Chapter 25
Without a word, the Earl walked into the room, roughly pushing Eleanor aside. Ariadne followed behind him and closed the door after her.
Ella had the awful feeling that she was about to be struck without warning, and so she backed fearfully away from the Earl, moving blindly backward until she collided with the couch and almost fell.
The Earl reached out and grabbed her arm, and she was grateful for a moment that he cared enough to stop her from falling. However, he did not release her arm but gripped her tightly, painfully, and pulled her towards him so quickly that the two of them were almost nose-to-nose before she realized what was happening.
“How dare you?” he said in a low and dangerous voice, his breath hot and rancid on her face.
“You are hurting me, Lord Dandridge; I beg you would release my arm,” Ella said and winced in pain.
“I will not release you, you deceitful, dreadful girl. And if it pains you, then know that it is no more than you deserve. I know what you have done. I know all of it.”
Ella could say nothing in response. She was so afraid and could only stare helplessly back into his eyes, fearful of what the next moment would bring. But could he really know all of it? Surely he did not.
And then she realized that the only thing that her stepfather would not know was that she had attended the masquerade ball in secret and had spoken to the Duke. But that was the least of it, and it would not save her now. His knowledge of everything else was complete, and she knew with certainty that he could easily fill whatever gaps there were in Mr Mercer’s telling of events.
“You have been sneaking out of this house to tell tales to the Duke.” The Earl did not raise his voice at all, yet Ella thought his tone more frightening than anything she had ever heard. “Tell me, where did you see him? And do not tell me that you did not, for I know that you did.”
“I have not seen him, not outside of Dandridge.” Ella hoped a small lie might save her. “But on the day when I was banished from tea by my own mother, the Duke found me out on the grounds humiliated and upset. He spoke to me for a few minutes; he was just trying to be kind, and I was so upset that I cannot remember at all what he said.”
“And what did you say, Ella?” The Earl did not release his grip, and his heavy fingers digging so deeply into the flesh of her arm were enough to render concentration almost impossible.
Ella wanted to think fast, to say something clever that would save her, but the pain was too great and the fear overwhelming.
“I cannot remember what I said,” she lied.
“You bemoaned your lot, you pathetic creature. You told him that you were not even allowed to take meals with your family. What were you trying to achieve with so undignified a complaint? I know, Ella. I know.” He squeezed her arm harder still. “You were trying to gain his sympathy so that you might worm your way into his heart and unseat my beautiful daughters.”
“They do not need to be unseated, Sir, for I cannot imagine that such creatures would ever truly find a place in any man’s heart!” Ella spat angrily, and the Duke instantly released her arm.
But the moment that she began to rub the already bruising skin, he slapped her hard across the cheek, and she fell backward onto the floor, crying out in pain.
“You will never again speak of my daughters in such a way. They are the most beautiful and accomplished young ladies, and you, Ella Winfield, are nothing. You are the daughter of nobody, an old Baron with a small and crumbling estate, and yet you give yourself such airs. You walk through the fine halls of Dandridge as if you are better and cleverer than anyone else inside it, and you will rue the day that you chose to take on that attitude in my home.”
Ella knew that she must stay quiet; whatever ridiculous claims the Earl made now, she was powerless to refute them. He had spared her none of his strength when he struck her, and she could feel already that her cheek was swollen and continued to swell beneath her hand as she held it.
“I could see immediately the Duke came here how you tried to win him over with your pretense at gentility and quiet manners. But you are brazen, for all your pretty little ways, Ella Winfield. You are brazen in your intentions, and I see into your ugly little heart.”
Ella wanted to protest; she wanted to scream at him that he had the blackest, ugliest heart in all of England, but she knew she must not provoke him. Instead, she turned her eyes to her mother in the hopes of seeing at least some horror there, even if Ariadne could help her in no other way, surely that would be enough.
But when she turned to look at her mother, she could see that Ariadne was deep in thought, her eyebrows knitted together and her forehead furrowed. She was thinking about something, even as she looked down at her daughter, bruised and in pain on the floor of the morning room, she was clearly preoccupied. Ella felt sick and desperate and wished that she had run the moment Violet had suggested it.
“She is lying,” Ariadne said a little vaguely.
“What are you talking about?” the Earl said with an air of exasperation. “Well, say it,” he demanded.
“Did you not tell me, husband, that the Duke told Henry Mercer that Ella was not allowed to take meals with us?” Ariadne looked suddenly pleased with herself as if she was about to win great favour with her husband.
Ella knew what was coming, and she could hardly believe that her own mother, a woman whom she had suspected of trying to build bridges between the two of them, was now going out of her way to make things even worse for her daughter than they already were.
“Yes, the Duke told Mercer that he had heard it from Ella herself. That is what she told him when she was out on the grounds, Ariadne. That is why she will not admit to what she has said.”
“No, she is lying,” Ariadne went on, her eyes wide as if she had just made some grand discovery. “For we did not disallow her meals at the table until after that day. She must have gone out to see him elsewhere to tell him that. Do you not see that this is a falsehood, My Lord?”
“Mama, how could you be so cruel? How could you treat your own flesh and blood so dreadfully? You deserve everything that you have coming to you, Ariadne Belville, and I hope when that punishment comes it is most fitting.” Tears coursed down Ella’s cheeks.
At that moment, she knew she had never felt so hurt in all her life, so utterly and completely abandoned. She had no one in the world to care for her now, and she knew it. Ariadne had never been a good mother, and they had never been close, but she had never suspected for one moment that her mother would do something so cruel, something that would put her in even greater danger than she was in already.
“Ella, how dare you speak to me that way?” Ariadne looked horrified, and Ella could find no more words.
