In a Lawless Love

“You should be a better wife.” Charlotte sat up in bed, startled to see Margret standing over her, cane in hands, bitter scowl written on her face. Mrs. Hayes, mother to Matthew. Charlotte looked at her and carefully rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“I beg pardon,” she said in a sleepy voice.

“My Matthew is unhappy in this marriage, and you should be a better wife,” Margret snapped.

“I’m sorry I don’t know how you mean.”

“I mean stop being such a slow girl and get your head on straight and be a better wife!” Margret shouted this time. “Don’t sleep so late, don’t lie in your bath until your skin is wrinkled. Don’t spend your afternoons away from home. Get up, get dressed, have breakfast, and be the wife he wanted. Not some sniffling little brat.”

“Mrs. Hayes, I’m sorry if you feel I’m not doing what…”

“It’s not about me. It’s about you. I don’t know what he thought when he decided to marry a piece of farm dirt. You will never be the kind of woman he deserves. He deserves a woman who knows how to live a life of luxury. Not some piece of garbage who wants to feed and clothe the poor and useless,” Margret snapped. She walked to a vase filled with yellow roses and examined the flowers. She pulled one flower out of the vase and examined it closely. She then pulled the head of pedals off and put the stem back into the vase. “You see how now the arrangement is ruined? Because of the ugly catastrophe right in its center?” she asked.

“Because you ruined a beautiful…”

“You are that ugly stem in our lives,” Margret said. “Personally I believe you are not fit to spit onto the shoes of our staff. Why even our house maids are better than you are darling. But for some reason Matthew thinks you are the beauty of the world. So, I suggest you learn how to be a woman with money.”

“Money means nothing, old woman. Have you stepped foot into this lawless world since you were young? Money is nothing! Money only buys doctors and land. Cars that are never used. A world based on what you can steal. You’re son is well adjusted to a world of theft. He stole me from….”

“Bought you, Charlotte. From your father. Paid for you like property. Yet you can’t provide him the simple service of a child. Matthew longs for a child.”

“I have done nothing to stop the creation of a child. I lie here each night and I pray that this be the time that the child starts to grow. Because I’m tired of being hurt and yelled at and given uncomfortable tests to see if I am pregnant. Now if you will excuse me, I’d like to get out of…”

“Don’t so fast,” Margret said bitterly. “I haven’t finished talking to you, Charlotte.”

“But I have finished talking to you, Mrs. Hayes,” Charlotte snapped. She swung her legs out of the bed and stood up. The old woman stood firmly, cane held in two hands, and her face was an expression of hatred.

“Listen to me, Charlotte,” Margret said. “I wanted Matt to marry somebody that he deserved. But he choose you. So you will be what he wants from you. Understood?”

“Good bye, Margret,” Charlotte said. “Amber!” she called. Amber hurried into the room and bowed her head as she passed Margret.

“Yes, Miss Charlotte,” Amber said.

“I believe my mother-in-law has forgotten her medication this morning,” Charlotte said. “Can you please fetch her maid.”

“Of course, ma’am,” Amber said with a soft smile and left the room quickly. Margret looked at Charlotte with wide eyes.

“Matt has shown me all the tricks to rid myself of you,” Charlotte said with a smug smile. It was then that a older woman in a maid’s uniform came into the room.

“There you are, Miss Margret,” she said. “Come with me and we’ll settle down and have some tea.”

“I don’t want any of your ugly tea. I don’t want to sleep.”

“Now now, Miss Margret,” the maid said sweetly and guided the old woman out of the room. Amber passed them in the door way and she gave Margret a sly smile. She joined Charlotte and smiled widely, her shoulders shaking with silent giggles.

“That woman makes my skin crawl,” Charlotte said. “Now, Amber, it think I’d like a bath.” Amber nodded.

“Right away, Miss Charlotte,” she said. She went into the bathroom without letting her giggles escape her and she started a bath. Charlotte pulled a robe over her shoulders and went into the bathrobe then, covered in her night gown and robe.

“Amber, I think I’ll take a moment to myself,” Charlotte said.

“Okay, Miss. I’ll be here waiting for you,” Amber said with a smile. Charlotte left the room then and walked to Matt’s office. She opened the door, feeling bold, and up to his desk. He looked up at her and hung up the phone after a quick goodbye. The painting she’d done at the beach hung next to his desk, the desk was large and dark and scattered with paperwork.

“Darling, what is wrong?” he asked. She looked at him furiously.

