CHAPTER 72
Henry and Frankison knew that bad news usually came late at night.
Henry answered the door to find Ned sweating from his run there, saying he had a telegram for Wynn, but it needed to be delivered urgently and by hand.
Frankison ran up the stairs and knocked before opening the door and saying:
-Father, an urgent telegram for you and it must be delivered by hand.
Wynn, still cuddled up to his wife, looked at his pocket watch and worried that the news was coming so late. Closing the door, he read the telegram and immediately his face hardened, his eyebrows arched and it was this detail that showed Elizabeth Delayne that something was happening and it wasn't good.
-Wynn, has something happened?
He looked at his wife, a thousand things running through his mind, a thousand excuses running through his mind, but he didn't want to worry her..., but he also didn't want to break his promise, because minutes before he had just promised her inside that room that he would always love her and that they would share all things in this life, bad or good.
-Sit down, please.
After everyone was seated, he showed them Bill's telegram.
Everyone knew that Bill would be there the next day, as it would be Frank and Abigail's wedding, and as a judge, he needed to prepare the guardianship documents for little Lucas, who would be baptized on Sunday, before Abigail left for her honeymoon.
-Father, if he's arriving tomorrow, why not talk in person?
-Yes, why did you need that telegram?
Henry went on:
Wynn, I suspected, but I had no proof, but his wife kept talking:
-"You asked me to check and ask Beth some questions. I already had some things to unravel, but today she revealed something else.
-What is it, dear? Tell me everything, please.
The other day at school, before that man kidnapped Beth, a conversation took place between Charlote and me, it was something about Charlote... I told her mother-in-law that Beth didn't like that nickname...
-What nickname, Mom?
-Lizzie!
-She really hated that name when she was little. Said Frankison.
-Yes... when talking to her, Beth allowed Charlote to call her that, and even said that it felt good when she said it.
-I don't understand Elizabeth, what are you getting at?
-Wynn said that she didn't like it when her father called her that, that it made her uncomfortable, and that he always made a strange face at her, or analyzed her whole body and always said come here Lizzie?
Henry stood up shakily, and running his hands through his hair, spoke:
-You mean he... And choked...
-Yes, Henry; she said he looked strange. It really hurts me to say that about my own brother. But according to Beth, he looked the way a man looks at a woman.
Frankison and Wynn had nowhere else to be angry.
-"Sit down and listen to everything, please. She said.
-"There's more..." Wynn said. I'm going to kill the man who did this to my daughter.
She nodded and her face and neck were red with shame, Wynn knew this woman very well.
-Speak, darling, please...
-Do you promise to listen until the end?
-I promise.
-Willian and Charles had spent years meeting and plotting to have a wedding there. At first she said they were friends, they had studied together all their lives, after all he was only three years older than her. Before she went to college, she noticed that her father was always in the office with Charles, calling him and telling him to shut the door. At first she was a little girl, and he always gave her books and told her to read aloud to them. But the years went by, and when she was a little girl she realized that they were analyzing her body, because Willian would tell her to stand in front of them, walking while he read or sometimes...Elizabeth Delayne choked...
-What else, Elizabeth Delayne? Wynn asked, her face red.
She looked into his eyes and spoke without taking a breath:
-He told her to turn around several times, according to her the comments between them were low, she never heard them, but it gave her the creeps, those sly looks from them. As soon as she was old enough to go to college, she enrolled, but Willian refused to pay, thinking that this would stop her and the girl would stay at home, but Elizabeth was very clever and had already made several plans, because she wanted to get out of that house quickly, because she was afraid... She went to college, studied in the mornings and did all sorts of odd jobs to support herself and pay her college fees, from cleaning rooms and stores in the dining halls, to washing clothes for the girls in her ward, in exchange for food and accommodation on the college campus, and so it went for her four years of study there. She spent the night washing clothes, because everyone wanted to humiliate the Thatcher heiress, thinking it would be a humiliating service; she received buckets of dirty clothes every day, but they didn't know that Elizabeth preferred it to going home. She showed me a pot of cream in her room today. According to her, the bar of caustic soda soap was eating away at the skin on her hands, bruising them and leaving them bloody. When, months later, her hands were very sore, an older teacher from the college called her in, because she knew all about her situation, and gave her this pot of medicinal cream. She had also fought against her family to get her degree. Beth got help from this teacher and other professionals who ended up paying her in cash to wash their clothes, or for some other service. Willian and Grace did everything they could to break her up, or take away her place at that college, but they couldn't because her grades were always the highest in the whole class, and as she excelled at everything, she was protected by that teacher who ended up becoming a friend. When she graduated, she returned home, but that day her father had already arranged with Charles for her to stay at his house for the night. When she entered her room, Charles' suitcases were in the corner and her wardrobe had open doors, where several of the man's clothes were already hanging. She went downstairs and questioned her mother. I Grace simply said that it was time for her to become a real woman...
-What? The three men shouted.
-She packed two suitcases, one with books and one with clothes, ran to the college and looked for the good teacher, and she showed her the position here at Hope Valle. This good woman even gave her some money, she knew Elizabeth had a small reserve, but it was a help and she told her not to lower her head to anyone, because she was stronger and smarter than all of them put together. He put her on the train here. On the stagecoach between the train and Hope Valle, she was mugged and lay on the floor until the next morning, when Jack returned from a mission and rescued her. She lost everything.
-Yes, Wynn; I remember that. I can't tell you much, but she arrived here all dirty, just her body clothes. At the time I was terrible, and against everything. The widows and women of the town who were hiring a teacher, three months after the mine disaster, and those children were terrible. When they saw Elizabeth, most of the mothers sent her away because she wasn't the profile they wanted.
-How?" Elizabeth Delayne asked in surprise.
But Henry went on to explain:
-Beautiful, young, with no experience, the daughter of millionaires, because they recognized her by the surname Thatcher, she would never know how to deal with coal miners' children. She was supposed to start school that day, but she was late because of that robbery, and no one was worried about her or what she had been through, apart from cold, fear, she had lost everything she had from books, clothes and money. But Abigail stood up and took her pains. And she began to put the other mothers in their place. She went into the hall and, dirty as she was, took over the room, dismissing Florence and Molly, and started lessons on the subject of prejudice... she won the children over with ease.
-So she came to Hope Valle, running away from Willian and Charles? Out of fear? Wynn asked.
Everyone looked at each other and his wife answered:
-"Yes, Wynn.
That night they all went to bed, but their thoughts were of Elizabeth... She would be protected today and always.