A Fiery Dalliance

XXXV

"Et tu, Brute?" William Shakespeare , Julius Caesar

---- 

XXXV.

Perrie had been shut in the drawing room for the last thirty minutes confessing everything to her mother and grandmother. The words tumbled out of her mouth in blubbering form, and she watched as they were equally afflicted with stress and dismay.

Cecily was completely horrified, as was evidenced by the look on her face. Her mother appeared utterly disappointed, and her expression made Perrie feel wretched. She hated disappointing her mother. She knew that she had done so on many occasions before, but nothing she had ever done had been as bad as this. This made all of her silly antics with Joe, and at Mrs Liscombe's, seem like literal child's play.

"I am sorry for leaving the way I did," Perrie whispered. "I know it was wrong. I just could not stand to be ... so far. I needed to know that Joe was ..."

She had needed to know that Joe was not going to disappear. She had known somewhere deep inside of her that it was completely intolerable to even fathom never seeing Joe again. Her heart would not have been able to survive the grief.

But Grace did not reprimand Perrie. She did not state that these were the deserved consequences of her own foolishness. Grace rose from her chair and placed herself down beside Perrie and collected her into her arms. Just like her father had done. Perrie immediately began to cry as she felt her mother stroking her hair soothingly, and Grace hushed her quietly.

"What are we to do, Cecily?" Grace asked softly.

"Procure a gun," Cecily shot back sharply.

Grace tensed and Perrie's head snapped back toward's her grandmother on the opposite settee. "That is hardly helpful," Grace chastised.

Cecily laughed then, a facetious, displeased laugh. "The man should be thankful that I have not been educated in such hobbies as weaponry or else he'd already have a gullet full of lead. He is a disgrace to his name and title. How dare he walk into my house and start a rumour? He has no idea whom he has just crossed."

"Cecily," said Grace firmly.

But Cecily continued. "I'd wager this was all part of the plan. Lure us all in with whatever the sob story was about the younger one, make us weak to their true intentions. Distract us with the charming elder one, only to be throttled by the younger one when it counted. I will destroy the lot of them, I tell you. I have been crossed by scandal one too many times, and I have had enough of people trying to take advantage of my family."

Before Perrie could leap to Joe's defence, her grandmother was already marching from the drawing room, moving with the speed and grace of a much younger woman.

"Mama, Joe did not do anything," Perrie appealed to Grace. "It is all his father. The viscount is a wicked, wicked toad. Joe is innocent. He is good, I promise." Tears were still streaming down Perrie's face. "Joe does not deserve to have to be married to me. He doesn't want it. You know he hates me, really."

"Hate is the farthest thing from that boy's mind when it comes to you, Perrie," Grace murmured, as she leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead. She then shuffled Perrie a little so that she could stand up, before she held her hand out. "Come along. We must stop your grandmother from committing homicide."

"Do you hate me, Mama?"

Grace's eyes, which so mirrored Perrie's own, softened. "If I have ever done anything to lead you to believe that anything you could do would make me hate you, then I have failed as a mother. I am devastated for you, Perrie. I hate that your choice has been taken away, but I do not hate you. Grown or not, you are my baby, and I will do what I must to protect you, and I will help you as best as I can when I cannot protect you."