To Win a Wallflower

by Liz Tyner

  He’d told her that his father had locked him in the cellar. She doubted he’d ever get out.

  Chapter Twenty

  Barrett stood at the side of the dance floor, a glass in his hand. Gavin hadn’t stopped his visits to the Carson household. Afterwards, he would trot right over to Barrett’s and give a detailed accounting of what was happening behind those closed doors—just as he had before Barrett and Annie had met.

  Barrett had nearly ground his teeth to the bone trying to decide whether or not to forbid Gavin to speak of the Carsons again. But he couldn’t.

  And now Barrett stood in a duke’s house, watching three of the four sons being ever so ducal and thoughtful to all the guests, one of whom was particularly unaware of his presence.

  Annie stood with a group of women and didn’t look his way. The women’s conversation appeared whispered with their faces close together. He noticed an irritated head swagger occasionally from one of the women. He imagined someone getting verbally skewered, although he didn’t think it was him. But from the dark glittering eyes and the deep conversation, he doubted the words were kind.

  Mr Carson walked up to Barrett, filling the air with the scent of shaving soap. He cleared his throat.

  ‘The sofa arrived a few days ago.’ He raised a brow. ‘I tried to send it away, but the men claimed they’d not made a mistake. Annie took it.’ He shook his head. ‘I couldn’t imagine...the colour of it.’ He touched the side of his neck with one finger, loosening his cravat. ‘I would happily have it corrected, but Annie refuses. There is a defect in the upholstery. I’m sure of it.’

  ‘It was a gift to her. She said she needed a sofa for the attic.’

  Carson looked at his daughter, whispering with the others. ‘Probably wasn’t as wise as you’d thought to teach her to fight back.’

  ‘Go to the devil,’ Barrett said.

  Carson smiled. ‘You should have crawled on your knees to get her to marry you.’

  Barrett turned to Carson. ‘Yes. Across broken glass. But I doubt she would have noticed.’

  Carson’s eyes wavered at the words, uncertain. He sniffed, then moved to his wife and took her to the dance floor as a new song began.

  Too late to start the dance, Annie wandered over to the man with the red face. Barrett caught his eye and gave the man a glare. From what Barrett could surmise, the man seemed reluctant to speak with Annie. He kept looking Barrett’s way.

  Her eyes narrowed and she glanced at Barrett. He felt himself being impaled from across the room. He nodded to her. Her gaze sharpened even more.

  She strode over to Lord Richard and had less wallflower and more warrior in her stance.

  Lord Richard held out an arm to her and her smile beamed. It might not have reached her eyes, though. Those eyes, he thought, had a bit of spite in them.

  He hated to think how she would be looking at him had he not asked her to marry him.

  She danced with Lord Richard, speaking rapidly to him, and when the dance finished she left him. She found the wallflowers and took a glass of punch to each of them. The women’s eyes widened as they took the first sip. One coughed. The hostess was not known for having watered-down punch. And then Annie began herding them, or that’s how it looked. She moved them closer to Lord Richard and his cronies.

  The next dance, all the wallflowers had partners and Annie had another glass of the punch.

  ‘I wouldn’t drink so much of that if I were you,’ Barrett said, after walking to her.

  ‘I’m having a good time. I refuse not to enjoy myself.’ She took another sip, answering him but ignoring him as well. ‘It tastes like something you’d put in a lamp, so it must be good.’

  ‘Did you get the flowers I sent?’

  ‘Yes. I sat on them.’ She glanced across the floor, seemingly enthralled by every dance step.

  ‘Would you like to waltz with me?’

  ‘No. I have other plans. Punch, and a lot of it.’

  ‘One waltz.’

  ‘I’ve done that. The joy I felt then could never be exceeded. Anything else will be dull by comparison. Businesslike, you could say.’ She took another sip. ‘Now, please pardon me, I have duties to attend to.’

  ‘Husband-hunting?’

  She pressed her lips close together. She put the glass in his hand and patted the back of his fingers around it. ‘I could marry if I choose to. If I can persuade the men to dance with the wallflowers and have everyone smiling, then I would imagine I can garner a proposal. But the attic has more to offer.’

