“Wait.” Miss Thomas stiffened in her seat. “Do you think—that is to say ...” Moistening her lush lower lip with the tip of her tongue, she darted a quick, wary glance at the door where Montrose lurked.
Lowering her voice, she leaned forwards, and Rose joined Georgie and Beth in leaning forwards too, the better to hear her low murmur. Serena hovered at the edge of their circle, frowning, but Mr Aubrey continued reading in happy oblivion.
“Perhaps you all might be able to assist me in clearing up a particular point of British law.” Miss Thomas clasped her hands together in her lap, her slender fingers squeezing together tightly. “When I first arrived in England, my uncle had me sign a large pile of forms relating to his guardianship, including a power of attorney form to allow him to act on my behalf with my solicitors and thereby carry out his legal obligations towards me. Or at least, that was what he told me. As did ...” She tilted her head meaningfully towards the looming figure by the door.
Montrose. Rose’s eyes narrowed.
If that gentleman was truly a man-of-business, she could only imagine him to be an expert on the shadier and more illicit aspects of any business. He certainly wasn’t lurking outside now for the sake of their hostess’s protection.
Miss Thomas’s voice sped up as she continued, as if frantic to finish before they could be interrupted. “Having my name and signatures on the contract for this property, too, was no more than a formality, they said – something to do with the details of that guardianship – but ...” She bit her lip. “Apparently, it was far too complicated to go into all of the legal details, and they told me firmly – and have continued to repeat, every single time I’ve asked – that I wouldn’t understand any of those details, anyway.”
“Then they haven’t paid much attention to you, have they?” Georgie let out a derisive snort. “I’ve only known you for three days, but it’s plain to see you’re at least as bright as that blustering uncle of yours. Surely, you must know that, too.”
“I ... thank you.” Amina sighed. “Unfortunately, this all happened immediately after I’d arrived in London, when I hadn’t quite found my feet yet. Everything was so different and overwhelming at first, and no one would take the time to explain anything ... No doubt, I must have seemed all too easy to confuse.”
“Well, no wonder!” Rose hadn’t forgotten her own mission, but a quick flash of indignation flared within her at the other girl’s words. “How could you instantly understand everything in a new country without help or explanations?”
“We-ell ...” The expression on Miss Thomas’s face was too complex for Rose to interpret, but from the sudden furrow of Georgie’s eyebrows, Rose suspected that her cousin was becoming more adept at reading their invincibly proper hostess’s signals. “Regardless of anything else that may have occurred, I can never allow myself to forget my uncle’s kindness in taking me in when I was alone in the world. As I have since been informed, multiple times ...” She slid another glance across at Montrose, wincing. “No one here would have blamed him in the slightest for ignoring that unwanted obligation across the sea.”
“Hmm.” Rose pressed her lips together.
Of course, Rose had been surprised that Sir Gareth had bothered to take responsibility for his brother’s orphaned daughter across the world. And yet ...
Georgie’s usual air of relaxed affability hid a surprisingly keen mind, and now there was an edge to her tone. “It sounds to me as if it’s your uncle who ought to be thanking you for your generosity if he used his guardianship to purchase the house he wanted with the funds your father left to you.”
“Aha.” Miss Thomas’s expression shuttered ... but her long, slim fingers clenched together into a single fist in her lap. “So that was the true reason my signature was required on all of those documents, after all. I had come to suspect as much ... but somehow, I’d still hoped, even now, that I might be wrong.” She drew a hissing breath through her teeth. “No wonder he hasn’t been able to grant me any more funds for books or other purposes since then! He always complained that my father’s solicitors in London were being unreasonably stingy ... but that must have been because he’d already made such a large withdrawal from my inheritance. How foolish I was not to understand it all immediately, when he ordered me to sign.”
For the first time, Rose met Miss Thomas’s gaze without any shields or reserve. “You were not foolish. Believe me.”
What would Rose have done if she’d arrived at Gogodd Abbey, still suffocating on that white fog of grief and despair, only to be presented by Uncle Parry with a pile of legal papers to sign? It would never even have occurred to her to argue, much less to wonder what they were. Lost in that white fog, she would have signed anything without question or emotion ... and she’d had none of the extra complications of Miss Thomas’s international dislocation.
“At least you asked,” she said. “It isn’t your fault that he refused to answer or that he tried to make you feel small and stupid.”
“Perhaps not,” Miss Thomas said quietly. But she didn’t sound convinced.
Georgie looked as if she could say a good deal more ... but instead, she reached over to lay one hand on Miss Thomas’s clenched double-fist in silent support.
“You’re supposed to be able to trust your family.” Beth’s voice was quiet, but it drew the eyes of everyone in the room to where she had curled up in her own chair, her expression unhappy. “You should never have had to ask in the first place.”
Even Serena looked disturbed. Still, she said, “We shouldn’t judge Sir Gareth without hearing his side of the story.”
“Indeed not.” Miss Thomas straightened her shoulders with a smile that looked forced. “However, I could do with a bit of exercise after all that lovely tea. Let’s enjoy a real tour, shall we? After all, it is my house.” She stood up and started purposefully towards the door.
It swung fully open before she could reach it. Sir Gareth’s man-of-business blocked the doorway. “Perhaps you would all care for more tea.” In his rasping voice, the words sounded more like an order than a suggestion.
Rose admired the steely smile that Miss Thomas managed in response. “We’ve all had quite enough tea for now, Montrose. I’m going to take my visitors for a stroll around the house.”
“I don’t believe your uncle would find that a good idea.” He stepped forwards, slowly and deliberately, to loom over her with palpable menace.
“I don’t see why not.” Miss Thomas’s voice didn’t waver, but Rose could feel the tension mounting like sparks of lightning in the air.
Leaping to her feet, Rose started forwards, nudging Mr Aubrey to follow ...
But Georgie was already slipping neatly into place beside their hostess. “Do feel free to find Sir Gareth and ask his opinion yourself, my good man. As he isn’t here, though, I don’t believe you have any actual choice about what Miss Thomas chooses to do with her guests in her own house. Do you?”
Georgie’s tone was perfectly genial, but whatever Montrose saw in her eyes made his narrow. “Sir Gareth employs me to protect all of his possessions.”
Miss Thomas’s sharp intake of breath cut through the room. “I am not one of my uncle’s possessions!”
