“I have news of Harris and your sister, but first tell me of your visit with your father. Is Ginny installed?”
Surely news of Bella superseded all else! Yet if she wished to gain answers, she must gain her husband’s good graces first.
“She is, sir. Cook alone is aware of our ruse.”
“Good.” He downed his drink. “And your father knows I am sending a man over?”
“He is apprised.”
Milton poured himself another. “Had he word yet from Finch?”
She hesitated. “Mr. Finch called while I was there, yes.”
Her husband gripped his drink so tightly the veins on his hand bulged. “And you choose to tell me this onlynow,Lizzie?”
“I … Forgive me, Milton. I did not mean to keep this from you, I merely?—”
“Anynews, Elizabeth, any hint of information you have concerning Hieronymus Finch is to come to me at once. Do I make myself clear? At once!”
She shrank in her seat as he violently pushed back his chair to pace the carpet. “What did he say, how did he conduct himself? Tell me what you know.”
Milton was upset beyond reason; she must tread softly, lightly now. “Mr. Finch wished to speak with Bella, but Papa and I put him off. He said he’d call again tomorrow; it was more a threat than a request.” Elizabeth followed her husband’s long strides about the room. “He said he always gets what he is promised, even if he has to take it for himself.”
***
Milton stopped to stare at his wife. He wanted to crush her to him knowing she’d been in the same room with Finch, let alone exchanged words with the fiend. “Lizzie, what else did that cur say to you?”
“He … had a message he asked me to give you.”
Milton’s heart hammered a slow, sluggish thump in his head. For a second, he could hear only its painful beating. “Out with it, woman.”
“He said:Master Finch has returned to punish his boy.He said it twice, Milton. Every word that man said struck fear into my breast.”
He turned away; he could not bear for her to see his anguish. The devil had returned to ride him like before. Only this time Milton was older, wiser. Harder. This time he would rise like a phoenix from the ashes of his youth, and strike his demon down.
If he didn’t, he was doomed.
“Milton…”
He continued to pace.
“You have yet to tell me news of my sister.”
Muscles screaming from the message she’d just delivered, he clenched his fists, his mind oceans, leagues away.
“Milton,” she snapped. “Tell me what news of Annabelle. Where has Harris taken her?
“En route to Gretna as we speak.”
“No.” Her face drained color. “No, Bella would never agree to that. You are mistaken. Harris has hidden her somewhere safe, somewhere?—”
“There is no place ‘safe’ from Finch, Lizzie,” he snarled. “Arty’s done what he must. Marrying Bella is the safest course of action.”
“Marriage is hardly safe.” Elizabeth’s lenses flashed at him, catching light. “She barely knows Harris.”
“He is better than Finch; it is that simple.”
“Marriage is not simple,” she fired back. “There must be another—” She abruptly ceased. “Why, to think I spared Annabelle marriage to you, only to let her fall into Harris’s hands is detestable.”
