The Duke's Prize

Chapter 13

Edward reached for the bottle of brandy and opened it. He took a quick swig, but soon thought better and closed the bottle leaving it untouched on a table. Edward knew that getting drunk would not help him to find his Winter Rose. Two months had passed, and he had no word about Cordelia’s whereabouts. He had several men in his employ searching for her, but they had discovered nothing.

The last known person to see his wife was the housekeeper of Lady Olivia, and that fool had turned the poor girl out. The woman trembled in fear as the Duke interrogated her himself, and now seemed to regret turning Cordelia away. Edward imagined his poor Cordelia as the odious woman had described, ill, alone and hopeless, turned away from the only place that she could run to. It was all he could do to not strangle that idiot, who had treated his Cordelia with such callousness. Then he would recall that moment that he chose to leave her alone and naked and asleep, and he would almost retch from self-disgust.

Edward did not want to spiral out of control with his old drink and whoring ways. He decided to visit John for advice, but found his friend in need of solace as well. John’s face was gaunt and his visage was pale and seemed worn from anxiety since they had last seen each other.

“Hello, Edward.” His voice was quiet and small.

“I see your sister has been tormenting you of late.”

“She is getting to be more than I can handle. I must apologize if she has caused you any trouble.”

“The troubles your sister has caused me are grave indeed. I came to ask your advice and help, but I see you might perhaps require more of a friendly word than I do.”

John gave a wan smile. “Her demands are not simple ones. She never seems to be satisfied. It is almost as if she takes glee in making me suffer. I cannot go on in this way. She will not stop until I am driven mad and penniless.” John wrung his hands in his lap. His voice had taken a tone of desperation that caused alarm in Edward.

“She will never leave you alone. Violet will suck the very life out of your soul. She is the kind of creature who thrives on the misery of others.”

“And what do you propose that I do? She knows all the intimate details about Daniel and I and if she was to reveal them... that I would no longer be fit for society is the least of the matter.”

The Duke looked at his friend, considering the matter with great seriousness. He stood up and paced around the room a bit, before sitting back down.

“Your only freedom from Violet will be to call her bluff. Give in no further to her demands, allow her to reveal all, and she will no longer have any power over you.”

“I will lose Daniel.” John’s voice took a somber, quiet tone. “He will not abide by scandal. He still has his mother to think of and he finds himself tied to her. He will not suffer alongside me.”

“There is often collateral damage in warfare, John. But you would be free from Violet’s grasp.”

John looked at his friend and his mouth formed a tight line.

“She has much to lose as well. Her secrets are tied to your own.”

At Edward’s final words, John felt a peace come over him. It was true. His sister would suffer at the revelations of the truth as well. Her only concrete evidence against John and Daniel’s illicit affair was Mary’s diary. If she was to publish the evidence in that journal, she would also be exposing all of her secrets to the ton. He doubted that she would actually be able to face her peers if scandal surrounded her as well. John resolved to finally free himself from her grasp. Parting from Edward, he set off to meet with Daniel at once.

Daniel’s reaction was exactly what John had worried it would be. Daniel could not hurt his mother in such a way. He was not willing to put his position in society in harm’s way to retain his relationship with John. He truly had feeling for John, he truly loved him, but the shame of their love was not something he was willing to burden himself with. They parted after a passionate embrace, John’s heart filled with sorrow, and Daniel full of tears and regret. Daniel had decided that he would marry, quickly, to one of the young chits his mother was always presenting him with, and that he would leave as soon as possible for a honeymoon around the continent, and bring his mother along, where they could decamp until the scandal had abated in their absence.

It was not long before Violet darkened John’s door once again with ridiculous demands. She stalked into his study, every inch of her in festooned in vulgar fashion, demanding that John throw a ball in her honour and that he give her more money because she did not care to repeat gowns on so many occasions.

“It will not do,” Violet purred, “For a Contessa to appear in something twice worn to a ball in her favor. The ton requires fashion from me, and I just deign to give it to them.”

Throughout her entrance and speech, John remained peacefully silent. It was only when Violet realized that her speech was not agitating her brother as usual that she stopped speaking. She looked at her brother and took a seat in front of him.

“And to what pray,” she asked, “Do I owe this picture of serenity that sits before me?” Her cocky tone was unsure and belied her lack of confidence.

“I will give in no more to your demands.” His words were clipped and brief as if he could not spare any more for her, as if she was unworthy of further explanations.

A surge of seething hatred burst through Violet’s bloodstream. Her pulse began to race as she stood and stomped around the room.

“Did my brother grow some courage or has he gone completely mad?” She barked the question out to no one in particular.  She paced around the room before picking up a book and throwing it at John’s head, screaming in rage when he quickly deflected the blow with his hands. He stood, towering over her and put her arms down, holding them at her sides, firmly but with care.

“You are lucky I do not strike you. That I do not act out in violence towards one so deserving of it. You are not a woman, you are a beast, a devil. I will no longer accede to your demands, even if it leads to my destruction, for at last I will be free of the yoke you have on me.”

His words were calm and quiet, but they served only to enrage Violet more. She struggled from his grasp, pointing at him before vowing that she would destroy him. John was surprised at how calm he had been through the whole ordeal. He sat down in his chair, breathing a deep breath and feeling that perhaps it would be better to have freedom, even if its price was his social standing.

Violet’s retreat from her brother’s home was not peaceful or quiet. She shook with rage as she stalked out the door and back to the carriage that awaited her. She barked her order to go back to the town home she had been staying at, and when she reached there, she spared no time in going straight to her trunk and getting out a slim leather-bound volume and stopping to put on some rouge and head out for her destination. Violet wanted London to burn, her brother John and everyone in it, and she did not stop to think that she could burn as well.

A bawdy house is not the kind of place that anyone in society would ever expect to see a Contessa enter, so Violet wrapped a cloak about her person before entering the brothel. The madam was quite shocked to see a woman of her caliber enter, and feared that she perhaps was some mad woman was looking for an errant husband. Violet quickly insisted to see Mr. Theodore Booker, the owner of the establishment, and when she called him “Teddy,” the madam was surprised to realize that such a fine person would be acquainted with Mr. Booker on such a personal basis, but who was she to judge?

Violet was taken upstairs to Mr. Booker’s office, and she wasn’t surprised to see some young Cyprian barely clothed in a scandalous gauzy affair slinking out of the room, before she opened the door and put the leather volume on his desk.

“And to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence, Miss Violet?” The accent grated against Violet’s every nerve. A lecherous looking man with an undone cravat leered at her, but Violet merely pointed to the volume, taking a seat and waiting for him to peruse the volume.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Theodore laughed as he flipped through the pages. “Dearest Diary. Oh my. And why did you think that this would be of my interest?”

“Do not be impatient, Teddy. Read through. I promise you there is a lot of scandal within those pages. If you can’t be bothered, have one of your little harlots read it to you, if any of them are literate, that is.”

“All right, all right. I take it you have a personal interest in this matter.” Theodore skimmed through the pages again, scrunching his eyes and leafing through the pages.

“I have given you the kindling. It is time for a fire.”