Emily’s eyes met Edward’s gaze. Edward called out, “Augustus, I know that you know something about what happened in France. Please let us in, and I promise to do all I can to help.”
There was a whimper that sounded only remotely human, and then hurried footsteps. The door swung open with such violence that Emily feared that Augustus might actually fall out the door at their feet. Augustus, however, stood swaying in the doorway, but still on his feet. His eyes went from Edward to Emily and back again.
“Do I know you?” Augustus asked as he squinted his eyes at Edward.
Edward nodded. “Perhaps,” Edward said. “May we come in? We do not wish to be seen outside here.”
The paranoia of the statement seemed to resonate with Augustus as he nodded emphatically and ushered them inside. “In, in,” Augustus said in agitation. The man’s wild eyes took in the front yard anxiously before he slammed the door back closed. Augustus paced a bit. “Sit, sit.” He waved his hand towards the table. There were bottles scattered on it and remains of older bottles on the floor.
Emily carefully picked her way through the debris and sat down. Edward remained standing, and Augustus went around the man to get to the table where he grabbed a half-full bottle and took a deep drink of it. Edward cleared his throat causing Augustus to look up at him guiltily.
“What happened in France?” Edward asked as he leaned on his cane. Emily had to admit that the resemblance to Edward was only slight in the man. The grey hair, beard, and his overall bearing were different. He was a stranger to Emily, and yet Edward was in there. She had seen the truth of that.
Augustus drummed his fingers against the table. “I can’t tell,” Augustus whispered. “I promised, and people who break promises are bad people.”
“So are murderers,” Edward said in a low voice.
Augustus’ eyes snapped up to the other man’s face and stared at him. Augustus stammered, “I—No. I did—I didn’t hurt anyone!”
“Someone hurt that girl, Augustus,” Edward said in an almost coaxing way. Emily bit her lip and watched Augustus fretting with the table’s edge.
Augustus shook his head. “No,” he said as he rubbed his face. “That doesn’t exist anymore.”
“What does not exist? The girl who died? Or the crime?” Edward pressed, and as he spoke, he walked closer.
Augustus leaned away from Edward and shook his head. Emily intervened as she got up to stand between the two men. “He is not himself, Edward,” Emily said. She regretted it the instant that she had spoken. She saw the look on Edward’s face.
Fingers grabbed her, and Augustus clamoured behind her. “Edward?” The sick man was shaking, and Emily could feel the vibration of it through his fingers that bore into her shoulders.
She cried out, “Augustus, you are hurting me!”
Augustus’ hands let Emily go as he wailed, “I am sorry, Emily! You are my only friend!”
“It is okay,” Emily assured Augustus as she came over to wrap her arms around the sobbing man’s shoulders. Emily looked over at Edward pleading with him silently.
Edward sighed with dissatisfaction. “Augustus,” he said, the Spanish accent leaving his voice. “Emily was right,” Edward said as if he would rather not be doing this. “I might look different, but underneath all of this, I am the same Edward.”
“How?” Augustus howled. “I saw you hang. I saw your body,” Augustus said. He looked at Emily and said in a frantic voice, “I saw him swinging from the rope, Emily. This must be some spectre. You must protect me from his vengeance.”
Edward shook his head. “I am no spectre, but my vengeance is very real.”
Emily gave Augustus’ shoulders a squeeze. Augustus pleaded, “Please, I tried to get them to confess. I tried all I could.”
“And yet here you are,” Edward said, “and there they are still free while I was exiled.”
Augustus whispered, “I didn’t know you were alive. I would have found you.”
Edward watched the man with a coldness that Emily could not understand. Augustus was shaking violently in Emily’s arms. Her hold was all that kept the man from toppling off his seat. Emily begged, “Please, Edward. Show him mercy.”
“What mercy did I get?” Edward asked Emily. She took her eyes away from the sight of the cold cruelty in Edward’s eyes. She could not witness it. Edward’s voice asked, “What happened in France, Augustus?”
Augustus sobbed but finally calmed enough to choke out a few words. “Please forgive me.”
“If you want a chance to atone for your sins, then this is it, Augustus. This is your chance to make this right,” Edward said in a stern voice. “Tell me what happened.”
Augustus looked at Edward and then over at Emily. “Do I have to say it in front of Emily?” The man’s voice was wretched, and it tore at Emily.
“I can go wait outside,” Emily offered. Edward just looked at her. She gave Augustus’ arm a squeeze before she slipped back out the front door. She could still hear their words, but if it made Augustus feel easier about speaking to Edward, then she would do what she could.
