Brynthwaite Summer_A Silver Foxes of Westminster Novella Page 10

  “And if I stay out of sight,” Andrew finished the thought with a defeated sigh.

  “No.” Aggie crossed her arms. “I won’t hear of it. Jason looks far too young to be married to anyone, and I refuse to let the man I love hide away simply because people don’t like his looks.”

  It was a bold statement, but one that proved difficult to live up to. They tried things her way at the hotel nearest to the station, but the manager laughed when Aggie tried to take charge and book the room with Andrew and Jason looking on. They were almost able to get a room at the next two hotels, until the staff there realized Andrew wasn’t a servant and intended to stay in the room with them. Another two hotels were willing to give them two separate rooms, but they didn’t have the money for it.

  Finally, after more haggling and more defeat than Aggie had ever expected to feel in her life, they were able to secure a tiny attic room above a pub on a grubby side street across the tracks from the station.

  “This is horrible,” she lamented as she sat gingerly on the single, narrow bed. She was afraid to touch it through the layers of her clothes and had no intention of sleeping between the sheets at all. “I can’t believe we’ve been treated this way.”

  Andrew was strangely silent. Aggie wasn’t fool enough to wonder why. But as quick as her brain was to accept that he must have been treated like this all the time, her heart continued to rebel.

  “It’s a disgrace,” Jason said, surprising her. He paced the cramped room, looking as angry as Aggie was. “Hotels are supposed to be a place of refuge, a home away from home. Turning people away for such asinine reasons is unforgiveable.”

  Andrew was the only one who didn’t seem either upset or surprised by the treatment they’d received. “You get used to navigating the pitfalls after a while,” he said, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. “Even though you shouldn’t have to.”

  “Has it always been like this for you?” Aggie asked, her heart breaking. But beneath those tender feelings, something far darker was growing.

  Andrew glanced to her, studying her as though he could see into her thoughts. Though love shone in his eyes, his expression was serious. “I can protect you from bodily harm. I can do my best to make sure we are fed and sheltered. But I can’t promise you we won’t face discrimination like this on a daily basis. We will. And if we should be blessed with children, they will too. Until the world changes, we all will.”

  Tears welled in Aggie’s eyes in spite of herself. She lowered her head so Andrew wouldn’t see them, clasping her hands tightly in her lap. Love was supposed to be a beautiful thing, one that brought happiness. Life was supposed to bring progress and enlightenment. She’d always believed as much, but the truth was turning out to be far from what she’d always imagined her life would be. From the patrons of her father’s shop who refused to buy from her because of Andrew to the hotels that had just made it so difficult for them to find rest, the world as she’d thought it was had shattered around her.

  And if she was honest with herself, she wasn’t sure she wanted to live in the world she was in now. Perhaps she was spoiled, but she wanted to be treated with kindness and respect. She wanted to be important and to have responsibilities. She wanted to be able to love freely, without worrying what her lover looked like. Now, even though it stung like a thousand wasps, mad with summer heat, she realized that she could never have that if she was with Andrew. Worse still, she wasn’t sure if she was ready for everything that a life with Andrew truly meant.

  “Aggie, are you all right?” Andrew asked, pushing away from the wall and moving to kneel by her side.

  She swallowed, trying to push words into her mouth. Her eyes continued to sting with unshed tears, and all she could think, as much as she hated it, was that she wanted to go home.

  “Aggie?” Andrew asked again, his voice softer. He took her hands. “You can say it. I won’t fault you if you’ve changed your mind. If you aren’t ready for this, I understand.”

  Her throat squeezed to the point where she couldn’t have spoken even if she’d wanted to. Guilt racked her, especially since Andrew seemed to know how she was struggling. She was such a disappointment, to him and to herself. She wasn’t strong enough, in spite of everything she’d believed she was capable of.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered at last, unable to meet Andrew’s eyes. “I—”

  Before she could push the words out of her mouth, the door to their tiny room slammed open, banging against the wall, and her father stepped into the room.

