He gave a scornful laugh. “Without telling anyone. But that was my father’s way. His word was law in his own home, apparently. What he wanted, what he did…it was all perfectly proper in his mind because he ruled absolutely.”
“So you found yourself with a step-mama.”
“I did. I met her once or twice, out and around the estate. She was polite, aloof, and her eyes were hard, cold, assessing. I tried to like her, Adalyn. I really did. But there was something in her gaze that chilled me to the core.”
“And your father?”
“From what I heard, he was content and boasted about getting himself a new heir off her.”
“Ugh. Daniel, your father was an ugly man. I’m sorry to say it, but he was. He didn’t deserve you.” Adalyn shuddered at the mere thought of what he must have experienced.
“Let me finish, darling.” He sighed. “It wasn’t too long after their marriage when Albert and I began to notice small discrepancies in the bookkeeping records. Nothing huge, just ten pounds or so off here and there.”
Adalyn closed her eyes and took a breath, well able to guess where the story was leading.
“The problem grew. And by the end of that year, almost four years ago now, we knew that someone was stealing the estate blind.”
“Your stepmother?”
He nodded. “Yes. The sums that regularly disappeared were now quite sizeable. The quality of the farms started to deteriorate because we had insufficient funds to help them through the winter the way we usually did. Then there were demands for money from my father. Jewellery, gowns, all that kind of thing. And when Albert tried to tell him, he flew into a rage. He even hit Albert once, blacking his eye.” He swallowed. “Can you imagine it, Adalyn? An older man, trying to do his best for his master, and getting punched for his troubles?”
She shook her head. “No, no I simply can’t, Daniel. How terrible a time for you and Mr Dawson.”
“It all came to a head that winter. Albert became ill—whether through worry or for other reasons—and reduced to bedrest for several weeks while he recovered. During that period, I determined it was time to have it out with my stepmother.”
“That was a daring decision.”
“I had to, Adalyn. If I didn’t stop her, the estate would be ruined.” He took a breath. “So I went to the house, a place I’d not been in years. I told their butler, a man I’d never met, that I wished to see Mrs Fitzroy. She walked down the stairs, her nose in the air and demanded to know how I dared to disturb the family. Thefamily, she called it, as if I wasn’t one of them.”
“Oh Daniel,” said Adalyn, her eyes stinging with tears for him.
“We argued, of course. I presented her with the evidence of her embezzlement. I called it that, right to her face. She screamed at me and grabbed a walking stick, pushing me backward toward the door, beating me with it as I tried to defend myself.”
“Dear God.”
“I ended up outside the house at the top of the marble staircase. It’s a tall one, there are many steps, since the foyer is actually above the ground floor.”
“I understand. Not a good place to fight off a woman with a walking cane who wants to hurt you.”
“So true, love. So true. I swear I did not lay a hand on her, Adalyn. All I did was hold up my arm in an attempt to ward off her blows.” He stopped.
“Tell me, love. Tell me what happened?”
“She lost her balance. Slipped on the damp marble. She fell, Adalyn. She fell from top to bottom of those stairs and she screamed all the way down.” He all but sobbed. “I still hear that sound in my nightmares.”
Adalyn moved then, putting her arms around him and holding him close. “Finish the tale, Daniel? Please?”
He nodded. “She landed in a heap, broken, bleeding. My father finally appeared, drunk as could be, looked at her and then looked at me.‘Killed another one, have you?’ he said. Those were his exact words.”
Adalyn was speechless.
“She was not dead, though, and the butler—who was bright enough to keep his wits about him, sent for the physician. She had a broken arm, but the worst damage was to her head. She suffered some kind of terrible injury to her brain.”
Adalyn squeezed her eyes closed against the visions battering her eyelids.
“She has lain semi-conscious ever since, slurring a few words now and again, but unable to care for herself. Once that information was revealed to my father—that she’d never be a wife to him again—he threw me out of his house forever. Banned me from Nordean. Renounced me, declaring he had no son.”
“And you left?” she asked gently.
