Belle hadn't known what to do after the officer took her husband away, but she'd known she had to do something. They could sentence you to life imprisonment for that charge, or hard labor. She harbored no illusions as to her husband's chances of surviving the latter, but she didn't know enough about the law to be able to guess at much more than that.
Her first order of business had been sending one of the footmen to rouse Neal and tell him what had happened, then to send another to fetch her father. She was floundering and desperate for somebody to tell her what the right thing to do was. She felt responsible, and she had no idea what to do.
Her family had come along not long after Neal had left with a promise to hire a lawyer and go down to the courthouse to see what he could discover. That, at least, had been something useful. Belle envied him that. She had so far only succeeded in throwing herself into her startled father's arms and crying herself out, and currently she was pacing through the parlour trying very hard not to look at Gaston. He had bandages on his hands and a guilty expression on his face and she was very sure if she looked at him she would start screaming. Her husband was gone, her cousin was here, and she wanted to throttle him for it.
"We can't just sit here all day," Ruby said at last, setting down her teacup loudly. "Isn't there something that can be done?"
"He – they – beat a Duke unconscious," her father said, throwing a dark look towards Gaston. "It's not as simple as paying a fine."
"It wasn't entirely unprovoked," Ruby replied, also throwing an unhappy look at Gaston, who now looked like he might be willing to turn himself in to avoid the collective ire of the room. "Surely there must be some kind of plea?"
"As far as the courts care, nothing ever happened before all this," Belle said bitterly. "And even if it had, it would be his word against ours, and nobody is going to take the world of a middle-class businessman and his ruined wife over a member of the House of Lords."
"This is all so silly," Ruby said, turning to Gaston again. "How did Rhys even get identified?"
"He's the one who knocked him out," Gaston said with a sigh. "And he spoke towards the end. Nottingham must have seen or heard him. Or else he didn't realize there were two of us."
Nobody seemed to know how to respond to Gaston's explanation of events. Belle was still trying to stay angry with him because anger was just so much easier than anything else.
"At any rate, there has to be something we can do," Ruby said to Belle's father. "Don't you have any favors you can call in?"
"Nothing that will help," Maurice replied. "And to be honest I can't think of anything that could get him off, especially if there are witnesses."
Ruby's question rumbled around in Belle's head for a little while before the solution to this problem struck her like a bolt of lightning and she froze in her pacing.
"I do," she said, feeling silly for not having thought of this earlier. "I have a favor I can call in."
Everyone got quiet, looking at her and waiting for what she could possibly have to settle this
"I'm Nottingham's largest creditor," she explained. "It was a wedding present from my husband. I own enough of his debts to ruin him."
Her father and cousin were looking at her with shock on their faces, but Ruby just looked smug.
"That must be thousands of pounds," Maurice said. "How on Earth did he manage that?"
"I don't know," Belle replied. "But I have a packet of IOUs upstairs in a hatbox. I can ruin him."
"I'll tell him," Gaston said quickly. "Give me the packet and I'll take them over."
"No," Belle said. "It has to be me."
It was always going to come down to this, she realized. Ever since the beginning, it had been between her and Nottingham, and now neither one of them could ever rest until they had destroyed the other. If she ran, he would pursue her. She'd been trying to hide from him for over a year, and he'd still come after her once she was back in the open. He wasn't ever going to stop.
"Rhys isn't going to forgive us for letting you endanger yourself" Gaston replied. "Even if it gets him out. Not while there are other options."
"You can come with me," Belle said. "But I have to go myself. I have to be the one to end this."
"I'll come too," her father said.
"No," Belle said. "You need to join Neal at the court. They should see he has some support in spite of Nottingham and his title. Gaston can come with me. Nottingham won't hurt me if I'm not alone."
Her father seemed uneasy, but he relented. Ruby refused to be left alone, so it was decided that she could wait in the carriage and call for help if they were gone too long. Gaston had been with Belle at the start; it seemed fitting he should be the one there with her at the end.
By the time they were sitting outside Nottingham's London home in the carriage, Belle's courage was beginning to fail her. She'd changed from her pale yellow walking dress into a much more somber one in a navy blue. It was the most severe thing she owned, and she didn't dare go to face Nottingham dressed as the foolish girl he'd last met. He would look on her as his equal, and he would learn to fear her.
