“Jonny? All well?”
He looked up to find Fawkes walking toward him, and he quickly straightened.
“It’s… I received a message that is… troubling.”
“Oh? Is everything well with your family?”
“Not entirely.”
He expected Fawkes to tell him to leave it be, to put it aside and focus on his work.
Which is why he couldn’t have been more surprised whenFawkes pressed his lips together and nodded toward him. “Go do what you can. I’ll look after your responsibilities.”
Jonny’s lips parted. “That is… generous, but I cannot just leave. I do need this job.”
“Your job will be waiting for you. If you stand here looking as you do, you will scare off any customers. Go.”
“Thank you,” Jonny breathed, still more shocked than he could put into words.
He didn’t know where he was going when he stepped through the doors of the shipping office and into the weak sun filtering through the clouds. He wouldn’t get anywhere if he went directly to Ada. Even if he was allowed through the front doors, what was he going to do? Demand that she put a stop to the wedding? From the sounds of it, she had no say in it anyway.
He ran his hands through his hair as he realized there was only one option.
It was one he was not entirely pleased with, for it meant he had to do something that he hated doing, with every part of his soul.
He was going to ask for help.
He switched directions, turning from the docks toward Tommy’s blacksmith shop. It was close to where they practiced, and his friend was bound to be there at this time of day.
When he burst through the door into the well-organized shop, the song Tommy was cheerfully singing came to an abrupt stop at the interruption.
“Jonny,” Tommy said, blinking at him, before exchanging a glance with Minnie, who was on the other side of the room, organizing tools. “What are you doing here at this time of day?”
“Tom,” Jonny said, breathing hard from his sprint. “I need your help.”
Tommy’s lips turned into one of the largest grins Jonny had ever seen on him, which was saying something, for Tommy always had a jovial expression on his face.
“Why, Jonny,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that for a very long time. Now, what do you need us to do?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ada stared at David, standing across from her in the church where she had spent hours of nearly every Sunday of her entire life.
Despite it being early in the day, it was still somewhat dim within the impressively overwhelming building as the small bit of sun present on this cloudy day filtered in through the stained glass, punctuated by flickering candles placed throughout the church.
Ada tried to take a deep breath, but that only made her cough when the incense clogged her throat.
David didn’t want to be here in this situation any more than she did — that was obvious.
But both of them had been forced into this in one way or another, and Ada would hold her parents in contempt for the rest of her life.
She stole a glance at her mother, who was staring at her, lips pursed, unremorseful. Her father, at least, looked slightly more contrite, though he made no effort to stop this, showing her what was more important to him.
The vicar cleared his throat as he continued hismonotonous drone. Ada had blocked out most of it. “If any person can show just cause why these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony, let them now speak, or else hereafter forever hold their peace.”
There was a moment of stilted silence that Ada desperately wanted to fill with her own objections, but what was she to say? The truth? Hardly. Just as the vicar opened his mouth to continue speaking, a commotion sounded from the back of the church and the heavy wooden doors swung open with a resounding bang.
Ada whirled around to see Gideon Sharpe striding down the aisle, his broad frame filling the narrow space between the pews as two burly henchmen flanked him, just a step behind. Her stomach clenched as she took in the cruel twist of his lips and the malevolent glint in his eyes as he surveyed the scene before him with a smug, mocking expression.
