Doctor Birch stared at her. ‘I am not.’
‘You are not an alienist yet you tried to have me committed to a clinic in which you have shares!’
‘Is this true?’ asked her mother.
Doctor Birch turned to her, smiling. ‘I am a partner, but it has no bearing on my professional opinion. Your daughter is overwrought.’
‘If a charlatan claims to have skills he does not possess and profits from the misfortune of others, then yes, I believe you to be a charlatan.’
Her mother whimpered. Everyone ignored her.
‘How many women have you committed, Doctor Birch?’ questioned Evelyn. ‘Innocent women who have done nothing more than acknowledge the same desires that men can freely indulge in . . . inside and outside of marriage!’
Doctor Birch began to pick his way through the debris at his feet. ‘You were not of sound mind.’
‘Because I wanted to be with the man I love?’
‘Because you would not acknowledge that such an act would ruin you!’
‘But marrying my cousin would cure me! What a miraculous cure,’ Evelyn scoffed. ‘If you could bottle it and label it, no doubt you would sell it as a tonic. You sell everything else as a tonic. You are a disgrace, Doctor Birch. I believe there is little you would not do to further your own name. It may interest you to learn that I am going to have my account of the experience published so all of England will learn of the dreadful practice and the misery patients have to endure.’ Doctor Birch brushed passed her and began walking away. ‘I believe you would stop at nothing!’ she shouted after him. ‘Nothing! And I intend toexpose your malpractice, if it means writing to every journal and newspaper in England! No one will want you as their doctor. Your career will be at an end.’
‘Enough!’ ordered her father. ‘You are making a spectacle of yourself.’
Evelyn turned to her parents. Her mother had not moved since her arrival. She still held a teacup in her lap, despite the absence of any furniture to put it on.
‘I love Drake, Father, and I will marry him. I have loved him since we were children.’
‘You are married.’
‘And I will love him until the day I die and beyond.’
‘I will not allow you to divorce.’
‘It is not up to you. It is up to Mawgan and I.’
Her father frowned and looked at her, as if she was a curiosity of the most grotesque kind.
‘Why would you want to ruin our good name? No person of worth will want to socialise with you.’
‘If they make that decision, then I do not consider them worthy of my friendship.’
‘Vennor will not get his hands on my property.’
‘He does not wish to. He wants to marry me because he loves me.’ She might as well tell him everything and start how she meant to go on. ‘Nicholas is his son.’
Her father, stricken, looked about him in bewilderment. His orderly life was dismantling around him and Evelyn was aware that she was to blame. However, her bid for freedom was long overdue and she would not be made to feel guilty. She knew what was concerning him now, it would not be her future happiness, but who would inherit his precious legacy. However, despite her resolve, her strong formidable father now looked like a lost child who was unsure of the strange new world he found himself in. A pang of sympathy tugged at her heart.
‘Nicholas is from my body, Father,’ she reassured him. ‘He has the Pendragon name. He has Pendragon blood. He may be Drake’s son, but he is alsoyourgrandchild.’
‘He is too young.’
‘For now, but he will soon grow. He will be strong, determined, but also well loved. He will know both his real father and Mawgan.’ Her father looked at her, with that same curious look as before. ‘Yes, Mawgan and I plan to remain friends. There will be no animosity between us. I don’t want there to be any between us either.’
‘You ask too much.’ Her father braced his shoulders and looked past her as if he could no longer bear to look at her. ‘I think you better leave.’
The dismissal was expected, but it still felt brutal. She could not blame him. She had just destroyed all he had hoped for. She looked to her mother. A pained expression had come to settle on her face and she could not meet her gaze. There was no more to be said. Evelyn turned and walked away.
* * *
