Thedra

Mother’s house seems very mean after so many months spent at Bentham manor. It’s dark and filthy, with spider webs in the rafters and mold growing on the dishes. Though it’s already nine-thirty, Mother sleeps on the couch in an expensive looking silk nightgown, covered in crumbs. Instantly annoyed, I go to the window and pull back the curtains, letting the light of a cloudless day fall across her face. She winces and holds her hand up.

“Who’s there?” she sits up sleepily. “Close the window, will you?”

“I will not. Without light how will I see to clean this place?”

“Thedra?” she stretches sleepily. “When did you get in?”

“Just now. Honestly, Mother, look at this room. Have you cleaned even once since I left?”

Florence Clyde makes a disgusted face. “You want me to do a servant’s job?”

“My servant’s job is what’s keeping this roof over your head,” I remind her tersely, but she only scoffs. I ignore her and open the pantry to find it empty. I close my eyes and sigh. “I’ll give you some money, so go out and buy bread and eggs for breakfast. And milk and tea too.”

“You’d make your own mother work? Ungrateful child.”

“My apologies, would you prefer to get to work scrubbing this place while I walked to market instead?” Getting my message, she scrunches her face up, takes the coppers from my hand and slips into a fluffy white coat.

“That’s very nice,” I say suspiciously. “Is it new?”

“One of my admirers bought it for me,” she retorts lightly and ducks out before I can ask any more questions.

I throw myself into my chores with vigor. In a way I almost welcome the mess; it feels very satisfying to clean something so filthy. When Mother returns forty minutes later, I can tell she hardly recognizes the place, though as usual she has no words of gratitude.

Throwing two eggs in a bowl I whisk them up while a pan warms on the stove. I cut the bread into thick slices and coat them with egg, then toss them in the pan, cooking them on each side before serving them up with just a pinch of salt. Mother doesn’t even wait for the first piece to cool before she sinks her teeth into it.

“Oh, it’s so good,” she moans. “Heaven knows when was the last time I ate a home cooked meal.”

“This barely qualifies as cooking. What on earth have you been eating till now?”

“I go out to eat, of course.”

“But that’s expensive!”

She gives me a frosty, calculating sort of look, then looks away, devouring the last of her bread and reaching for another slice.

“I don’t like this account I’m hearing. You eat out for every meal and you’re wearing a brand new coat? The salary I send is enough to cover rent and basic groceries, who’s paying for these expenses?”

Mother doesn’t answer, nor does she meet my gaze. Starting to get a bad feeling, I rise abruptly from the table and head for her room.

“Thedra, no!”

“What else have you been buying?”

I burst upon the little room and I’m immediately confronted with a ghastly sight. Dresses, there must be at least fifteen of them. All of them bright and stylish, sewn with expensive thread. I even spy a pair of sapphire earrings on the nightstand.

I could sink to the floor with horror, but my rage keeps me on my feet.

“How?” I turn on her. “How did you pay for this?”

She shrugs. “I still have friends willing to help me out when I’m in a tight spot.”

“You got into debt again? Did you forget what happened last time?” I could tear my hair out in frustration. “How could you do this when I already send you my entire salary?”

“That pittance? It’s not enough to buy even a decent pair of silk stockings.”

“Mother!”

“I don’t know what you want me to say! You send me a few silver pieces and expect me to be content with that? I’m used to living like a Baroness; how can you possibly expect me to live on a pauper’s salary?”

“I can’t understand how you could be so selfish!”

“Selfish? I’m selfish? I’m not the one who ran off and neglected her duty to this family. If you’d just married when I told you to this never would have happened.”

Ah, yes. We come to it at last. The crux of the whole matter. I straighten and pull the letter she sent me from my pocket.

“So you were serious about this?”

She looks down her nose at the letter, and then sniffs and turns her head back to breakfast. “That’s right. You’re engaged to Mr. Weaver.”

“Leroy Weaver the loan shark?!”

“Keep your voice down,” Mother hisses at me. “Mr. Weaver’s turned over a new leaf; he’s a respectable gentleman, now.”

“Gentleman? Gentleman?! His thugs beat my brother to death!”

“Silence!” she rises and strides to my side. “I will say no more on the matter. You’re marrying Mr. Weaver and that’s that.”

“I won’t marry him,” I say, tears in my eyes. “I refuse. I’ll earn the money myself.”

“For the next forty years? Don’t be a fool. An opportunity like this will never come again.”

“I won’t do it! I won’t marry that awful man just to pay your debts!”

“Have you forgotten your duty to this family? To your mother? Am I to tolerate this disobedience? Wicked child!” she lifts her hand to strike me when suddenly a dark figure intersperses itself between us, and my heart gives a wild flutter of recognition.

“That will not do, Madam.”

Mr. Bentham?!

“S-sir!” I come around him to stand beside my mother. His gaze flicks to me momentarily; he wears an expression I sort of recognize from the night Evelyn tried to murder me. Yes, if I am reading him correctly, I think Mr. Bentham is very, very angry.

But me, I am only embarrassed. Embarrassed to have him see the squalor I come from, and to know he’s just overheard such a humiliating conversation. 

“Who are you, hideous brute?” Mother demands, and I feel the color drain from my face at her crass address of my employer. “How did you get in here? Leave at once, before I call the police!”

“My name is Roderick Bentham,” he says, dropping her hand, seemingly unaffected by her rude words. “The door was unlocked so I let myself inside. I hope you’ll forgive my intrusion. But is it my understanding you mean to marry your daughter off to a loan shark to settle your family’s debts?”

I could die of shame to hear him say those words. I’ve never been so humiliated in my life.

Meanwhile Mother sniffs to hear our circumstance put so bluntly by a stranger, but she doesn’t back down. “That is Thedra’s duty as the only remaining heir to Baron Clyde. And frankly it’s none of your business. This is a family matter and does not concern you.”

“So you’re saying it doesn’t matter to you who she marries, so long as the debt is settled?” he asks darkly. “Then give her to me.”

The little house goes silent.

What did he just say? I’m not sure I can trust my own ears. Indeed, I’m not sure I could hear anything at all now over the wild beat of my heart. Meanwhile Mother only stares up at him shrewdly.

“I will marry your daughter and settle all your debts,” Mr. Bentham declares boldly. Then he looks to me with a somewhat softened gaze. “If she will have me.”

I can’t answer. I can’t even think. I can only stare back at him wide-eyed, speechless.

“Then, if there are no objections,” he says, and he takes my hand firmly and begins to pull me out of the house, stopping just long enough at the front door to throw my coat over my shoulders.

“I’ll return tomorrow first thing with my lawyer and we’ll make all the arrangements. So I suggest you contact Mr. Weaver and tell him the wedding is off.”

His parting words to my mother ring in my flaming ears together with the noise of the slamming door.

“Thedra is mine.”