Page 3 of A Very Roguish Boxing Day
“Maiden sister.”She gave an awkward little laugh.“Spinster sister, more like.We both know I’m firmly on the shelf.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”Joseph’s voice was like a medicine whose veneer of sweetness couldn’t quite mask the foul taste beneath.“I have a feeling you’re going to attract all manner of suitors.”
“I don’t want any suitors.”Her voice trembled.It was true.No man had shown her a sniff of interest these past six years.Why would she consider someone who only crawled out of the woodwork now that she was in possession of a fortune?
“It’s not your choice, is it?”Joseph asked.“As your guardian, I have a responsibility to see you properly settled.”
“You’ll only be my guardian for four more months,” Gwendolyn noted.It was true.She would come into her majority on her twenty-fifth birthday in November.“And you can’t force me to marry.”
“No,” Joseph agreed amiably, but then his expression darkened, for all that he was smiling.“But there are things I can do to make you change your mind.”
Gwen hadn’t liked his tone then.And she certainly did not like what he did to her once they arrived back in London.
He started by locking her in her room.
On the third day, Joseph deigned to pay her a visit.“I’ve arranged a match for you, Gwen.You’re to marry my old chum Maurice Simpkins.”
Gwendolyn shuddered.She already knew Maurice Simpkins far better than she would prefer.He was amongst the worst of her brother’s friends, which was really saying something.He had mocked her relentlessly during her childhood.Even worse, once, when one of her father’s hunting hounds had delivered a litter of puppies, she caught him torturing the runt of the litter.She had informed the coachman, Mr.Caraway, who had upbraided him.Maurice had suspected that she was the one who had snitched on him, and his bullying had grown even worse.
“I absolutely will not be marrying Maurice Simpkins,” she said hotly.
Joseph smiled, but not in a nice way.“We’ll see.”
After that, Gwendolyn was given water but no food.By the time Joseph returned two days later to see if she’d changed her mind, her head was pounding and her hands were trembling.
“Shall I have Maurice secure a marriage license?”Joseph asked conversationally.
“You’re a monster,” Gwendolyn told him, voice shaking.
Joseph shrugged, not troubled in the slightest by his sister’s distress.“We’ll give it a few more days, then.”
She tried bargaining with him.First, she offered him half of the investments left to her by Aunt Agatha.Then, after a week had passed, all the investments.The farm would generate enough in rent to support her in a frugal sort of way.All she really wanted was a quiet life in her great-aunt’s cottage.
“No,” Joseph said, seeming to enjoy her increasing desperation.“You see, I’m going to get the investments regardless.But this way, my friend Maurice will get the farm and cottage.That’s the agreement we’ve reached.”
“You can’t do this!”Gwendolyn said, voice breaking.“As my guardian, you have an obligation to look after my best interests.I will take you to court, and I will win.”
“You probably would,” Joseph acknowledged, unperturbed.A malicious grin crossed his face.“If you survive long enough to take me to court, that is.Thatis the question you ought to consider.”
He didn’t come back for another four days.Gwendolyn had always had a robust sort of figure.But after a full week without a bite to eat, her dresses were beginning to sag around her.
She wanted to hold out.She wanted to hold outso badly.The life Aunt Agatha had intended for her shimmered like a dream on the horizon.Four months.She was just four months from reaching her majority and getting out from under her brother’s thumb.
But she couldn’t go four months without food.That cottage would do her no good if she were dead.
And so, on the twelfth day, when her brother returned, she informed him tearfully that she would marry Maurice Simpkins.
She hadn’t given up, not entirely.Given the extreme cruelty of withholding food, she thought she could sue her brother and new husband after the fact, could prove that she had been forced to marry under duress, and had been deprived of her rightful property.
Finding the funds to pay a barrister was one problem.The fact that her new husband would be within his legal rights if he chose to beat her into submission was another.
But she would not lose hope.She would cross those bridges as she came to them.
Gwendolyn’s wedding took place the next day.It was not what you would call an elegant affair.The bridegroom had bloodshot eyes and smelled like a gin house.Gwendolyn had to loop her arm through his to help him remain upright.
But her brother must have paid off the vicar because he performed the ceremony without blinking.
There was no wedding breakfast on account of the groom’s extreme drunkenness.Gwendolyn didn’t mind.She hadn’t been permitted to invite any of her friends to the wedding, and frankly, she wouldn’t have wanted them to witness her in such a low moment.Once they arrived back at her brother’s town house, Joseph sent her upstairs with her inebriated husband to consummate the marriage.