"You really don't need to do this," Gaston said to her as they walked up the stairs to the house. "I can go in alone."
"I need to," she said. "For myself at least, but also for my husband. I will not let us be beaten."
Gaston nodded and knocked, which was answered by a butler who looked straight through them.
"My apologies," the man said. "But I'm afraid the Duke is not at home today."
He began to shut the door, but Belle interrupted him.
"He is for me," she said as firmly as she could manage, taking out a calling card bearing the inscription Mrs. Gold in an elegant font and dropping it into the silver tray the butler held. "We'll wait."
The man seemed confused, clearly having expected them to have accepted his dismissal, but he still allowed them into the hall while he retreated to find his master.
Gaston didn't try to speak to her, for which she was grateful. Everything here felt too big and too dangerous, and she was just trying to keep hold of her courage for the battle to come.
Soon, the butler returned and directed them towards a sitting room where Nottingham sat on a divan, propped up by pillows. His face was a mess, blue and swollen all over with a cut splitting his lip. She wondered how far down the bruising went, and noted with no small amount of satisfaction that his breath did not seem to be coming easily. He was clearly in a lot of pain.
"Mrs. Gold, what a surprise," he said sarcastically. "You'll forgive me for not standing; I'm afraid your husband left me a bit the worse for wear." He paused as he took in Gaston, his eyes darting to the bandages on her cousin's hands. "And apparently so did your cousin. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
She grit her teeth at the familiar word from his lips, though the sting was eased by the slur in his words caused by his swollen lip.
"You had my husband arrested," she said sternly, sitting opposite him in an armchair while Gaston walked around the room idly. "You had to know I'd come."
"So he sent you to beg for mercy?" Nottingham replied, chuckling a little before wincing. "Does he really think I'm going to forgive all this because of what we had?"
She shoved aside the reference to what he'd done to her. She had to maintain control, she had to be powerful, she had to be stronger than him.
"Quite the opposite, actually," she said, setting the packet of papers down on the table in front of him. "I've actually come to offer mercy to you."
"What is that?" he asked, staring at it warily.
"Oh come now," Belle replied. "Surely a man of your education can read. Oh fine, I'll tell you. That is a collection of your outstanding debts. Gambling, horses, clothes...I can't even remember them all, to be honest. Really, you should learn to handle your finances better."
"Where did you get those?" Nottingham asked her grabbing for the packet and flipping through it to confirm the truth of her statement.
"Does that really matter?" she asked him. "The important thing is that I have them now."
Even through the bruises, she could see nervousness beginning to creep into Nottingham's face and she channelled all her willpower into not letting relief show on hers. It was strange how much smaller he was in life than he'd always been in her memory and nightmares. She had made him into a demon, and here he sat as a man with no more power to hurt her than any other.
"You can't do this," he blurted out, looking up at her. "I'll be ruined."
Belle felt her anger begin to boil over then, and she was so thankful for it. She'd rather be angry than afraid, and no one deserved her wrath more than he did.
"I was ruined," she exclaimed. "Through no choice of my own. At least you've had a say in your own destruction."
"Is this still about that?" he said, sounding annoyed. "I thought we understood each other. I can understand why he –" he gestured to Gaston where he stood behind Belle's chair "– would be upset. But for God's sake, I offered to marry you, what else was I supposed to do?"
Belle felt like the air had been knocked out of her lungs. Of all the reactions she had imagined, his complete denial of wrongdoing had never crossed her mind. He was supposed to be penitent and beg her forgiveness, or else angry at her for defeating him. He was at least supposed to know why she had been angry. Somehow, this was the worst part.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Gaston said from behind her, and Belle was suddenly glad he'd insisted on coming along. There was no way she could have answered this revelation.
"Don't deny it," Nottingham said, still looking at her. "There was always something between us. You felt it, too. Remember when you were presented at court? We danced, and you were wearing that dress with the pearls and feathers all over it and I saw how you smiled at me."
She certainly remembered being presented at court. She'd met the Queen and danced with dozens of gentlemen. She also remembered the dress, which she had spent weeks designing and had always grieved not wearing it again. Now she was glad she'd had a simple wedding, because that dress would forever be tainted by this association. It was one more thing of hers Nottingham had somehow tainted.
