Chapter 20

"You cannot just walk away from me like that!" Violet had rage surging through her veins as she shoved the door to his study wide open. "This is not right. We need to talk about this."

William glowered. "Violet, you know what we need to do. This cannot be resolved if you do not find your brother. We cannot move forwards until we find him."

That did nothing to calm down the burning hot blood tearing through her body. She was more full of anger than she had ever been before.

How could he treat her this way? It was not right.

"We are married. Supposed to be a team. I do not think you should simply walk away from me. That is not how marriage works."

"Violet, none of this is how marriage works, do you not see that?" William made a sweeping gesture with his hands. "None of this is right, none of this is normal. We will not be able to even consider having a marriage of any kind while all of this is going on."

Violet was stunned.

She did not have any words.

William did not seem to have the same issue. "Until we can pay back Mr. Cook and sort out all of the issues that your brother has caused us, we are going to have drama."

Burning hot tears pricked behind Violet"s eyes, but she was determined not to let them fall. She could not allow William to see how much he had affected her. She did not want him to know how upset she truly was with all of this.

"In fact, I will not sit around and wait for more issues to come to our door," William practically growled as he rose to his feet. "I am going out to gather information. I am sure someone must know where Paul is. He cannot hide away from everyone."

"What are you going to do?" Violet whispered, fear making her voice tremor. "When you find my brother, what will you do?"

William did not answer her, which made her blood run ice cold. A shudder of terror tore down her spine.

Paul likely deserved whatever was coming to him. Her brother had not exactly shown her any care or respect, but he was still the only family member that she had left, and she did not want anything terrible to happen to him.

She could not help herself; he was still her brother.

William stormed by her with a storm cloud clinging to his head. Violet trailed behind him, wishing she could find the right words to say as she watched her husband grab his coat to leave the manor.

As he stalked off down the path, Violet was left stewing in sadness and worry. She did not know how to feel about any of this, but it was certainly not a positive feeling.

Her marriage hinged on all of this more than she wanted to accept, and that was unbearable.

Violet folded her arms across her chest as she slunk back inside, ice cold guilt soaring through her veins. Maybe none of this was really her fault, she was not the one who had brought William into her life, but at the same time she could not stop herself from feeling horrible for all the drama that she had brought into his life.

She did not know what William"s life was like before he moved into Eagleton Manor, but she was sure that it was a whole lot easier.

He should never have gambled with Paul, he should never have won the house, and he should never have moved in,

But all of that happened.

It was out of Violet"s control, but it occurred regardless.

But it was her who agreed to marry him, knowing that Paul wanted her to wed Mr. Cook. There was a part of her that knew all along there was going to be trouble.

But she did not expect it to be as bad as this.

"What can I do?" she murmured to herself as she wandered around the drawing room. She could not even take a seat because there was no way that she could be still. "How can I make this right? Is there a way?"

But without finding her brother, there truly was not a thing that she could do. Even if she did manage to locate Paul, what were the chances of him having the money that he owed Mr. Cook left? Paul could not have any money without gambling it. He had done nothing but prove that ever since he came back to London.

Violet knew that she would not have wanted him to return had she knew how badly he was going to turn her life upside down. She could not believe now that she thought he might help her with the after math of their father"s death.

She had truly been a fool.

The more she thought about that, the tighter her chest felt. It was almost as if the walls were closing in on her and she could not breathe.

Violet might have spent many times in her life feeling helpless, because she had always been at the whims of the men in her life, but this was the worst. To her, this was the first time she had a glimmer of hope. There was an actual possibility that she could have happiness with William, but now that was about to be dashed away from her as well.

This was all becoming way too much for her.

Violet needed some fresh air. She hoped that might clear her mind somewhat, so she headed out to the gardens for a stroll. She had always found comfort in nature, and she hoped the same would happen today.

By the time William returned home, she wanted to be able to give him an answer of some kind. Something to help them move forward, one way or another.

But the gardens did nothing to help her.

She could not find any comfort from the gorgeous nature that lay in the gardens, because really all she wanted was William beside her. He was the only person who could really make her feel safe and protected. Without the warmth of his body near her, she was a mess.

Where was he? What was he doing? She knew that he had gone out to find Paul and to come up with some kind of solution when it came to the mess that her brother had created, but what was his plan?

Violet was so afraid that one of the men in her life was going to end up hurt, or worse, while she was stuck at home, out of the loop.

How did people do this?

How did women do this all the time?

It was challenging for her.

She was overwhelmed with the urge to do something, anything, to help. Leaving everything in the hands of everyone else was not good. Perhaps this was because a lot had always been put in her hands. Without her mother in her life, and a sick father to care for, on top of Eagleton Manor, she had always been responsible.

For others, it might be nice to no longer have that responsibility, but it seemed like Violet was different. She could not cope without it.

Perhaps it was time for her to speak with someone who really knew her. The one person in her life who had always been there for her, no matter what.

Ivy.

With a deep sigh, Violet picked herself back up again and she started to walk towards the house. There was a heaviness to each step because Violet still had a lot on her mind. There was a lot for her to unpack.

She was only dragged from her thoughts the moment panic hit her.

Was that a noise?

She darted her eyes around everywhere, trying to locate the source of the sound, with her heart racing in her throat.

But when she did not see a thing, she started to convince herself that she was simply being paranoid. It could have been an animal or one of the gardeners. It could have simply been the wind whipping through the trees. There was nothing to worry about.

But the next sound really stopped Violet in her tracks.

That sounded like footsteps, and for some reason she was sure that they were not welcome.

Just as she started to spin around, to check absolutely everything around her, the world shifted and changed once more.

Something hard hit Violet so hard in the back of her head that a dizzying heat overcame her.

Everything went red.

She could see silhouettes of people, but she could not work them out.

As a blackness started to overtake the red, and Violet felt her body slipping down underneath her, she started to understand that it did not matter who had hit her.

Not really.

She was in trouble now, no matter what.

More trouble than she had ever been in her life.