My role in this family is to provide for and protect my wife and children. They are expected to do as I ask.
Victorian Husband
Chapter Twelve: Obey Me
"Have you seen Hugette Pinson's latest column?" Erik put down his pen and took the paper that Phillipe offered. Once again there was another picture of Emily Griggs. This week it was taken at one of the colleges in the city. Last week it was with Vincente Juin who was a respected surgeon and educator with one of Rouen's more exclusive hospitals. The week before had featured her in Denis Chalin's legal office.
All of the exposure she was gaining through the newspaper had succeeded in generating more orders for the Remington typewriters making everyone very happy; except Erik. Emily was successfully carrying out her job as she was contracted to do, but for the last three weeks, between her work and her moving out of the hotel he had not seen her.
He directed Phillipe to sit down and began going over stipulations he wanted added to future contracts from one of mills when Javier arrived. Rapping lightly at the door he came in when Erik answered.
"Phillipe, Monsieur, there has been another incident." Erik waved him into a chair and Javier produced a piece of paper from his jacket pocket. "There was a fight at a Paris bar that involved several members of one of our crews." He handed Erik a scribbled copy of the Paris police report.
Erik read it aloud for Phillipe's benefit, "There were at least three men detained; one who had had to have some stitches done by a local doctor. According to the bar tender and several other witnesses these three men were set upon after they left the bar by a group of men. As the gendarmes arrived, the other group of men scattered, but witnesses at the scene indicated these men were from a local warehouse. Their employer will be fined for the doctors' bill." He paused and added, "The bill will be paid by Jules Gaultier's office."
"I don't believe it" Phillipe put in, "it has been over a month since the boat damage, and now trouble from a group of men who are employed under Jules Gaultier."
Javier added, "It's just too convenient."
Erik sat back and rested his chin on one closed fist, "Agreed, the men who did this might have been hired by anyone. It seems to our adversaries that there were not enough clues left behind from the note and the damage to the canal boat. They now want to assure that our energy will be focused on M. Gaultier."
Directing the attention, as Emily had said of him when she had said he was described as a magician? Erik smiled. He laid out what he wanted them to do.
When someone knocked at her door, Emily had only just sat down her satchel and was looking through her mail. She dropped the letters on small table near the door, and opened it to find Javier smiling, holding out a note.
"Hello, Javier. What's in the note?" she asked looking at it dubiously.
"Now Emily, you know he doesn't tell me such things! If he did I would just come over and tell you in person. Besides, I have a cab waiting downstairs. You are to go directly to the house." He looked over her shoulder and waved "Hello Perrine, looking lovely as always I see."
Emily's roommate stopped in the small sitting area, "I'm curling my hair for an evening at the theater I'll have you know."
"Ha, waste of money." He adopted his most charming smile "I'll tell you a story that will keep you interested all night." He affected a sly wink to go with his speech.
"ยก Madre del dios!, it must be my brother!" Olivia Fernandez came up the stairs behind Javier and pinched his arm. "Stay away from my room mates!"
"Hey, just trying to pay a pretty lady a compliment, Livy" he replied. "Anyway, I am here to steal Emily away from you."
Emily retrieved her bag, "I'll worry about dinner when I get back." She followed Javier downstairs. As they walked to the cab he asked "Come over to the house this weekend with Livy, I'm asking Phillipe and Sophie over again, we all want to check up on you." He held the door and helped her enter the cab.
"Why" she asked puzzled.
"Because Madame has not visited the house," he closed the door and leaned on it. "And he has had some bad days. Are you avoiding him?"
Emily shook her head, "not on purpose."
"But not accidentally either" he asked.
"Really, I don't have a reason to stop in. He hasn't asked for another meeting."
He was watching her eyes as she spoke, "It's hard for him to ask Emily. You should understand that about him. Whatever it is that has made him like this, he has fought hard to construct a normal life. He still feels a prisoner to that thing" he drew a circle over one side of his face.
She looked at him for a moment. A part of her wanted to distance herself from what he was saying, while another part wanted to embrace it. She nodded her assent, "We'll have to see what he says." He tapped on the side of the cab, with the jingling of the harnesses, the horses started moving.
Emily stopped before the study door; she had told Etienne she would go up alone. She smoothed down the front of her dress wishing she could calm the nervous feeling in her stomach. Closing her eyes, she wrapped on the door. She heard his voice through the door, and then turned the handle. He was standing by the window as she entered.
Erik turned and walked toward her, it gave him a moment to compose his greeting and take in how she looked. "Madame," he said, "thank you for coming on such short notice." He motioned her towards one of the desk chairs.
"Javier brought your note just as I was arriving home."
"And how is your arrangement with your roommates coming along," he inquired.
"It's going very well. I like the girls, and the apartment is in a nice part of town."
"You manage to receive your messages all right at this building?"
"Yes, although they have slowed down considerably now that everyone is getting settled in with their machines. I did have one incident, Francoise Desloges' ribbon started to tear and I had to stop at her residence to change it for her. She's the novel writer if you remember."
"Of course," he said faltering a moment. He wanted to carry on the pleasantries, but needed to change the subject. "I wanted to let you know that we have had another incident."
Emily tracked him as he paced before the windows of the study. It was still bright outside, and the light through the lace curtains gave glowing edges to his shape. "What has happened?"
He told her of the incident in Paris, and of the evidence that came to them. "I do feel that this is once again a ruse. The fact that Jules Gaultier was sent the bill for the doctor makes it far too obvious." He moved to the edge of the desk and took the chair that sat next to hers. "Javier and I are going down river to Paris. Phillipe will stay here and carry on as usual. Agnes and Etienne will also. No one is to guess that I am not here in Rouen."
