Secrets ☆completed☆

Part thirty seven- Lady Marianne Greville *warning contains violent scenes*

Bernard had called me to let me know of Lady Greville's arrival at the castle and that she'd immediately been taken to her father's study.

I walked faster along the great hall as I heard raised voices coming from the direction of his study, I didn't bother to knock as I entered which caused Robert to stop his shouting and glare at me.

I walked past Daisy sitting in a chair by his desk and looked her over quickly, she looked fine, a bit pale but otherwise holding her own.

He must know about Marshall and I begin our game of me trying to out think him.

“Marianne, Did you know your daughter is a whore, no better than a common prostitute really?”

He gets in her face and spits at her and she wipes her face as she sinks back into the chair trying to get further away from him.

“Daisy?”

I question her, making sure I sound and look surprised, she looks at me disbelivingly 

“Mother I'm no whore, you know this, I'm in love with someone and I refuse to marry Rohan, I love Marshall mummy!”

she sounds like an impetuous child,  Robert slaps her around the face, catching and splitting her bottom lip with his wedding ring and she wipes the blood away and laughs at him

“Your filthy whore of a daughter has been letting that disgusting rapper defile her, that's where she disappears to all the time, she was even doing it here when he came that weekend.”

I keep quiet not wanting to let on that I know about this.
Daisy stands up and storms  towards him

“He's not disgusting, he's a good man and a bloody brilliant father unlike you, I fucking hate you"

She screams at him, her face bright red with anger, venom dripping from her voice, I've never heard her swear before and all I can think about is how much I actually liked Marshall and his children when they stayed at the castle for the weekend.

Robert grabs her by her throat and pulls her towards his desk, she struggles against the harsh hold he has over her, he pushes her backwards over it hitting the back of her head as he forces her down on it and then he punches her in her beautiful face, she kicks out her legs and manages to connect with his stomach hard, he releases her, clutching his stomach and groaning

“fucking whore!” he screams at her,  Daisy leaps up walking quickly towards me, her nose bloody and her eye starting to bruise, her eyes pleading with me to help her but I'm stuck, rooted to the spot, the fear of his retribution hanging over me. 

Before we can both realise what's happening he's grabbed her by her hair and pulled her hard backwards, she falls, hitting the back of her head on the table as she goes down, I hear the worst noise as her head hits the table,  a cracking noise.

He begins kicking her in the ribs, he stamps repeatedly on her right hand, her delicate bones cracking and she screams like a wounded animal, I cover my ears trying to block out her cries,  I'm not sure how much more I can witness of this, he's going to kill her.

She screams 'No' loudly and rolls over into a foetal position trying to protect her stomach, realisation hits me she's pregnant or at least thinks she is.

A distant memory of me lying on the floor while Robert kicked our second baby out of my body after we'd found out it was another girl hits me hard, my heart hammers inside me,  I start to shake and the horrific flashback triggers me into action, suddenly nothing seems worth all of these years of abuse and loneliness.

I can't let this go on and quickly rise from my seat “Robert, stop!” I grab at his arm and it's enough to distract him into stopping, Daisy takes that moment to crawl quickly away into the corner, arms wrapped around her middle. Her right hand obviously broken as it hangs at an odd angle.