Chapter 29
Charlotte’s head throbbed every time that she tried to move it. The large cut that she had across the back of it was awful, utter agony, but she did not care too much about that. She could survive with being injured herself as long as her baby was alright. When she woke up with the doctor in front of her, and she heard mention of the word ‘blood’, she feared the worst; unbridled panic raced through her system, but as it turned out, the blood was from her. It was from the cut, and her little baby had survived.
Her child was already her little hero, and she wanted to do whatever she could to protect him or her. The fact that she had not seen her husband since the attack was a good thing. In all honesty, she did not ever want to see him again. The idea of looking at his face made her feel sick. She could not even begin to comprehend the idea that she would have to spend actual time with him or act like she adored him out in public. The concept was utterly unthinkable.
“Do you need anything?” Mary asked as she returned to the room to see Charlotte trying to move into a sitting position. “Are you alright? Would you like a drink or anything?”
Mary had been by her side the entire time. She had taken over caring for her, refusing to let even the house staff help. Charlotte knew that she should tell Mary to continue living her own life rather than worrying about her, but she did not. She loved having the familiar face by her side, and in all honesty, Mary was the only person that she felt safe with.
“I am ...” she croaked before coughing a couple of times. “I do need a drink, thank you.”
Mary handed her a lukewarm glass of water which Charlotte sucked back rapidly. The liquid slid rapidly down the back of her throat and filled up her chest with something that almost felt like a normal sensation. All she really wanted to do was stand up again so that she could start reverting back to how she was supposed to feel, but the doctor had told her that bed rest was essential, and Mary was forcing her to stick to that.
As Charlotte finished drinking, and she glanced up to where Mary loomed over her, she could see that there was a definite strain in her sister’s eyes, and it was a new one. One that did not seem to relate to her condition at all.
“How are you doing?” Charlotte asked carefully. She blinked a few times as another burst of headache raced through her temples, but she forced herself to keep focused. “You look very pale. Are you sick yourself?”
“I am alright.” Mary gripped tightly onto Charlotte’s hand and leaned down so that she could whisper directly to her. “I have just been speaking to Duke Smith, that is all. He came to visit me.”
“Again?” Charlotte was excited and nervous all at once. It was blindly obvious to her that Mary and Edmund were meant for one another. “What did he have to say?”
“He has a plan,” Mary answered in a breath. “One to get us out of here. You and I, both of us. He has a place to take us where your husband will never be able to find us. He will keep us safe.”
Charlotte’s breath caught in her throat. It all sounded far too good to be true. That was exactly what she needed, a way out from this mess, one with no consequences, but actually acting on that fantasy was far too terrifying to consider. Charlotte had heard of divorce before, but she did not know a single person who had been through it. It would not be something that she could instigate anyway; it would have to be her husband, and she could not see Lord Jones putting himself into the spotlight of gossip to free her from him.
It would be better off if she were dead. That was the only way that she could see an escape becoming a realistic possibility. If only she did not have her child to consider, then maybe that would be a solution.
“Is he certain?” she panted with a swimming head. “Is he sure that his plan is one that will work? What did he tell you about it?”
Mary knew that she had to be mostly honest in this part. She did not want to scare Charlotte, but at the same time, she could not give details about the plan that she did not know herself. She needed to persuade her sister that this was the right thing to do without telling her everything.
“The plan is a good one,” she said reassuringly while accidentally darting her eyes downward. “Edmund knows what he is doing. I cannot give you too much because I do not want to risk being overheard, but if it is something that we wish to go along with, then we need to be ready to leave at midnight tonight.”
“Midnight?” Charlotte could barely stand that; it was too terrifying a concept for words. “We have to leave tonight? We do not even get time to think about it?”
“We do not get time for certain people to figure it out. It has to be now.” Mary needed Charlotte to understand; she needed her to realise that this was her one and only chance that she had to get away from the horrible man who had done nothing but ruin her life. “I understand that it is sudden, but what else can we do? We do not have any other options. They have all been taken from us. I can only see this.”
Charlotte nodded slowly as she focused on steadying her breath. She could hear what Mary was telling her and knew that she was right. If she waited, and her husband stopped hiding away in his office from her, then she would never get the chance to go. It really was now or never. “I see.”
“You do not need to decide right this second, but you will need to make a choice very soon. We will have to pack light so that should not take too long.” Mary hopped anxiously from foot to foot as the urgency of the situation coursed through her body. “I just need to know. I need to know what I am doing.”
“You ... you can go without me,” Charlotte stammered because she did not want all the pressure to rest on her shoulders alone. “I will understand if you wish to leave.”
Mary shook her head vehemently. “I cannot leave without you, Charlotte. All of this is for you.”
When Charlotte thought back to the stilted relationship that she had once shared with her sister, this felt almost overwhelming. The fact that Mary was willing to risk everything to rescue her was wonderful. She wondered how she had managed to survive all the years without her.
“I do not know what to say,” she said faintly. “This is all too much; it is just so overwhelming. It is ... it is ...” It was everything that she ever wanted, but now that it was right there in front of her, she did not know how to grasp hold of it. “I think I might need to go to the bathroom.”
Mary helped Charlotte to stand, and she watched as her sister staggered from the room. She shook her head sadly, hoping that she would make the right decision. She knew that Charlotte wanted to go, how could she not? But she also understood that fear. Mary was experiencing it too, and she had less at stake. She did not have a husband to lose or a baby in her belly ... but the baby was in danger if they remained. If only she had more time to persuade Charlotte; she just knew that she could do it, but unfortunately, it had to be quick. That was the only way that it could work.