"I don't remember you there," she said once she was sure she could answer him without her voice breaking. Fear was beginning to replace her anger, and she needed to hold on just a little longer. "There were hundreds of people. You were just another face in the crowd."
"You flirted with me," he replied, beginning to sound upset. "You flirted for months after! God almighty you were such a tease! What was I supposed to do when I heard you were engaged, anyway?"
Gaston seemed about to attack Nottingham again, but Belle suddenly found her voice.
"You were supposed to leave me alone!" she said, doing her level best not to shout loud enough to attract the attention of any servants. "I was engaged, how could you possibly think I wanted you?"
"You always danced with me at balls," he replied, beginning to sound desperate now that she was arguing. "You smiled at me and laughed. I watched you for so long! How can you deny it? You weren't like any of the others - you were special."
Belle was sure she'd be sick here on his carpet and he'd deserve it. He thought that she wanted him. He thought that she'd led him on – had she flirted? She didn't remember paying him any particular attention or of being more than polite. Her heart was racing and she was scanning the last few years to try to remember who was right and who was wrong and she was coming up empty. Was this why he had sought her out in the park? In an attempt to renew this flirtation?
It was Gaston who saved her. He had moved to the side where she could see him and looked completely affronted.
"You have got to be joking," he said to Nottingham. "Are you out of your mind? I was at every single one of those balls, and you can trust me - I would have noticed if my fiancee had been flirting with other men! She barely even spoke to you!"
Nottingham didn't seem to have a response for that. Instead he was looking between Belle and Gaston with fear and confusion on his battered face. Finally, the fight seemed to go out of him, and he sagged back into his seat.
"What do you want?" he asked her, tossing the packet of papers back onto the table.
"You need to drop the charges against my husband," Belle said slowly, trying to keep her emotions in check. "Today."
"It's not that simple with an attempted murder charge," he replied sullenly.
"Tell them you were mistaken. You had a concussion, it can cause confusion."
He stared at her for a moment before nodding.
"What about those?" he indicated the papers in her hands. "Where's my guarantee you won't use them against me?"
"I'm not giving you one," she replied. "This is a temporary reprieve, not amnesty."
"Then what do you want?"
"I want you to squirm," she said at last. "I want you to know at any moment your world can come crashing in like mine did. I want you to fear the moment I'll come back for you and know that I can whenever I want. I want my life and safety back, and if getting that means holding yours in check, then I'll do it."
"You can't do this to me," Nottingham whined, but even he didn't sound convinced.
"I can, and I will," she replied. "Every time you buy a horse or lose at cards, I want you to wonder if it's going to end up in this pile and wonder what I can do to you if it does."
"You can't take the entail from me," he said. "I couldn't give that away if I wanted to."
"No, but I can take everything else you hold dear," she said. "I can take your lifestyle and your future, all the little things that make life worth living. I can leave you with nothing else but a title and an empty house. The young ladies are already skittish around you after what you did to me, how many would even so much as speak to you if this came out? I can rob you of your reputation. You would truly have nothing. That is what it means to be ruined."
The room went dead silent as she finished talking, and for a moment she felt so light she was sure she could fly.
She collected her papers and stood, joining her cousin where he was waiting for her.
"I think that should be all I need for the day," she told Nottingham. "I'm sure you have plenty to do; see that my husband is home before nightfall. We can show ourselves out."
Nottingham gave no outward sign that he'd even heard her, but it didn't matter. She owned him now, and they both knew it.
She made her way out with Gaston, but once they were standing on the front steps she suddenly began to hyperventilate. He had been right there. She had been close enough he could have touched her, and even though she had overcome him, the idea that he'd thought she was flirting with him was almost too much to bear. She had spent months wondering what she could have changed to make it not have happened, and the idea that it went as far back as her presentation at court meant that he had been watching her for years. Her skin was crawling and she was lightheaded. She couldn't breathe.
"Belle!" Gaston exclaimed, grabbing her arms to hold her upright even as her vision was swimming. "Belle, look at me! Breathe, okay? Just breathe."
He started taking deep, exaggerated breaths and she tried to time hers to match his and soon enough she was calm enough to focus.
"Are you all right?" he asked her, releasing her arms and taking a step back. "It was pretty intense in there."
"I am," she replied. "Thank you for coming."
