Entrelazado

Chapter 2: The commitment

The evening was not over, and since nothing was to be half-finished in those times, they found the coachman wounded by a dagger near the entrance, the poor man must have crawled to the place to find the message; ''Let the count appear''. Immediately people were quick to notice that the main roles of the night were missing; Woodgate and the eldest Hamilton, as always, no one had wondered where Victoria had gone, perhaps they would have even thought that she was hanging around the mansion or giving some criticism of the party decorations, as was typical of the Brownings.

"Victoria has to go out, they'll notice I'm missing, and there's a commotion out there," Carlisle said as he peered through the lock of the door outside the cleaning room. Through the hallways, dozens of feet went back and forth, from here to there, leaving no room for solid conjecture. "I'll go out first." "Try to go out later, and not be seen," he concluded before finishing getting his handkerchief ready as if it had not been near Victoria's lips in the last half hour.

—Of course he wouldn't make me see. It's not like me to have affairs with my friend's fiancé in the cleaning room. The truth is that I prefer larger rooms. —he clarified. Carlisle watches her with a reluctant look before carefully slipping through the hallways back to the living room.

But Carlisle's disappearance was the least important thing of the night, his mere presence became something more of the decoration. Everyone was making a circle around the man who was lying on the stairs at the entrance, where he managed to crawl, trying to sneak in the words and put together a sketch of what he wanted to warn about. Others, worried that someone had stabbed the coachman, rather than the coachman himself, just wanted to run for their carriages, but were afraid, of course, of going outside and encountering the culprit of such an act of cruelty.

—Calm down, gentlemen, let's remember that we are civilized people and that even in a confusion like this, we can act deliberately. —Earl Woodgate came to say.

—Do you want us to remain calm while someone has committed something barbaric right under our noses? The logical thing would be to leave the mansion! —added Count Lugo.

—That is why I advise you to take the situation calmly, so that more acts of barbarism do not continue to be committed. The culprit may be out there and I would stop calling myself a man if I let women and children out where a criminal might be on the loose.

The madness of the crowd was understandable, the evening had been more than inopportune, and the lurid scandal of that night could already be seen coming on the front pages. Right now, the coachman was between life and death, further away than here, trying to stammer with a thread of voice, the complete message, while in agony, he managed to remember when he saw Mrs. Hamilton, that the eldest of his daughters had been taken by force by the criminals.

"Miss Hamilton..." the man managed to say. Mrs. Hamilton, along with her youngest daughter, Esme, watched the man with confusion and fear, perhaps afraid of what he would say next. —They took Miss Hamilton.

The crowd did not take long to look at the Hamiltons present, who, by the way, were missing the main one, recently arrived from America, Gladys Hamilton. His mother, Elizabeth Hamilton, put her hand over her mouth, while her sister soon burst into tears. By the time Victoria Browning had appeared on the scene, the crowd was already mourning the loss of one of the unmarried daughters of high society. Meanwhile, the man let himself go, perhaps aware that his presence would never have been as prominent as that same night, which in the end gave free rein to the imagination and morbidity of many of those present.

No matter how much they searched and searched, Gladys Hamilton was a figure of smoke. Who had been able to take the newcomer away? Had this been a k********g for money purposes? Of course that was what they expected, that same night a new dynasty was going to be born if everything had gone perfectly. A Woodgate engaged to a Hamilton would attract more wealth to the families, and with it, also envy. But was it deeply about money that these criminals cared about? It didn't take long for the gaps to appear.

Victoria Browning was reading the front pages of the newspapers the next day, raising the vague hope that one of the titles would appear with her name along with her beloved Woodgate, perhaps mentioning the outburst of passion they had had in the cleaning room. Then, she felt bad when she saw that her petty and vain feelings were diverting her from the central axis of the postulates of all the news of the day; The disappearance of his childhood friend, Gladys Hamilton.

—Could it be more tragic that they kidnap you before you announce your engagement in public? —he commented to his mother while they were having tea.

—In my opinion you should not have attended last night. Imagine if those criminals had seen you, it could have even been you instead of that girl with the American air. —his mother reproached him, while taking a sip of tea.

—Don't even say it. I don't think I have been able to attend such a catastrophic event since that waltz where Verónica Sellers almost choked on an olive in the middle of the banquet.

—Is that girl still the same fat?

—They had told me that now she has lost so much weight that her collarbones are visible, she always covers them with a handkerchief, but the maids have told what they have seen once they take off her corset. —Victoria commented.