  He looked at the empty glass and then at her eyes.

  ‘No one is going to rob me of a moment of my happiness. Your father robbed you of your childhood. Don’t let him rob you of your life. Don’t give him the power to keep taking. You’re not a child any more and neither am I.’ She stuck her chin as near his as she could get. ‘Your father preys on the weaker, does he not?’

  Barrett nodded.

  ‘Well, that lets me out.’ She cocked her head to one side. ‘I’m not weak. And as the days have passed, I’ve only got stronger. The one who has the power to walk away can make the better deal.’

  ‘I’d like to know your terms.’

  ‘I’ll draw up something.’

  She took a step, wavered and put a hand on his arm. ‘I don’t know if I have the power to walk away right at this moment. The punch was toxic.’

  He put his hand over hers. ‘Then stand with me and I’ll enjoy your company for a while. I do want to know your terms, Annie.’

  ‘I shall give them to you.’ She wavered. ‘But not now. The room is spinning and there’s two of you, and they both annoy me.’

  ‘I will call on you tomorrow.’

  ‘Not at four a.m. Front door. Reasonable time.’

  * * *

  Barrett walked into Annie’s house. The butler accepted him as a member of the household, taking his hat and moving to put it away, and led him to the sitting room.

  Within minutes he was in the sitting room with Mr Carson.

  ‘I’m here to see Annie.’

  Carson interlaced his fingers over his waistcoat and his eyes, from his sitting position, peered down on Barrett. ‘She’s out shopping. With her mother. You must have really angered her. She never shops with her mother. They even took the physician, claiming she has some disease that might flare up. I think she was punishing him for something.’

  ‘I’ll wait.’

  ‘Ah, go right ahead,’ Carson said, raising both palms. ‘She’s much more like her mother than it appears. My muddle-headed wife with delicate feet isn’t really so muddle-headed.’ He lowered his chin, but raised his glance to the ceiling and settled back into the chair, hands clasped over his stomach. ‘So should we talk about my business?’

  ‘I’d rather not.’

  ‘The weather?’

  Barrett levelled a stare at him. ‘If you wish.’

  Carson began speaking, but within minutes the one-sided conversation had turned to Annie, and Carson recounted his memories of his daughter’s childhood.

  Barrett leaned forward, listening, the words resounding inside him. He’d never imagined such a world of sunshine and roses and posies. Carson grabbed a handkerchief and dotted his eyes once.

  Annie’s world. Suddenly, he knew how to win her. He knew how to win her heart. He swallowed.

  He spoke just enough to keep Carson talking of Annie.

  But then Carson wound down and he leaned back in the chair, shutting his eyes, yawning and clasping his fingers together.

  * * *

  When Annie finally walked into the sitting room, Barrett stood. Her father sat in the chair across from Barrett, arms crossed, head drooping. He opened his eyes, then pushed himself up with his hands on his knees.

  ‘I’m sure there is more conversation to be had here, but not by me,’ her fat
her said, eyes showing his age, plus a few years. ‘Come along, Mrs Carson.’ He held out his arm for her. ‘I’m going to go for a walk.’ He complained as he walked down the hall, ‘I have been conversing with Barrett to kill time until Annie arrived and, to my utter dismay, he didn’t leave.’

  Mrs Carson clasped his arm and stepped along with him. ‘The shopping trip was not as much fun as your discussion, I’d wager.’

  The physician remained in the room. He put his hand on the back of the chair. ‘Oh joy. The love-smitten couple.’

  Annie shot him a glance and so did Barrett.

  ‘I suppose I should leave before I am impaled by your eyes. Um...too late.’ He bowed, moving backwards. ‘I have feet to rub.’ Before leaving, he gave a long look at Barrett. ‘Thank you for that, by the way.’

  Annie realised her life had changed forever. Barrett, who had always been an apparent wall of impassibility, had changed also. Some of the lines at his eyes had softened and now she might believe him under thirty.

