Don't Look Back

Chapter 56

Sitting by himself in a more comfortable room Sidney had time to contemplate the situation he found himself in far more comfort than he had been in. Rather than wallowing in the drafty attic of Mrs. Fielding, he was set up in one of the finest guest rooms of Lord Babington's London House. Waited on hand and foot by servants he knew well.

"Ah, you are sitting up." Crowe greeted as he entered.

"Am I?" Sidney asked. "Sometimes I forget. Often dizzy, I cannot properly ascertain where I am," he said feeling for the edge of the bed.

Touch and sound were all he felt he had left to see the world around him. That and the occasional shadows in one eye which it seemed not as damaged.

"How about a drink old man." his friend sat on his bed.

"Am I starting to look my age?" Sidney's voice was harsh. "A servant gave me a shave."

Crowe laughed. "Yes, you aged much in your marriage. A decade at least."

Grunting he shifted. "At least I cannot see it," he muttered.

"Come, have us a drink." His friend insisted.

Shaking his head Sidney refused. "I do not need the inebriation at this moment." the reply was short. "Has another physician been called?" he asked.

Crowe nodded but then remembered himself. "Oh, yes of course. That was one of the first things Miss Lamb managed, her and that Sir Radmore." he lit his smoke, and Sidney reached out his hand for one as he could tell what was in the air as he could smell it.

"Oh so you wish to smoke, but not drink?" Crowe asked handing him the one he had lit and lit himself a new one.

Sidney did not see how Crowe looked upon him with pity.

"What has that witch done to you?" he asked.

Sidney shrugged. "I deserved a goodly measure of it," he admitted with a rueful tone. "I have not always done the right thing."

"Dare I ask and actually learn the truth," he drank from the bottle since Sidney was not sharing. "what is all the mystery behind your marriage to the spider and how can we get you free of her?"

Sidney looked down, hesitant to spill all.

"I took an offer too good to be true," he said simply. "I thought if I but waited, I would save Tom and have the woman I had fallen in love with. But I have always been a fool when it came to love, and Eliza ruined both chances I had." He shook his head. "I gambled and lost."

"But how?" Crowe pressed. "Did you commit an indiscretion and thought Flora was yours and thus married the bitch? I am terribly bemused by all this that if I do not have answers I will drink myself to death this very night." Crowe threatened fearful Sidney would shut down before telling it all.

Sidney threw out his hand and smacked Crowe upside the back of his head. Though he could not see his instincts of where he sat were spot on.

"No, I knew I was not Flora's father the moment I understood she was with child," he said with a sigh and rubbed at his eyes. His hands and rash had almost healed but he was still bandaged.

"And when was that?" Crowe asked. "On the wedding night?"

Sidney shook his head. "I had no wedding night."

Fumbling the bottle his friend cursed as he accidentally poured the brandy all over himself.

"No wedding night," Sidney could hear Crowe mutter. "So when did you know?"

Turning to sit on the side of the bed he groaned from the stiffness.

"Does it matter?" Sidney asked impatiently and smoked on the tobacco.