He dismissed my comment with a scowl. “I had everything under control before you came. Now you’ve riled them up. Trying to turn them against me, but it won’t work. I’m God to them.”
“God to a pack of bloodthirsty animals.”
Alice’s face went white. Montgomery’s hand found hers in a reassuring squeeze. I was talking about her friends, I realized. And Montgomery’s.
“They weren’t animals,” Father said. Coiled rage was a tremor beneath his calm voice. “Not until they tasted blood. They were human!” He slammed his brandy against the table, sending sticky liquid sloshing onto the tablecloth. “But they won’t be for long.”
“What do you mean?” Edward asked. There was an uncertain edge to his voice like a sharp piano note.
Father turned on him, eyes flashing. “I mean Ajax should be six feet under right now. It’s dangerous to let the smart ones live, don’t you think, Mr. Prince?”
Edward’s hands coiled on the table, pulling up folds in the tablecloth. The tension between them was palpable. I had missed something, I realized. Something in their talk that first night. Some threat Father must have made. What had Edward called it? An arrangement. Maybe the arrangement hadn’t been about me, after all.
“Very dangerous, I should think,” Edward said, his voice holding something back.
“The doctor means that he’s ordered me to stop their treatments,” Montgomery interrupted. I whipped my head to face him. “He intends to let them regress.”
A deep current of fear ran beneath my skin at the idea of beastly, mindless creatures roaming the island. “You can’t do that,” I said. “If you take away their humanity—”
“Then they’ll cease to be dangerous,” Father said.
“They’ll be wild. Nothing to check their violence.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” he snapped. “I told you, most of them are pigs. Cows. Sheep.”
“Not all of them.”
“Don’t you think I’ve considered that? There are safeguards. They all have domesticated components to keep them docile. What’s more, what little spirit they might have once had was driven out of them by the procedure. Pain is an incredibly useful tool.” His fingers worked the table, and I imagined he was absently tracing the shape of a body, cutting into it. “This regression is necessary, Juliet. A fail-safe. When they regress they lose their dexterity. Everything here—the guns, the cabinets, even the door latches—has been carefully designed to only work for five-fingers.”
“Five-fingers?” Edward asked. He flexed his hand, looking at the web of cuts across his knuckles.
Father held up his open hand. “Humans. And some of the more advanced creatures, like the house staff.”
“Jaguar has five fingers, too,” I warned.
“Which is precisely why we’re hunting him down.” He turned his attention to Montgomery. “Because you let him live.”
“I’m not to blame for this,” Montgomery said. I could see the stormy rage building in him like a storm. “He shouldn’t have been created in the first place. None of them should have been!”
I couldn’t imagine he’d ever crossed my father so directly. The force of his outburst made me both elated he’d stood up for himself and terrified at what Father would do.
Father grew dangerously quiet. The clock on the mantel across the room ticked away painfully slow seconds. Montgomery’s face went white, but he didn’t take back his words.
“‘Should never have been created,’” Father repeated with a chilling calmness. “And what of your own part in it? You consider yourself innocent?”
Montgomery stared at the rain outside. His chest rose and fell quickly. “No. But no one bears the blame more than you.”
“Bah! What do you know? You’re hardly a gentleman. You said so yourself. Perhaps you should start acting like the servant you are and keep your useless opinions to yourself. And keep your dirty hands off my daughter!”
I nearly spit out my water. Montgomery’s jaw tightened.
I pulled at my collar, needing air. Edward stared at me from across the table, face so slack I might as well have slapped him. Guilt seized me. I’d told him I cared about Montgomery, so he shouldn’t have been surprised. But there’d been that night behind the waterfall. I couldn’t pretend that had meant nothing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Montgomery said, trying to pass it off casually. But his voice shook. He didn’t look up from the table.
Father smirked. “Don’t show your lack of intelligence by insulting mine.” He poured himself another glass of brandy. His temper had cooled into self-righteousness. “Juliet, don’t tell me you didn’t know. Montgomery’s been in love with you since the day you found him again. Long before that, come to think of it. He’s been in love with the mere idea of you for years.” He took a sip. “It’s pathetic.”
“Stop this,” I said. My voice was barely audible above the rage boiling in my veins.
But Father was enjoying torturing him. “We all know it’s true. I merely want to inform him that you’re too good for him. Prince is a damn fool, but I’d rather pair you with him. At least he’s of proper breeding.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at either of them. I just wanted the torture to end.
“What do you say, Prince?” Father said jovially. “You wouldn’t mind a match with my daughter, would you? After all, it’s a small island. Limited selection, you understand, unless you prefer the four-legged variety.”
My mouth nearly fell open. My face was burning, but I was too angry to be embarrassed.
Edward slammed his fist on the table. “I say you’re cruel and a madman, Doctor.” He pushed his chair back so hard it grated on the wood floor. “The sooner this world is rid of you, the better it will be.” He threw his napkin on the table and left the room.
I stared at a chip in my supper plate, stunned. The ticking clock echoed in the hollow cage of my heart.