  ‘I don’t think he’s as nice as I thought him,’ Annie said of Gavin as he stepped out of the room.

  ‘No, Miss Carson,’ Gavin called over his shoulder. ‘I am not.’

  Barrett shut the door. ‘No one is as nice as you think them.’

  She examined his face. ‘Did you select the sofa?’

  ‘I’ve not seen it.’

  ‘Oh, you must.’ She opened the door and looked out to make sure Gavin was gone. When she didn’t see him, she clasped Barrett’s hand and took him up the stairs.

  Opening the door, she led him into the room.

  ‘That is the ugliest piece of furniture I have ever seen.’ He walked forward, examining the flowers, which looked more like bright weeds, and the vines, which appeared to be choking the blooms into submission. He raised his eyes to her. ‘I saw the bill. I paid good money for this.’

  ‘You were robbed.’

  ‘Quite badly.’ He ran a hand along the fibres. ‘But on the good side, this is the only such furniture in London. I have been assured of that. Plus, it doesn’t bite.’

  He walked to the window and did not look at her. ‘I do beg your pardon for the sofa. Though I think I must ask for a gift from you.’ He didn’t look out the window and he didn’t seem to be looking anywhere. ‘I never told anyone my mother’s last words,’ he said to Annie. ‘I don’t know if I imagined them, but I don’t believe I did.’

  Then he turned to her. ‘She mouthed the words Help me. I couldn’t move at first. It seemed the world stopped—but I ran to her and I didn’t know that she was injured so badly. I thought she would tell me what to do next. She never said another word.’

  He held out his hand, palm open. ‘Help me. I don’t know how to love. I don’t know how to have the family you accept so easily that you would try to escape it. Give me direction and I will take it.’

  She moved forward, touching his fingertips. ‘You make me sound selfish, taking for granted what you never had.’

  ‘Perhaps we can both help each other. I can help you see the wonder of a family and you can help me have a family. A real one. Not a purchased one.’

  She clasped her fingers around his hand, resting her forehead on his shoulder. ‘Your business can never come before me in your heart and I don’t know if you know how to put anyone else first.’

  ‘I understand.’ He did. The last few days he had not been able to think of anyone or anything but Annie. She’d filled every moment of his thoughts while he waited—trying to figure out how to reach her and how to win the woman of his heart. ‘I have not cared at all for a single moment of work because I could only think of you.’

  He pulled her into his arms. ‘If I don’t have you in my life, Annie, then nothing else matters.’

  ‘I love you,’ she answered, and her thoughts didn’t fall away. She didn’t turn into a shadow of herself. She’d never felt so aware and so alive.

  He stepped back, eyes locked on hers. ‘I will love you with every beat of my heart for the rest of my life. I have never loved anyone before and did not know what pain was until I felt you did not want to be with me.’

  He held her so tightly that she could feel both their hearts beating together, and she shut her eyes.

  Moving back, he took her jewelled hairpin from his waistcoat pocket and held it to her hair.

  The tip of it brushed her temple, sending shivers into her body as he wove it into place, moving it slowly among the locks. ‘I always imagine it in your hair.’

  With the gentleness of strength, he took her face in his hands and kissed an even softer brush against her lips.

  When he stepped back, he reached again into his pocket. He held a ring, with rubies and sapphires, the same as she had in her hairpin.

  ‘Will you marry me?’

  He took her hand and slid the ring on her finger. ‘I plight thee my troth. I give you my loyalty borne of love and my faith in your heart, and I put my own heart at your feet, because nowhere else will it rest.’

  He closed her hand over the ring. ‘Even if you say no, you have a symbol of my love to hold inside your clasp forever.’

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Annie knew Barrett should be at his appointment to receive the special licence and she moved back to her room, shutting the door firmly behind her, anxious for the moment that she would marry Barrett. From her sitting room, she walked to the bedchamber. Myrtle was to be along any minute to help Annie with the corset.

  She pulled the dress she was to wear from the wardrobe.

  Her outer door clicked and she didn’t turn around. A chill settled over her, warning her.

