Sowing the Seeds of Vengeance
There was so much to do, so much to accomplish, but, Marcia thought, no time in which to achieve it all.
Her urgency stemmed from the need to strike whilst she had the upper hand. Lord Bellinger was putty in her hands. His remorse seemed genuine, though she suspected his motive was fear of losing the prospect of taking over all that Marcia’s father had; this was his only hope of surviving in business and keeping his position in society. He’d even given up his mistresses, paid them off and closed the houses he kept for them. A triumph, indeed, for Marcia. But there was another reason that she knew she must act – and act now.
Dropping onto her knees the embroidery she’d been pretending to be engaged in, she looked over at her husband. Already dressed to go out, Simon was sitting in his usual chair next to the fireside. He was about to pay a visit to their bank manager, and had been telling her how his worries weighed heavily on him. Not that she cared unduly. The only thing that mattered to her was to complete what she felt she had almost accomplished – getting deeper into Frederick’s affections. For that, she needed that witch out of the way; and now was her opportunity to gain Simon’s help.
‘Simon, we need to move fast. Daddy is softening up. He spoke to me this afternoon about whether he’d been too harsh on Frederick. He said he had a conscience about the fellow. And that Katrina wouldn’t have wanted him to act as he had done, as she herself had forgiven Frederick his feelings for that witch, and Frederick had forgiven Katrina for her indiscretion with you. Daddy actually asked me if I would write to Frederick asking him to come for a visit, to sort everything out. God, if that happens, Simon, we are lost.’
‘And how do you propose to stop it happening? What wicked scheme are you conjuring up?’
‘I have a letter from Frederick.’ The letter was the last thing she wanted to share with Bellinger, and yet it was a gift.
Over the last two months she had been writing to Frederick, keeping alive the friendship that had stemmed from her visit to him on the night Bellinger attacked her.
Bellinger’s look of surprise, and then anger, unnerved Marcia. ‘A letter? Why should Frederick write to you. You were arch-enemies.’
‘And still are, but I use everything to my advantage. Your despicable attack on me didn’t break me, as it would have most women of my upbringing, but instead gave me a weapon to wheedle myself back into Frederick’s affections.’
‘What! How? My God, if you’ve told him, I’ll—’
‘What? Hit me again? Subject me to the vile humiliation you carried out that night? Just you try it. And this time I won’t go to Frederick, but to Daddy. Now, stop being a fool and listen. My ploy worked. Frederick has opened up his heart to me – and in writing. He wants me to approve of him having that bloody Dovecote girl over for a visit to his house. It’s valuable evidence that will cement Father’s hatred of him, and give me the chance to get Daddy finally to do something about changing his will.’
‘Uh, I have as much chance of marrying Queen Victoria as you have of accomplishing that! Your stupid father is holding guilt about breaking his promise to Katrina, and you bloody well put me right out of favour by telling him that I fathered Katrina’s first child. What were you thinking of? I’ve done everything for you. Everything!’
Anger caused his voice to rise. Marcia knew she had to calm him. She needed her revenge on Simon just as much as she needed to rid herself of that blasted witch. Only then could she go to Frederick, with everyone who stood in her way dealt with, and with Daddy’s money coming to them. Her plan was a good one, but she needed Bellinger’s help to carry it all through.
‘You’re not out of favour. You need to stop this attitude you have towards Father. I have smoothed all of it over. I’ve convinced Daddy that you were two young people who thought themselves in love and used the forgiveness that Frederick showed Katrina, and the way he took your child as his own and loved her. Trouble is, I have done too good a job of getting you back into a good light. Daddy now thinks he was wrong about Frederick keeping up an affair with the witch during his marriage, as he thinks that if it were so, Frederick wouldn’t have shut himself away, as he has done. I can change that opinion. I plan to go weeping to Daddy to tell him that I too have forgiven Frederick and have been trying to support him – when Frederick shatters all that by asking me to help him nurture his relationship with that vile woman!’
Bellinger’s expression changed. ‘Go on: so far you are making sense, but why do we have to destroy the witch? What will that accomplish? Surely, if we leave well alone, Frederick will blot his own copybook by taking up with her?’
Marcia knew this and had to think quickly. Nothing must stand in her way, and the witch did.
‘Because I want to destroy Frederick. Don’t you? He has lorded it over us for years. He’s even taken actions in business that have been detrimental to us. He holds a grudge against you, for what you did to him on his wedding night. And he has made you suffer for that. Look at that deal we set up with the government to supply all the uniforms for the forces. Frederick took that from under our nose, using his friendship with the Queen.’
It hadn’t happened quite like that, as Marcia knew. Frederick had already secured the order and, not knowing this, Marcia had persuaded Bellinger to butter up the influential Major Stanstal, thinking that he could swing the deal their way. After much money had been wasted and much time spent, they had learned that Frederick had won the order. Marcia immediately convinced Bellinger that he had done so in an underhand way. She had got away with it, and it was now useful fuel to stoke Bellinger’s hatred and have him wanting to exact revenge on Frederick. Just in case, she added, ‘And didn’t he steal the love of your life? Look how he moved in that disgusting way, offering for Katrina’s hand before the body of his brother was even cold! You had no chance to act. You’d seen that such a match between a lord and the daughter of a self-made man had been accepted in society, because of our mother’s standing, and saw a chance when Katrina’s betrothed was killed, but Frederick stole your thunder. No one expected that!’
Her ploy worked. Bellinger’s protests turned into a passionate desire for revenge. ‘You’re right, the mighty Earl needs to be brought low. And by us. What is your plan, my clever wife?’
Marcia had an order for the events she planned, though none of it would benefit Bellinger, but he had the right contacts. And she needed him implicated. ‘Another fire. We have to destroy all that the witch has – and her with it.’
‘You mean: murder! God, Marcia, no. That’s going too far. Destroying her factory will be enough.’
‘It won’t. She has money. She can rise up from the loss. Frederick will go to her aid. He will land on his feet again.’
‘But then we will have your father’s favour. I don’t understand why anyone has to die. I will agree to the fire, but it must be done at night, when the building is empty. My man can make it look like an accident, as he did before. It was an easy job setting fire to some rubbish in the area we needed to destroy.’
This wasn’t working out how Marcia had planned. Bellinger had logic on his side, whilst she was driven by intense desire. ‘We want Frederick destroyed – not getting all he has ever wanted!’
‘But in a way, he will be destroyed. He won’t be accepted in society ever again, and that will hurt him.’
‘It won’t. Not any more. He has already decided none of that matters. If he can have that witch, whom he calls “his dear Ruth”, he says his world will be complete.’
‘I see. In that case, you’re right. I don’t like it, but then she is no more than a whore – and we will treat her as such.’
Marcia could see, by the glint in his eye, that Simon relished the prospect of being part of the witch’s downfall. She knew what he meant by treating the witch like one of his whores, and the thought excited her. ‘Do what you think fit, but make sure it works. I want her dead, and her business destroyed!’
The vehemence with which this came out shocked Marcia. God, what have I become? But then she knew that whatever she wanted in life was hers for the taking if, and only if, she plotted for it. And she wanted Frederick, and always had done.