“I want a lock on our door,” she said. “You’re mother assaulted me with her crazy talk about how I am farm dirt and she hates me. If I’m going to be forced to live in this house with you I want her to stay the hell away from me. I don’t want her at our dinner table anymore either!”

“Charlotte…mother…” Matt said flustered. “Did you call for her maids?”

“Yes, but I do not ever want to see her first thing in the morning again Matthew.”

“Of course, darling, I’m sorry,” Matt said. “I don’t know why she felt like she had the ability to enter our bedroom.”

“If she ever comes in again I might not be able to contain myself,” she warned.

“Or course, darling,” Matt said, now feeling angry. As Charlotte stormed out of the room she heard him pick up his phone and ask one of the staff to bring his mother to the office when she woke up.

It was later that afternoon that Charlotte found herself again with Jason in the old house hidden from the world. Jason looked at her and took a breath. They hadn’t spoken about the kiss they’d shared some weeks before. Jason knew well that if Matt found out about the kiss they’d both be in a great deal of danger.

“I’d like to paint a portrait of you,” Charlotte said as she ran her hands over the railing of the stairs.

“I don’t know that Mr. Hayes would approve of that,” Jason said. Charlotte shrugged.

“He won’t have to know. I’ll paint it here, and then he won’t find out. He’s always working, he never knows where I spend my afternoons.”

“I’ve never had somebody want to paint me,” Jason said, smiling to himself. She looked at him and squinted her eyes.

“I don’t know why not, Jason. You have a lovely face,” she said. She was feeling carefree today. Like the world was hers to hold. “I think I’ll start it soon. Tomorrow perhaps. I haven’t got my things with me today.” He didn’t answer her for a long moment.

“Miss Charlotte?” he said after the silence. “Why have you wanted to be my friend?”

“Because you understand me, Jason. You understand what I am and who I am and you love me for it.” His heart seemed to stop in his chest. He did love her. He’d loved her for a long time. She was a beautiful woman, a woman so perfect he feared he would ruin her with his love. But he loved her.

“I do love you,” he said softly. She looked up at him and her eyes were wide.

“Jason,” she said. He walked up to her then and looked at her.

“I’ve loved you for so long, Miss Charlotte,” he said. “The kiss…I know we haven’t…”

“Please,” she said and put a finger over his lips. “Don’t keep talking. You’ll spoil the moment.” He closed his mouth and looked at her. “If only I could have found you before Mr. Hayes found me.”

Matt was sitting in his office, fury written on his face when his mother walked into the room with her cane. She was tired and bitter as always. “You called for me, Matthew?” she asked in a soft voice.

“Stay away from Charlotte,” he snapped. “I don’t want to ever hear that you have been talking your insane idiotic spew of garbage to her again. She is my wife, and she has nothing to do with you. The next time I hear you’ve said a fowl word to her I will personally throw you out of my home.”

“Matthew!” Margret said with wide hurt eyes. “Why…I’m your mother, Matthew.”

“I couldn’t care a bit less! I’ve hated you my entire life and I won’t let you ruin my marriage,” he snapped.

“If your father could…”

“Father is the one that left me everything! Papa is the one that made it so that you would have nothing and live a lonely life without a dime!” Matt shouted. Margret looked at him with hurt in her face.

“I raised you…”

“All you have to do is keep your mouth shut. And you will from now on have your meals in your wing of the house. Don’t get near my wife again mother,” Matt said. “That’s all I wanted. Goodbye.”

“Now wait just one minute, Matthew. How dare you speak to me with that tone? I’m your mother. I’ve given you everything of myself. And you are spending your time defending a piece of dirt you collected from a rundown farm! You are a rich powerful man, Matthew. Why you have spent your time with her I will never…”

“Because I love her! I love her more than you have ever loved a human! So don’t open your mouth and tell me things you don’t understand!”

“I understand love perfectly, Matthew. I loved your brother and sister, I loved them dearly. But you were always too much of a problem. You’re father devoted everything he had to you. There was never time in his day to devote to the rest of us between his work and his attention to you,” Margret said. She was angry and he saw she would soon lose the energy it took to argue with him. His mother seemed sicker each day.

“It was always a war between Helene and Robert.”

“Robert would have run your father’s empire with ten times the ambition and success you do,” Margret snapped.

“Robert was a child when he died. You haven’t a clue what type of man he’d have become!”

“He was always better than you!” Margret shouted. “I want that little tramp out of our family!” Matt stared at her and took a breath before picking up his phone.

“Marianne, can you collect my mother?” he said after pushing some buttons. Margret’s eyes widened with both anger and hurt.

