PG 13
Please Archive
Well, here we go again. This is completely AU, a period piece, set in London in the mid-1800s. Hope you enjoy it.
Broken Wings
Ch 1
Jason Morgan, Earl of Quartermaine, leaned his hip against the mahogany desk in his study and sighed. He was trying to go through his correspondence - mostly invitations to parties he had no intention of attending. His wife, Lady Samantha would go of course. She attended all the parties, adoring the London social scene and her place as one of the leading ladies of the ton. It was the thought of his wife that brought on the sigh.
They had been married for five years; he had dashed headlong into marriage with the beautiful Lady Samantha Webber when he was only 23. At the time he had been head over heels infatuated with her. Who wouldn't be? At 19, Lady Samantha had been exquisite - dark, dark hair matched with dark intense eyes. A figure that had caused more than one idiot lord to walk into a post or fall off his horse. Her bosom was simply magnificent, and even at 19 she had known how to flaunt it. Discreetly of course, but nonetheless, Lady Samantha knew her assets and how to play them up to best effect.
During that fateful summer five years ago, Lady Samantha's formidable mother Lady Alexis, had been on the lookout for the proper fortune for her pride and joy to marry into. She had studied Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, the invaluable guide to who was who, and had what, in the British aristrocracy, narrowing down the field of likely contenders for her daughter's hand.
There were several decent fortunes on the market that season, but only one massive one. The huge Quartermaine fortune had recently fallen into the hands of the eldest son, Jason Morgan, on the death of Lord Alan, the earl. Alexis set her sights on Lord Morgan for her daughter. It really hadn't been that difficult, Jason thought now. At just 23, he had been living the life of many of the young lords. He attended parties and balls, he rode and raced horses, and he traveled. The traveling he had liked. He had been to the Orient, to Africa, and all over Europe by the age of 23. But his father's death necessitated that he remain in England. Jason had not been close to his father, but he understood duty. He was now the head of the family and the obligation was upon him to marry and produce an heir to the Quartermaine dynasty.
When he had first laid eyes on Lady Samantha he had been struck by her dark beauty. He had been smitten, he thought with disgust. A whirlwind courtship followed and within six months, Lady Samanth Webber was Lady Samantha Morgan, Countess Quartermaine. Unfortunately the bloom came off the rose rather quickly as Samantha and Jason got to know each other. They had consummated the marriage of course, although Jason had his doubts over the purity of his bride. Still, there was blood on the white sheets in the morning, and the staff would discreetly spread the word.
But he could have forgiven a youthful indiscretion. What he found he could not forgive was his wife's character. She was..cruel. There was no other word for it. The eyes that Jason had once found so intense had nothing behind them. No warmth, no caring, no compassion. Her staff lived in terror of her - she was quick to slap an unwary chamber maid for the slightests offence, imagined or not. Jason tried to intervene where he could, but it was not his place to gainsay the lady of the house - the staff were her charge, not his. She was selfish and vain, demanding attention and adoration from her large group of sycophantic followers. She was unfaithful, of that he was sure. And he wouldn't really mind, except that they had yet to produce the heir. He had no intention of pretending to be the father of one of her many lover's baby. So, knowing that she was being unfaithful, he withheld himself from her. She would not cuckcold him. He had his pride. And his brother, A.J., was happily married and a father of three sons already. If the title went to A.J.'s oldest son Michael, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
As for Samantha, she found him boring. She was not interested in his efforts to catalogue his travels into journals. She did not care about his efforts to modernize the thousands of acres of agricultural lands that had come with his inheritance. She had no interest in horses except that a pretty pair pulled her carriage.
They were absolutely, completely mismatched and unsuited, but it was too late. They were married.
He sighed again and was turning back to the correspondence when a loud shriek was heard from the vicinity of the townhouse front hall. Apparently his lovely bride was upset. How unusual, he smirked. However, the small smile disappeared as his study door flew open and his wife appeared, holding a letter in her flailing hand.
"How dare she!" Samantha raged. She screamed and stamped her feet; throwing a first rate tantrum.
Jason just leaned against his desk, used to this behavior.
"What is it now?" he asked.
"My mother! My horrible, horrible mother! How could she do this to me?" Sam picked up a small figurine and threw it at the wall. Jason winced. He had rather liked that one, he thought.
"What has she done?" Jason asked. Lady Alexis was not his favorite either. He found her bossy and managing and shrewish, rather like her daughter.
"She is sending Elizabeth to us! Elizabeth!"
"Elizabeth?" Jason remembered Samantha's younger sister, though she had only been 14 when they had married. She had been a bit of a hoyden.
Not yet out to society, she cheerfully clung to her girlhood. She rode like a madman - he remembered that. She was constantly in trouble with her mother, who
loudly and unfavorably compared her to her sister Samantha at every occasion. According to Lady Alexis, where Samantha was graceful, Elizabeth was clumsy;
where Samantha had the poise of a lady, Elizabeth had the untamed emotions of a girl.