  “There you are, you blackamoor villain! You thought you could steal my daughter from me, but your game is up.”

  Chapter 10

  Andrew stood and whirled to face Robert Crimpley. Moments before, at the sight of the doubt in Aggie’s eyes, he’d been ready to give up everything. If she’d changed her mind, if the life he could give her was too much for a girl who had been raised in comfort and acceptance to bear, then he would let her go. But at the sight of her father glaring at him as though he were dirt, resolve hardened in Andrew’s chest.

  “Mr. Crimpley,” he greeted the man with firm politeness.

  “Out of my way, you miserable bastard,” Crimpley snapped with no attempt to be civil. “I’ve come for my daughter.”

  Crimpley made a move for the bed, but Andrew stepped into his path, putting a hand out to stop him. “Aggie is here by her own choosing.”

  “I doubt that. Get away from me.” Crimpley attempted to push around Andrew, but again, Andrew held his ground. That seemed to incense Crimpley. “Step away or I’ll call the police,” he roared.

  “You’ll do no such thing, you inflated idiot,” Jason barked, stepping forward as though he would use all of his youthful arrogance to pick a fight with the older man.

  Andrew held up a hand to settle Jason, but that gave Crimpley the chance to edge around him. Crimpley grabbed Aggie’s arm as she stood. Aggie yelped as he gripped her wrist, but she had enough fight in her to yank away from her father’s grip. Andrew had half a mind to pummel Crimpley senseless for laying a hand on Aggie, but the outrage in Aggie’s eyes kept him where he was.

  “How dare you grab me like I’m some street urchin?” Aggie demanded, glaring at her father.

  “You’re my daughter, and since you’ve seen fit to behave as an urchin, why shouldn’t I treat you as one?” Crimpley hissed in return. Before Aggie could argue, he went on with, “I know what you did with this filthy man.” He stabbed a finger at Andrew, glancing to him in disgust. “Constable Baxter and Joanna told me everything.”

  Aggie’s face flooded with color, and she lowered her head with a guilty gulp, saying, “I love him.”

  “You do not,” Crimpley spat. “You’re merely misbehaving as a way to punish me, though I’ve never been anything but generous with you.”

  “Is that what you think?” Aggie jerked her head up to gape at her father. “That I would give my heart away just to spite you?”

  “You haven’t given your heart away,” Crimpley said, his voice dripping with derision. “And it’s my fault. I’ve been too lenient with you. Well, that stops today. Come along.”

  He attempted to grab Aggie’s wrist again, but she shifted out of his reach, pressing herself to Andrew’s side. As soon as Andrew felt her hand near his, he grabbed it had held it tight.

  “I love Andrew,” she told her father, a confidence in her voice that Andrew hadn’t heard for days. “I didn’t fall in love as a trick or a punishment. I didn’t fall in love with you in mind at all.” She glanced up at Andrew. “I fell in love because Andrew is a good man, an intelligent man, and a braver man than any I’ve ever known. I fell in love with him because I couldn’t help myself.”

  “You’re deluding yourself,” Crimpley said before Andrew could even begin to form a smile for Aggie’s beautiful words. “I don’t know what kind of spell this blackguard has you under, but we can break it.”

  “It’s no spell, Papa,” Aggie said. Andrew could see her irritatio
n and frustration growing by the second.

  “We can get you help,” Crimpley went on, ignoring her. “I’ve heard there are places, asylums and such, where hysteria and poisonings of the mind can be cured. They’re doing things with electricity these days that work wonders.”

  “You will not subject Aggie to any such cruelties,” Andrew cut in. He slipped an arm around Aggie’s waist, needing to hold her close as the full impact of what Crimpley was suggesting hit him. She may have had her doubts about a life with him, but it was painfully obvious that returning to life with her father wouldn’t be much better.

  “I thought you loved me,” Aggie said, staring Crimpley in the eyes. “You said such wonderful things to me yesterday morning.” In an instant, she was blinking back tears.

