by Carolyn Bond
“Oh, Malcolm!”
“But, as I came to know you, I realized that you are different. You aren’t like other women I have met. You have such different sight with regard to people. You have your own mind and aren’t like the sheep that follow convention. I can’t help but love you even more.”
“Can I see him, please?”
He patted her hand and his face lit with quiet joy. He stood and took her hand to pull her up.
“Yes. I would love to introduce my nephew. Let’s go to the nursery.”
At the top of the stairs, she could hear giggling. As they neared the nursery door, she heard a little boy quietly say, “I found you, Miz Beff-en!”
“You’re a smart boy, Percy! Now let’s get you ready for a bath. Would you like to play in the water?” a woman’s voice said sweetly.
Malcolm knocked lightly on the door and looked at Everleigh as though looking for signs she had changed her mind.
“It’s alright, Malcolm.” She hoped to ease his fears.
The door opened a crack and half of a face peeked through the small opening. Her brows jumped as she saw Everleigh and then her eyes darted back to Malcolm.
“It’s alright, Bethann.”
The woman opened the door slowly and stepped back. Everleigh saw a tiny little boy playing with a corn husk doll on the floor. When the door had fully opened, the child looked up and looked from Malcolm’s face to Everleigh’s and back. He pushed himself up onto his knees and then stood on stout legs and hurled himself into Malcolm’s leg. He hid himself behind Malcolm and peered around him, then looked up for assurance.
“Who’s dis, Uncle Mack?” the boy asked him.
“Percy, this is my friend Everleigh. She wants to be your friend, too. Will you say hello?”
“Hello, Miz Evvie,” the garbled words came from behind the fabric of Malcolm’s trousers.
Everleigh got down on one knee and quietly offered, “So very nice to meet you, Percy. I hope we will be friends for a long time.”
He poked his head around and looked at her a minute and then ran to her with his arms out. A wall of solid child crashed into her and put his short arms around her. She laughed at his free display of affection and hugged him back. When he pulled away, patting her shoulder, she looked into his childish eyes, the telltale skin covering the inside corner of his eyes, the flat nose, the lips full and stretched into a smile. His thick round glasses. His pillow of a tongue extended slightly through his parted mouth. She noticed his shorter fingers and limbs. He was surely a Down’s baby. Sweet and loving, ready to accept anyone who accepted him. How could anyone have not protected such a sweet person? She wanted so much to give him the love that the young man back at the asylum never got.
“Percy, I hope you know how much you are loved just because you are precious.”
“Aw! Miz Evvie, you’re nice!” His face lit up with joy and he hugged her again. She rubbed his back as she held him.
Malcolm said, “Alright, Percy. I think I heard Mrs. Bethann say you get to play in the tub now. I need to make sure our guest has something to eat. Maybe we can visit with her more tomorrow.”
Percy stepped back and gave a much practiced mannerly bow.
“Gud e’ening, Mis Evvie.” He took Bethann’s hand and she led him through a door on the side of the nursery, closing it after they went through.
“Everleigh! My heart sings! I love my nephew so much. I never thought anyone else would accept him.”
“Malcolm, I am used to being around people with Down’s, I mean Mongoloids.” It was hard for her to use the old word.
“Really? In Charleston? Did you volunteer at an asylum? Bethann has studied under a man named Phillipe Pinel from France who has had great success with his ‘moral treatment’ techniques for Mongoloids.”
“Uh, yeah. Sort of. You might say that. I am not familiar with Mr. Pinel, but yes, I believe with therapy, Mongoloids can lead very happy, productive lives.”
“You amaze me more and more. Everleigh, I feel like us meeting was a fate arranged by God himself.”
She laughed at his choice of words, “I agree! It was certainly a meeting of supernatural proportions.”
He pulled her to him and crushed her against his chest. The scent of his skin was intoxicating. Holding her around her waist, he covered her mouth with his lips and kissed her with delicate passion like she might break or disappear if he took her for granted.
“And I will love and keep you forever, if you will have me,” he said.
“Oh, yes, Malcolm. I love you.”
***
He kissed her again, more fiercely this time as his passion rose. For so long he had restrained himself, denied that part of him that was a caged lion. He was finally free. Everleigh knew about Percy and accepted him, more than that she cared about him. He couldn’t imagine there would be a woman like her and now she was here in his arms kissing him back.
Taking her by the hand, he left the nursery and crossed the wide hallway. He had to be alone with her. He opened his bedroom door and pulled her inside, closing it behind them. In the quiet privacy of his bedroom, he stopped and turned to her. Suddenly aware of the intimacy of the situation. He gazed into her eyes looking for any evidence of her rejection and found none.
She reached her hands up his chest and explored with her fingertips. When he felt her delicate touch on his neck, he lost all resolve to be a gentleman and crushed her against the back of the door and with his arms around her waist, lifted her to his height. His lips searched out hers and claimed her with smothering fierceness. The urgency of the long denied passion for both of them erupted in a frenzied, savage dance to consume each other.
