The Lively Lilac

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: Brompton

He took a few steps closer to Eli, then kept talking. "I was a lord, the oldest son of my parents. I was set to inherit everything! And what did I get? A full view of the streets I used to avoid."

"That is very unfortunate for you," Eli calmly said. "But it does not give you the excuse to hate your siblings who did not have any influence on your parents' decision."

A frightening smile appeared on Arthur's lips. "That is the beauty of it. I do not only take revenge on my siblings who are living the life I deserve and who found it easy to forget me, I also get to see the frightful and panicking face of my mother. She is getting exactly what she deserves!"

"But you are ruining more lives than only your siblings'."

"Ah, so she told you of the Cook family, did she not?"

"And your wife."

That seemed to silence Arthur for a while, but not long. "She was collateral damage."

"Beating and abusing her is collateral damage?" Eli asked in disbelief, getting angry with the man's words. He was close to breaking his promise to Mary and beating the man up with his own bare hands.

"No, that was a side effect," Arthur said with a shrug. "The fact that I was using her – just like I used you – was collateral damage. But I assume my smug brother has also figured out why I needed her."

Eli remained silent as he looked at the man. He looked certain of himself, he looked like he had everything under control. But did he really? He had not expected Mary to be at the Byron house when he exited it, so that was one example of when he lost control.

But Eli assumed that him beating and abusing lady Adelaide was also a way for him to prove to himself that he was strong and in control. He could obey the lady to do something she did not like, and she would fear him. That fear would not go unnoticed with the Brompton family, making them fear Arthur more, and in the process increasing Arthur's feeling of being in control.

"You know," Eli said, "I pity you."

Arthur scoffed. "I do not need your pity."

Eli ignored his statement and told him: "even if things did not go the way you wanted them to go, there was still a chance at a happy life. You should have forgotten your family, forgotten your past, and restarted your life with the knowledge you had so far."

"Tis too late for that now, is it not? My revenge is my reason for living."

"Then I pity you only more," was all Eli could say. and it was true. He pitied the man who lived for revenge, and nothing else. Not happiness, not love, not a goal in life. Seeing his family hurt was what drove him, and probably also what he dreamed of at night.

Well, if that was the man's dream, than he ought to keep dreaming. For his dreams would never meet reality.

Eli motioned with his hand to his brothers and to Arthur, then let the three men alone to fight each other. With the sounds of skin touching skin and a moan that followed, he stepped inside the carriage and ordered the driver to take him to the Brompton estate.

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Mary had been quite clear. She truly did not bother about a title. If he remembered her words correctly, she even said she preferred to be a mere woman over a rich lady.

And if that was the case, then Eli ought to take his chance. He was quite certain of her feelings toward him, yet when he thought of telling her his, he feared her answer.

What if he saw her smiles as something she did not mean to express? What if he – and his mother and Ada and Ivy and Cora – was mistaken? Mayhap she truly only liked him, and nothing more. Mayhap she truly wanted them to be friends.