Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

“ H elena, darling, are you sure are all right?” Barbara asked.

Helena stumbled but offered her a genuine smile as she was helped into her chair.

“I am getting better by the moment,” she replied, and truly felt like she meant it.

Though she was still having bouts of dizziness and fatigue, Helena had noticed a vast improvement in her physical ailments since returning to her brother’s house.

“I am sure by the end of our visit I shall be back to full health,” she said assuredly, but felt her face blanche as the world around her spun again.

“I hope you are as motherly to your own children as you are to that girl,” Reuben Knight harrumphed, cutting into his meat with a look of annoyance.

“I assure you, Reuben, she will be a wonderful mother to our children,” Ambrose replied, his tone harsh.

The look of annoyance on Ambrose’s face quickly vanished as he turned towards Helena.

“Helena, are you sure?” he implored, looking as worried as Barbara.

“Perhaps it would be better if she ate in her room,” Reuben grunted. “Her piqued complexion does little for my appetite.”

“Lord Knight, I do apologize for interrupting your visit with Barbara,” Helena apologized as Barbara and Ambrose both shot him a glare. “It is my fault that I did not forewarn them of my intention to visit. But please, my time in London is growing brief, and I would very much like to spend it in their presence while I have the opportunity.”

Reuben grumbled something about manners and politeness, then turned his full attention to Barbara to discuss his great nephew. As the two talked, Ambrose looked anxiously at Helena. He and Barbara had both been worried from the moment they had laid eyes upon her, claiming she was too pale and too thin.

Helena had lost count of how often they had asked if she was all right, and she felt guilty for worrying them.

In truth, she had been so dazed over the last two weeks that she had not noticed that her dresses had become heavy and loose, but now — under Ambrose’s watchful eye — she felt every gaunt inch of her. She picked up her fork, and although she was not hungry, forced down a bite of pheasant.

“Has your soon-to-be-husband been taking care of you, Helena?” Ambrose asked, his tone low. “Has he been cruel? You can tell me.”

“No,” Helena replied. It was true. Cruel was not necessarily the right word.

Not wanting to stay long on the subject and unable to stave off her own curiosity any longer, Helena cut up another piece of meat and as casually as possible asked, “so, how are the others? Barbara has enlightened me on Alice and Lydia, but how is Ezra? Duncan?” She swallowed hard as her heart skipped a beat. “Morgan?”

She tried to say his name as carelessly as possible, but even so, she and Ambrose both went rigid upon hearing it. She had been informed of some little argument between the two after he had not shown up to her party, but even Barbara was unsure what their disagreement was about.

“Fine,” Ambrose said, his tone tense.

Only a second of silence ticked by before the doors to the dining room flew open, and through them spilled a bloodied Luke, followed by Ezra, Duncan, and Morgan. Helena felt her heart stop, then beat in double time as she took in Morgan’s face. Yearning filled her as their eyes met, and though he wore a murderous look, his eyes flashed with pure relief upon seeing her.

“What in the bloody hell is this?” Ambrose growled, jumping from his chair.

“I tried to tell you,” Morgan snarled, throwing the letter at Ambrose’s feet. “I tried to tell you he was no good for her!”

“Christ in Heaven, Curtis, do your dogs even possess a modicum of couth?” Reuben snarled as he stepped away from the table.

“Morgan,” Helena whispered. Relief surged through her as she urged herself to her feet; her mind was too fuzzy to embrace what was happening, and she felt herself sway.

“Helena,” Morgan choked out, his hate-filled eyes going wide with concern as he flew to her side in an instant to catch her. “It is all right. It is going to be all right. We are going to get the tonic out of you.”

“What?” she breathed. Too many emotions and too many questions were raining down on her simultaneously. The comfort of Morgan’s long-missed embrace was only adding to her confusion.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ambrose demanded of Morgan.

“Father, I am sorry,” Luke groaned as he reached towards Reuben’s feet.

Silence, thick and tense, filled the room as Luke’s secret came tumbling from his lips. Morgan’s attention remained solely on Helena as he cupped her chin and studied her eyes. She tried to focus on him, elation pouring through her at being with him again, but her vision was extremely blurred.