***
Edward stared at the pitiable man that swayed in his seat. This frail creature only passingly resembled the Augustus he had known. Edward guessed that he and Augustus had that much in common. The war had changed them not only inside but outside as well.
“Augustus, Emily is gone now. Tell me your tale,” Edward said as he stared at the man intently.
Augustus nodded. He swallowed and took a breath. “We had all been drinking at the little watering hole. You remember the one?”
Edward nodded. “Go on,” he said to coax the man.
“James had left with a little slip of a girl. I was downstairs with Oscar. A pretty girl was playing with my hair. I had been drinking heavily. It gets a bit blurry,” Augustus babbled. The man stopped and stared at his hands for a moment as if they were not his own. “James came down the stairs and told us that we needed to come up to the room. The girl was in bed. I thought she was asleep.”
Edward asked, “Did James kill the girl?”
Augustus nodded slowly. “James panicked and said we had to help him cover it up.”
“Why me? Why did you say I did it?” Edward asked the question with an urgent need. So long he had wondered what he had done to earn such a fate.
Augustus’ eyes stared at Edward for a long moment before he whispered, “James told us to. He said you would just get a bit of jail time, but they hung you, instead. I tried to tell, and Oscar was so angry with me.”
Edward closed his eyes. “Surely someone had to see James with the girl other than you and Oscar? The girl’s uncle told the colonel that I was the one, how did he know to say that?”
“James paid him to say what James wanted him to say,” Augustus said as he wept. The man’s shoulders shook, and Edward grimaced as the man fell forward and was ill on the floor. Augustus’ breath came in gasps as he shook while down on his hands and knees on the floor. “I have not slept since without seeing your body swinging on the rope. I wake up crying out for death.”
Edward shook his head at the man. “Is that all that happened?”
“James paid Oscar and me to keep quiet,” Augustus admitted between sobs. “I took the money, but it ate at me every day until I finally just started giving it away.”
Edward sighed at the sight of Augustus penitent on the floor. “You have a chance to make up for it now, Augustus,” he said as he stood over the man. Augustus looked up at him with wide eyes. “Redeem yourself by testifying against James and Oscar. Help me clear my name and all will be forgiven.”
Tears rolled down Augustus’ face. “I would do anything to feel forgiveness upon me instead of this curse, Edward. Anything,” Augustus said with such earnestness that Edward thought the man might actually be sick again as Augustus started to shake.
“First, let us get you somewhere else than this,” Edward said as he held his hand down to his old friend.
; Augustus took Edward’s hand in his thin fingers and let Edward pull him to his feet. Augustus was so overcome with emotion that he embraced Edward, and Edward simply allowed the man to do so. The smell of drink and sickness was thick in Edward’s nose, but he only gave Augustus’ back a pat in reassurance.
Once he managed to get Augustus to let him go, he led the man to the door. Emily was waiting outside, and Edward could clearly see the tears in her eyes even as she dabbed them away with her cloth handkerchief. “Augustus has agreed to relocate to better housing,” Edward said. “He shall stay with me as I have plenty of room, and there is no one there to ask questions that might arouse suspicions.”
Emily nodded as if she was eager to agree. She seemed happy that Augustus was finally willing to leave and helped Edward get Augustus out to the carriage. The carriage driver helped Edward get the weakened man into the carriage. He had not expected Augustus to be so willing to help, but then his absence had been peculiar with the way that Oscar and James had talked of the man.
Edward looked at Augustus who was curled up in the seat across from Emily and himself and smiled. Finally, he could do something more than simply freeing his estate bit by bit from James. Now he could see about getting his name cleared. Of course, that would mean that Emily as well would be stripped of her title and ruined.
Edward looked over at the woman who was eyeing Augustus with a relief that he had only seen from a mother when her child was on the mend after a sickness. Edward put his gaze back out the window. At that moment, he did not hate Emily. No, instead Edward placed that loathing squarely on his own shoulders. He was the man who was condemning the woman he still loved with all of his heart to a fate so wretched. Perhaps he truly was more devil now than man.
***
Augustus’ strength came back day after day, and soon enough the shock of Edward’s resurrection wore off enough that he stopped shaking whenever Edward spoke to him at least. Edward tapped on the door of the bedroom where Augustus had taken up residence in Edward’s home. “Come in,” Augustus called. The easy manner in which the man answered told Edward that his mind was improved.
Edward put on a smile as he came through the door. “How are you feeling?” he asked Augustus. The man was sitting up at a desk, his pen still held at the ready over the paper in front of him.
“Much better,” Augustus said. “I would thank you again for coming to my aid, but I do not wish to get thrown out on the streets by annoying you.”
Edward chuckled and leaned on his cane. “That is probably a wise decision on your part,” Edward agreed. “What are you writing?”
