‘Is there any food for your mother?’
Silas shook his head.
‘Do you know where to buy some?’
Silas nodded.
Handing over some coins, Edward said, ‘Fetch some bread for her, there’s a good lad. I think she is going to be hungry when she wakes.’
The boy took the money without comment, Edward’s confidence his mother would open her eyes once more seeming to ease some of the tension in his shoulders. His departure left an eery silence Kate did not know how to fill. She shifted on her feet, her mind strangely blank.
‘I do not think she is going to be in any fit state to eat anything for some time,’ she said eventually.
‘The point was to get him out of the house and keep him busy so that he is not dwelling on his mother looking like this.’ He gestured down to the unconscious woman, who looked slightly better for her change of clothes but was still nearer a wraith than a woman.
‘What was your plan?’ he asked quietly, and somehow this calm acceptance was worse than his agitated anger.
He was still and formal and there was no hint of the man who had worshipped her body through the night. She scratched her neck, wishing she could turn back the clock, because now she may have damaged the thing that had been building between them. When she left the Dashworths, she wanted Edward toremember her as fondly as she remembered him and not with the impression that she did not trust him.
‘Um, when Pete came back I was going to, um, return to Glanmore House and collect some of the money the duke has been generous enough to bestow on me and then summon the doctor.’
He nodded slowly, clearly pondering something. Sweat beaded at the back of her neck while she waited for him to say something. She owed him no explanation, not really, for her movements. Despite the night she had spent in his bed, despite her growing feelings for him, they were little more than friends. She was not his wife or his mistress and owed him no information. That did not stop the guilt from creeping along her skin, making her feel small and insignificant. By not telling him what she was doing, she had somehow let him down.
‘And what about the boys?’ he asked eventually. ‘What is to become of them?’
‘I had not thought that far ahead.’
‘Do they have any relations, a father perhaps?’
‘Their father passed away some time ago. As far as I am aware, there is nobody else, but I doubt Pete will want to leave his mother.’
‘I see.’ His face was blank now, giving nothing away. If he was still angry with her, she could not tell.
The front door sounded again. Peering around Edward’s bulk, she saw a doctor following Pete into the kitchen. Edward took over the consultation, money and power speaking more than she ever could.
This was the way of things. She’d known this, known there was a disparity between them both because of their social status and also because she was a woman, but seeing it like this was astark reminder of how different their two worlds were. For the rest of her life, she would be dependent on someone else for her livelihood; someone would always need to provide her with protection. She was tired, so damned tired, of not being seen.
‘The woman is worse for drink,’ the doctor confirmed after examining her.
‘How long will she be like this?’ asked Edward.
The doctor’s long moustache twitched. ‘Could wake up in an hour or two or it could be tomorrow. There’s no way of predicting it accurately. She will wake up though. Probably do the same all over again. I have seen it many times.’
Edward thanked him, giving him far too much money in Kate’s opinion. The man had barely done anything and had distressed the woman’s son in the process.
‘How often is she like this, Pete?’ asked Edward.
The young boy’s eyes were a thousand years old when he looked at his mother. ‘Never this bad before, but…’ he shrugged his bony shoulders ‘…she likes gin.’ That simple sentence said it all. Like the doctor had said, this was a common problem and people like Pete’s mother, who had little hope left in the world, often turned to the cheap alcohol to make life bearable. Kate was seeing it first hand for herself, but she had heard stories of it happening many times before. It was Pete and Silas who would suffer most in the long run.
Silas came back, clutching a loaf of bread in his small hands.
‘Good lad,’ said Edward. ‘Put it on the table for your mother. She will want some when she wakes up. Now then, boys, I have an offer for you.’ Pete and Silas eyed him warily. Kate reached out and put her hands lightly on the boys’ shoulders, reassuring them they were not alone. ‘As you know, Miss Hornel is currently staying with me and my brothers in a big house. Shesometimes gets lonely and I was wondering if you would do me the very great honour of keeping her company this evening.’
‘We can’t leave Ma,’ said Pete.
‘Quite right,’ said Edward brightly. ‘I understand that, but I have someone who can come and sit with her to make sure she is well and she eats the bread Silas bought for her.’ Kate’s heart swelled, appearing to push against her ribcage. There was a lump in her throat, a large boulder that she could barely swallow past.
‘Who would that be?’ asked Pete.
