Page 57 of Loving a Noble Gentleman
“What? You did not mean to cause offence? Well, you have done ...”
The words dragged Mary’s sister out of her daze of confusion. Charlotte’s vision had returned now after the whack she had received earlier, and she could see her husband looming down towards her sister with that same terrible glint in his eye that he had when he came at her. She could not take this; he had already taken things way too far, and she could not allow him to go after Mary. That would be the absolute worst thing ever and also entirely her fault. She did not think that he would ever do this to someone else. If so, she would have done something much sooner to put a stop to it.
I should have kept them separate,she thought as she blinked rapidly.I should never have let Mary come into my home. Maybe none of this would have happened; maybe she would even still be at home. She would not have lost her inheritance and kept her mouth shut.
Despite the fact that she was a very quiet person these days, her husband was always telling her off for her mouth, just as he was today. She was not totally sure what she had done, but maybe he was right. Maybe if she had not mentioned that things were difficult to Mary, then none of this would have happened.
But there was no point in getting lost in past mistakes. Not when the effects of those mistakes were happening right now in front of her. What she needed to do was finally take action, to stand up to the man who had terrorised her life. She needed to do this for herself, for her sister, and for her baby too. If her husband was willing to go at Mary like that, then it was likely that he would not treat their baby well either. She had held onto the wish that he would at least be a good father, even if he were a terrible husband, but it seemed that dream was vanishing as well.
“Stop,” she panted out as her tight chest tried its best to get some air in. It was almost as if she had something wrapped around her insides, refusing to let her breathe properly. “Stop it now.”
She staggered over to him, tackling his rage head on for the very first time in their turbulent marriage. It had never been so bad before. Things had never been so violent. There had been intense rage and the odd outburst that resulted in her getting hurt, but nothing like this. This was on another scale.
“Please, let us just talk. We need to talk ...”
Charlotte could not even finish her sentence because Lord Jones smacked his hand backwards without even looking at her and hit her in the face again. Because she was already hurt, it did not take long to knock her to the ground again. Her body fell backwards without her permission, making Charlotte feel more out of control than she ever had done before. It was awful. Even as her arms flailed around trying to grab onto something, she knew that she would find nothing. It was taken out of her hands now, and she just had to go. She hit her head so hard as her body finally reached the floor that the blackness came for her rapidly. Charlotte knew that she needed to keep her wits about her to stop this from escalating, but she could not. Her eyes fell closed, and she shut the world out completely.
“Stop!” Mary screamed, repeating what the girls had been saying to Lord Jones ever since this whole rampage started. Despite hitting his wife again, he was still coming for her, but Mary really needed him to stop this time and not just for herself. She knew that he wanted to hit her which, of course, she wanted to avoid, but this was not about her. “Charlotte is hurt.”
With an unexpected burst of strength, she shoved Lord Jones out the way and flew past him. There was an ice-cold sensation deep in her stomach that something was wrong, really wrong, and she needed to address that. Mary could not stand it; this was not what she had wanted at all. When she came to intervene, she hoped to make it better, not worse, just as Charlotte had warned her that she would.
I should have listened,she thought desperately.I never should have gone against her wishes.
“Step away from my wife,” Lord Jones growled, but there was much less conviction in his tone this time. He could see the panic in Mary’s eyes, and he could feel that there was something behind that. The red mist that had descended in front of his eyes had dissipated rapidly, and now he was not sure what to do. It was never like this. Usually, he got to calm down by himself. Now, it seemed that he had gone too far ... even for him.“Charlotte?”
Mary’s heart was in her throat as she tucked her hand under her sister’s head. She pulled her up to look into her cold blank eyes. She felt cold from the bottom of her toes all the way up to the top of her head. It left her foggy and unsure of what to do next.The man that she hated – the one that had caused this damage – was the only other person that she had here. She had to rely on him even if she did not want to, for Charlotte’s sake.
“We need a doctor,” she gasped desperately but refusing to look at him directly. She could not meet those cold eyes, no matter what. “Charlotte is bleeding.”
She turned and looked at Lord Jones’ body which was frozen to the spot. She could almost see his thought pattern, and he did not want to call the doctor because he did not want to take the blame for what had happened. He was man enough to cause the damage but not man enough to take the blame for it.
“We do not have to say anything,” she said exasperatedly. “It does not matter. We simply need to get someone here to look after Charlotte. She and her baby’s lives are depending on it.” She narrowed her eyes at Lord Jones angrily. “You will do this, and you will do it now,” she gulped noisily, not wanting to say this, but knowing that she had to. “This is your baby as well. Do not let your pride get in the way.”
As Lord Jones finally walked off, she allowed a tear to roll down her cheek. This was scary, the most terrified that she had been in her entire life. Charlotte had been knocked out by her husband’s bad temper, which was potentially her fault for intervening when Charlotte told her not to, and now things did not look good at all. She could hardly contain the sad emotions that threatened to consume her whole.
Please be alright, Charlotte,she begged sadly. The tear fell from her cheek and onto Charlotte’s face that was frozen in time, stuck in the moment that she was struck.Please do not be hurt. You are all that I have left. I need you.
