Page 56 of Lady Fiona's Tall, Dark Folly
"No. I escaped him. Not his cruelty. I have always had problems with use of my hand."
She could not hold heavy items, Rory recalled, or turn door handles easily with her left hand.
"My virtue, however, was intact." She scoffed. "But I had nightmares for years. I could not sleep alone. Oh, your father did not mind. But even after your brother John was born and Annalise and you, I should have slept alone, but could not. Your father was always there for me when I awakened screaming."
"And Papa did not demand they fight the duel?" Many men used duels as means to assert their right—and their virility.
"No. He listened to my pleas. But he devised another way to seek some kind of justice for what Marlton had done." She met Rory's gaze. Tears glistened on her lashes. "He ruined him financially. Persuaded investors in two companies to squeeze out Marlton's shares. Through anonymous sources, he bought up his cattle from his farms at bottom prices in hard times. And he hired away workers from his cotton mills in Lancashire at higher wages."
"And the scandal?" Rory had never heard a word, not an intimation of anything amiss between the families.
"We told no one. I could not bear it. Your father knew too that if he insisted upon a duel, word would go out of the reason. This was the better way."
Rory stood, consumed with agony for his mother and father. He walked to the window and looked out upon what consequences had likely been in Fifi's family. Certainly, financial challenges had been one.
But was her father abusive to others? To his wife? And to his daughter? Had Fifi suffered beatings?
A sudden memory of Fifi shot through him. At Courtland Hall, he'd kissed her, caressed her and declared how he loved her. She'd asked him, 'Did your father love your mother?'
He answered with a word that epitomized his parents' relationship.Cherished.They had cherished each other.
But when he asked her in turn about her own parents, she'd said, 'Cherished is the very last word I could use.'
"Now you know, Rory,” his mother spoke and drew him back to her, “why I cannot countenance a marriage between you and that man's daughter."
"I understand your sentiment, Mama. And Heaven knows I am appalled by what happened. You have lived with this all your life. I hear your agony and I commiserate."
She tipped her head, her hazel eyes stern. "Do I detect that you persist?"
He whirled to face her. "I understand how you feel and how I would feel if anyone were to do the same to Annalise or to Fifi. I would want his blood, his life, his name and fortune gone. From what I hear, Papa did that. He obtained his retribution."
Amid all this, Fifi suffered too. He did not have specifics, but he didn't need them. He had the pleased and surprised look in her eyes when he tended to her injured ankle. He had her words when she wished to know how his parents cared for each other.
He stood taller. Did Fifi know what had happened between her father and his mother? Why would she ask him about her parents' love for each other if she did not know? That he had to learn. But it would not stop him from what he had to do now.
His mother straightened her spine. Triumph lined her features. "So then you will not pursue this relationship. Good. I knew you would not—"
"You don't understand, Mama."
"What do you mean?"
"I have lived far too many years of my life maiming and killing people for the sake of king and country."
Her lovely face turned to stone.
"I have fought in scorching sun, rain, snow, mud and hail. I've watched men become the most noble, selfless creatures to climb mountains and scale walls, to dig trenches and roads. I've seen them die of thirst and hunger. I've seen them lose arms and eyes and minds for what they cannot see or feel or taste. But as they lay dying, they cry for those they love. They seek the succor of their sweethearts or their wives or their mothers. What we wish for at the end of life is not for revenge or wealth or fame. What we need as we face our God are those who love us."
He went to her, and down on bended knee, he grasped her hands. "You had that from Papa. He looked upon you at the end of his life with the love he'd always borne you. I ask you to forget what you can. Forgive what you can. Make room in your heart for me."
"Rory! You have always been there."
"Then make accommodation there too for the woman whom I love. For she whom I will need when I lay dying."
"You ask much. I do not know if I can give it."
"If not, you and I will live the poorer for it."
She bit her lip. "I agree."
"I love this young woman, Mama. I fear she may have suffered too from the nature of her father and—"
Her eyes went wide. She clutched his hands. "You think he beat her?"
"I doubt it, but I am not certain. Whatever that answer, I want to take her, make her mine and show her that all men are not like her father. Fiona is kind and tender, funny and loving, and she will be my wife. Please find it in your heart to make all our lives happy from this day forward. I have never asked anything of you so earnestly. I beg it of you. For all our sake's."
