A Fiery Dalliance

XVI

"Hush though, and listen. If you're quiet, you can hear their whispers in the water calling to those left behind. Hush and you can hear them lurking, waiting for the day they can make their return." LaTanya McQueen, When the Reckoning Comes 

----

XVI.

Joe and Ed's father left not long after he had declared his grand plan to secure the future of the Evesham estate. The silence in the room was deafening as the two brothers stared at one another as they tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Joe, however, was more shocked at Ed's acceptance of their father's idea. It was then that he managed to find his tongue. "What on earth?" he gasped.

There was a sadness within Ed's eyes suddenly, and he averted his gaze. This reaction brought Joe off of his bed, and he crossed the room in and instant to stand beside his brother.

"You know Father's position, Joe," he murmured.

"That was not of your making," Joe retorted.

"It is not yours either, no matter how you might blame yourself," Ed countered.

There certainly were times when Joe blamed himself for their family predicament. It was easy to do so when he was told that it was his fault. Why else would he have to go without? Why else would he have to be separated from his brother for so much of their lives?

"There is barely anything left, Joe," Ed emphasised. "You know that Mother's trust was left for my education, and that is the only money that Father does not have access to."

Their mother's dowry had been set aside by their maternal family's solicitor for the education of her eldest son. Ed had been able to attend the best schools because of this forethought. What their mother's family had not considered, however, was the fact that she would bear twins.

"I do not see why you should be punished for Father's gambling. I do not see why Perrie ought to be punished for Father's gambling!"

"Marriage to me would be a punishment, would it?" Ed challenged, looking up at Joe with his eyes narrowing.

Joe sucked in a sharp breath. "That is not what I meant, and you know it." Joe sighed. "Why would you agree to this? In all our life, I have never seen you so quick to succumb to Father's will."

Ed shook his head. "I know that was not what you meant," he agreed. Ed looked entirely torn. Gone completely was the confident young man who had strode in through Ashwood's front door ready to protect Joe. Joe, in turn, felt an overwhelming sense of over-protectiveness himself. "I was having an affair with a woman of low birth in Cambridge and Father found out about it," Ed confessed quietly. "He travelled to Cambridge and confronted me, and he forced me to end it with her. He laid out our family's predicament before me and told me that in order for our estate to survive beyond his generation, I would need to marry, and marry well."

Joe knelt down before Ed as his mouth hung open slightly. "You were engaged in an affair?"

"Is that all you got out of that?" Ed scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

"Did you love her?"

"It doesn't matter," Ed replied dismissively. "I made a deal with Father, and I must honour it. I had not expected him to set his sights on someone so soon, but I could like her if I tried."

"A deal?" Joe repeated, temporarily ignoring the fact that his brother had pondered trying to like Perrie Beresford. "A deal encompasses mutual gain. What do you benefit from this arrangement?"

Ed cupped Joe's face, before he murmured, "I won't inherit a penniless estate." Ed then stood up from the writing desk and took a few steps away from Joe.