Page 60 of Lady Audacious
Reuben watched the scene unfold with increasing incredulity. This was certainly not what he had expected. He recognised when…well, recognition flashed through the eyes of the man behind the counter and was reflected in Odile’s mystified expression. He sensed that it was too much for her delicate hold on her self-control even before her body began to sway. He caught her as her knees buckled, preventing her from falling to the floor.
‘Where can I take her?’ he barked at the man who had caused all the mayhem, holding a semi-conscious and totally confused Odile in his arms.
‘Upstairs.’ The man sprang into action. ‘Jim, clear up this mess,’ he said, pointing to the broken glass and liquid. ‘Peter, attend to our customers until I return.’
‘Yes, Mr Peabody,’ his two assistants said in unison, clearly as curious as the rest of the customers about the events that had just occurred—but not nearly as curious as Reuben himself felt. The ladies waiting to be served turned to one another in shocked glee at this most interesting of developments. They glanced at Reuben with Odile in his arms, at his carriage waiting immediately outside the door, his grooms’ livery doubtless ending any speculation as to his identity, and then at a flustered Peabody. They would no doubt be delighted to carry highly exaggerated first-hand accounts of the unfolding drama to their neighbours and friends. Such was the nature of gossips everywhere.
Reuben carried Odile up the stairs and into an office that had a long couch along one wall and a small window that looked out onto a square of garden full of thriving herbs. He tried to lay her down on the couch, but she had regained her senses and assured him that she was perfectly capable of sitting upright. All well and good, but he doubted whether she possessed sufficient strength to actually stand. He could see the tremor in her hands mirroring the confusion in her eyes, and felt compassion for her along with a fierce desire to protect her from all of this. To have survived alone, with no memory of her former life for eleven long years; to wonder constantly who she was and why she had been abandoned, only to discover that someone who knew her and could have helped her had kept quiet all this time. It would be enough to shatter the most robust of characters.
‘I am Amberley,’ Reuben said curtly when Peabody followed them into the room and closed the door. ‘Have the goodness to explain your connection to Miss Aspen.’
‘With great pleasure.’ He sat down across from Odile, smiled at her and cleared his throat. ‘I am your brother,’ he said softly.
‘My brother?’ Odile replied in a mystified tone, her glance swivelling between Peabody and Reuben.
‘Brother?’ Reuben repeated curtly. ‘Impossible. If that was the case, why did you leave Odile alone and unprotected for all these years?’
‘I don’t remember having a brother. I don’t remember anything about my life before…before Mama and Papa.’ Odile shook her head repeatedly. The name Giles does sound familiar but if you are my brother, why do we have different surnames?’
‘A precaution.’
‘A precaution against what?’ Reuben asked.
‘How did you know who I was?’ Odile asked, sending Peabody a hostile look. ‘If I am your sister, and if you abandoned me after the accident, how do you recognise me as an adult?’
‘I made it my business to keep you in my sights. I received regular reports on your progress; I passed Miss Mackenzie’s Academy when you took the girls on walks in the park, that sort of thing.’
Odile shook her head, clearly too angry and conflicted to utter a word. Reuben empathised and longed to take her hand. And more. But he could not do so in front of Peabody and so returned his anger to that individual.
‘You mentioned precautions,’ he snapped.
‘It’s hard to explain.’ Peabody looked genuinely distressed. ‘I have anticipated this moment, conducted this conversation inside my head on more occasions than I care to recall. But now that the time has actually come…’ He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. ‘Well, I barely know where to begin.’
‘You are a good deal older than me,’ Odile said in her customary forthright manner, bringing an admiring smile to Reuben’s lips at the speed with which she had recovered from her initial shock. And disappointment. ‘Do I have more siblings that I know nothing about, or did you abandon them too?’
Peabody winced at the harshness of her words but Reuben thought Odile was treating him leniently. ‘You and I are the only ones. Ten years separate us. Our parents despaired of having more children. You were a delightful late surprise, and very much loved.’
‘Really?’ Odile spoke in a considering fashion but Reuben could sense the hurt she struggled to suppress. ‘I don’t remember them, or indeed anything about the first ten years of my life, but whenever I try to force recollections—which is regularly in case you are wondering, which you probably are not—all I get is feelings of love and laughter. Be that as it may, it seems I must have been an inconvenience to your own ambitions, so you left me to Miss Mackenzie’s not so tender mercies.’
Peabody ran a hand through his hair. A wedding band flashed on the ring finger of his left hand. ‘With good reason.’
‘So you insist, but I have yet to hear it.’
‘You followed in your father’s profession,’ Reuben said.
‘Yes, I had just finished university when the accident occurred. Classics and logic were the only options available to me at Oxford. Not much use to me as an apothecary. I knew that I intended to follow in Papa’s footsteps, but he insisted that a degree would round off my education and stand me in good stead.’
‘I am delighted for you,’ Odile said, a sarcastic edge to her voice. ‘But if it is not too much trouble, kindly explain to me precisely what happened and, more to the point, why I now find myself owning Fox’s Reach.’ She glowered at her brother, whose facial features closely resembled hers, Reuben noticed, right down to the freckles across the bridge of his nose. The only difference being that Reuben would prefer to break Peabody’s nose for the hurt he had caused his sister. He had very different intentions in mind for Odile’s freckles, having resolved to kiss each of them individually. That desire grew more pressing with every hurtful revelation that Peabody voiced. ‘Are you familiar with the property?’
Peabody sighed expansively, then leaned forward and looked as though he wanted to take Odile’s hand. He wisely decided against touching her, probably sensing that the gesture came eleven years too late and would be violently rebuffed.
‘Our parents were both keen botanists,’ he said. ‘Our father went on voyages of scientific discovery, returning with unusual treasures for private collections as well as many of England’s newly established botanic gardens. He made quite a name for himself. His interests spread into the area of novel crops, spices from Asia and…’
‘Drugs,’ Reuben said flatly.
Peabody widened his eyes in momentary surprise and then inclined his head. ‘Drugs,’ he echoed. ‘Used to ease suffering, not for enjoyment. At least, that was his intention. Papa was a man of independent means at the time.’
‘Oh.’
