Free Bridal Favors - Engaged in Wickedness by Jade Lee Page B

pants beneath her gown likely for warmth as well as modesty. There were no covers on the bed. Just the woman, stretched out unconscious and bound to the bed.
    He crossed to her near wrist and the thick leather restraint. He meant to undo the buckle completely, but Gwen stopped him.
    "You cannot. She will hurt herself if she wakes."
    "What?"
    She brushed aside the night rail at her mother's neck, exposing long grooves where the woman had clawed at her own flesh. "When the fit comes upon her, she tries to kill herself. I think the madness builds up until she cannot take it anymore and she tries to harm herself. We don't allow knives or anything sharp near her ever."
    "My God," he whispered.
    She looked up at him. "It passes. That is what Robert and I remind each other each time. It passes. I think the worst of it is done now." As she spoke, she released the restraints around her mother's ankles. The woman's legs flopped to the mattress without any signs of awareness.
    "What happens after this?"
    "A kind of dullness infects her. It is almost as if she leaves her body completely for a while. We will do everything for her. Feed her, bathe her, everything."
    She meant that she would do everything. The burden of all this care would fall on Gwen.
    "In time she will come back. She will begin to eat on her own, respond to questions again. Eventually she will come out to speak with Robert and me again. She will live her life for a time."
    "Until the next time."
    Gwen nodded. She had moved to her mother's face, slowly brushing the hair aside and adjusting the pillow to what might be a more comfortable angle. Looking at the woman now, he could see the resemblance between mother and daughter: high cheekbones, sharp slashes for the eyebrows, and a sweet rather pert nose. But that was where the resemblance ended. Unlike Gwen, Lady Willington 's skin was sallow, and her bones were frail.
    "I cannot live like this anymore, Edward. I know it sounds awful, but you cannot know what it is like. Every day I watch her and worry if today she will descend into madness. In the morning, I have to prod her to get out of bed, to dress and to bathe. I count the minutes when she is in public, wondering if today is the day when she will break. When she will finally reveal herself to the world."
    "No one knows?"
    "Only the servants who are well paid to keep silent. There isn't any other family."
    "But your friends—"
    "They cannot know! It would end any chance for a respectable marriage for me and damage Robert's respectability. Even my father knows to keep silent about this. I think that is why he whores with any female he can find. It is so he will not even think about his wife."
    Edward had no answer. He knew she was right. But what a burden!
    "She will sleep now and be better tomorrow," she said, and her words had the sound of something repeated over and over through many years.
    Gwen covered her mother with a light blanket then blew out the candle. Taking Edward's hand, they left together to walk slowly down the hallway. It wasn't until they made it to her bedroom that she spoke again.
    "I cannot go through another Season like this. And I won't marry the first jackanapes who proposes just to escape. Mama needs to be in one home near enough to London to visit when she is well, but far enough away that the gossip will not reach London should her fits become known. Robert has found the property and is in the process of buying it. But we cannot move her there until after I am settled in my own home."
    He knew where she was heading. She was speaking again about being ruined. "There are many ways to gain your independence," he said. "You need not be ruined or married. There are other choices."
    "For the daughter of an Earl? I cannot attend balls without a chaperone. I cannot travel alone or do the smallest thing without a guardian. Not unless I am married or well beyond the pale. That only happens when I am very old or very ruined."
    "Gwen—"
    She abruptly