Chapter 86

‘Allowed what to happen? For your father to correct you, as was his right as your father?’

At least she wasn’t pretending not to understand.

‘My own father was far harder on me than Frederick ever was with you.’ She lifted the sleeve of her arm and showed him the old silvery scar that ran along her biceps. ‘My father did this to me in a drunken rage when I was seven. For all his faults as a father, Frederick never once lifted his finger to you.’

He felt as if he’d been punched. She’d always shrugged it off as a childhood accident. ‘I never knew.’

‘It was a long time ago when such things weren’t spoken of, especially amongst people like my family. Personal problems were kept behind closed doors. We both suffered at the hands of our parents and we tried not to repeat that with you and Audrey.’

He laughed without any trace of humour.

‘You think your father was hard on you?’ his mother said, a sharpness in her voice. ‘William would beat him when he failed at anything or disappointed him i