Jason could remember thinking at the time that perhaps Elizabeth had the emotions of a girl because she still was one. But he hadn't paid Elizabeth a lot
of attention, infatuated as he was with Samantha.
But he could recall one occasion, when he had gone into the stables and hearing a soft little sob had looked in a stall and found young Elizabeth crying quietly.
"What's the matter?" he asked squatting down beside her. She had turned big blue eyes up at him - he remembered those eyes now, startlingly blue against her porcelein white skin, messy curly brown hair framing her face.
"Why did I have to be born a girl? There's so much I want to do. I want to see the world. I want to go to school. I want to paint!"
"Paint?" he asked.
"I want to be an artist. And Mother has told me that I musn't paint the way I want to. I must do water colors of the pond lilies," she said with disgust. "I want to paint the wind that you feel when you are riding your horse so fast that the world blurs around you. I want to paint the colors that you feel when a thunderstorm is raging. I don't want to paint lilies."
Jason sympathized with the little girl with the big dreams, but there wasn't much he could offer her in the way of advice. Stilll, he tried.
"Perhaps you could paint a few water lilies to present to your mother, and then paint your wind when you are alone," he said.
She smiled, her gamine face lighting up. "That's a capital idea! I shall do it!" She jumped to her feet and made to leave, but stopped and
looked at him.
"You're going to marry my sister aren't you?"
"Well, I believe I should share my plans with the object of my affections first," he said. "But, yes. I hope to marry your sister."
Elizabeth had sighed and looked at him. "What a waste," she said. "If only you would wait until I was old enough."
He smiled at her, quite enchanted with this little sprite.
"Much as I would like that, little one, I'm afraid that my heart has been given to another."
She had looked at him mournfully, and then left. He hadn't really thought much about her after that, because that evening he had proposed to Samantha. In the last five years he had not heard Elizabeth's name mentioned by his wife.
"Is your mother sending her down for her season? She must be old enough to come out now," he asked his wife. "Why would that be so terrible?"
"Elizabeth can't have a season. She's a cripple. It would be an embarrassment," Samantha snapped.
"A what? What do you mean?"
"I'm sure I told you. She was out riding like a crazed person again three years ago. There was a crack of thunder, the horse slipped, threw Elizabeth and fell on top of her. She has been confined to bed since."
"Oh, no," Jason whispered. He couldn't believe that vibrant, sunny girl had been stilled.
"It was her own fault," Samantha said, with her usual lack of compassion. "She shouldn't have been riding in a storm, especially on a new stallion, she had no permission to ride."
"Is she better then? Is that why your mother is sending her?"
"No, she's not better. Mother is sending her because Elizabeth has got some notion in her brain that a doctor here in town could help her regain some movement of her limbs. She has always been one for crackbrained ideas and for some reason Mother has decided to indulge her. I think it's because Mother is sick of looking after her. Having an invalid to watch over is exhausting. It will upset the household. Which is why she musn't come here. I do not have time to watch over her. I must stop this before she arrives."
"You will do no such thing," Jason said. She looked at him with surprise. Her husband rarely stood in the way of her wants.
"My lord?" she questioned.
"If your Mother thinks that this doctor could help Elizabeth, then we will do what we can to assist," he said implacably.
"Well, then it is you who shall take it on. I haven't time for this," Samantha stomped out of the room.
Jason watched her leave, more shaken than he would like to admit at the thought of little Elizabeth being confined to bed. It just didn't fit. She was so alive, so passionate about life.
"My Lord?" The butler, Spencer, appeared in the doorway. "A carriage has arrived, conveying a personage who claims to be Lady Samantha's sister."
"I will greet her," Jason said.
He exited the townhouse and walked down the grand outside stairs. A carriage, though not a very luxurious one, had pulled to a stop.
Opening the door, he peered into the darker confines of the carriage and prepared to greet his little sister-in-law.
"Hello Elizabeth, I hope you had a pleasant journey," he said to the figure in the carriage. It was a little difficult to see, going from light to dark as he had. In his mind Elizabeth was still a 14 year old, with slightly chubby cheeks and a childish mien, and he greeted her as such.
"My Lord Jason," she said. For some reason that husky little voice sent a shiver dancing down his spine. "I am afraid that I will need assistance out of the carriage. Perhaps a footman could be summoned?"
"Allow me," he said, reaching for her. He picked her slight form up in his arms. She was still very tiny. Backing out of the carriage, he brought her out with him.
She turned her face to the sun and then met his eyes. And he was confronted with a sight he was unprepared for. Elizabeth was no longer the girl he remembered. A heart shaped face, still dominated by bright blue eyes; lush, pink lips, a square little jaw and an adorable small cleft in her chin. Her hair was still a riot of curls. Those lips turned up in a smile.
She had been right, he thought. He should have waited for her.
i hope as we go on you are able to return
liz's feeling to her legs and she's able to walk. Update soon please.
