Page 62 of A Governess' Forbidden Flame
He paused for a moment, then he took a closer step to Sebastian. Sebastian remained put. He refused to allow Frederick to intimidate him any more than he already had.
“Have you any idea what it is like to grow up in the slums of London?” Frederick wondered, but he didn’t let Sebastian continue. “Of course not! How could you know about the squalid houses above narrow streets, where there are entire families to a room. Many did not even have that much. Sometimes, we lived on the streets, managing to procure a rented bed in a lodging house for only a night or two.” Frederick spoke of a life that Sebastian did not know. But it was not his fault he had been born in his family.
One did not have that choice. Only fortune or misfortune. Still, he knew better than to interrupt Frederick’s monologue. “You know of so many beautiful places, but I…I knew of only five. The church was where my mother pretended to pray. The gin palacewas where she tried to drown her sorrows. The pawnbroker’s was where she sold her last rag to obtain means of purchasing a few scraps of food. Prison, where many of my fellows are committed due to acts of crime caused by starvation and, even more often, despair.
And finally…the workhouse. Have you seen it, Cousin? No. Of course not. For that is where the hopeless go to die!”
Sebastian felt sympathy for this man, but that did not excuse him from pointing a pistol at them and demanding retribution from someone who had not done him any harm.
“But I did not die, dear cousin,” Frederick shook his head. “Oh, no. You see, my mother…she was the daughter of the previous earl before your father, and she was distraught over her treatment after her pregnancy. How does that old saying go? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? Yes, that is the one!” He chuckled loudly, but the pistol did not move. His eyes narrowed as he spoke the following words. “So, she killed her father.”
Amelia gasped from behind Sebastian.
“Not out of sheer vengeance, I assure you,” Frederick continued. “But rather because she believed she would inherit the fortune. Then…as luck would have it, she did not inherit it, but rather your father did. She couldn’t stop there. Once you become a murderer, it does not matter how many souls you send to Hell. One is the same as three.”
Three…Sebastian knew what that meant. Rage boiled inside of him. It took all of his conscious effort to control himself and not lunge at the man, regardless of whether he would shoot or not. But he remained in one spot, knowing that there were others counting on him to protect them. Amelia was behind him, and Anna was in the house, hopefully safe.
“So, she murdered your father, then your brother as well,” Frederick explained. “Because fair is fair. It was hers, you see. And subsequently, mine as well. I had to help her. There was no other way.” Frederick shook the pistol slightly. “But then you had to spoil our plans. You had to shut off the manor to outsiders, so there was no way I could come after you. Mother had died in the meantime, so all she had was me to demand retribution and what was rightfully ours. I waited patiently. I sent you letters. But your egotistical arse never responded to a single one!”
Sebastian gritted his teeth. He refused to acknowledge this comment with a response.
“Then, a glimmer of hope,” Frederick continued more softly. “The manor house opened up, welcoming a new governess, and even a physician for the fall of your young niece. That was my time to act.”
At that moment, a noise was heard from the bushes, and Frederick’s attention was momentarily distracted. Up until thatpoint in time, Sebastian, his jaw clenched with resolved, had been discreetly preparing to charge at Frederick. He had no idea when or how, but he knew that his chance was coming. Fate would look upon him gracefully. If he was fortunate, he would recognize it.
Seizing the moment and not even thinking about it consciously, he rushed forward, ready to tackle Frederick, but before he could reach the man, the pistol fired. The deafening echo created a burst of birds from a nearby tree, forcing them all to flutter in different directions, afraid for their very lives, just like the rest of them.
“Sebastian!” Amelia exclaimed, her cry even louder than the gunshot, reaching the very heavens above. There was so much pain, so much love in that one word that it almost destroyed him.
The impact of the bullet caused him to stumble, his charge thwarted by this unexpected injury. As the echoes of the gunshot still lingered in the air, the garden was now transformed from a haven of serenity into a battleground where the struggle for secrets and safety unfolded beneath the dappled sunlight.
Sebastian’s mind turned blank with the onslaught of pain that coursed through his entire body. It emanated from his shoulder, but the anguishing, scorching heat consumed his entire body, wrapping it in a thin cloud of pain of the worst kind. He pressed his hand to his shoulder, feeling blood gushing from his wound.
“Sebastian…” he heard Amelia’s voice by his side and the warmth of her hands on his cheeks. It was only the sound of her voice that kept him from losing himself in unconsciousness. “Stay with me…” she kept talking to him, demanding his attention, which he had so little to give.
He squeezed his eyes shut, and through this thin slit of his vision, he could see Nicholas bravely rushing at Frederick with his gardening hoe. The man appeared to be a mountain of strength that was about to fall upon a small hill, but before Nicholas could deal with his vengeance, a shout came from the house, forcing everyone to stop.
His gaze turned to the house, and two silhouettes emerged from the darkness of his vision. A moment later, the sunlight fell upon the familiar features of a small girl and a woman he had only recently come to know. The look on Anna’s face was heart-wrenching. The fear, the utter hopelessness, was palpable as Vivienne held her hand, and in the other…another pistol.
Chapter 32
Amelia didn’t know where to look first, whether at Sebastian, who was bleeding on the ground before her feet, or the petrified Anna, whose hand was in a firm grip by the lady with the pistol.
This is all my fault,she thought to herself in despair as her entire body trembled with anguish. She should not have left Anna with this woman who turned out to be a stranger of the worst kind, along with her brother. Now, because both she and Sebastian were too blind to see these people for who they really were, they all faced deadly peril.
“Step away from him!” Vivienne shouted at Nicholas, who immediately obeyed, dropping the hoe down onto the ground and, with it, their salvation. Everyone exchanged charged glances when she spoke up again, addressing no one in particular. “What is going on here?” she demanded to know.
Frederick was the first to reply, the pistol still smoking in his hand, aimed at both Amelia and Sebastian. Amelia could see the look of utter shock and disbelief on Anna’s face and the unmistakable onslaught of tears that would soon follow. She tried to gesture at her to remain calm, but it was difficult.
“The governess found the symbol,” Frederick explained, exasperated as if he had been running a race. “But she refuses to talk.”
Upon hearing this, Vivienne gave her one of her most menacing looks, and Amelia could read it immediately. The pistols in their hands revealed more than mere words ever could. This was why they had come. This was why they had infiltrated their home…herhome, and were now threatening to harm everyone in it. The rage rose in Amelia like the tide, threatening to consume everyone and everything in its path.
She knew that they meant to harm Anna. At that moment, Amelia was no longer just a governess. No. She was so much more than that. Her heart had swelled for this sweet little girl, who had already faced so much heartache in her life, much more than a child of her age should ever know. Now, it seemed that these poor excuses of human beings now threatened to completely destroy what little childhood that she had left.
The mother in Amelia roared like a dragon from the depths of her very soul. “I will show you where the treasure is,” she spoke loudly, lifting her gaze to meet Frederick’s. She refused to speak to the vile woman who dared to hold a child as a hostage.
Her own hand was still on Sebastian’s cheek. She couldn’t tell at this moment whether he was conscious or not. She could not help him. Anna needed her.
