“Sounds pretty.” He yawned. “What else should I know about this cad?”
“Mr. Blake dresses like a … like a … like he tripped and fell chest first onto a painter’s palette.”
“Oh!ThatMr. Blake. I’veseenhim.”
“I wanted to get a closer look at his clothes. At first look, he appears to be color-blind, but if you look closer … the textures … the patterns … there’s method to his madness. I was in the middle of making a discovery when he entered the room and caught me. We argued and the wardrobe crashed to the floor. He pushed me out of the way before it crushed me.”
“You’re saying I owe him my thanks for saving you?” A thundercloud sat atop Raph’s brow. “I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to like it. And you don’t have to do anything. It’s all taken care of.” She hoped.
He stroked his chin. “Are you telling me Mother and Father brought him up to snuff?”
“We’re not marrying.”
The thundercloud above his head grew more ominous. Lightning crackled. “Our parents once more stood back and did nothing. Just like they’ve neglected the estate. Just like they’ve avoided your entrance into society and wasted your dowry. As heir”—he closed his eyes, swallowed—“as heir, I’ve tried to restore what I can. Salvage what I can, but—”
Maggie rushed to hug him. “You’re perfect, Raph. You’ve done everything you can to save us from debtors prison.” And now it was her turn. Her methods were not as honorable as her eldest brother’s, and if he knew what she planned to do, the secrets listed in her notebook, he’d burn it.Sheshould burn it. Her fingers itched to burn it, actually. But the manor house rotted around them, the crops produced less and less each year, and every farthing that came their way went immediately to a work of art they didn’t need. Raph did his part. Her other four brothers did theirs, too. She’d not seen any of them in months as they worked various jobs to send home funds that kept the estate afloat.
Maggie had nothing to contribute but other people’s secrets. She was so little no one ever saw her, so she saw and heard everything. She knew what no one wanted her to know, and she would use that information to restore the house, fund the farm, pay the servants, and maybe, just maybe, replenish her dowry. It was not honorable. It was not ethical, but she had to do it. Shewoulddo it.
Raph set her away from him and stood, shoving his hands through his hair. “But you don’t need a dowry, do you, if you’ve been compromised. The entire house party saw Mr. Blake,naked, laying on top of you in his bedroom.”
Maggie gasped. “Naked? Hardly. Horrid, overblown rumors.” She lowered her voice to a mumble. “He was in his shirtsleeves.”
He heard her anyway. “He may as well have been naked, then! Maggie! I know Miss Bellvue taught you better than this.”
“Miss Bellvue did.” And if the governess they’d had when she’d been twelve had not taught her the rules of proper society, she would never have learned them. Her parents certainly would never have taught her. “But she’s not here now. Mama and Papa are, and I’m not marrying Mr. Blake. There’s no need to.”
“I’ll write to Miss Bellvue and ask her to come talk sense into you. Or at least provide a proper chaperone. You obviously need one.”
“You’ll write to Miss Bellvue? You know where she is?”
Raph’s face froze into a look of complacence. “Why not?” He shrugged. “I helped her find another position when we no longer had need of her services.”
“Of course. I’d forgotten.”
He pointed a finger at her. “Don’t forget the lessons she taught you. I’ve not. I’m going to have a chat with Mr. Blake.”
Maggie grabbed his arm, but trying to restrain him was like trying to hold back a bear. “Raph! No!” She tightened her fingers on his jacket and dug in her heels, but he just dragged her across the room. “Stop. You’re not to talk to Mr. Blake!”
Raph cracked his knuckles. “Not sure talking will be involved.”
“But it’s not his fault!”
That stopped him. He removed Maggie from his person and considered her closely. “True. You’re the one who broke into his room. But he’s not insisting you marry him, as any gentleman discovered in a compromising position with a womanmustdo.”
“I told him no! Our parents did not press the point. You will not either. I’ll never go to London. I’ll never have a season.” They had no means of funding it. “My future looks much different from most ladies of the ton. And well you know it. That means I need not abide by the same rules that bind those ladies.”
The sigh Raph heaved seemed to rock the room. “Maggie, I’m sorry. I wish I could have done better. You deserve better.”
“I’m fine, Raph, with what I have.”
He nodded and hugged her. It was like being enveloped by a hairy giant from a fairy tale, but likely more comforting. She loved it. She’d rarely felt safer than when crushed by her brother’s arms. “Lady Magnificent?”
“Yes?” she mumbled into his shoulder.
He hugged her tighter. “Stop nosing about in other people’s private matters. You wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t poked about in Mr. Blake’s business.”
