small room that was hidden, and I stayed there. In the dark for years. Only at night was I allowed out. I was allowed to nurse my child, but only when the baby was brought to me and at night.”
Brooks' heart broke for her and then she went on, “I had to see my child, not grow and develop like she should. And Kitty insisted that she was always ill. That they did what they had to so they could protect her. They said that she had fragile bones and that her back was crooked. So, she could not be a normal child. They kept her tied and drugged in her bed and after she was a year old, I was not allowed to see her. But I had a maid that knew how desperately I yearned to see her, and she let me hold Persephone every night. She would untie me when it was in the dead of night and she let me care for my child. It was hard to only give her love at night, but for years I went to her in her sleep and held her. And loved her. She did not know I was there, but I was. And my maid has very subtly tried to keep her safe, because she knew they would kill her if they found out. And then when Persephone was older, they had me carted off to a house that was under a strict rule that I was not allowed out or allowed to talk to anyone. I was only allowed in certain rooms and that I was not allowed to do anything. And the people they hired to keep watch over me were not afraid to keep their jobs and were not afraid to do them well. They hated me. And I hated them. I did not speak to anyone for years and forgot how to even talk at all. And then one day, I learned that my daughter was going to London for her first season. That she had agreed to wed a man old enough to be her father and that I would have no choice but to go along with it.”
She shrugged softly, “I already knew that I had no say and did what was expected of me or there would be pain, so I said nothing. And then, she went missing. For a month they had no word of her, and they came for me. Told me that if they could not find her, that I would suffer. I did not know what they expected of me, but she was found. And she suffered. So much. I was there. In that house. I heard how much she hated it. How hard she prayed to leave. I knew she had found the person she loved, and I saw you the night you snuck into the house. I was the one to keep everyone away from her room, but then she tried to leave. And we were all taken from that house and to the house of pain. He did not care that she hated it. He wanted her and that was all that mattered. Except he did not truly want her. He just wanted the fortune that was supposed to be hers when she wed.”
Brooks raised his eyebrows and heard someone suck in a shocked breath.
“My mother and father were very wealthy. They put in their will that if I ever had a child that they would receive the bulk of their fortune after they married. Bruce did not know this, but Reginald did. He found out somehow and that was why he wanted Persephone. He did not know about me, though. Had no idea that while he may have wanted to marry her, I would have done anything to stop it. I escaped too late. I worked those ropes until my wrists were bloody, but since they barely fed me, they slipped off with not a lot of effort. And the ones on my legs came off too. I ran all the way to the church and tried. I truly did. I didn’t think he would shoot her.”
Brooks spoke up, “I think he was trying to hit me, but this isn’t the first time he has taken aim at her. I should have taken his life.”
