“Yes,” Mabel agreed with a vigorous nod. “Now we’ve established you’re not going anywhere, you needn’t worry about how much time it’ll take. Just start, we’ll all still be around when you finish.”
Annis sipped her tea. The hot golden liquid felt like magic potion going down as it eased her aches and filled her with warmth. “Thing is,” she started, “I’m not even sure where the beginning is.” She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. Trying to tell a story she’d yet to sort out for herself would prove challenging. “Maybe it was always happening. Maybe the truth was always staring me square in the eyes and I couldn’t see it because the lies were told from the time I was born. Maybe longer. I can’t say...” she sighed, closing her eyes and sticking a mental needle in the first thought that passed slowly enough to catch. “My father died nearly a year ago. Accident. Or so I’d been told. After all I’ve witnessed since, I suspect it was nothing short of murder.”
“The policeman?” Sequoyah asked, clearly recalling the conversation they’d had earlier in the woods.
She nodded. “A detective. My father’s best friend. But I had no idea he’d been involved. Not until six months ago when my mother came home in hysterics after a meeting with my father’s attorney. That’s when everything changed. All my life the lies were built, and in one single afternoon they all came crashing down.” She felt her body go rigid as she numbed herself to the memories about to spill out. “I can still hear it. My mother yelling his name. William! Her shrill voice could be heard throughout the entire house. William!”
Her eyes closed, and the images of that day flooded her mind like a movie playing out on a silver screen.
Emmeline looked to Annis, who made it a habit never to react when others were fighting. She’d lived a life of being invisible unless spoken to, and she’d mastered her craft beyond error. “Keep your eyes on those green beans, Em. Don’t want to have some snapped in half just because you’re too busy eavesdropping on conversations which don’t concern you,” Annis scolded, her gaze never even lifting from her hands as they reached for a bean, snapped off each end, and tossed it into a large black pot already filled with water.
Most days, Emmeline wound up right here in the kitchen beside Annis, begging for any task just to be of help. Ever since her father had passed, life had changed. Where before he’d seen to it that she kept her mind on education, now her mother had claimed it a waste of money and time. She was nearly old enough to marry, and no respectable wife needed to have her head filled with all that rubbish. Instead, her daily activities included private lessons to undo all the lofty ideas her father had allowed all those years, and instead replace them with the proper charm and etiquette required to run a respectable household of her own. For the most part, Emmeline found she was bored out of her wits. Come evening she was all too desperate for more substantial conversations than her tutor deemed tea appropriate, and so she wound up sitting with Annis, who was the only one still welcoming of her ramblings and inquisitive chatter.
“Do you think something’s gone wrong with the will?” Emmeline asked. “Mother’s been worrying for ages. Told me herself last night she was ready to give Mr. Charleston, her father’s lawyer, a good talking to if he didn’t start sorting out Father’s estate soon.”
It had been months since her father’s death, and whatever funds had been available in the family account were likely dwindling just from keeping up the essentials.
Mother had been so panicked about the family’s well-being that she’d even agreed to marry William, who’d said he felt it his responsibility to see to them now that Emmeline’s father was gone. They’d been best friends, after all. He’d said he thought it was only right that he be the one to step in and carry on as head of the family. Her father would have wanted it that way, would have trusted no one else, William had said. It had been strange for Annis at first, watching William move around the house. He sat in her father’s chair at the table and drank his sherry in the evenings. So much about them was similar, from their stature to their clothes to their mannerisms, and yet William was so very different from her father. He spoke in harsher tones, lacked in patience and had an intimidating air about him, whereas her father had always been warm and welcoming. But having William around had eased her mother’s grief, and so Emmeline had seen to it she found a way to be accepting of the changes, however drastic and hard to swallow they were at times.
“I think you could do a better job with those green beans,” Annis said, nodding at the limp green stalk dangling in Emmeline’s hand. She’d had yet to snap either end.
“Annis,” Emmeline said, and then sighed. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I don’t know what you’re on about,” she said, acting as though she really didn’t have a clue. “You know me. I keep my head down and my nose in my own business. And you will do well to do the same.”
It was a warning. Annis knew more than she was letting on.
“You’re keeping secrets,” Emmeline said, doing her best to focus on the job she’d been given. “I feel like there’s been a lot of that as of late. I know you all think you’re protecting me, but I’m not as weak as I look.”
Annis stopped what she was doing. Her stern gaze caught Emmeline as she reached for another green bean. “I’ve never once believed you to be weak. What I keep from you, I keep to myself to protect us both. Some business is best left to others. We mind ours, they mind theirs. And we all go on in peace together.”
It was more cryptic than enlightening, and it only made Emmeline hungrier for the truth. She was tired of always being left in the dark. Her father had never treated her this way, like a child who needn’t be bothered with too much information. She couldn’t help wondering if forcing her to live in blind faith regarding all the decisions being made around her was just another part of grooming her to be a proper wife. How long would they wait, she wondered, before they married her off? She was still young, but not so young that marriage was out of the question.