"And what am I to do?" she asked.
"I want you to drop by the house for the next three days, not only to keep up appearances, but so that you can check in with Phillipe." He sat forward in the chair and placed a hand on the arm of hers. "This was a planned attack. Someone wishes to continue the game. While I am gone, I don't want you to take any chances with your own safety."
"But if it appears that you are still here, why would they try to bother me again? Aren't you being overly cautious?"
He was so close to her that she could feel the faint tension in him. "They could have cost you your life, Madame." He got to his feet and moved to the windows again, "I don't want you taking any chances." He stopped and turned toward her. "I do not want you going out in the evenings by yourself again unless you are accompanied by Phillipe." He crossed his arms over his chest and took a step closer. "I don't want you to walk anywhere, you will take a carriage or a cab, in this way there will be a man with you at all times."
Emily felt the muscles in her jaw tighten, this was like being home with her Father telling her she couldn't go anywhere without a man. "How is that suppose to help?" she said testily in English.
Erik's brows went down. "What did you just say."
Emily lifted a hand, "I was saying how is that supposed to help? Phillipe will be taken away from his duties and some cab driver is going to charge me a fortune to wait during my appointments."
"I will make sure that Phillipe takes care of the charges for the cab!" His voice was getting louder. By the mulish set of her mouth, he knew Emily was not going to do as he directed.
"I don't think I would be any safer," she said.
"Why not," he demanded.
"If I'm on my feet I have a chance to get away, and if I get into a cab then they just slam the door and urge the horses on and I am stuck." What on earth was he thinking? "I am not stupid enough to attempt to jump out of a moving cab." From the arrogant set of his lips she knew he must be getting angry.
"This attack was carried out by a group of men in a populated area. With your work taking you to various places in the city, you would make a convenient target. Since you do not have a man with you during your appointments, you can at least have one with you in your traveling to prevent any attempts while you move about," he retorted.
"I don't want to rely on a man. I can take care of myself," she reminded him. Hadn't she proved that in her travels over the last four months?
"Madame," he said almost smiling around her title, "you cannot hope to acquit yourself physically against a man. You do not posses the strength for that," he told her in exaggerated patience.
Emily frowned. "I know, but I'd try! Ask my brother. He and I tried to kill each other several times. We've both got the scars to prove it," she crossed her arms under her breasts.
Erik's face lost all expression. He tried again. "Madame, you can not hope to defend yourself. I am only concerned for your safety." She opened her mouth to interrupt him but he over road her comment in a louder voice, "Devil take it, I am instructing you to obey my orders!"
Emily got to her feet, "I'm not going to argue with you." With every retort it was obvious his temper was slipping farther, she really did not know him well enough to guess where it would stop. An angry man could be frightening.
"Excuse me, Madame?" His voice had adopted the rough purr that he had spoken with on there first meeting. "I do not recall asking for your opinions on my decisions; I have told you what you will do in my absence."
Annoyed, Emily moved behind the chair so that it was positioned between them. She heard the condescension in his voice. "That's just like a man. First you start laying down what you want. Then you start getting louder, next you'll be shaking a fist at me and yelling even more orders."
Erik looked at her as if she had sprouted antlers. "What are you talking about? I am telling you all this for your own good! You will not go anywhere unescorted until I return." He caught himself before he raised a hand to point a finger at the little vixen.
"I'm not staying here for you to continue yelling at me." She added in a reasonable voice "When you can be civil you can suggest what you want me to do." She walked to the door and snatched it open.
The room turned red before Erik's eyes. She had played that trick the first night in Rouen, she wasn't about to get the last word again. He covered the distance to the door in a few strides, "Perhaps Madame does not understand the word obey" he thundered. As she looked over her shoulder at him, he grabbed the door handle on the backside of the door, holding it so that she could not pull it closed. He added in a silky voice "Perhaps your American husband did not teach you how."
Emily stopped and turned fully to face him. He had succeeded in pushing her from exasperation to anger. From the expression on her face Erik wished for the first time in his life that he could have bitten his tongue to keep from speaking.
"That was poorly done, Monsieur." She spoke slowly, "Emily was always the good little girl. I was taught to obey my husband, and I did. Right up until he wanted information from me regarding the lawyers I worked for."
She stepped out onto the landing, her eyes as she looked back at him were strangely flat, and devoid of all emotions he had seen in them before. "That's when I said 'no'. And it is also when I said goodbye."
He took a step towards her so that they were almost touching. "We are not finished yet," he said in a soft voice.
She could see in his expression that he knew he had done wrong to speak to her in that way, but he was not going to apologize. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, neither one betraying their thoughts. He wasn't going to relent.
"We check your apartment at night to make sure that you have returned," he admitted. "It was easier when you were at the hotel; the staff was on hand to do it."
"You paid the staff to watch over me?" she asked in surprise.
He replied haughtily, "Madame, I own the hotel."
It was all so apparent, she couldn't believe that she hadn't put it together before this. Putting her up in a hotel would be a simple case of using one of his resources to the fullest. She started laughing at the absurdity of how obvious it should have been to her. She leaned against the wall and continued laughing till her side hurt.
He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her to stop. What was so funny about that? "American sense of humor," he muttered.
"Darlin' you aren't responsible for me," she chided gently.
He wanted to shout. He wanted to shake her. But her amusement had diffused both of their anger.
"I'll take the cabs," she conceded, "and I'll check in with Phillipe." She started towards the stairs. "You could just tell me these things you know."
"Women," he muttered. "I just tried to tell her for the last half hour!" As he stalked back into the study he wondered what exactly a 'Dar-lenn' was. He'd have to find it in his dictionary.