"Don't," he said. "If it wasn't for me you wouldn't even have had to do that in the first place."
"No," she said. "I was going to have to do it someday. He left me no choice, it was him or me."
"You're right," he said with a little smile, turning and leading her back to the carriage. "You do know that you're not ruined the way you told him, don't you?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Inside," he replied. "You told Nottingham being ruined meant being left with no future and nothing to live for. But you're so much more than that. You're happy and thriving – you have so much more now than you did before. You picked yourself up, and I'm proud of you for it."
She didn't know what to say. It was probably the single nicest thing anyone had ever said to her, and she hadn't known how much she needed to hear it.
"Thank you," she managed to say before he handed her into the carriage where Ruby was waiting. But somehow that didn't feel like words enough.
"You two go back," Gaston said. "I'll wait around here and make sure he actually goes to the magistrate."
She smiled at her cousin as he shut the door and gave directions to the driver. It had been a hard experience, but Belle was glad that she had done it. She had confronted the dragon only to discover that she was mighty.
Ruby stayed with Belle even after Gaston had returned with news that Nottingham had gone to the jail himself and gone inside. Belle wasn't sure how she would ever repay the two for their kindness to her. They had been with her all day during some of the most trying moments of her life. There was no equivalent to that sort of thing.
Once Gaston arrived, it was only a matter of time until Rhys came home, and within two hours he came into the parlour, looking around until his eyes caught hers. Belle was on her feet and in his arms faster than she thought possible, and she didn't let him go even as she heard her family making their excuses and leaving quietly.
When they were finally alone, Rhys pulled away a bit and brushed the tears off her face with his thumb. She hadn't even realized she'd been crying.
"Are you all right, sweetheart?" he asked, and the tenderness in his voice had her struggling not to sob.
"You're home," she replied. "I'm just so glad you're back."
He was a little the worse for wear, and his suit was likely beyond saving, but he had come home to her and it was the most wonderful thing she had ever seen in her life. She threw her arms around his neck again, unbalancing him enough to send both crashing to the floor but she hardly noticed, desperate as she was to feel his lips on hers again. She kissed him then, so hard she saw stars and was sure that they must eventually melt together.
"Promise me you'll never leave again," she breathed into his shoulder as he held her tight on top of him on the floor.
"Never," he said. "They couldn't drag me away."
"I was so scared," she replied. "I had to blackmail Nottingham with the debts."
"So that explains his change of heart," Rhys said with a little chuckle. "I had wondered what happened. I'm so proud of you, Belle."
She was proud of herself, too, and thankful she had a husband who loved her enough to fight for her the way she would always fight for him. But there would be time enough for all of that late., For right now she just wanted to go upstairs with Rhys and spend the rest of the day reassuring herself that he was real and he was home and she had saved him.
They had saved each other.
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who's been reading this and leaving lovely comments! This is, unfortunately, the last chapter. It's been a long, long road to reach this point but here we are! I did want to include a thing I wrote in response to somebody on Tumblr in regards to Nottingham that I unfortunately wasn't able to include in the story but I feel like it adds some extra context:
The thing about Nottingham is that he's what's called a power reassurance rapist. This is something I clearly can't put in the narrative anywhere, but he's actually in the process of escalating into a power assertive rapist.
Belle is by no means the first woman he's raped, but she is the first of his own social class. The earlier ones would have been servants and barmaids for the most part, and he truly believes they liked him and probably gave them gifts and money later. Unfortunately, we can't really get into his internal life too much but he actually has extremely low self esteem. His father should have taught him to run an estate and manage his finances and never did, because his father didn't like him that much. He spent most of his life either at school or far from home and really didn't come back until it was time to take over as Duke. That's the point when he began to feel powerful and started to escalate. He would likely have a mistress who he has a history of hurting.
All that to say, he only ever really seemed scary because he hurt Belle. He hurt someone much smaller than him by isolating her and taking advantage of it. He made crude jokes and comments to his friends where nobody would stand up to him, and when Gaston tried he backed down. Neal saw right through him and called him on it and Nottingham backed down. He is a coward, and he was never a monster or a demon, he was a man and a scared one at that. Belle always thought he was bigger and stronger than he was, so people thought he would be scary.
I wanted people to be afraid of him, but now that you've "met" him, he's really nothing special at all, is he?