“Annis,” she started again, her thoughts on an entirely new track. “Is this about my getting married? Has my mother been searching for more suitors? The right sort of families to merge with?” Those things mattered to her mother, whether Emmeline could find value in them or not. And though her future husband had been preselected many moons ago, she also knew her mother would have no qualms about releasing him from his obligations should she find a better, wealthier, match.
“Em,” Annis answered, her patience clearly dissipating by the second. “You know you’re not to be wed until after your eighteenth birthday, your father always insisted on this when he was alive. I have no doubt your mother will see this done even in his death. That much at least, will be honored.” She ended her explanation curtly and turned away, taking her pot of beans with her.
Emmeline was about to get up and follow her to the stove when she heard her mother’s high-pitched screams echoing through the house again. “He’s ruined everything! He’s not even here and he’s still making my life miserable! Controlling everything, the bastard.”
Emmeline opened her mouth to question Annis again, and then thought better of it and ran for the door instead. Best to learn the sort of goings on around here as they were happening.
“Tell me everything the lawyer said,” William demanded of her mother as Emmeline followed the voices down the hall and toward the den.
“He said,” her mother squeaked, apparently still unable to get ahold of her emotions, “Emmeline is his sole heir. A monthly stipend to cover household costs will continue to be deposited in the family account until the time she turns eighteen, at which point everything will be signed over to her. The business. The fleet. The money. Every last asset. All hers.”
“She’s still a child. Surely, as her parent you can override this,” he insisted.
“No. The will was very clear. She receives her inheritance on her eighteenth birthday and not a day sooner. Unless she marries sooner, in which case she will be counte
d as an adult and be able to take her place as head of family,” her mother recited as though she’d memorized the entire document, word for word.
“Well,” William said thoughtfully, “that’s going to be a problem.”
“Yes,” her mother agreed heatedly. “I should say so.”
“Sadly, I don’t believe you’ll be of much assistance in solving this, my dear.”
Emmeline turned the corner just as he said it. First, she saw her mother, who seemed both stunned and appalled to see her. Then, at the sound of a metallic click, both women shifted their gaze toward William. His gun was drawn and pointed at Emmeline’s mother.
“What are you doing?” her mother asked, sounding too perplexed to be frightened.
The gun went off in response. A single bullet pierced her chest, sending her to her knees. She collapsed to the ground, the look of surprise never leaving her eyes even as they stared ahead, no longer seeing anything at all.
Emmeline stood frozen, unable to make a sound. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Annis come down the hall and stop short. Annis lifted her finger to her lips, motioning for her to keep quiet, as though Emmeline even had a choice.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” William was saying, placing his weapon back in its holster. “However, I think it’s important you know from the start the lengths I will go to in order to be paid a debt long overdue.”
Emmeline blinked her eyes repeatedly, praying that she’d open them again to see something, anything else. Any sort of nightmare would be welcome compared to the one in which her mother was lying on the floor, dead, shot by her father’s best friend, a man that had been like an uncle to her all of her life. A man who now stood only feet from her, nothing stopping him from bestowing her mother’s fate upon her as well.
“What...debt-t?” she stammered, stalling for time as if it would help her to understand what had happened, what was still happening.
“You’re not that dense, Emmeline,” he said, shaking his head and turning his back on her to face the main wall of the den. It was lined with frames, each one holding an image of a ship her family had owned, and many of which they still did. As one of the largest importers in this country, her father’s company needed a sizable fleet to keep up the demand of products being sent back and forth between the continents.
She watched as his fingers grazed the frames as he passed them by. “I should have known your father would make you heir. It was, after all, what his father did for him as well. No matter who else deserved it, who else had worked for it, who else had earned it through blood, sweat, and tears, day after day, for thirty long years.” He turned back around in a flash. “My father gave his life for this business. He died at sea while your father sat safely in the comforts of this lavish home, reaping all the rewards of my father’s hard work. And in return for his service and sacrifice, what did we get? Barely enough savings to make a life.”
Emmeline frowned. “My father offered you a job. You could have here with him.” She swallowed hard, trying to force down the fear screaming inside her. “Father always said you walked away when it was offered, that you wanted to make your own path, leave your own legacy.”
“And I would have, if I’d been given so much as an ounce of support. But no. Every last drop of energy went into Peter, the golden child. The one they’d been preening to take over from the start, the only life that ever mattered.” He sneered as though the memories of his best friend, Emmeline’s father, left a bitter taste in his mouth. “I had plans, big plans, Emmeline. I was going to be a grander success than your family had ever seen. But when I went to your father for help, for a minor investment in what was sure to garner him double the return, he refused me. Told me it was too great a risk. Said I didn’t understand, that I had no head for business and needn’t bother trying my hand at it when I’d refused to learn it all the times that he’d tried to teach me.”
“What was it?” Emmeline asked, rotely following the protocol of courteous conversation. She was too numb to be afraid anymore and too dazed to understand most of what he was saying. “Your dream, your grand plan?”