“How can you just call my maids and have me taken away like I’m a shipment of crops?”

“Because I can’t waste anymore time arguing with you,” Matt said. Marianne came into the room then and looked at Margret.

“Miss Margret,” she said in the same calm she’d spoken earlier when she’d led her from Charlotte’s bedroom.

“No! I won’t go this time! I won’t go and be drugged with your poison tea! I won’t!” Margret shouted. Matt looked at her with disgust.

“Marianne please,” he said to the maid.

“Of course, Mr. Hayes,” she said. “Please Miss Margret, let’s just go upstairs and relax.”

“I won’t! Listen to me, Matthew! I’m not just a inconvenience you can send away with special teas. I’m your mother!”

“Victor!” Matt called then. Victor came into the room instantly. He was Matt’s personal butler, never out of ear shot from Matt. “Please assist Marianne in taking my mother to her room. I fear mother has missed her medication and as you can see she is hysterical. I wouldn’t want Marianne getting hurt trying to lead her away.”

“Of course, sir,” Victor said and placed a hand on Margret’s arm.

“Unhand me!” Margret shouted, tears forming in her eyes. “This moment!”

“Marianne, perhaps one of her shots this afternoon, I’m afraid the tea won’t work,” Matt said. Marianne nodded and together with Victor she removed Margret from the room, screaming the entire way, waving her cane hysterically.

Matt slumped in his office chair then and took a breath. It was always difficult letting his mother know to stay out of his affairs. She was stubborn and her cruelty hadn’t faded in her age. As she’d gotten older Matt had paid a high priced doctor a great deal of money to have her diagnosed with an illness she didn’t have so he could provide her medications to sedate her.

He casually looked over some paperwork and then he stretched before picking the phone up again and paging Amber. Amber appeared in the office with her head down only moments later. “How may I be of assistance, Mr. Hayes?”

“Where is my wife? I think I’d like to have the rest of the afternoon with her,” he said. Amber looked up with wide eyes.

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” she said. She shrunk back at the tension in his jaw.

“You don’t know?” he asked.

“She left some time ago with her driver. I supposed to spend some time relaxing.”

“Her driver?” Matt asked and thought. Jason. He hadn’t had a report from Jason in some time. “Where did she go?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me. She asked the cooks to prepare her a picnic to take with her. Maybe a park or something?”

“Thank you, Amber. I will call on Jason,” Matt said and waved a hand at her to signal her away. She left the room feeling uncomfortable. She wished she had a way to let Charlotte know he was looking for her.

Jason was lying on top of Charlotte on the floor in the house when his pager buzzed harshly against his hip. He pulled his mouth away when he felt it and looked at it carefully. He jumped back when he saw it was Matt’s office. Charlotte lifted herself onto her elbows and looked at him.

“What is it?”

“Mr. Hayes is paging. Give me a moment Miss Charlotte,” he said and quickly he returned to the car, leaving her on the ground. Her clothes were wrinkled but still in place and her hair had slipped some from its braids.

She stood up and straightened her clothes and took a breath, feeling odd. She wasn’t sure why she’d ended up on the ground with Jason. She’d been attracted to him from the day she met him. His beautiful face and his strong shoulders and his good body. The feeling of safety he gave her and the feeling of his love for her had been things that made her care for him. But she feared her husband and she was worried now she couldn’t hide this from him.

The first kiss had sparked something she wasn’t sure she understood in her 17 years. She had been upset and scared after Matt had forced her into a sexual relationship. She had been angry and when Jason had taken her into his strong safe grip she’d melted into him. He was like her. Raised in dirt and poverty. Educated only with what he’d had as a child. He had no money, no way to be free of Matt. He was just like her. And she loved that about him.

He returned then with his clothes straightened and in perfect place. Like they’d never been rumpled on the floor. “Mr. Hayes has asked me to bring you home. He wishes to spend the remainder of the day with you.” His words felt like bricks. She looked down at the ground and took in a soft breath.

“We can’t repeat this, Jason,” she said. “I’m married to the most powerful man in our world. Imagine what would happen to us if he found out,” she explained. He looked away from her.

“Of course,” he said. “I’m sorry.” She put her hand on his cheek.

“Tomorrow I will paint your portrait,” she said. Jason nodded softly and placed his hand over hers.

“Someday I will take you away from his suppression, Charlotte,” he said. “I won’t let you be a slave to him.”

“Don’t talk such foolish things, Jason. You and I both know we are all slaves to Matthew Hayes.”