He kissed her face and ear until he got to a place on her neck where the scent of flowers from her perfume sent him careening off the edge of sanity. He bit her earlobe and neck with little love bites. She threw her head back, inviting him to do as he pleased and moaned a low growl of delight. That was more than he could stand and he lifted her into his arms and strode to his bed.
In one movement, he laid her on the bed and covered her with his body. This bed was a place where he had spent many lonely nights wishing God would bring him a woman he could love with all of his being. Clasping her hands over her head, he covered her mouth with his. Her tongue licked the inside of his lip and a surge of lust consumed him. She answered his passion with her own and he groaned with desire. He sucked on her tongue and a wall crumbled inside him. A wall that had been built to hide away the beast of his passion.
He plunged deep in her mouth with desire to know every part of her. Her sweet breath buffeted his cheek as he made love to her mouth. He wanted more of her than decency allowed and fought the urge to make her his own right now. He knew she wanted him just as much as her body arched up to press against him. It would have been so easy to let go of his integrity.
“Everleigh, my love,” he said with ragged breath against her neck, “I cannot defile you.”
He said it more to convince himself than for her. He rolled next to her and stared at the ceiling. The beast inside him growled to be set free but he was the master of his body. His breathing slowed to normal and he turned to look at her. With a knowing smile of delight, her love for him was plain to see. Her hair swept down onto the bed in a glorious mess. The rise and fall of her chest from her passion nearly made him lose his resolve. He wanted her as a husband wants a wife so badly he had to turn his gaze away and stare at the ceiling again.
“We must be married soon. I fear I cannot last a lengthy engagement.” Turning toward her again, “Everleigh, I want you terribly.”
She smiled and caressed his cheek. “Oh, Malcolm. I want you, too.”
Sitting up on his elbow, “Let’s go downstairs and eat supper. This is a dangerous place for you to be lounging around with me.” He smiled a devilish grin.
Chapter Five
Everleigh awoke to a thunderstorm pelting rain against her window. The wind blew so hard, the rain sounded l
ike pebbles hitting the glass. Her room was dark and gray. She thought back to the previous day with the train ride, the hospital, and meeting Percy. It made sense now, all the times he’d acted strange. No wonder he had fought his feelings. He had worried that bringing another into his family could be so dangerous to Percy. She wondered at how few men would have chosen his path to care for his nephew.
She had never even considered that it would have been a black spot on his pedigree that he may carry the Mongoloid trait and pass it to his children. Seeing how little they understood in this time about genetics, she could understand why marriageable girls would have turned away from him if they had known. Even he may worry that his family is damaged and could pass it on to another child. He obviously had worried what it would mean to her.
She shook her head at the fears. What a dark time to live in even with their dawning of inventions. She sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. Lightening flashed outside the window and she waited for the booming thunder. It came with a crack like boulders rolling down a rocky cliff and rattled the walls. Despite Malcolm’s invitation, she didn’t see how she would be going to his estate in this weather.
She splashed water on her face and cleaned her teeth. She dressed in a simple white blouse and dark linen skirt, over the corset, of course. She missed shorts and tee shirts if nothing else because it was so much cooler to wear.
Pulling her hair up in a bun, she felt pangs of hunger for breakfast. She put on her shoes and headed out the door.
Pulling the door closed, she stepped toward the stairs. Turning the corner at the landing a hand shot out and covered her mouth while another snaked around her waist. She struggled but the arms were too strong. He drug her back down the hallway. Fearing she was about to be raped, she kicked and twisted. Like a snake pressing in, her movements only increased further tightening of his arms.
He managed to get a door open and hauled her back inside her room, kicking the door closed with his foot. He turned and pulled her onto the bed with him lying behind her.
“My dear, Miss Addison. I don’t take kindly to being inconvenienced by a woman. That is certainly not going to be tolerated in our marriage.”
Everleigh sucked in a breath. Mr. Peeble. She wondered if this guy was a masochistic freak. Adrenaline shot through her veins burning everywhere her blood pumped. She lay very still thinking that maybe he would at least take his hand from her mouth.
“Very good. You are learning fast. This might be easier than I thought.” He released his hand over her mouth and turned her face toward him. She was inches from him. Close enough to smell the stale liquor on his breath. Apparently he had managed to be released from the sheriff.
“You are forcing me to take drastic action. Here’s how it’s going to work. You will come with me now to the justice of the peace. If the one here insists on continuing to not do his job, we will ride to Lexington and find one there. We shall be married, consummate this infernal arrangement and then I don’t care what the hell you do as long as you show me respect in public. I promise,” he laughed as though the thought of it was ridiculous, “to never lay a hand on you ever again. I find you utterly undesirable and will have to close my eyes to get through the consummation.”
She winced at his words. It made no sense. She was attractive. If it had been her old body, it would have made sense. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye as she realized it was not about appearances. Our outward body was merely a mask covering our souls and had nothing to do with who we were on the inside.
“Touching with the tear. Really. If I gave a damn perhaps it would matter, but I don’t.”
He sat up, still holding her arms against her as he held her waist. He pulled his bag out from under her bed.
He’s has been in my room.
He reached into his bag and pulled out the leather cuff’s. She struggled to get loose and suddenly heard a crack and felt blinding pain in her back. Like a rock had lodged into her, she felt his fist still tight against her side.
