Chapter 289: Warning (4)
"Edgar!" Luke exclaimed as he abruptly stood up. "As if coming to my home and placing a gun on my table wasn’t enough, you have threatened my sister. It is time that you leave. All of you."
"No," Edgar said, his gun still resting on the table. "I don’t think we understand each other here."
Edgar could read Luke well.
Though Luke now learned that there was nothing more for him to gain from the mines, he would still eye what didn’t belong to him.
Luke, Claire, Melanie and those around them would always think it was unfair that Alessandra had so much money in her hands.
"I understand you quite well, Edgar-"
"Duke," Edgar corrected Luke once more. "I have told you that we aren’t so familiar with you to address me so informally. I shall always be Duke Edgar to you."
Luke gritted his teeth. "I think that you are the greedy one here. She married a man so wealthy that you can rival the king, yet there is still more for her to take. You are what you accuse me of being."
"Alessandra is far from greedy, and I have only been greedy concerning her love. Blame yourselves for not taking the time to get to know your grandmother. She was mourning the loss of her husband, who had been sick. Did you think she should come to you?" Edgar asked.
"We went to see her. She was not happy to see our mother. How could we keep going to see someone who kept pushing our mother away?" Claire asked.
Claire saw her mother as the victim in all of this.
Melanie was mistreated by her first husband, her first daughter, and then her mother.
"I would be upset if I learned my daughter ran off, leaving her daughter in the hands of a man she knew wasn’t any good. If my daughter didn’t think to place her daughter in my hands," Elijah spoke up.
Elijah was certain his mother would have had a far better youth if she had left her father and gone to live with her grandmother.
"It was wrong of my mother to leave without a word, but it is thanks to that decision that Alessandra married a duke and you exist," Claire said to Elijah. "Some good came out of it, so it is time you stop being angry at others. It was meant to be this way."
Elijah stared at Claire, trying to place if she was always so foolish.
"It was meant to be this way? You think I would celebrate the life I have when it came on the back of my mother suffering? You dismiss all because your youth was well. I should have protected my sisters from you," Elijah said, feeling like he had failed them.
Claire frowned, put off by the way they spoke like she had done something wrong. "I never once hurt my nieces. I treated them like my daughters."
"No, you wanted your daughter to be close to my sisters to be welcomed into better circles-"
"My sister is a duchess, yet she didn’t welcome me into the circles she is invited to. She knew how important it was for a young lady to be in certain rooms, yet she never welcomed me," Claire argued.
What good was having a sister for a duchess when life was still the same?
"You married a doctor," Tyrion reminded Claire.
"I could have married a nobleman!’ Claire yelled.
"Oh no!" Claire gasped, her hands covering her mouth.
While Claire was horrified by what she revealed, Tyrion enjoyed it.
"So, you are saying that the duchess’s not inviting you to be at balls or gatherings has caused you to settle for a doctor. Many would see a woman of your standing marrying a doctor to be a good match," said Tyrion.
Tyrion had seen many men and women like Claire who tried to aim too high to reach what others had only to burn themselves.
"Your husband would not be pleased to hear this," Elijah said, tempted to share it.
Claire’s hands continued to cover her mouth. It was something she didn’t want to share with anyone other than her mother.
"I love my husband," Claire said, hoping it wouldn’t get back to him. "I was only speaking of what could have been."
"No," Tyrion replied, refusing to let Claire get off with a lie. "You meant what you said. You were seeking a man with status and got a doctor. You are so foolish to not see that a doctor can provide well for you. There is always someone sick in town. Or, do you seek to live like a duchess?"
"Enough!" Luke yelled. "We will not be spoken to by a man who has recently married into this family. Duke Edgar, is it not embarrassing to speak of these matters before the prince?"
"No," Edgar responded without a second thought. He didn’t care what Tyrion thought of the family.
"You must leave, or I will send for the town guards. I am certain they would be more than happy to drag you off far away," said Luke.
"I am not afraid of the town guards. Speak of taking the mines from my wife’s hands, and I shall ruin your life in this kingdom. Think of your wife and children," Edgar advised Luke.
It would be easy to make it so that Luke wouldn’t find work in Lockwood.
"It shall soon spread that the Collins family want nothing to do with the Harrises besides Melody. Whoever you were able to convince that we do business together will walk away from you," Edgar said, planning to spread the news once he returned home.
"Speaking of us doing business will lead to no one doing business with you. Speaking of my wife and the mines will get you killed," Edgar said, picking up his gun from the table.
Should Luke or Claire be so unfortunate as to see this very gun again, then their time in this world would come to an end.
"We’re leaving," Edgar announced so the two others could follow him.
Claire drew closer to Luke for protection. She was certain one of them was going to be hurt by how angry Edgar appeared.
Claire only moved when all three men left the room and went to the window to check that they were getting into their carriage.
"What are we going to do, Luke? He will kill us. We must go to the town guards and tell them about this," Claire said, not knowing what else to do.
Surely, the guards would do everything in their power to protect them.
"We shall do that and one other thing. It is time our mother goes back to the Cromwells," Luke said, since it was their only hope.