  Crimpley tilted his chin up, staring down his nose at her. “That was before I knew you’d soiled yourself in this ape’s bed.”

  Andrew tensed at the insult, but it only served to enrage Aggie. “Is that what you think?” she demanded, her voice thick with insult. “If your affection for me depends on me living the life that you choose for me, then it’s no affection at all.”

  Crimpley huffed an impatient breath and shook his head. “I’ve had enough of this. Come along, Agatha.” He reached for her wrist a third time.

  Once again, Aggie pulled away, though she couldn’t go far in the cramped room. “I’m not going with you,” she said, holding herself straight with stiff determination. “I’m going with Andrew. We are to be married, and we are going to South Africa to visit a friend of his father’s.”

  Crimpley’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. “South Africa?” he asked, voice strangled. “It’s so far away.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Aggie shook her head, a miserable look of understanding coming to her eyes. “I could marry Andrew and live in Kendal and you would still refuse to see me.”

  Andrew held her tighter, sensing that she’d come to the conclusion he’d feared all along.

  Crimpley narrowed his eyes. “Is that what it will take to make you see sense? A threat?” He stiffened, licking his lips as though tasting something sour. “Very well, then. If you refuse to come home, if you go with this man, I will disown you. I will strike your name from the family record. I will think of you as worse than dead. You’ll be no daughter of mine. Is that what you want?”

  “No, Papa,” Aggie said, quiet but steady. “I want you to accept the man I love, not because he looks a certain way or has a pedigree you approve of, but because I love him. I want you to trust my judgement.”

  “What judgement?” Crimpley snorted. “You’re a fickle, disobedient chit who has had her head turned by some sort of—” he waved his hand in Andrew’s direction, face screwing up as he searched for words, finally ending with, “—voodoo magic.”

  “I am a woman who has fallen in love with a wonderful man,” Aggie said, standing tall. She stepped to the side, independent and strong, but continued to hold Andrew’s hand. “If you cannot accept that, then you will lose your only child. Are you really so stubborn?”

  “I am not the stubborn one,” her father growled in return. “You are a disgrace to the Crimpley name.”

  “Then it is a good thing that I will not bear it for much longer,” Aggie said.

  She added nothing else, no apology and no further argument. Crimpley shook as he glared at her, fists balled at his sides. His face splotched with red, and his whiskers quivered in anger. At last, he jerked his furious glare to Andrew. “This is your doing,” he hissed. “I’ll have you thrown in jail. I’ll have you castrated and beheaded.”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” Andrew said as calmly and firmly as he could manage. He refused to be intimidated by the likes of Crimpley. He’d been through enough nonsense of Crimpley’s sort in his life already. The difference now was that he had Aggie by his side. Or so he hoped.

  Crimpley seemed to sense the united front of resolve opposing him. He took a half step back, smoothing a hand across the front of his coat. “Very well, then.” He glanced from Andrew to Aggie. “You are no daughter of mine. Leave with this villain, but don’t ever try to contact me or your mother again. You are dead to us.”

  With one final sneer, he turned and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Aggie jumped at the sharp sound, then deflated as all energy left her. As she began to wilt, Andrew pulled her into his arms.

  “You can still go after him,” he murmured against her head as he stroked her hair. “I’m sure he’ll change his mind and take you back.”

  “No,” she sobbed, shaking her head against his shoulder. “I don’t want to go back.” She raised her head and looked at him with watery eyes and cheeks stained pink. “I can’t go back.”

  Andrew was afraid her words were truer than they sounded. “I’m sorry,” he sighed, cradling the side of her face. “I never meant for things to happen this way. And I can see that you’re having second thoughts.”

  “I was having second thoughts,” Aggie said, drawing in a long breath. She squared her shoulders, taking his hands. “But that was wrong of me.” She managed to blink her way into a smile, even though her lashes were still rimmed with tears. “I was wrong when I said that the world would accept the two of us being together with open arms. Wrong or perhaps naïve.”

