k for long hours overnight, no matter what the weather is doing, and can result in our death, but we do it because we enjoy it. It gives us all a purpose in life, a reason to keep fighting.’
‘You cannot fight every battle,’ Carlotta whispered.
Phillip went still. ‘No, but we can help women like you.’
‘Not by turning me over to him, you cannot. I am three and twenty. I didn’t lie to you about that. Why would I?’
‘Because it makes you older than you are and means the law is different. If you were, say, nineteen or twenty I would be inclined to view the matter differently. At three and twenty things are different.’
‘Why? How could three years make all that much difference?’
Phillip ran a weary hand down his face. ‘Because most young women your age are married with children.’
‘I chose not to marry because I saw how desperately unhappy my parents were,’ she whispered.
‘Not every marriage is the same,’ he replied swiftly. Something within him was eager to dispel that notion.
‘I never found anybody who appeals to me enough to want to contemplate marriage,’ she admitted. ‘We never went out very much. When we did our father was in charge. He can be quite – bullish. He can be overbearing. Loud. His friends were – are – the kind of people my mother didn’t enjoy socialising with because of it. It makes me wonder why they ever married seeing as they had so little in common. Father seemed to have so little interest in her.’
‘They had you in common.’
‘It wasn’t enough to make them happy,’ Carlotta replied. ‘In fact, I think I just added to their problems.’
‘What happened?’
Carlotta contemplated the life she had lived until that fateful afternoon when everything had changed so drastically. But when the memories began to resurface, she realised that she just couldn’t face them. The fear, hatred, anger and raw grief that surged through her added to the heavy burden already weighing her shoulders. Because she was aware that Phillip was still waiting for her to answer him, she told him a limited version of the truth.
‘He changed when my mother died. Horace became even colder. I had thought that he couldn’t be more distant and unemotional. I was wrong. He grew worse and refused to speak to me most of the time. When he did speak he was often overbearing and harsh. He made no attempt to even pretend to like me anymore. I knew I had to leave.’
‘Did you steal any money?’
Carlotta shook her head. ‘I did look around his office before I left because I need the papers about my inheritance.’
‘Why would he send armed men after you?’ Phillip leaned toward her. ‘I want the truth, Carlotta.’
She nodded but before she could speak, Phillip tugged her out of the chair and led her over to the chaise. Once settled, he sat beside her and tugged her into his arms until she was flush against him.
‘We shouldn’t sit here like this,’ she protested although didn’t try to move away.
‘Neither of us are going anywhere,’ he promised her and settled her more tightly against him. Because she was so cold, he draped a blanket over them and allowed the peace to settle between them for a few moments. He could feel the tension thrumming threw her, and knew he had to get to the cause of it while she was willing to talk.
Deeper in the house they could both hear the men moving about. Phillip was glad that some of them had returned because he was now able to focus all his attention on Carlotta, and the answers he needed to be able to make a few decisions.
‘Who owns this house?’ he asked quietly.
‘A man called Henry Palmer. He is my friend’s new husband. I have been friends with his wife, Henrietta, for years.’
‘Henry and Henrietta?’ He lifted his brows and smiled.
‘I know. I wasn’t the one who introduced them,’ Carlotta murmured a little ruefully.
‘They helped you. Why did they not accommodate you in their house? Do they know you are here?’
‘Yes,’ Carlotta sighed. ‘They did help me. They were the first people I turned to because, like I said, I have known Henrietta for years.’
‘Those thugs of your father’s are men you don’t know?’
‘I haven’t seen them with him before I left, no. I don’t even know if they work for him or keep coming to the house for some other reason,’ Carlotta replied.