She slumped onto his other arm around her and wheezed trying not to breathe deeply. Her mind started to swim and she felt like she was spinning or the room was spinning or just her head. She realized she was going to pass out. Blackness engulfed her and she felt like she was slipping down a long dark slide.
She felt a tapping on her cheek, then a flicking. She opened her eyes and tried to sit up. The white hot pain in her rib made her cry out.
“Shhh! None of that, my dear.”
She looked up at him as her sized her up. She was laying on the floor on a rug. Apparently she had fallen there when she passed out and he didn’t bother to pick her up.
“You look a wreck. We can’t have that.”
He went around behind her and pulled her up with hands under her arms. Her hands were bound by the leather cuffs behind her back. She turned sickly white and felt like she was going to throw up.
“Water?”
“Sure, sure, but first we must get you ready for your wedding day. He roughly sat her on the stool in front of the vanity.”
She looked at herself in the mirror. Her bun was hanging loosely over her left ear. He tried to fix it and it looked worse. He rummaged in her trunk until he found a fancy stiff bonnet. He pulled it over her head and tied it under her chin. Lightening flashed outside. Again the sound of an avalanche of rocks assaulted her ears.
“There! Perfect. Now…” he rummaged some more until he found a cloak. He tied it around her shoulders so that it covered her bound hands. “That should do nicely. We are about ready to go.”
Everleigh felt a prick of impending doom. She had to get away from him. If he managed to get her away from the Inn, away from Suzanne and Malcolm, who would help her?
“You’ll never get away with this,” she tried to stall him.
“Why not? I see no reason why we will not be married.”
“What makes you think I will go through with a ceremony? Say, ‘I do’?”
He leaned on one arm on the vanity and smiled an ugly smile.
“I have been anticipating you being difficult, my dear. So I have taken the liberty to, shall we say, make sure you are compelled to be agreeable.”
Creases of confusion split her forehead
Enjoying himself, he chuckled. “Your aunt my dear, she is shall we say, in a perilous situation. Only you can save her, really. She is being detained in Lexington by a gentleman who is given to outbursts of violence.”
Her eyes shot open wide. She had never met the lady, but couldn’t bear the thought of some woman scared to death and her fate bearing on her. The realization dawned on her that this was why she was not home when they went there. How long had she been kidnapped?
“Oh no, don’t fret. As soon as we are in a state of wedded bliss, I’ll have funds, your funds,” he laughed at himself, “wired and she shall be set free. It’s as easy as that.”
It was so easy for him to be mean, she thought. Without a sound he slipped a handkerchief around her head, gaggling her, and tied it behind her bonnet.
“Now you stay here very quietly, like I know you will to save your dear aunt, and I shall go arrange for our carriage. He slipped out the door with a click of the latch.”
She sat there alone wondering what she could do. If she got away now, she would never find this aunt. She didn’t even know what she looked like. She could try to get to the sheriff, but surely Mr. Peeble would see her.
She tried to stand and nearly fainted from the pain in her ribs. There was no way she would be able to make it down the steps. Her mind circled back to what would happen to her aunt if Mr. Peeble never wired the money. No one would even know where to look for her.
She heard footsteps in the hallway. Maybe she could just alert someone to follow them but how would they be able to do that? And he said he would not wire the money until after the marriage was consummated. She shuddered at the thought of that vile man touching her.
The doorknob clicked and he was back, quietly closi
ng the door behind him. He turned.
“Ah, good, you’re up I see. Come along then.”
She must have looked like she was going to pass out again because he put his arm roughly around her, causing her to wince, and pulled her with him. Halfway down the stairs, after she kept stumbling, he gave up and picked her up into his arms and darted through the front door before anyone saw them go. It was the middle of breakfast and apparently Mr. Clark was in the dining room.
Everleigh thought of Suzanne so close but out of reach. Her head began to swim again from him pressing his arm around her torso and the darkness covered her again.
She woke up laying on the leather seat of the carriage as it swayed and rocked with the horses at full gallop. She tried to sit up and a searing ache of broken bone gripped her. She coughed lightly and tasted blood. She wondered if the rib had punctured a lung. She couldn’t take a deep breath without white hot pain burning in her side. She saw him sitting in the other seat of the carriage watching her like you’d watch a weirdo on a subway. The absolute lack of concern for her, for another human being, was startling to her. It made her wonder what he was truly capable of.
She managed to set herself upright and propped into the corner. She winced at the pain.
“Nothing some bandages can’t fix. Actually that’s all they can do, really. So just get a hold of yourself.”
“You’re sympathy is heartwarming. Do you treat this Cherise as kindly?
He smirked at her like she was an idiot.
“She behaves. It makes thing so much easier. You should try it.”
Everleigh wondered what was in it for the girl. Why would she put up with him?
The rain had continued to follow them. Apparently, it had set in for the day. The sucking noises of the horse’s hooves in the mud punctuated the static hiss of the downpour. Everleigh wondered how much he’d had to pay the driver to go out in this mess. The justice of the peace must have been unavailable. She was certain they had to be nearly to Lexington by now.
