Elizabeth steeled herself as a cloud passed over Mary’s face.
“When Jasp was born, his father insisted I give the babe up, told me he’d pay for a baby farm.” She inhaled a breath. “But I refused to relinquish my child to such a place, and so the Duke abandoned us, cut off all funds and contact.”
Which duke?Elizabeth thought. There weren’t that many…
“I’d been a servant in the Duke’s house, I was not a—” Her gaze pierced Elizabeth. “I was not a loose woman before his Grace fancied me, and it was flattering to be fancied, nor hadI much choice in the matter.” Her hands plucked at her dress. “But he did not fancy an illegitimate child, especially as he was about to marry and produce legitimate heirs.” She continued. “The Duke would not employ me in his house or give me a letter of reference after our falling out, so without his help I was destitute.”
Elizabeth’s heart cracked.
“I sold what I could, at first, and then I sold myself, but it was dangerous to earn on my own. By the time Jasper toddled on two feet I found Finch. He kept a house, you see, where I’d heard women were well fed. He promised I could keep Jasper even, promised a decent cut of pay.” She swallowed. “But he lied. All my earnings went toward our keep, leaving me nothing to save, to build on. He took Jasper too, the moment my boy was old enough. At five years only he was farmed to chimney, then mill, and when I protested he?—”
Elizabeth could barely stand to hear more.
“—punished me severely. He punished any woman who defied him. And the worst was, I’d nowhere else to go. No family to turn to. Without means I was trapped in Finch’s hellhole.”
Elizabeth brushed back tears as Mary Audrey smoothed her skirts.
“Elizabeth, I do not wish to cause you grief by?—”
“Grief!” she exclaimed. “Mary, I am affected by yourowngrief, that you should relive such horrors in recounting them to me.”
“It is my past. My son’s past too. Only now that Finch has returned…” She stared hard at Elizabeth. “IfIstruggle to revisit memories, it must drive Jasper to extremes.”
Elizabeth’s gut wrenched imagining the horrors her husband had endured at such a tender age.
“He was a sensitive lad, too, when young. But he soon hardened. Like too many children he learned to survive. Andyet we were together at least, in our misery, and comforted one another as best we could.” She looked almost wistful. “By the time Jasp was ten or so he’d grown tall and strong for his age. Stubborn like his father.” Her face pinched. “My son grew up too fast, saw too much of life inside a brothel. He witnessed how Finch treated women, how the ogre treated me.”
Elizabeth’s hand shook as she reached for her tea, then promptly set the cup back down.
“Jasper was very brave but foolish to try to protect me. He stood up to Finch one day, challenged him in a way he should not have.” Mary’s voice choked. “I didn’t know until much later because he didn’t tell me. Foryears, Lizzie, my boy did not tell me what that man did.”
Elizabeth reached for her mother-in-law’s hand.
“Finch put my poor son in his place, showed him who was master over us all.” Her next breath stuttered. “He made Jasper into his literal whipping boy, Lizzie, our punishments suddenly ceased.” Her face was awash with pain. “Finch no longer laid a hand on his whores, but every infraction, any cause for discipline, was meted out, instead, on my darling boy.”
Elizabeth could stand no more. She rose from her seat to embrace her mother-in-law and simply held her, without speaking.
When Mary Audrey pulled away the lady wiped tears from her eyes. “He withstood that torture for too many years. You must understand I did not … Jasper hid it from me, and Finch only marked him where it would not show. By the time I suspected, realized what he’d endured…” She cleared her throat. “There were rumors, of course, but Finch was so feared no one dared speak the truth. And I—” Her voice caught. “I failed my boy, Elizabeth. You do not understand what it means to be a mother and fail to protect your own child.”
Elizabeth again gripped Mary’s hand. “You did everything in your power to keep him with you,alive. It is his father, the Duke, who failed him. Not you.”
Mary dried her eyes with the handkerchief Elizabeth gave her, then straightened her spine. “Thank you, dear, I am not—I have made peace with matters, as has Jasper, to some extent. He never blamed me, only surely you understand, now, his desire to prove himself the son his father should have wanted, rather than discarded.”
Elizabeth did.
“And yet in place of any real father Jasp had only Finch.” Mary’s tone turned grim. “At fifteen my boy had grown into a man. He towered over Finch, and he’d take the beatings no more. He must have realized his own strength, or perhaps he simply snapped that day, I don’t know, because he ripped the whip from that ogre’s hand and beat Finch with his own instrument of torture. Beat him bloody and left him for dead.”
Elizabeth gasped.
“Jasper came for me then. Like a grown man, my boy came and took me away from Finch’s house—we simply walked out. No one stopped us. It was as if every soul there had been under a spell, men and women alike, because everyone stood back and let us walk. It was unreal.”
Elizabeth tried to picture that moment, picture her husband, still a boy, forced to rescue his own mother.
“Jasper found work then, at the docks. Earned pennies at first but enough to keep us from starving. And I worked too, of course. With my son for protection it was easier. I found others like me, women who’d escaped worse, and we joined together, formed a collective to look after one another, including our children. And Jasper, he…” She hesitated. “I don’t know how much he’s told you, but he was part of our collective too, helped me train new girls and later took wealthy patrons himself. Ourgroup became a business, eventually Miss Li’s business, and to this day every working woman there owns shares in it.”
Elizabeth was stunned.
“It also allowed Jasper to heal, something my son desperately needed. For once,hewas in control. Finch didn’t try to find us either, kept a low profile for a very long time. I think it wounded his pride, that he’d been bested by a boy. But his hatred for Jasper grew in quiet, because later, when Jasp and Wells brought Li back from their travels, he?—”