  “You’ve never had to experience prejudice before,” Andrew told her, his heart welling with affection for the strength she was showing, the strength she’d always shown.

  “I haven’t,” she agreed. “But I want to be a part of you in every way. If treatment like this is what’s in store for us….” She paused, tilting her head to the side. Her expression transformed from hurt and weariness to strength and determination. “This will not be all that’s in store for us,” she said with renewed resolve. “I won’t let it be. We deserve better. Everyone like us deserves better.”

  “I’m not sure there is anyone else like the two of you,” Jason commented from the corner of the room, where he’d settled as the scene with Crimpley unfolded. He wore a broad smirk that said he admired the two of them and considered them friends. Andrew was surprised at how touched he was by the young man’s acceptance. Although as soon as he and Aggie looked his way, Jason straightened and lost his smirk. “I’m sorry, I feel like I’m intruding now. I’ll just pop downstairs and see if the pub has any supper for us.”

  “Thanks,” Andrew said as Jason skittered out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Andrew turned to Aggie. “I’m beginning to think the world needs more young men like Jason Throckmorton.”

  “If Jason can accept us, others will too,” Aggie said, taking both of Andrew’s hands in hers. “I’m sorry that I doubted. It was only temporary.”

  “I know.” Andrew dipped down to kiss her lightly.

  “It’s only that I’m so exhausted,” she said with a wry laugh. “And hungry, and out of sorts.” Her frown grew downright comical. “How dare my father treat me with such disdain? How can he possibly think he’ll truly be happy pretending I don’t exist?”

  He could see the pain behind her words, could see how she was trying desperately to make light of the situation so it wouldn’t defeat her. It was just another item in the long list of reasons why he loved her so, and why he would strive with everything he had to make their life together as easy for her as possible, in spite of the odds.

  “I don’t see how anyone could deny your existence,” he said with a smile. “And if they try to, I’m sure you’ll make yourself known.”

  She laughed, but it quickly turned into a sigh as she sagged against him, hugging him tightly and resting her head on his shoulder. “I’ll try not to be so naïve in the future,” she promised. “But I can’t promise that I’ll always succeed.”

  “I love your optimism,” he said, holding her close. “I don’t want you to ever lose it, no matter what we face.”

  “We’ll be all right as long as we’re together,” she said.

  “Truer words have never be
en spoken.”

  He teased his fingers under her chin and lifted her head so that he could kiss her. Whatever challenges life would bring their way, he knew he’d found his home in her. And if they had to rewrite every rule of society, they would do it. They would do it together.

  Epilogue

  The bright southern sun beat down on Cape Town, making everything seem alive and exotic. Aggie had existed in a state of permanent wonder since she and Andrew had arrived in the far away city a week ago. Everything about it was as different from England as the moon was from an orange. The air was spiced with fruit and flowers. The sea sparkled against the backdrop of greens and browns with Table Mountain rising against the sky. And people of all descriptions rushed about their business in the streets. For a change, Andrew wasn’t the only one with brown skin, and Aggie wasn’t the only one with white.

  That didn’t mean it was any easier to find acceptance in the exotic port than it had been in England, but thanks to a few of Andrew’s father’s old friends, they were able to find lodging in a private house instead of battling with the hotels. All the same, Aggie was glad they’d stayed in London long enough to marry before making the journey to the other end of the world.

  “Look over there,” Aggie whispered in excitement as they walked down the quiet, residential street where Col. Montgomery’s hospital was located.

  “Where?” Andrew turned his head to see what Aggie was nodding toward.

  “That couple across the street,” Aggie said in an even lower whisper. “They look like us.”

  Indeed, on the other side of the street and down a ways, a white man was escorting a well-dressed African woman. The two chatted and smiled at each other, obviously in love.

  Andrew saw them and smiled. “I suppose it stands to reason that mixed matches would be more common in places with a more diverse population.”