—Maybe she suffered an abortion. Luckily you, my girl, have always maintained a splendid figure with bridal connotations. —Mrs Browning adds. Victoria pauses for a moment on her mother's words, and asks herself why, with all this and more, it was still so difficult for her to be accepted by the only man she ever loved.

Meanwhile, the Woodgates were on their way to the mansion where they had been present for a silent k********g the night before. Carlisle was saddened by the k********g, but he understood that it was a Hamilton problem that neither he nor his family would have to deal with, and deep down, along with his sorrow and his guilt, was a certain joy that he tried to silence, a I sighed in relief because then I wouldn't have to get engaged yet. Without a fiancée there is no marriage, he thought.

—Now that this k********g has happened, we must provide complete emotional support to the Hamiltons. —Count Woodgate suggested. While his wife, Miss Van de Woodsen nodded quickly.

— Shall we go and give our condolences? Carlisle asked.

—Carlisle! How do you say? But condolences are given when someone is dead! —the count grumbled.

"I'm sorry, that was rude."

—Completely impolite, we hope you have manners in front of the Hamiltons from now on. —orders his stepmother, a few years older than his age. Carlisle was silent, and not only because they were approaching the sidewalks of the mansion, but also because he didn't feel like arguing. Right now, as selfish as it sounded to be happy about the k********g of what would be his fiancée, Carlisle felt free to be happy because right now he would have no obligation to commit.

The gates of the Hamilton mansion opened to admit the carriage carrying the Woodgates. Once inside the mansion, they were present for the first sight of the world after their loss, to Elizabeth Hamilton and her now only daughter Esme Hamilton.

"Mrs. Hamilton, Miss," the count greeted cordially as he took off his hat in a courteous gesture. Carlisle found it aggressive to have so much courtesy on a day like this, it even seemed a little indecorous for them to be there the morning after the day everything happened.

-Count. —mother and daughter bowed. They continued to take them to the garden to have tea, according to Elizabeth, it was much more reliable to talk about personal family issues in the garden, since there were no doors or walls where the servants could hide and listen.

—Did you receive news about your daughter? —Carlisle asked, breaking the silence, Count Woodgate gave him a solemn look, but too late, the Hamiltons were already disconcerted.

"No, unfortunately, we only know what the coachman managed to say," Elizabeth clarified. "We hope to have news, of course everything must be for a sum of money and then we hope to have Gladys returned."

—Of course that will be the case. —the count urged and once again looks at Carlisle, trying to silence all his thoughts, and telling himself that his only male son should be able to obey him just by looking at him.

—Of course Gladys would have loved to announce her engagement to her son, Mr. Woodgate. —Elizabeth tried to say to maintain cordiality. “In fact, Esme was talking to Gladys the night she was kidn*pped and she had told him of her excitement about the engagement.

—Well, I think I speak for my son, when I say that he would also have loved to get engaged to one of his girls.

"You have always raised them so refined and educated, I would have liked to have daughters like that myself, but of course, I have not yet had the grace of being a mother," said Mrs. Van De Woodsen.

—It is a great compliment, after all it is not easy to raise female daughters in this era. —Elizabeth comments.

—We always debated who had raised their daughters better, you or Mrs. Browning. But of course you and your refiners beat him by a lot.

—Ohh no, we have been friends with Mrs. Browning and in fact Gladys used to get along very well with Victoria Browning, and if it weren't for the fact that Gladys is my daughter, I would say that Miss Browning has done a great job raising female daughters. —commented Elizabeth, who is very fond of Victoria's mother, Emma Browning.

Meanwhile, Carlisle observed the situation and told himself that Victoria was by far more of a woman than any of the Hamiltons. And if it weren't for his total refusal to live a married life and stop being free, he would even have preferred to marry Victoria, who of course would have been much more fun than the now missing Gladys, or the mess that was now in front of him. drinking tea, Esme, who couldn't say a single word without having to look at her mother. Nothing compared to Victoria, who had so much to say and do.

—Ms. Hamilton, don't forget that our deal is still on. —explained the count. —What happened yesterday was an unfortunate mishap, but I dare say that if we finish what we had started from the beginning, eventually the kidnappers will appear asking for what it is clear they want, money.

—But we don't know how long Gladys will remain missing. What are you trying to tell us?

—What my husband is trying to say is that if we announce the engagement in the same way, his daughter's kidnappers may appear asking for a sum of money in exchange for Gladys. —Ms Van De Woodsen clarified.

—We cannot announce the engagement of my missing daughter without the most important thing, which is my daughter.