I Am A Lady #Wattys2015

Chapter Twelve

'You assured me you would be able to marry the lady. A simple instruction was so difficult to execute.' Lord Markham shouted. He was pacing in his small office, in the back streets of London. He had a perfect plan all it took was a marriage. He had sacrificed himself so that it would work.

'You try marrying a woman as strong willed as Lady Annabelle, it's not easy, not after Angelo, Markham and you know it all too well.'

'Your brother, your brother would have gotten the result I wanted. It was unfortunate he was a loose end in the plan and he had to go.'

'You shot my brother Markham do not speak of him with such disrespect. If you want so badly for revenge why not marry her yourself?' Sir Ashton was now irritated. He had his brother killed for a man whose gratitude existed only in his mind.

Lord Markham had filled his head with lies. He had believed Angelo was to kill Lady Annabelle. He would never have allowed it. Her hatred for him was justified. If she found out the truth he knew it would not benefit him. Her affections for him, if they still existed, would only fade even farther away.

'I would not marry that lowly maid if my life depended upon it.' He knocked over the jar of water that had been placed on the table. 'I must not let him down,' he said more to himself than the company in the room. 

 'Why did yo call for me Markham?' he asked irritated.

'The fool she is married to Ashton cannot live.'

'Have you not tired of taking lives Markham?'

'Until she and her slave of a mother suffer, no Ashton, I will not tire.'

Sir Ashton not wanting to hear anymore of his rants left the room with haste.

Angelo would have forgiven him had he survived. He would have told him it was alright and men do make mistakes for no one was perfect. He had killed his mother and the man he had known all his life as a father. His hands were stained with blood. And he would have killed Lady Annabelle if he had been asked to.

Sir Ashton did not accommodate the thoughts of spending his life in prison for a crime he committed when he was too young and too foolish to make informed decisions. His whole life had turned around after that one night when he laid his hands on Lady Sarah Edwards, the night before her wedding. He was at the beck and call of Lord Markham since then.

He, however, knew not why Lord Markham had a hunger to destroy the Edwards. They had nothing but kind and pure hearts and Lady Annabelle would never have met him if it hadn't been for Lord Markham putting him in her path. 

When he came face to face with her again he never imagined he would have been able to speak. Her memory loss was to date still his greatest ally. She did not remember and he wished her not to, for he surely would be hanged. Worse still, Lady Annabelle would NEVER forgive him for this sin.

  He would not lie, Annabelle's betrayal with his brother had hurt. But he understood for his intentions for her were not pure.  He looked back to Lord Markham's figure standing by the window , he would not let him win. Not this time. 

Lord Markham stood by the window and watched Sir Ashton walk away. He is a coward, a man who has no respect for himself or women. Lord Markham had loved Lady Annabelle since the first time he had laid eyes on her. But his thirst for revenge and honoring a name that brought him nothing but misfortune was greater than any kind of love ever described. As Ashton's frame became smaller and smaller he made the decision, he too would have to die. This time his plan would not be spoiled. He would deal with one man at a time.