“Where did you meet him? Did you take your scandalous little self all the way to Hillington Hall so that you might beg for his help and hope that he would marry you? I ought not to have let you set foot out of this house the minute I realized what a brazen little thing you are. I knew your intentions, I could read them in your eyes, and I ought to have acted upon them immediately. Well, you will not speak to the Duke again.”
“I have no intentions of speaking to him, Lord Dandridge, and I did not seek him out.”
“Please do not try to tell me that he sought you out. He is a Duke, a man of great wealth and note, a man of great title. And men of great title do not look so far down when they are choosing a bride, believe me.”
“Well, you did.” Ella knew immediately that she had made a grave mistake.
Ariadne cried out in anger and was about to speak when her husband reached down and lifted Ella to her feet by her hair. As Ariadne continued to complain about the insult that Ella had made, the Earl held her painfully in his grasp, twisting her hair in his hands as tears of agony rolled down her cheeks and her hands fought uselessly to free her.
“You will not leave this house again, Ella Winfield. You will come upstairs with me now, and you will do so quietly.” His voice was low and dangerous again, and Ella knew that she was trapped; she was at his mercy, and there was nothing she could do about it. “If you attempt to cry out and draw attention to yourself, if you seek to have any of the servants come running, I will throw you down the stairs before they get here. I will throw you to your death, and you may believe that.”
“Yes,” Ella said, believing it entirely, knowing in her bones that he would, without hesitation, kill her if he had to.
“You will walk up the stairs with your mother and me, and you will not speak one word. You will walk of your own volition and know that if I have to lay a hand upon you, it will only be to throw you to the bottom. I will break your neck.”
“Yes,” Ella said again, not knowing what else to say.
The Earl released her suddenly, and she raised her hand to her scalp, trying to ease the pain, even as she felt the wetness of blood there.
She took her hand away and stared at the blood before looking over at her mother. Ariadne’s face was pinched and cold, her determination to keep her offence at Ella’s comment very clear.
“Tidy up her hair, Ariadne,” the Earl snapped waspishly, and Ariadne jumped to do his bidding. She roughly pulled Ella’s hair back and re-fastened it, ignoring her daughter’s whimpers of pain and applying no tenderness whatsoever, despite Ella’s obvious injuries.
“You will keep your face down as we go,” the Earl instructed Ella in something more akin to a matter-of-fact manner than a threat.
His demeanour had calmed so quickly that Ella could hardly believe the man was sane at all. And she knew that her face must be dreadfully bruised already if he was instructing her to hide it away in case they should happen upon one of the servants.
The Earl strode to the door and opened it, walking out into the hallway as if to check for a clear passage.
“Come now, come quickly,” he said to both mother and daughter, and they followed him as he headed for the stairs.
Ella’s legs trembled with every step she took upwards. Even if she did not make a sound, she did not trust Ronald Belville not to throw her down the stairs anyway. His moods seemed to swing so violently that she could only hope she could make it to the top without incident.
Ella quickened her pace, keen to get out of harm’s way, even if she did not know what was to become of her next. If she could just get the stairs out of the way, she would at least be alive. She would at least move on to the next dreadful chapter intact and have some hope of saving herself in the end.
When they reached the top of the stairs, and the Earl gently took her arm to lead her west along the great corridor, Ella was almost overcome with a sense of relief. She was still afraid, but she was still alive, and she had never realized until that moment how precious her life was to her.
When they reached the end of the corridor which took them into the east wing of the building, the Earl opened a narrow door and ushered her up a staircase she did not even know existed.
“Keep going, that is it. All the way to the top,” the Earl instructed brusquely.
The narrow staircase consisted of several flights, and Ella quickly realized that they were heading towards the top of Dandridge Hall. Swallowing down the dreadful feeling that he was simply taking her up to the roof to throw her off, Ella stayed quiet and continued to put one foot in front of the other, going ever higher and higher.
When they reached the top, she realized that they were on a bare landing, so spartan and dusty that nobody could have used it for years. There was only one door, and it had a great, heavy key protruding from the lock. The Earl twisted it once and pushed it open and then took Ella by the arm and dragged her inside.
Ariadne followed meekly behind, looking around the room as if in nothing more than general interest.
The room was dark, but not entirely dark. There was a small amount of daylight coming in from a little window in its far corner in the eaves of the roof.
There were trunks here there and everywhere, along with a great many items that had apparently been discarded over the years, packed away by previous generations as being of little use in the hall.
There was old furniture, odd chairs, low tables.
They were in the attic, and Ella realized immediately that that was where she would be staying. And the idea that there was no way out gave her a dreadful sense of panic.
“You surely cannot leave me here,” she said, her fear obvious in her trembling voice.
“You will stay here until I say you may leave. Your mother will bring your meals up to you; I will not starve you if that is your worry,” he said and laughed heartlessly.
Ella could hardly believe he would say such a thing, for she had not even thought of it herself. The idea that the Earl would leave her there to starve to death had never crossed her mind. But now that it had, it sickened her.
“You cannot leave me here forever,” Ella said in a voice that was purely beseeching.
“It will not be forever,” the Earl said unconvincingly. “Just until either of my daughters is to marry the Duke without any more of your interference. Once they are married, and he is safe from you, I will let you out.”
“But what if …?” Ella said and knew she must not finish her sentence.
But what would happen if the Duke chose not to marry either Patience or Georgiana? What would the Earl of Dandridge do to her then?
The Earl turned to walk out of the attic room, and Ariadne followed him without even looking back at Ella. They closed the door behind them, and Ella heard the heavy key turning in the lock.