Mr. Punch threw up Julian’s hands, “Lady Chum, I don’t mean to sound disrespectful only this girl is not the likes of one to be trusted.”
“Mr. Punch,” Adrienne said, without thinking, “It’s not my place to judge her. Even if she is speaking falsely, I know that deep in her heart, she must wish to be free of Iolanthe and her treachery. I can help her. I’m the only woman to escape Iolanthe and live to speak of it. It’s my duty to help this young woman.”
“Why do you call my brother, ‘Mr. Punch’?” Barbara asked, raising her eyebrows. “The doctor did the same. Why? When he speaks and acts this way, why encourage his mad behavior?”
“Oh, you’re a fine one to talk about madness.” Mr. Punch grumbled.
“Barbara, just as I will not judge you, I do not judge Mr. Punch or Julian. If you’d take the time to notice, they are, indeed, two different people. This man—that body—he’s your brother. I know that he loves you. Why else would he have come all the way across the sea to try to return you to your home and your rightful inheritance? He has shown you compassion, dear girl, the very least you could do in response is to show him the same kindness.” Adrienne answered softly. “That’s the greatest path to redemption.”
Barbara looked at Punch/Julian. Mr. Punch immediately recognized the hint of malice in her eyes. She turned her gaze back to Adrienne and said with an almost-convincing note of sincerity, “You are correct, Mrs. Halifax. I have much to learn from such a wise and thoughtful woman.”
“Adrienne,” Robert interrupted. “Don’t bring this woman into this house. It’s the same as leaving the door wide open to Iolanthe Evangeline!”
“At Christmas, all are welcome.” Adrienne said firmly. “Tomorrow we celebrate miracles. It would be vain of me to think that I was above opening my door to someone in need.” She looked at Barbara, “Now, come with me and we shall talk. Perhaps I can offer you some comfort.”
With that, Barbara and Adrienne left the room.
Robert rose and picked up Toby from the floor, placing him on the bed next to Mr. Punch. Robert sat cross-legged on the end of the bed and sighed.
“My brother’s wife is generous of spirit.” Robert said softly.
“That’s all well, I ‘spose.” Mr. Punch grumbled. “But, how can a person be gen’rous of spirit to one what ain’t got no soul?”
“Perhaps your sister can be rehabilitated.” Robert shrugged. “We did, in fact, come here for just that reason. Adrienne was correct on that point.”
“She ain’t me sister, Chum.” Mr. Punch shrugged. “Adrienne’s me sister where it counts. Barbara ain’t Julian’s sister no more neither. The girl what he held on his knee and sang songs to, she’s dead. No, she didn’t die in that fire. She died when she fell in with Arthur—maybe before. She’s too much like her mother, that one. She’s got the same coldness and ugly inside her. No, Barbara, Lady Fallbridge is dead, and what’s remainin’ is some shell of a thing what calls itself Barbara Allen. Sad, really. I s’pose she didn’t have no chance. Not with the things she had to live through. Least Julian had me.”
“What things, dear Punch?” Robert asked gently. “I’ve shared a bit of Cecil’s and my history, the pain we endured as children. Yet, neither you nor Julian has ever shared with me.”
“Julian don’t know ‘bout none of it.” Mr. Punch said, his shoulders tensing. He tickled Toby’s furry ear. “Pity, isn’t it that people ain’t more like dogs. Dogs want nothin’ only to be loved and fed and to play and have cuddles and such. Unless a dog is sick, he won’t want to do no harm to anyone. But, people, they don’t have to be sick to do awful things what hurt other people.”
“Those who hurt their fellow man are often ill, dear Punch.”
“But, not always. Seems to me that the largest lot of people will do evil just for the sake of doin’ it. Don’t seem right. They all can’t be sick.”
“Everyone is a little peculiar in his or her own way.” Robert responded.
“But peculiar ain’t the same as evil.” Mr. Punch shook his head. “If you don’t mind me sayin’ so, your mum was sick, weren’t she?”
Robert nodded.
“Only she never hurt nobody. Did she?”
“No.” Robert answered.
“So, seems to me that maybe the people that are thought to be sick might just be the right ones and then the rest—the big lot—are the ones what really are crazy. People are always callin’ me, ‘lunatic,’ or ‘barrmy,’ but is that so? Just cuz there’s two of us in here don’t mean that I’m wrong in the head nor that Julian is. Just means that he and I have a way of making a life. If more people had a ‘Mr. Punch’ to protect them, maybe there’d be less hurtin’ goin’ on.”