  She heard footsteps but didn’t turn, pretending that fear wasn’t invading her body. ‘The pearls with it?’ she asked, trying to think of what weapon she might have at her disposal.

  ‘I don’t think you’ll need them, you little society twit.’ A bony hand clamped on her upper arm. An old man’s voice rasped in her ear, chilling her as the scent of his breath choked her. ‘You’re not taking my son from me.’ He jerked her backwards, causing her to stumble and her dressing gown to tangle in her legs. ‘He’s all I have.’

  Barrett’s father breathed in lunging gasps.

  Her throat tightened and she scrambled, her legs working to put her feet on the floor. Her thoughts raced ahead into nothingness, but she forced them back, urging herself to think. His arms held her vice-like and he used all his strength, hauling her back.

  She remembered what Barrett had taught her and, the moment she regained her balance, she struggled to collect her wits and her strength. She made a fist with her right hand, clamped her left over it, twisted by bending a knee to drop her weight and shoved her elbow straight back with all her might. ‘No,’ she shouted. ‘No.’

  A crack sounded.

  An oofft.

  And a dead weight hit her shoulders and she stumbled forward, out from under the falling form of the old man. He crumpled and she ran to the door. When she opened it, she realised he wasn’t behind her and he thrashed on the floor. He grasped where her elbow had connected.

  ‘You broke my ribs.’ He lay on his back, clasping his side. ‘Help. Help.’ He croaked out the words while he writhed. His cries for help lessened to a whimper.

  ‘Don’t you ever touch me again.’ She stood at the doorway, ready to run.

  ‘You heathen witch,’ he spat out. ‘You vile...’ His eyes narrowed. ‘You’re just like my mother was.’ He stopped, falling back to the floor, writhing. ‘Someone. Get the physician. I’m dying,’ he called out again and then gasped at the pain.

  He shut his eyes, whispering through the pain. ‘You will be a perfect wife for my son. Your children will be little monsters.’ He smiled, eyes watering. ‘They’ll carry the family line. My legacy will continue.’

  Barrett crashed into the doorway, jerking Annie aside, moving her f
urther from his father. He turned her to face him. ‘What happened?’

  Annie couldn’t speak.

  ‘The woman. She hit me.’

  Anger formed in Barrett’s eyes. He moved towards his father.

  Annie jumped between them. ‘No, Barrett.’

  ‘You keep her away from me,’ his father shouted. ‘She attacked me for no reason. She broke my ribs.’

  Barrett took her arm. ‘What happened?’

  ‘He came up behind me and I hit him. I did hear a crack. I may have hurt him.’

  ‘You did,’ the Viscount said, grasping his side. ‘It hurts when I breathe.’

  Barrett pulled her close, holding her against him.

  ‘Who let you in?’ His question thundered in the air to his father.

  ‘No one. The window was open below stairs. I was just going to wish her happiness with you.’

  ‘No, he wasn’t.’

  Barrett put an arm around her. ‘I know how he twists things, Annie. It’s always the way of someone like him. The bigger the lie of blame they can place on the innocent person, the more they like it. It’s not just with his fists he attacks, but with his lies and anything his mind can grasp.’

  Gavin dashed into the room. ‘I heard a thump. It jarred the house.’

  ‘Help me up.’ The Viscount reached out a hand. ‘This is turning into a family gathering.’

  Gavin leaned in to reach around his father to lift him into a sitting position. The Viscount screamed in pain when Gavin lifted.

  ‘My hip,’ the old man cried out, face pale. ‘Something’s wrong with my hip.’

  Together Barrett and Gavin lifted his father and took the man upwards and on to the bed. Gavin examined his father while Barrett turned to Annie.

  ‘I just hit him in the stomach,’ Annie said, stepping away from Barrett to rub her elbow. ‘It may have—I may have hit him harder than I meant, but he startled me. My arm aches.’

  ‘His hip is likely broken,’ Gavin said over the old man’s whimpers. Gavin shook his head and respect glimmered when he looked at Annie, then the old man’s cries caught his attention and he turned back to his father.