“What happened in France,” Augustus said in a quiet voice. “The solicitor that you brought over suggested it as an easier way for me to stand witness. He is afraid I might not hold up to a trial.”
Edward nodded slowly. “Have you recalled the name of the man that James paid to lie?” That piece of information had been absent from Augustus’ tale, and he seemed to have a lot of trouble remembering it. “I have arranged to meet up with Oscar and plan to try my luck at getting him to tell the truth.”
“Oscar will not speak,” Augustus said with a firm resolve. “He has done well for himself. He has much to lose.”
Edward sat down on the bed and eyed Augustus who turned in his seat to look at him. Augustus gave Edward a curious look. “I have not seen Emily since I left my home,” Augustus said, his eyes asking more questions than the man dared to speak.
“She does not live here,” Edward said. “Why would you see her?”
Augustus shrugged and worried at the edges of the chair with his fingers. The clothes he wore were ones that Edward had bought, but they were not tailored to the man and hung loosely on his frame that remained far too thin. “She used to talk to me about you,” Augustus whispered. “I would have thought that she—”
“Emily is another man’s wife,” Edward reminded Augustus.
Augustus said, “Seen enough in this world to know that all these walls we put up in society do not mean anything, Edward. What walls have you erected that make it impossible for Emily to be here?”
Edward stood up, unwilling to listen to any more of the man’s ramblings. He pitied Augustus, but he did not have to subject himself to his ravings. “When you remember the name, do not keep it to yourself,” Edward said as he left the man to his writing.
Free of Augustus’ weighted stares, Edward took a deep breath. He needed more powder for his leg, but the ache seemed more aggravating today than usual. Edward rubbed the leg and sighed. He was so close to having his life back that he did not know if he could face Oscar and keep his mask firmly on. Esteban Duarte was nearing the end of his life, and Edward felt that he should feel something about that.
He stalked downstairs and paced around the sitting room. The truth was that Emily had come to see Augustus, but the doorman had turned her away at Edward’s command. He had to keep her from him if he hoped to keep his head clear for what must be done.
Edward felt the urge to leave, to be out. He had to go to the pharmacy, and he let that be his excuse to escape. He left without a word to the doorman and walked down the street exercising his thoughts while he stretched his aching leg. It even seemed to be working as he rounded the corner near the tailor shop.
His stomach sank when he caught sight of a familiar feminine form. Had she been waiting for him? Edward’s suspicious nature made him eye her with caution. His pace slowed as he approached her. She was talking to a vendor who appeared to be selling fruit.
The orange in Emily’s hand made the flowers on her simple dress stand out with their orange centres. Emily’s smile to the vendor was enough for Edward’s stomach to tighten. He made to turn, but he heard her voice. “Mr Duarte,” Emily called out. “I had thought for sure that you had taken ill. I have seen so little of you as of late. I was purchasing fruit to bring to you.” She gave him a warm smile when Edward looked around at her. “Yet, here you are alive and well.”
“Alive, at any rate,” Edward said as Emily approached him.
Her glance went down to his leg. He was leaning heavily on his cane, and he knew that it had not gone unnoticed by her. “Is your injury causing you harm this morning?” Emily asked in a voice too sweet and kind.
“It is fine,” Edward hissed in a low voice.
Emily seemed to take no notice of Edward’s ill temper. She looped her arm through his as if they were lovers strolling down a flower-strewn lane. Edward pushed the ridiculous thought away and fought the urge to shove her off of him. “What are you doing?” Edward whispered to her as he started walking again so as not to draw too much attention to them.
“I am talking to a friend,” Emily said with a smile. “Does my closeness make you uncomfortable, Mr Duarte?”
Every time she said the name of his alter-ego, Edward ground his teeth together a little harder. Edward forced a smile onto his face. “Not at all,” he said with a calmness that even surprised him. “Will not your husband be upset at such a public display of affection?”
“You spend more time with my husband than I, Mr Duarte,” Emily said as if reminding him of a simple fact. “You should probably know better than I what James would find upsetting.”
Edward gave up trying to talk reason with the woman. Emily was a most stubborn being when she wished to be, and apparently this morning she very much wished to be. He focused instead on walking to the pharmacy where the relief for at least one of the aches that currently pestered him would be found.
When they got to the pharmacy, Emily waited for Edward outside out of sheer courtesy. For a brief moment, Edward considered just waiting her out and see if she would go away but resigned himself to stepping out of the store as soon as his order was filled. Emily insisted that he stop in a local tavern and get something to take a bit of the powder with, but Edward refused.
The Revenge of the Betrayed Duke: A Historical Regency Romance Book Page 22
