Bewitching The Recluse [BOOK 2 of Price Family Saga]

14. Chapter (United By Destiny)

When Travis burst through the doors of the drawing room, his gaze fell upon three individuals - Lady Kendall stood at a distance, her nephew Evan Kendall stood opposite Travis, and he could only see his mother's back, her coiffed hair on display.

"What's all this uproar in my abode?! Don't you have more fitting matters to attend to than to engage in a clamour here?!" the Marquess exclaimed with fiery indignation.

"Uproar?!" Lady Kendall retorted, her visage flushing. "So, you perceive an uproar, but you have, perhaps, failed to take note that your mother is with child!"

Travis came to an abrupt halt as if Lady Kendall had issued him a slap. Corinne then slowly turned towards her son, and indeed, her gravid belly was indicative of her maternal condition. It came as a shock and disbelief to him, and his gaze flitted back and forth between her abdomen and her countenance. All he could muster was to inquire, "With whom?"

"With the Earl of Darlington," his mother replied quietly, though with unwavering resolve.

Travis believed he might have misheard, so he approached her and repeated the question. When he received the same answer, he looked at the pale Evan, who was quiet and visibly swallowing hard out of nervousness.

"You—" Travis began and, like an enraged bull, lunged at his self-proclaimed friend, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him vigorously. "You deceiver, scoundrel... you audacious blackguard!" he yelled.

"T-Travis, it was an ac-accident," Evan defended himself, trying to free himself from his grip.

"So, an accident you say?!" Travis bellowed. "By chance, my mother fell right onto your cock, and suddenly, you impregnated her?!"

"That's enough, Marquess," Lady Kendall shouted, trying to pull Travis away from her nephew.

Corinne, out of respect for her condition, stood aside, but she didn't find the scene amusing at all. Travis shook off the old matron's hands, then straightened up and struck Evan in the face with his clenched fist. The sound of a broken bone followed, and the Earl fell to the ground, blood immediately flowing from his nose. At this commotion, Lafferty appeared.

"Your Lo—"

"Shut your beak and the door!" Travis yelled, and the butler promptly obeyed.

Then the Marquess approached his mother and gazed into her impassive countenance once more.

"Do you retain any shred of propriety at all?" Travis ranted, "Every time I turn my back on you, you pierce me with a dagger, mother! Laying in bed with someone I know and hold as a friend, akin to a common harlot!"

The sound of a resounding slap echoed through the room as it struck Travis' visage, causing his countenance to contort sideways.

"Mayhap you do not fancy the course my life takes, Travis," Corinne responded composedly, "but I am a rational being capable of independent judgment and decisions."

Travis kept his countenance aside, averting his eyes after the slap. Yet, following her utterance, he derisively harrumphed and returned his gaze towards her. His cheeks bore a flush, and a fiery indignation simmered within his very core.

"You are with child, unmarried, and, in such a situation, if you pardon my candour, one's honour is implicated – if this is meant to serve as a model of sound decisions, then I am a paragon of virtue, a saint in my own right! Regrettably, your choices extend their ramifications to my reputation as well!" 

Travis then took a deep breath before continuing: "Nevertheless, it seems inconsequential to you, for not too long ago, I found myself narrowly escaping assassination, the blade intended for me, dispatched by my very own mother," he said with exasperation, sweeping his arm in emphasis.