“It was brilliant.” He beamed, his arrogance lifting his chest and raising his chin until his gaze swept over her, no longer deeming her worthy of his direct eye contact. “An extension, really, of what your family had already built. I wanted to expand their reach, invest in the railroad, start my own company for moving shipments on land.” He scowled. “But your father, the smart student just barely out of university, deemed it a bad investment. Said the market was going to crash and the railroad industry right along with it.”
Emmeline bit her lip. Her father hadn’t been wrong. The entire country had been struck by financial panic during his first years of running the company. She’d been too young to remember, but she’d heard stories and learned plenty during her studies. Nevertheless, it hardly seemed prudent to point this out to William, nor did he seem to be waiting for her input. His gaze was back on the images of her family’s history at sea. His family too, she supposed, wondering if his father was in any of those images. He’d been a captain, one of the first to sign on.
“I could have been a brain like your father. It would have been easy,” he said with such a dismissive air that Emmeline suspected it would have been anything but. Her father and William had never been alike regarding intellect, but he’d always admired his best friend. The stories her father had told her had shined a bright light even on the darker spots in William’s past. William had struggled in school but had been a marvelous athlete and an avid huntsman. He’d snubbed his nose at business, but had been keen on finding the next lucrative venture. He’d never been successful, but he’d taken the things he excelled at—physical strength and sharp-shooting—and dedicated his life to serving others in the police force. Her father had made him sound honorable. Now, as she watched him, all she saw was a bitter, jealous man who’d always felt entitled but had never been willing to do the work.
“You can have the business,” Emmeline said, the pieces beginning to fall together for her. “I’ll sign anything you want.” Whatever he wanted, she would give, if only it would help her escape this nightmare. And escape would be all she could do. After all, who would she run to for help? Annis was the only one left. No one would side with Emmeline, who was still a child in the eyes of the law at barely seventeen, or Annis, a former slave. They couldn’t seek justice from the law. William was a local police detective. He was the law. Emmeline was not dense. William had been right about that much. In looks she’d taken after her mother, but her mind was all her father’s.
“Oh, believe me, Emmeline. I will have it,” he said, a strange new smile on his lips and a flash of wickedness in his dark eyes. “But you heard the stipulations of the will. You’re not eighteen. The only way you can give me what’s owed to my family is if you marry.”
“Marry who?”
“I should think that much would be obvious.” He glanced around the room, which seemed to Emmeline to be shrinking with every passing second, making her feel trapped and leaving her straining to breathe. “After all we’ve been through, who do we have left to turn to in our time of grief...but each other?”
Her stomach turned, bile rising in her throat. She doubled over, retching until her insides hurt, unable to stop herself. And then she straightened her back, despite the pain in all her muscles, and forced her chin up. “No.”
“That’s not a polite answer, Emmeline,” he chided. “A proper lady would know better than to refuse such a life-saving proposal.”
“You won’t kill me,” she hissed through clenched teeth, still tasting the vomit on her tongue. “You kill me, you get nothing. I’m the last heir. If I’m gone, everything goes with me. You’ll never see so much as a penny.”
His eyes narrowed. “You really are your father’s daughter.”
She said nothing in return but allowed the words to swell her chest and square her shoulders. She was indeed.
“I
think you’ll find I have more talents in my skill set than simply pulling a trigger, Emmeline. There are...other ways...of convincing you.”
She forced her eyes to meet her mother’s dead stare, forced herself to truly see what was before her. William had the makings of a beast who harbored a relentless, tireless, merciless, and unscrupulous hatred.
“If I marry you,” she said through gritted teeth, “what happens after you get what you want?”
He shrugged, evil still lurking in his eyes as his mouth spread into a smirk that would make the devil himself shudder in fear. “I can’t say. It’s never happened before now.”
It was then she fully understood. It wasn’t simply about gaining all the money he felt was owed to him. William wanted more. He wanted to rip her father of all he’d held dear, of all his greatest and most valued treasures. And that included Emmeline.
William had her in his clutches, and now he’d never let her go.
Chapter Seventeen
THE LAMB
“So, Annis,” Maude said after listening to her horrid tale, “the real Annis, she was your housekeeper. She helped you escape.”
Annis nodded. “I told her I could do it. I could stay and marry him and see to it he didn’t harm her. But she refused. Said she owed my father. He’d saved her son years before when some white men accused him of stealing. They’d wanted his life over some missing burlap he’d never even touched. She said my father took a chance by going against everyone, even William, to defend her son. And she would gladly do the same. Risk it all to save me.” Annis began to weep. Wiping her cheeks with the palms of her hands, she said, “I begged her to come with me, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Someone needed to stay behind to slow him down, to give me a real chance. And that someone was her.” She hiccupped. All the crying had shaken up her belly and staggered her breathing. “She’d have done it anyway. Even if it hadn’t been for my father helping her son. Annis was the closest person in the whole world to me. She was my mother, sister, and best friend, all in one. I know she’d have done anything for me. Even before that night.”
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