Please see sense, Charlotte, she begged inside her mind. Please realise that this is the best thing for the both of us.
Heavy footsteps rang through the house which instantly brought Mary’s heart up into her throat. She had not heard those steps for a long time and knew that they could only belong to one person. Lord Jones had finally ventured from his office and at the absolute worst time too. Charlotte had just left her alone; she was by herself and vulnerable, and also seeing him would change her mind back again. Mary did not want Charlotte to remain here just because she had seen his awful face again. Her pulse pounded in her throat; she tried her hardest to gulp it down, but it remained there, stuck.
What do I do? she thought desperately. Do I intervene again or will that end as badly as the last time?
She stood up and tiptoed towards the door where she stood with her ear pressed against it. Her heart raced as she heard whispered tones, but the acoustics in the house were not good enough for her to pick up anything that was being said.
Charlotte’s eyes widened as she saw her husband standing there in front of her for the first time in days. It was almost as if he knew that she was thinking about leaving him. As their eyes locked, he did not say a word, but she could see the apology in his eyes. She knew that he was sorry ... but he always was. He never said it, but she knew that he always was. Then again it did not make any difference, did it? He was always sorry, and his behaviour did not change.
This is my moment, she thought as she looked at him. I need to decide now.
Lord Jones was much older than her and not handsome when she met him. She did not agree with her father’s decision to make her wed him, but she went along with it because she knew that she had to. She did not have any choice. Now as she saw him, he was even uglier than before, there was nothing attractive about him. He really did make her feel sick.
“What do you want?” she asked coldly as her eyes fixed to the floor. “I do not think that we have anything to say to one another, do we?”
Lord Jones reached out and rubbed his arm down Charlotte’s arm. She flinched away from him, hating the feel of his skin against hers. He let his hand flop back down by his side deflated. He knew that he had done a terrible thing; Charlotte could see it, and she could see that he probably did not think that he would do it again ... but he would.
“We cannot remain this way forever, can we?” he almost whined. “We need to sort this out, eventually. Do you not think?”
Charlotte screwed up her nose; she did not want to sort it out. Maybe there was a chance that with her husband in front of her, he could turn her mind around, but actually, even with his soft-spoken tones, he was pushing her further away. Now, more than ever, she wanted to leap into the carriage that Duke Smith had arranged and leave forever more.
“I do not see where we can go from here.” Charlotte took a step backwards. “I do not think that this is repairable.”
Lord Jones could not understand at all what was going on here. He did not recognise what Charlotte was trying to say to her. “So what are you suggesting? Would you like me to continue giving you some space? Do you think it will take more time?”
Charlotte shook her head as she continued to move backwards. “I do not know,” she said quietly. “I do not know how long it will take. I think I need some real space. I think ...” She was scared to say it, but she needed to at least try to do this rationally. Maybe Lord Jones would just understand, and this would be simple. She did not know if this was possible, but she had to at least give it a try. “I think I need to go away for a while to get my head together.”
“What?” Lord Jones turned a funny shade of red. He stepped closer and grabbed onto Charlotte’s arms too hard, already going back on his inner promise not to hurt his wife again. “What do you mean? What will everyone think if my wife just vanishes into thin air?”
“Is that all you care about?” Charlotte hissed, yanking herself way. “All you are concerned about is everyone else? Who cares what they think of us, our marriage is just for us is it not?”
Lord Jones did not have anything to say to that. He could not fathom what Charlotte was saying. Of course their marriage was in the public domain, it was no different to everyone else. It was the courtesans on the side that were kept secret and only discussed between the men. He could not understand what would happen next. He needed to make things right with Charlotte and did not have any choice.
“Charlotte, you are being so ridiculous. I cannot believe what you are even saying here. You cannot leave; that just is not possible. We have to just get past this and move on. We have our baby coming.” He reached forward to touch her belly, but Charlotte batted him away. “We need to sort out these problems in our marriage.”
Charlotte could not hear his words anymore; they were cutting through her like a knife. She stomped past her husband, practically knocking him out of the way as she went, and she moved back into the same room as Mary. Her sister was pressed up against the door, so she knocked her backwards as she did, but Charlotte hardly noticed that.
“I am ready for this,” she declared fiercely. There was no longer a fog inside her brain; she had never felt more crystal clear in her entire life. “We are going to do this.”
“We are?” Mary’s heart raced again. She expected Charlotte to come in here to tell her to go alone again, which would have left Mary speechless. She would not have known what to do from there. But now she was hearing everything that she wanted to hear, and it made her anxious. “Yes,” she said much more firmly. “Yes, we are.”
“I shall go and get my stuff together now. I need to pack right away.”
Mary grabbed gently onto her sister’s arm, twisted her around and pulled her to look at her. “Charlotte, are you sure about this? You are not acting out of anger? And how will you get your things together with Lord Jones around?”
Charlotte did not like her sister’s assumption. “I know exactly what I am doing,” she hissed. “This is what I want now. I am certain. My husband will be back into his office now, hiding away until he thinks that I have calmed down from my temper tantrum.”
Mary let Charlotte go, hoping that she was doing the right thing. It seemed that they were really going now ... on to a new life.