“I said,” Gregory repeated through clenched teeth, “no one is keeping you here. In fact, I think it is high time that you returned to your husband and your own home. Who is keepingyourhome soyourhusband can go flitting off to appointments? Hmm? Speak, do you have no answer?”
Angeline stared at her brother in silence, unsure of how to navigate this new side of him. Where was her mealy-mouthed baby brother who did whatever she ordered? This man before her was practically ordering her out into the streets, and that wasn’t like Gregory at all.
“I have an answer for you… bugger off!” Angeline clamped a hand over her mouth in surprise at her own words. Never in her life had she dared to speak such a vile insult to anyone, and now, she had hurled it at her own family.
“Fine choice of speech for a lady, Angeline,” he replied with an air of utter disdain. Using her own masterful plan against her, he added, “It’s no wonder I haven’t found a wife after all these years, what with being related to a piece of trash who speaks as though she’s better suited for a whorehouse down beside the docks than gracing a nobleman’s table.”
Genuine tears welled up in Angeline’s eyes, her distress clear on her face. But Gregory was not to be moved. He turned to leave the room, and it took Angeline only a few seconds to recover before she leapt up from the table and raced after him.
“Gregory! Brother!” she cried out, ignoring decorum in front of the servants who still stood at their posts or their work. “Please forgive me!”
“Too little, too late for that, I’m afraid,” he answered over his shoulder, striding up the staircase. She followed after him, alternating between fresh tears and pleas for forgiveness.
Near the top of the staircase, Angeline remembered herself. Her distraught begging was replaced with her common haughty rage.
“You do not turn your back on me when I’m speaking to you!” she shouted, grabbing her brother’s arm by the sleeve and pulling mightily. Without turning, Gregory jerked his arm from her grasp and kept walking, only to halt his steps when the large room filled with a scream such as he’d never heard before.
The wild animal sound still echoed from the golden rafters when he looked back, his heart leaping into his throat. Thrown off balance by the movement of his arm, Angeline tumbled backwards, striking her head several times before she reached the ground.
“Angeline! Angeline!” he roared, racing down the stairs as fast as he could. He reached his sister just as she lay crumpled in a heap at the bottom of the marble steps. “Go for a physician! Someone! Go!”
Servants scrambled in every direction, and presently his housekeeper rushed forward with a cloth for Lady Lasconia’s head. Gregory nearly fainted when he saw its deep red stain, not that he was a man unaccustomed to blood, but that he had brought this on his sister himself.
Together, Gregory and Mrs. Bancroft managed to lift his seemingly lifeless sister and carry her all the way to her apartments. They placed her on the bed, then Gregory left the room swiftly so that the housekeeper might put her to bed.
“My Lord,” Mrs. Bancroft said, sticking her head out into the hallway, “would you go and wait for the physician? Show him where My Lady is?”
“Of course!” he answered, then turned and raced for the front door.
Downstairs, he was relieved to see the physician arriving already. One of his groomsmen had thought to bring an extra horse with him as he hurried to fetch the man, so there had been no delay in readying a horse for the physician.
Gregory paced outside the door while the physician attended to his sister, Mrs. Bancroft remaining with them to assist. He was heartened to hear talking, and for a moment wondered if he’d heard his sister’s voice.
What a ridiculous thing to quarrel over!Gregory thought bitterly.About what? The hour upon which I return to my own home? My choice of a wife? What have I allowed her to do to me all these years, giving up more and more of myself to placate her whims?
Still, though he knew he was within his rights to come and go as he pleased, to marry as it should please him, he felt a pang of guilt. Never had their disagreements turned so outspoken, and certainly had neither of them ever brought harm to the other.
The door opened, and Gregory rushed forward to demand, “How is my sister?”
The physician looked grim as he closed the door behind him, leaving Mrs. Bancroft to wait with Lady Lasconia. He nodded, then began walking away from the door so that Gregory would have to follow.
“I must say, it is quite a difficult situation,” the physician began. “Lady Lasconia has awakened briefly, only long enough to tell me that you flung her from the stairs in a rage.”
“What?” Gregory gasped. “I’ve never! I would never! That isn’t what happened at all!”
“What did happen then?”
“We… we were arguing. I left the room and she followed. She went to pull me back by my sleeve, only when I pulled away from her, she lost her balance and fell. As soon as I heard her cry, I raced to her side and called for you. I would never inflict harm on anyone, least of all My Lady sister!”
Gregory seemed near tears, but they were born of anger and frustration. His sister would see to it that he was punished for this for the rest of his life, either by false reports or simply through sheer venom of her own. And there was naught he could do to prove that she was the one who spoke falsely.
Finally, the physician smiled slightly and nodded. “Then it is as I suspected. Her injuries are not consistent with being pushed maliciously. Rather, her arms went ‘round her head to protect herself. She has only a slight gash on her cheek and some bruises on her arms where she struck the floor. Otherwise, she escaped the fall unscathed. She will be sore for a few days, I’d imagine, but will recover very soon.”
“Thank you. Please, ask any of the servants and they’ll bring you some refreshment before you head out on your way,” Gregory said, gesturing to the stairs. The physician bowed slightly and left, leaving the Duke to wonder what his sister was playing at.
He resumed his restless pacing, only this time instead of worrying for her health, he pondered his own sanity. What would cause her to make such an accusation? What did she gain from it?
Suddenly, he had the answer. Perhaps he’d known it all along, only his devotion had kept him from realizing it. But this… this was the last time Angeline would run roughshod over him and his household.
