Once Persuaded, Twice Shy by Melodie Edwards

Author:Melodie Edwards [Edwards, Melodie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

Anne worked late that night. The visit with Ben had distracted her, and she wanted the quiet and calm of the darkened building for the evening, so she was still sitting at her desk when she got the call to come and collect her father.

Mr. Elliot wasn’t what one might call an alcoholic, or at least not in the traditional sense. He didn’t hoard drinks, didn’t lie about his drinking, didn’t drink alone at home. Really, he only drank socially—if there was no company he could do just fine without—and he didn’t drink to excess, per se. He didn’t drink and become violent or belligerent, or even sloppy, because his vanity would never allow him to appear anything other than immaculately arranged and because he once read a tweet about an article that said too much drinking could lead to premature aging and bloodshot eyes.

He just drank to the point of betraying all of his absolute very worst character traits. Loudly, and in public. He drank to the point that he would say and do things that made Anne absolutely mortified and he would become deaf to her hissed whispers. And he drank to the point that he often outstayed his welcome and sometimes his ability to pay his bill.

While the legacy of the Elliot name still commanded respect, and while Mr. Elliot with his preening and posturing and old-fashioned magnanimous ways still had many of the Niagara community in awe of him, the owners of the fine dining and wining establishments in town had a very different view.

It was not long after her mother died that Anne first caught wind of his behavior. The owner of the Winchester Arms had called her at work one morning, his own embarrassment at the situation making his words awkward and stilted.

“And I’m really sorry to call like this, Anne; I haven’t wanted to disturb you so soon after your family’s loss. Your mother was a great lady and a wonderful woman, and this town owes so much to her, and it’s because of her that I even thought to call you, you’re so much like her and . . .”

Until Anne managed to finally extract the bumbling truth from him. Before her illness, Mrs. Elliot used to more often than not accompany her husband out for dinner or for his banquets at the golf club, or bring him along on the rota of social occasions that was now Anne’s lot, and by some miracle manage to curb the worst of his appetites and behaviors. When she could not, and he went out on his own, proprietors had learned that a quick call to Mrs. Elliot at the Elysium Festival was the best hope of having an overdue tab paid, or a recalcitrant husband collected, or at least she would apologize and soothe and smooth over whatever embarrassments her husband had dished out.

Since her mother’s illness first began, more and more of these little truths had washed up on Anne’s shore, until she was rather numb to it all and only listened to Dev of the Winchester Arms resignedly.

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