The Happy Marriage of Rosannah Winthrop (Completed)

Ch 21 - A Satisfying Set-Down (Henry POV)

She did not deserve anything more than the bare minimum of human decency.

"What do you want?" Henry demanded of the baron once they stood before him.

"Is that any way to speak to your new father?" the deluded man asked.

"Let us not be liars and pretend anything other than the truth," Henry sneered. "You are not family. Not to me or anyone in this house. I have only had one father and he was a great man, unlike the one I see before me."

The baron turned red, "How dare you say such a thing. That girl in there is my daughter, my property..."

"Stop," he demanded coldly. "The Duchess of Amberly is mine. My wife, my property. And unlike you, I take care and pride in my most precious possession."

"Precious? If she is precious to you then you should honour us as her parents. We did nothing wrong in raising that girl. Do you think she would have turned out so well if not for us?"

Henry snarled at them both, "You think to take credit for her elegance? When you were the ones who created all her problems and then punished her for them?"

"I do not know to what you are referring, but..."

"Quiet. Do not interrupt me," Henry commanded. "I mean that every so-called fault you perceived in her, was either not truly a fault, merely your blind stupidity, or it was something you yourselves caused by your own hand."

The baron's mouth dropped open, his face could not redden any more, not healthily. The baroness gasped, lifting a weak hand to her forehead as if she would faint.

"Do not fall Madam, for nobody here will catch you," Henry snarled at her, not deceived by her act of feebleness. "I have heard and seen your words to Her Grace and know that nothing I have said has surpassed your sensibilities."

The baroness also reddened and gulped in apparent anguish. He cared not, his words were accurate.

"My daughter..." the baron began but Henry was fast reaching the end of his patience.

"You have no daughter," he roared. "She is not your concern, she is nothing to you anymore. The only man she calls Papa, is Maestro. With my permission and blessing. She will never call you that again. I have forbidden her to speak to you ever again. You have nothing between you and never will again."

"You take my daughter from me alongside everything else," the baron spluttered. "You have treated me appallingly and now you seek to destroy my relationship with my daughter."

Henry stared at him coldly, he would not repeat himself for this man. The baroness took his silence as an opportunity to wheedle.

"We knew you wanted her to yourself for a while, Your Grace, but we thought with time that we would be in her life again." She smiled in a sickly manner, "For who else will help her when she has to negotiate all the new difficulties that accompany her new station? Who will be alongside her when she bears your heirs? She needs her mother."

Acid churned in Henry's gut at the reminder of what these people had cost him and his wife. They would never know, they did not deserve that truth. "She has a mother," he said coldly. "Mine. She has called her Mama since we first married and their relationship is closer in a few months than the one you had with her for years."

The baroness paled, "You cannot mean that?" Her hand clutched her throat and she stumbled as if she was about to faint. Henry stood like marble, not moved by her shameless fakery. When nobody rushed to her side, she somehow managed to find her sturdiness once more, a sour expression developing upon her face.