“You raise a valid point.” Robert smiled.
“So, then, sure, Julian’s scared a things—don’t like to go out, don’t like to be touched, don’t like to be ‘round people. No. But, he’s alive, he is. And, he’s got a mind and a soul. And, when he needs strength, he’s got me. He’s always known…always has…that he’s got me. Maybe he didn’t know like he does now that I’m what I am, but it’s all the better that he does.”
“You really care for Julian.” Robert sais gently.
“Sure, I do! He’s me master. I love him. He talked to me and trusted me. That’s why I was born in him. Without him, I’d not be. I’d just be some puppet what’s torn up in the sugar cane. Now, I’m a real man—in me own way. It’s better to be a real man some of the time than a puppet what can’t feel the softness of a pup’s ears or play with a baby or feel things like what I do. See, I learned to feel love for people other than me master. And, I learned that as much as I give him the strength what he needs, I got you to give me strength. And, I can help you, too.”
“You have on many an occasion.” Robert nodded.
“But, then you got the ones like Barbara and Arthur and that ‘Ogress’ what want to hurt all the time—just hurt. Dunno why, maybe cuz they been hurt. Barbara learned it from the Duchess, she did.”
“I’ve learned a bit about the Duchess of Fallbridge—from Julian and from things I’ve heard from other people in Belgravia.”
“She’s the one what started all the pain. And, when she grew bored of it, she hired that awful woman to make sure the pain never stopped.”
“The nanny.” Robert nodded.
“Yes—stinkin’ thing that she is.”
“What did she do to Julian?” Robert asked.
Mr. Punch shook his head. “Can’t say.”
“By saying it, you’ll release it. Perhaps it won’t weigh so heavily on both of you.”
“No, Chum.” Mr. Punch sighed. “I can’t.”
“I won’t betray your confidence.”
“Never thought you would.” Mr. Punch smiled, hugging the dog. “Only thing is, what with me master knowin’ ‘bout me and him and me gettin’ closer and closer, he might could hear what I say. Thirty years, I kept this for him. Thirty years, Chum. That’s too long to let him be hurt again.”
At that very moment, Ulrika Rittenhouse giggled as she pulled Arthur up the back staircase of the mansion.
“Quiet, then.” Arthur hissed. “Are you wantin’ your mum to hear ya?”
“Please,” Ulrika rolled her eyes. “By this point in the day, she’s passed out from her brandy.”
“Where’re you takin’ me?” Arthur whispered.
“To the nursery.”
“Don’t want to go to a nursery. What for?”
“That’s where one typically finds a nanny, isn’t it?” Ulrika laughed.
Ulrika grandly opened the nursery door and barged in, dragging Arthur by his hand.
Nanny Rittenhouse didn’t look surprised to see Ulrika, but didn’t look pleased to see her either.
“Miss Ulrika, if you’ve come for your brother, he’s in the schoolroom learning his verses. I’m afraid I can’t allow you and—that man—to stay in here. I’ve only just gotten Afton to sleep. She’s so fussy.”
“Arthur, you know my cousin, don’t you?” Ulrika said. “You were both employed by the Duchess of Fallbridge.”
“Not concurrently.” Nanny Rittenhouse sniffed. “Miss Ulrika, it’s not appropriate for you to associate with people of his class.”
“Isn’t he the same class as you?” Ulrika grinned. “And, yet, you and I share a surname. Isn’t it funny how one branch of the family tree is bare with poverty and the other is heavy with the fruits of wealth? I find it delicious that Mother employed one of Father’s distant relatives as a domestic. It’s too, too humorous, really.”
“I’m glad to amuse you,” Nanny Rittenhouse said dryly. “Now, please, Miss Ulrika, you must leave. I won’t mention to your mother that I saw you with this man, but you must go. I simply cannot risk waking Afton. She’s feverish again. Honestly, there’s nothing to interest you here.”
“Oh, yes, there is.” Ulrika shook her head.
“Do tell.” Nanny Rittenhouse sighed.
“You, my impoverished cousin. You interest me greatly. You’re in service to my family, are you not?”
“I am.” The nanny replied.
“Then, there’s something that I need you to do for me.”
“What is it?” The nanny lowered her eyebrows.
“I wish for you to help the lunatic Lord Fallbridge take his own life.”
Did you miss Chapters 1-87? If so, you can read them here.
