CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Julia had hoped she would never see the inside of Mallory's again. Breathing the foul smoky air once more felt like a nightmare. No, even worse: this nightmare was real.
Mr Silver kept a vice-like grip on her arm as he steered her between the tables. Even this early in the evening, the gaming hell was crowded with men who all had one thing in common: a dangerous lust for money.
Silver pushed her down into a chair. Julia bit her lip. She was too proud to let his rough treatment make her cry out. She rubbed her arm where he had gripped it and waited.
"Mr Mallory will be with you shortly," said Silver. It was always impossible to tell what her brother's enforcer thought about anything. His face bore the same expression when he was counting cards as it did when he broke a man's fingers.
"Are you really going to leave me here unaccompanied?" asked Julia.
"Do you imagine you have a reputation to protect?" breathed Mr Silver, leaning down to bring his nose tip-to-tip with hers. "After the slatternly way you behaved at Chiltern? Such airs and graces your whoremaster Marquess gave you!"
Julia brought her hand around and slapped him as hard as she could across the face. Silver barely flinched. His crushing fist pounded down upon the table, making it shake.
"So that's how it's going to be, is it?" he asked. Julia was trembling, but she did not back away. She knew that, for all his faults, Edmund would never allow one of his men to hurt her.
"Silver! That's enough!"
Ah. There he was. Her beloved brother.
Edmund slid smoothly into the chair opposite her. "Play nicely with Mr Silver, darling. You know how he struggles to control his temper."
Julia had never seen a man so tightly controlled as Mr Silver. It was terrifying. As he walked away, leaving her with her brother, she finally relaxed – just a little.
"Why have you brought me in here, Edmund?" she asked. "I thought you wanted to keep me away from all this."
"That was before," Edmund explained, as though it were obvious. "That was when you were pure-hearted and innocent of spirit. Now, I'm afraid your high and mighty friends have given you ideas. They have spoiled you. You are no longer my sweet little sister. I am not going to let you out of my sight until you have learned your lesson." He leaned across the table, smiling manically. "You belong to me, Julia. We are family. No one can ever tear us apart. No one ever will again. Do you understand me?"
"I understand," said Julia faintly.
Edmund nodded, satisfied, and leaned back. "That's good to hear. Now, you have gone entirely too long without performing your duties."
"My duties?"
"That's right, sweet sister. Have you forgotten?" Edmund sighed. "I have not found anyone as capable of dealing with my rather...complicated...finances as you were, Julia. I want you to take up the books again. You are no longer playing at being an aristocrat, after all. You must work for your living, just like the rest of us."
"I hardly call what you do here working," said Julia defiantly.
"Where did you learn to be so cruel?" asked Edmund, pretending to be hurt. "I wonder how I can train it out of you. Should I be kind... or should I be strict? The choice is yours."
Julia's fists clenched in her lap. She had too many painful memories of Edmund's strictness. "I'm sorry, Edmund," she said, forcing herself to be docile. "I won't speak out against you again."
"That's what I like to hear," sighed Edmund. "Another word out of you and I will have you locked away in your room again. You'll be lucky to see the light of day. Do you hear me?"
"Loud and clear." Julia had spent the days since arriving back from Chiltern locked in the smallest room in their tiny house in Seven Dials. She had not even been allowed out to empty her chamber pot. She would not give Edmund any reason to punish her further.
The image of Charles, loving and concerned, rose unwanted in her mind. She pushed it away. She'd had too much time alone to think of him since leaving Chiltern. Every fibre of her being longed to see him again. But that was an indulgent, foolish notion, that belonged to a Julia of the past. This Julia – the one sitting in a stinking gaming hell in front of her evil brother – had no right to think romantic thoughts about a handsome Marquess.
She pinched the soft skin of her wrist to take her mind off the pain of losing Charles. If she gave Edmund the slightest indication that she missed him, she could not predict what his reaction would be.
"So, I am to keep the books, and you are going to supervise me?" she asked. "Don't you think it will be off-putting for your customers, seeing me here?"
"On the contrary," said Edmund, reaching out to brush a long finger down her face. "Now that I know the effect you have on the gentry, I hope you will begin to attract an entirely different sort of clientele."
Julia could not conceal her shudder. Fortunately, Edmund seemed amused by her disgust. "What a time to be prudish! After all your romantic adventures, I'd have thought you'd relish the thought of seducing all manner of high-class men."
"You're a monster," Julia spat, unable to contain herself any longer.
"And what does that make you, sweet sister?" asked Edmund coldly. "We share the same blood, you and I. The only difference is that my father was a good and noble man who died too young. Yours was a blackguard who cared nothing for you and left you to die on the streets. And now your dear Marquess is doing the same. They will all leave you, Julia. Only I will ever truly love you. Only I can take care of you." He took one of her hands in his and pressed it to his lips. "And I intend to do it until the day I die." He giggled. "Or until you die, of course. Whichever comes first."
Julia let his lips touch her skin. She half expected them to be cold and slimy, like a frog. But Edmund was, after all, only a man.
"Now then, dearest Julia, I must leave you." He pushed a stack of papers towards her. "I'm afraid you will find the finances in rather a mess. I am depending on you. Do not forget it. You wouldn't want to make me angry, would you?"
Julia shook her head.
"Then see to it that you sort things out quickly. I want to see a good, solid profit margin. Now, I must go and make my rounds of the gaming tables. Be a good girl, won't you?"
Edmund waited for her to nod again before he was satisfied enough to leave her alone. Julia blinked rapidly, willing herself not to cry, and pulled the stack of papers towards her.
Crying would do her no good at all. She had made her choice. At least, this time, she was not trapped here for no reason. She was doing it for Annabelle.
The thought was barely enough to sustain her.