A Father's Love, Chapter Seven
#7 of A Father's Love
Poor Miss Bailie, she hurt her leg. She fell down the stairs. I had said to her once, "Miss Bailie you should not run up and down the stairs at your age," although she isn't very old. Actually I pushed her. It was very easy, mostly because I slipped a few shots of brandy into her tea and mixed some sugar in to hide the taste. She'd gotten down a few steps and I stepped behind her and gave her a gentle nudge.
"Camile," Mammy called.
"Yes Mammy?" I said, leaning over the railing.
"Get dressed," Mammy said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Just get dressed will you?" Mammy said irritably. Then she added, "Wear your pink dress!"
I figured. She had invited a male to the house.
I shuddered, waiting for Miss Bailie to come and lace me up tightly into that awful corset. My welts still hadn't healed up. I put the dress on and observed myself in front of the mirror. It was a white shift, it looked a little similar to the turquoise dress I wore at the costume party, but the collar was a little lower, so low it looked as though my breasts would pop out. Over it went a pale peach pink dress with long fluttering sleeves that went to my elbows, with lacy trim around the collar and hem. The waist began just below my breasts. The dress made me wish they weren't so big. I left my hair down, but I felt like crying though, because I couldn't wear my pearls with the dress.
"Hurry up!" Miss Bailie hissed.
She pulled me downstairs.
"I'll fall," I said.
She didn't listen to me. I jumped down the last three stairs. Miss Bailie pushed me into the living room. Mammy was sitting with another hyena, another spotted hyena.
"About time, what were you doing?" she demanded.
She didn't give me time to answer.
"This is David, Mr. David Carey," she said, gesturing toward the male, "I'll leave you two to get acquainted."
"Mammy please don't leave me-" I began but she had already left.
David was twirling his thumbs, then he stood up and held out his paw to me.
"You must be Camilie?" he smiled.
I politely extended my paw to him and he kissed it. He was handsome but he looked too much like Josh. I didn't like it.
"I am Camile," I said, nodding.
I sat down and he sat down next to me.
"What brings you here?" I asked him.
He answered me after a couple of minutes. He'd been staring at my breasts.
Thank you Mammy. I muttered to myself.
He was just like Josh.
"Your father is a friend of my father, he said it was funny they knew each other for so long but that you and I had never met," David said.
"Quite," I said.
I smoothed my dress then said, "The garden looks lovely in the daytime, all the colors, it looks like a painting."
David just smiled and nodded.
"We get all sorts of visitors, hummingbirds, bees... In the garden I mean," I said.
I don't think he cared. He didn't care. He was too busy staring at my breasts. The whole time we spoke he stared at my breasts.
Disgusting bastard. I frowned.
His table manners were fine. He knew how to use a knife and fork.
Miss Bailie cleared her throat.
"Mr. Carey, what do you do?" she asked.
"I help father down on the ranch. He breeds the fastest thoroughbreds," David said, as if horses were the greatest thing in the world.
Mammy, Daddy and Miss Bailie and Josh and his friends thought so. That or they were just trying to be nice.
"Fascinating," I muttered, into my glass.
Mammy looked at me out of the corner of her eye, as if to say, "That means he's rich so you can stay home all day."
I wished he'd just leave. But Mammy and Daddy liked him too much. And since he wouldn't leave I decided to. I went to the Maple Room, where Miss Bailie and I went to be alone, and closed the door and sat in one of the chairs.
I knew why Mammy brought David. She was trying to keep me from seeing Mr. Bridshaw.
TAP! TAP!
I looked up. Someone was at the window. I turned on the lamp. It was Will. I opened the window.
"What are you doing here? Couldn't you have used the front door?" I asked.
"I could have but I wanted to avoid Miss Bailie," he said.
He looked around then asked, "Can I come in?"
"No," I said.
I gathered my skirt and climbed onto the sill and lowered myself down.
"I can't stand to be in there," I said.
I turned and closed the window, then pulled Will away from the light towards the maze.
"She wants to send me away," I said.
"Who?" Will asked.
"My mother, she's going to marry me off to someone I barely know," I said.
"Come to stay with me and Mr. Bridshaw, he'll take care of you," Will said.
"They'll find a way to take me back," I said.
Will opened his mouth to speak but suddenly he was on the ground. Josh pulled him up by his collar.
"Trying to give her more ideas?" he said, raising his paw.
His fist collided with Will's face. Then another figure appeared and elbowed Will in the back, then someone else knocked him to the ground. The three males stood over him, kicking him repeatedly.
"Stop it!" I cried.
Will's nose was bleeding.
"Stop it! You'll kill him!" I screamed.
I rushed forward but someone pulled me back. It was David.
"You'll kill him!" I shouted.
I tried to push David back but he held me tight.
"Go back inside," he said.
"No," I said.
"Go back inside," David repeated.
"I won't, you're hurting him," I said.
Then David raised his hand and smacked me.
"Get back inside!" he shouted at me.
I held my cheek. I tried to speak but it seemed as though my lips were fused together, my eyes watered, stinging a little, and then I turned and ran toward the house.
Go back! One side of my mind screamed.
Go inside. The other side said.
I rushed inside. Mammy was sitting with Miss Bailie and Daddy.
"They're killing him!" I cried.
They didn't say anything, they just stared at me.
"They're going to kill him!" I shouted.
They just kept staring at me.
"What kind of people are you?" I screamed, and then rushed from the room. I slammed my door shut and ran to my window.
I could see the faint figures of Josh and his friends still beating Will.
"Sit down," a voice said.
It was Daddy.
I shook my head.
"Sit down," he said more firmly.
I refused, and he grabbed me by my arm and dragged me to my bed. He shoved me down.
"You will forget about this Mr. Bridshaw and behave like a lady," Daddy shouted at me.
"No," I said, my eyes welling with tears.
"You will!" Daddy roared, his face close to mine.
He straightened up.
"You're going to marry David, perhaps he can make an obedient girl of you," Daddy said.
"I won't, he's awful. He hit me," I said.
"Well it's about time someone did. You'll forget that man even if I have to beat him out of you," Daddy said.
And with that he left, and I laid down on my bed and cried.
I visited Daddy in his study the next morning. I kept wondering if Will was alright, if he was still alive. Daddy was looking over some papers and swirling a shot of whiskey in his hand. He looked up as I came in.
"Yes?" he said.
I was silent for a bit, then I walked up to him and bent forward and kissed him on the cheek.
"I'm sorry Daddy," I said.
He nodded, more like he just raised his head and grunted, and said, "Good girl."
Then he waved me away.
I wasn't really sorry, and I think he knew. At that moment I turned around to face Daddy again.
"Yes?" he said.
"Why do you hate me?" I asked.