“It’s all very well to agree that we’ll both keep these two a secret.” Georgie leaned broodingly against a stack of broken chairs, her arms crossed over her favourite waistcoat. “Serena won’t, though. Didn’t you hear her earlier? She’s convinced that Sir Gareth is the incarnation of all of Mama’s worst villains, and she loves it.”
Moodily, Georgie kicked at the dusty floor with the hard toes of one of the gentlemen’s boots that she had redonned with the rest of her preferred attire ... and the little golden dragon, who had finally agreed to sit very nearly within petting range of Rose’s hands, leapt six inches backwards in shock. Even the red dragon, safely perched on Rose’s knee, flinched slightly.
“Shh,” Rose murmured. “Shh. She’s not going to hurt either of you, I promise.”
“Sir Gareth would, though.” Beth clasped her arms around her knees as she sat just behind Rose on the dusty floor, keeping her wide-eyed gaze on the dragons. “What do you think he wants them for?”
“He’s certainly not been carrying them on his shoulders to make himself charming for social calls, has he?” Georgie’s nostrils flared with distaste. “I must say, I do pity his niece—if she truly exists, that is. No one’s ever heard a hint of gossip about her. He must have kept her just as trapped in that house as these poor creatures.”
“I hope not.” Rose winced, thinking of the markings around the red dragon’s hind legs. Had they been left by metal cuffs of some sort? “Perhaps we may find a way to help her, too, if he does bring her to visit.”
“Or perhaps she can be the one to persuade Serena that it’s not as romantic as she imagines to be held prisoner under an unpleasant gentleman’s control.” Georgie looked grimmer than Rose had ever seen her. “I meant what I said, you know: you can’t trust her not to answer any of Sir Gareth’s questions about these dragons, if only to spite the rest of us right now.”
“Oh, but she wouldn’t really do that ... would she?” Beth tugged unhappily at her lower lip with her thumb and forefinger. “It’s too late to keep the first dragon secret from her.”
“Well, we don’t need to tell her about the second one,” Rose said, “but as for the first ...” Of course! As inspiration struck, she gave the red dragon on her lap an extra stroke of celebration. “We’ll just inform her that this one belongs to Mr Aubrey! We’ll say she somehow got free of the carriage and arrived at the abbey just ahead of him.”
“Ehh ...?” Georgie shrugged. “It might work, I suppose. She certainly wasn’t paying much attention earlier, when Beth was rampaging everywhere in sobbing hysterics about how she’d lost that one for good and it was probably dead and you’d hate her forever.”
Beth gasped in outrage. “I was not—!”
“But are you quite sure Mr Aubrey won’t mind?” her older sister finished sceptically.
“Of course not,” said Rose. “He wants the best for both of these dragons. I’ll simply explain the matter to him.”
“The same way you explained your betrothal?” For the first time since the quarrel, Rosie saw Georgie’s lips twitch in amusement. “I should have liked to witness that moment, I must say. I’ve never heard of anyone else finding themselves a husband in quite such a novel fashion!”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake ...” A ripple of unusual irritation snapped through Rose as Beth giggled faithlessly. “Mr Aubrey is not my husband and never will be,” she informed them both. “He is my fiancé, which is a very different matter.”
“If you say so. Just wait until Mama starts planning the ceremony and see how easy it is to escape from it then!”
“Oh, she wouldn’t. Would she?” Rose blinked, taken aback. “I’d thought—I mean, she is so very immersed in her new novel just now ...”
“Mama may seem to be in a world of her own, but she can be surprisingly sharp when it comes to such matters,” Georgie informed her with an entirely inappropriate amount of glee.
Beth nodded vigorously in agreement. “I overheard her fretting at Papa months ago about how they would ever find you the sort of match you deserve. She wanted to spread the rumour that you were secretly an heiress, but Papa wouldn’t have it. He’s far too principled to agree to such deceptions.”
“Too stodgy, more like.” Georgie rolled her eyes. “But that won’t stop Mama from seizing any opportunity that falls into her lap. Thank goodness I’m a lost cause, but she’s determined to acquire good husbands for the rest of you, and she’ll be in ecstasies when she hears this news. You’ll be lucky not to have the banns read this week on her insistence!”
“But—but that’s all so absurd and—and quite unnecessary.” There was a distant ringing in Rose’s ears; an inexorable feeling of rising panic too sharp and jagged to be contained. As the red dragon shifted nervously on her lap, Rose realised that her hands, resting on the little dragon’s neck and back, had inexplicably begun to tremble, while her breath had shortened in her chest. “Aunt Parry doesn’t need to fret about my future. It’s not her responsibility.”
“No?” Georgie’s gaze was uncomfortably keen. “Then whose is it?”
No one’s, tolled the unavoidable answer, with the depth and hollowness of a mourning bell.
For all of Rose’s flights of fancy in the past, she had never once imagined that her own parents wouldn’t be standing safely by her side to guide her into adulthood and help her embark upon the sort of happy marriage they’d always shared ... but her father’s dreams had shattered that possibility forever when he had secretly invested every last farthing of his savings – and shockingly more even beyond his own savings, which he had borrowed from his expected future income – into that fraudulent scheme built on nothing but fantasies.
Even now, Rose didn’t know whether her parents had comprehended the full scale of their financial calamity when they had set out on that last fateful trip together. They had apparently been heading to the closest sizable town when the crash occurred – perhaps on their way to mount some desperate attempt to recoup her father’s investment. Knowing Rose’s mother, she would have formed a fiery new resolve the very moment she’d learned of her husband’s tragic mistake.
Rose could never know exactly what had happened between the parents she had loved. But she had understood, from the moment the first creditors had descended upon her and her sisters in their mourning, exactly how poisonous it truly was to indulge in the kind of dreams she had once happily shared with her sweet, hopeful father ... and that she could never again count on anyone else to ensure her safety.
“Aunt and Uncle Parry have done far too much for me already.” She was talking too quickly now – she could feel it – but her words poured faster and faster through her lips in an attempt to fix this so she could breathe again. “They can’t be expected to do any more than that. I know—I do know I’ve been here for too long, now, living off their kindness, and of course it must be a terrible strain upon their resources. Still, I will take responsibility for my future. I only need a bit more time to form a proper plan and—”
“Rose.” It was Beth who interrupted this time, leaning forwards with her dark eyes wide. “You can’t possibly think that any of us want you to leave?”
Tears stung at Rose’s eyes, sudden and inescapable. This, this, was exactly what that white fog had been protecting her from for all those months: this hideous sense of exposure. No, worse – vulnerability.
It was unbearable.