“I need you to sit, sweetheart, it is not safe,” Morgan whispered to Helena as he gently lowered her into a chair. Everyone else slowly turned towards Reuben.

“Luke has been drugging you, but it will wear off,” he told her, his soothing tone in complete contrast with his deadly expression. “We are taking care of all of this right now.”

“Drugged?” Helena rasped, tears forming in her eyes as a tremor of fear ran through her.

“Nothing more is going to happen to you, I swear it,” Morgan told her, holding her hands easily with one of his as he pressed a glass of water gently to her lips.

“Drink, little one,” he commanded softly. As though his words had broken a spell, Helena felt her body break free from its sickly, tense hold as she succumbed to Morgan’s dominant, protective demand.

I have missed you.

Helena cried silently as she opened her mouth to swallow the refreshing liquid.

“That is my good girl,” he coaxed, tilting the glass a little more.

“Morgan.” Ambrose’s voice was a twisted mixture of indignation and surprise as he heard his best friend talk to his little sister in such an intimate way.

Helena flushed, realizing Morgan had just revealed their bond, and yet she could not break away from his intense gaze.

“I will take care of this,” he rasped as he set down the glass, rose from his knees, brushed his lips along her forehead, and turned towards Reuben with clenched fists. Helena sank into her chair as Morgan stood protectively in front of her and glared at the men before him.

“You have one chance to tell the truth,” Morgan stated, taking a threatening step towards Reuben. “I demand to know who you are and who he is,” Morgan hoisted his leg and give Luke’s side a swift kick, “or my brothers and I will unleash an unholy hell upon you, I swear to God.”

“Brother,” Josiah said, looking up at Reuben from his chair. “What is he talking about?”

“Shut up, Josiah,” Reuben snarled, “Have another drink.”

Barbara stepped protectively in front of her father.

“I told you to stay far away from him!” Reuben’s voice boomed through the hall, his face purple with fury as he swept a finger towards the orphaned brothers. “I told you to stay away from all of them.”

“Is that man your son?” Ambrose demanded, pointing a finger towards the still crumpled up Luke.

“Barely,” Reuben seethed the word.

“Father, please, I did what you asked,” Luke pleaded, rising carefully to his knees.

“And you spoiled it all!” Reuben snarled, making his son flinch back into a fetal position.

“ You are Whittler ,” Morgan stated, drawing the attention back to him. “That was what George had been trying to tell us. He wrote the messages to our fathers, but it was you who ordered him to do so, was it not? It was you who offered the bigger payoff to George, not our fathers.”

Shock exploded in Reuben’s eyes before a devilish smile overtook his face, and he tilted his thick chin downward, making him appear more demon than man.

“My, my. You like to pretend you are the stupid one, but you are smarter than you appear, are you not, Lord Grandhill?”

Morgan tilted his chin upward as he smirked, his fingers flexing in anticipation.

“I have my moments,” he agreed.

“ It was you?” Duncan seethed, slowly removing his mask from his scarred face, his eyes wide with fury.

“ You did this?”

“It was payback for what they did to me,” Reuben answered venomously, sneering derisively as he looked at Duncan’s scars.

“If your brothers had genuinely loved you, they would have let you die from your wounds rather than live out the rest of your life in such a state of ugliness. It is not my fault they were weak.”

Time seemed to slow as Helena bore witness to the flurry of horror that unfolded before her. Though he was a large man, Reuben propelled himself at Helena with great speed, avoiding her brothers’ rage-filled lunges. Helena’s weakened body was painfully crushed against Reuben’s foul-smelling chest as his meaty fingers wrapped painfully around her throat.

Helena choked from the lack of oxygen and true fear overcame her.

She gnashed her teeth and pursed her lips when she felt a small bottle being pushed into her mouth. Reuben’s meaty hand moved from her throat, forced her jaw open and jammed the bottle into her mouth.

“Take one more step and I will kill her,” Reuben growled.