Mdm DeClaireville sat Laurel down before the fire and force some water down her throat. "I told you you shouldn't have before those children here!" she lectured. "I knew they would be nothing but trouble! You just have a habit of putting yourself out too much, like your father! You should know better, Claudette!"
Laurel sat in front of the fire, staring into the flickering flames. Her mother was talking, but Laurel didn't take any of it in. She didn't think that she could respond if she did understand she just kept envisioning those horrible moments and the horrible English milor that perpetrated them. She was filled with pain both physical and emotional pain and an incredible desire to inflinch pain on that vile man. She wanted it to go away, these memories, these emotions made her sick. Was this what dying felt like? How could anyone live feeling like this? She sat there and tried to banish this thoughts from her mind.
Mdm. DeClaireville continued her tirade, "You have only yourself to blame for this, you shouldn't have let those people into our lives, Claudette! And I thought your father did all there was to be done to ruin the family name!"
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Mazzarini borrowed his landlady's horse and cart and when to check on his poor little angel and her mother. When she arrived he could heard the lady lecturing her daughter and rapped upon the door, Mdm. answered looking flushed and and bad tempered. "Forgive me, madame!" Mazzarini said humbly. "But I came to check on you and your daughter."
Mdm. DeClaireville allowed him to enter, noting the cart he had arrived in, and said, "Thank you for your kindness, monsieur, you have done our humble family a great service. However I must request another favor from you, if you will be so kind."
Mazzarini bowed and said, "Your servant, milady."
"I ask that you take me to meet, Lord Blakeney. He has done a great disservice to my daughter and I wish to address him on it," she stated.
Mazzarini looked at her puzzled, "When do you wish to do this?"
"Immediately, if you are agreeable," she stated. " I need only have a few minutes to freshen up." Mazzarini nodded and Mdm. DeClaireville retired to her room and closed the door. Mazzarini slowly approached Laurel.
"We meet again, little angel!" Mazzarini said kindly and gasped at the state the girl was in. She was no longer the smiling Aphrodite, she was despair herself! He knelt beside her and took her cold hands in his. "You see, I kept my promise!" He attempted a smile, but there was no reaction. He continue to speak to her until Mdm. re-entered, looking very much like an aristocratic, he stood dumbfound for a few minutes and then took Mdm to the carriage and help her onto it, before running back and locking Laurel in and then going back to climb on the carriage itself and direct them to Blakeney's estate.
