“Don’t worry, James. I shall break her in,” said Gerald with a laugh. “Now, let me take a closer look at her.”
Gerald walked with a limp, but he could still move quickly, and he crossed the room at speed, hobbling from side to side and using a dark brown cane to balance. There was a glint of gold between his fingers—a golden animal head of some sort that provided the handle. When he got to Margaret, he prodded at her thigh with the end of his cane, causing her to gasp and jump back a little.
“A little heavy-set in the thighs. You have been too generous with what you have been feeding her,” commented Gerald.
“She only gets moody if I don’t feed her,” retorted her father. “You know how women can get.”
“Oh, I do, I do,” said Gerald. This time, he lifted the bottom of Margaret’s dress a little, and Margaret shrieked and moved further away, placing her hands down over the front of her dress. “Certainly not a woman,” added Gerald. “But everything can be fixed. I am doing you a favor by taking her on, James.”
Margaret looked over at her mother, her eyes pleading, but her mother was oblivious to it and continued to sit by her father’s side—the dutiful wife. Is this what she would become?
“Turn around,” ordered Gerald.
It took Margaret a moment to realize that he was speaking to her. She did not want to, but she did not want to be forced to either, so she did as she was told, and turned around on the spot.
There was one other pair of eyes in the room; the maid. Margaret had not noticed her before, but as she turned, she caught the maid’s eye, and the maid looked aghast. Margaret held her gaze for as long as she could. The maid could not help her, but she shared the pain, and it helped Margaret to feel not so alone for a brief moment.
“The bust is larger than I usually like, but I can pay for the girl of my choice on Exeter Street.” Gerald laughed. “I suppose I am paying for this one too, but I don’t get a choice. All right, James. You have yourself a deal. Now, you promised me some of your good brandy, and not the usual piss that you serve up.”
“You get the good stuff this time because you are opening your pocketbook. I am only miserly with the brandy because you are a bloody miser, Gerald.” James nodded over to the maid, and two glasses of brandy were poured and served up.
“Sit down,” ordered her father.
“I would prefer to remain standing,” said Margaret, trying to hold her father’s gaze.
“I said, sit down!” he shouted.
Margaret finally did as she was told, and sat down on the seat across from the two men and her mother.
“Father,” whispered Margaret, gaining her father’s attention. “Father, please,” she begged. “I don’t want to be married.”
“And what does that have to do with me, Margaret? You should be grateful I have put a roof over your head for twenty-one years. All you have done is take, take, take. Well, you can take from another man from now on.” He laughed and patted his cousin on the shoulder.
Gerald looked to be older than her father, and he had locks of gray hair that tumbled down his temples, wetted by the sweat that looked to be permanently on his brow. He was a wiry man, with creases around his mouth that showed the permanent scowl he wore. He was hunched too. When he had been standing, he appeared hunched, and now that he sat, he was even more hunched.
There was only one word that could sum up a man like that: greasy. Margaret hated everything about him. He was old, unattractive, money-driven, and a bad person. But she still had hope. Perhaps her mother would come around and stop the whole affair. Or, maybe she could derail it herself.
“I will be the worst wife you will ever have,” said Margaret. “You have heard how much my father wants to get rid of me. Why do you think that is? You will find much better women out there. Women who will cook and clean for you and make a home.”
Margaret’s mother looked at her in a state of shock. Margaret wanted to smile over at her mother, but she remained stoic too in the face of the greatest threat to what little happiness she possessed.
“My dear,” countered Gerald. “I have girls for that. But, you are going to be my special girl. Don’t worry, I will break you in, and then we are going to have a lot of fun.”
Her mother finally cracked a little, and a small grimace crossed her face, a tiny look of disgust. Even her father looked a little uncomfortable, but he soon replaced that look with a smile, and that was when Margaret knew it was all over.
“Don’t look at me like that, James. I am going to take care of your daughter, and better to keep the money in the family, right?”
“Much better,” agreed James.
“I will take another pour of that good stuff, James, and then I must be going. I hope you will at least buy your daughter some better clothes than what she has got on, for the wedding.”
“Do you think I am made of money?”
“I have been more than generous, James.”
“All right. I will use some of the money for a dress, but this feels like you are getting money back in this agreement,” said James.
“This agreement benefits us all, James. Now, I shall return soon to pick up what is mine. The wedding will be a simple affair. I hope you don’t mind.”