At last, Montgomery stood. “I agree with Edward. And I’ll add that you’re a goddamned bastard.” He stormed out of the room into the rain.
I stood, too, but Father grabbed my wrist.
“He’s a servant, Juliet. You’d do well to remember that. Prince would be the better match.”
“Why do you care?” I yelled. “Why not just leave us be?”
“It’s still my duty to see you married. And your duty to do as I say.”
“You’ve never liked Edward.”
“He’s of use to me in this case.”
Father didn’t care about people, only how he could use them. And matching me with Edward would mean fulfilling his only fatherly duty so he could send me back to London with a husband and never think of me again.
I wrenched my hand from his. I had nothing to say to him.
Twenty-nine
LATER THAT EVENING, I paced the long portico outside my apartment. Rain poured off the roof and into the courtyard. Beneath the door to Edward’s outbuilding a shadow passed, back and forth, back and forth, making the light shift and slide. I pictured Edward pacing on the other side, as trapped as I was. Father didn’t like Edward, knew hardly anything about him, but was ready to pawn me off on him to get rid of me. It stung that I meant so little.
I leaned against a post, listening to the storm. A light shone from the barn, where Montgomery must be attending to the horses, wishing the mess over dinner could be cleaned as easily as brushing down a horse. Above all the embarrassment and the anger, I was proud of him for standing up to my father.
I made my way around the portico, stealing glimpses at the barn’s cracked half door, wanting just a glimpse of him. The horses stamped and whinnied within. I hadn’t intended on going inside, but as if by their own accord, my fingers softly pushed the door open. Inside, rain slowly leaked into murky puddles in the straw. The whites of the horses’ eyes flashed in the lantern light.
Montgomery groomed Duke with quick, tense strokes.
I let the door ease closed behind me, but the hinges groaned. Montgomery’s eyes flashed to mine. They were dark. Cold. Warning me away. He brushed harder, sending dust dancing in the air.
“He didn’t mean it,” I said. I hugged my arms close. “He would have said anything to wound you.”
The brush kicked up more dust, almost obscuring his face. The rhythmic sound of hard bristles on horseflesh was hypnotic. Montgomery’s jaw was set hard, the cords in his muscles strained.
“I know,” he said.
He finished brushing the horse’s hindquarters and back legs, then used a metal pick to pull the knots from Duke’s tail. When he finished, he threw the pick into a tin bucket. The metallic ring echoed in the small space, giving me shivers.
He rubbed down his hands with an old rag and stood in the stall opening. His presence warmed the room more than the lantern.
“But he wasn’t wrong,” he said. Desire flickered in his eyes like firelight.
My heartbeat stumbled. He’s been in love with you for years, Father had said. I’d thought Montgomery’s affection lay with Alice, but could I have been wrong? If so, how could he love someone whose father had been so cruel? What if I misunderstood him still? What if—
He stepped closer, lowering his head. His face was inches from mine. Then he pulled me to him, digging his hands into my arms. His lips found mine. I jerked back, just for a breath, shocked by his passion. It was totally improper. But as he grabbed my chin and kissed me again, harder this time, I forgot about decorum. Suddenly I couldn’t be close enough to him. I clutched the collar of his shirt so hard the fabric ripped.
His lips found the pulsing vein on my neck. I could hardly think. It was familiar and new, all at once. This was the little boy who’d taken care of me when Father was consumed with work. The little boy I’d idolized since I could barely walk.
He pushed my back against the stall door, kissing me. Edward had tried to kiss me, but I’d been so shocked I’d barely had time to explore how it felt. Lucy had told me stories of shady corners and sweaty palms. But this was passionate. Wild. Something I’d never felt.
“Have you kissed a girl before?” I whispered.
He ran a thumb over my cheek. His eyes lingered on my lips. “Yes,” he said. I thought of Alice, her pretty blond hair, her scarred lip that made her so vulnerable. But it wasn’t her name he said. “A woman at the docks in Brisbane. She didn’t mean anything. I was lonely. It wasn’t love.”
A prostitute, he meant. So he’d done much more than kiss her. Suddenly I didn’t know what to do, as though I were still just a child and he a grown man. “Just once?”
“Twice.” His fingers twisted in the hair at the back of my neck. The pupils of his eyes were wide and black, like an animal’s. “Does it matter?”
I bit my lip. I felt dizzy as a spinning top. In my old life I never would have taken chances. Never would have stepped outside the line.
But that life was behind me.
“No,” I said. I stood on my toes, pressing my lips to his.
THE SOUND OF BARKING dogs made me jump. I’d lost track of time, swept up in the storm of Montgomery’s passion. He had pulled me into a dark corner of Duke’s stall, murmuring my name as his lips grazed my throat, my shoulder, my temples.
I fought to my senses and put a hand on his chest. “Do you hear the dogs? Balthasar’s returned.”
He paused, listening, but his grip tightened on my waist. His hair hung loose over the sides of his face, hiding all but his fierce blue eyes.
A voice called from the courtyard. It was Father’s. I gasped.
“Montgomery! You worthless fool, are you in here?”