“I will do no such thing,” the man said and spun in Julian’s grip, wrenching himself free.
“Marianne!” he shouted and bolted. Julian cursed himself for not having kept a tighter hold. The man was down the second flight of stairs, and with a lurch of horror, Julian saw that Clara had opened the door to admit Marianne. The woman had barely made it through when the man caught her.
Julian sprinted forward but not fast enough. The man grabbed Marianne around the waist and the two of them disappeared into the room.
“Julian!” Clara called, followed by a shriek.
He went in. In the darkness, by the fireplace, he saw Clara on the floor with Marianne beside her, a fireplace poker in Marianne’s hand.
“Charlie, there is nothing for you here. Go.”
“That is not how I see it. I knew sooner or later you’d come back. You owe me.”
“I owe you nothing,” she shouted. “You are the one who lied to me. You did not tell me you were married, and when I told you I was with child, you vanished. You have been nothing but a disgrace, Charlie Dunmore.”
Julian crossed the room and helped Clara to her feet.
“The children,” he gasped.
“She hid them in the chest of drawers; I will get them.” She ran out of the room before he could say anything else.
“Get him out of here,” Marianne said. “Clara, get them.”
The man named Charlie turned on Julian. “And who do you think you are? What is this? Some sort of arrangement between the three of you? Sick, I tell you.”
“Not as sick as you,” Julian said and focused on Charlie again.
Charlie grabbed the fireplace poker and raised it. “I’ll leave once I have what I’m owed.”
“You are owed nothing,” Marianne shouted.
Charlie did not get any further. Julian dashed forward, caught the man’s wrist, and the two grappled. He pushed Charlie backward into the wall. The fireplace poker fell from the man’s grip and clattered to the floor.
“You will leave her alone,” Julian said. “She owes you nothing. If anything, it is you who owes her.”
Hurried footsteps sounded behind him, but he could not look.
Charlie spat and shoved Julian back hard. Julian went crashing to the floor, the wind knocked clean out of his lungs. He groaned and pushed himself up. Charlie was on top of him before he could rise fully, and the two men grappled across the floor. Julian realized with some irritation that he had underestimated how strong the man was. Still, he was not going to let this brute harm Clara or Marianne. He pulled his arm back as far as he could and landed a facer squarely on Charlie’s jaw.
Charlie sat up and grabbed at his face. Then a thud came as something struck him hard on the side of the head, and the man toppled sideways with blood running from a wound at his temple.
A hand extended to Julian. He looked up. Clara stood over him, shaking her head.
“Good gracious. What a brute.”
He took her hand and stood. In the candlelight spilling from the hallway, he saw she had struck the man with the candleholder, which had rendered the room entirely dark.
“Where are the children?”
“I saw Nell on the stairs, going to her chamber. I sent her upstairs to tend to them, as I thought you might need assistance.”
“I could have taken him,” he said with a small smile.
“Could you?” she replied. “I was not so certain. It looked very much as though you needed assistance.”
“Your eyes deceived you.”
“Did they? I suppose I ought to get spectacles, for it appeared to me that you were on the floor, and he was on top of you.”
