Redemption - Leon Uris [123]
But what of Jeremy? He was thrown into confusion. Molly asked the unthinkable. To go off with her he would have to renounce his title and be thrown into a world of working men and women and this terrified him…utterly…completely.
If only Conor were there to give him counsel. If only Conor were there to shake him and impose courage. If only Conor…
Life in a cold water flat with a baby? What could he do? Really…all those things he was used to…Surely Jeremy had played games with his father, letting Roger know he would never measure up to responsibility because he liked life as it was. Life as he had known it could not be taken from him. He was born at the top of the ladder. No way that could be taken from him.
Molly was obstinate. She loathed his family, purely and simply. It was they who were the underclass and not herself.
Molly left Jeremy at the Liffey, a boy trying to be a man but not able to make it. He pumped himself up into believing he had done the proper thing. He was not put on earth to become part of a faceless mass of strugglers. He had a duty of generations, centuries standing, and this was more important!
Caroline and Sir Frederick held their collective breath as Jeremy went down to Dublin on his mission. They knew what had happened the instant he returned to Rathweed Hall, alone.
Jeremy was standing up, all right. He had made a decision and he had made himself believe his decision was based on honor.
“I think I’d like to speak to Mother, alone,” he said after he found them in the billiard room.
“I think not,” Caroline said. “Your grandfather has doted over you from the moment you were born.”
“This is an intimate family matter,” Jeremy retorted, swelling up his own sense of righteousness.
“No,” his mother snapped quickly.
“I have an enormous stake in you, Jeremy,” his grandfather said.
“Very well. I’ve come to a decision. I’m standing with Father.”
“What do you mean?” Sir Frederick said in a voice that Jeremy had never heard before.
Jeremy flushed. There was welling fear to suppress, a dryness to make wet inside his mouth, a trembling to bring under control.
“Molly was cynical and insulting to our family and…our way of life. She refused to live in Hubble Manor. She portrayed us rather harshly.”
“Well, bully for her,” Caroline said. “It seems that the only people involved in this beloved land with any sense of honor are the croppies.”
She looked to her father in a dare. Frederick wanted to jump in, in outrage, but he merely reddened. One false word and Caroline would be gone and his life would end in a disaster.
Mind the temper, he told himself, mind the temper. You’re sweating, Freddie. Don’t let another bloody stroke do you in, now.
“You let her go?” Caroline questioned.
“She refused, Mother. I had no choice.”
“That girl is carrying your child in her belly, conceived in love. Do you love her?”
“I do, Mother, but my duty is greater than my folly.”
“God! You sound like Christopher! You damned fool, Jeremy! What kind of a man are you! You should have taken her and gone anywhere…anywhere…”
“Caroline!” her father interceded.
“Shut up, Freddie. Jeremy, you should have taken her and fled. Can’t you see how magnificent she is?”
“Now, just a minute, Mother!” Jeremy cried. “Don’t you be so damned pious. You loved Conor Larkin! You loved him, did you not!”
The words, never to be spoken, were now uncaged into a room growing wild. After the fall…after the silence…Caroline looked to her father, wavering and ashen.
“I loved Conor Larkin,” she said.
Freddie turned and sagged.
“Why didn’t you up and run away with Conor? It’s not all that easy, is it, Mother?”
“I loved him,” she repeated, “but he was too decent to make love to me. He did not make me pregnant. So you see, there is a difference, my son.”
“Really, Mother? You didn’t go with him because you didn’t want to abdicate your throne and live on the run. That’s why. The same bloody reason