“He likes jam very much,” Rupert informed her importantly. “He doesn’t care so much for bread, though.”
“And who could blame him?” It took a true effort of willpower not to move any closer; Rose’s hands itched to follow Rupert’s example. “If you were hungry,” she told Llewellyn, “it was silly to leave just before my uncle’s food arrived. He told me he was planning to share his sandwiches with you.”
Rupert’s nose wrinkled. “Papa eats boring sandwiches. Mrs Davies makes mine better.”
“Well ... oh!” Rose’s breath caught as Llewellyn, finally making his decision, stretched his long neck forwards and set his small, hot chin in her open palm. “That’s right,” she whispered as she leaned over him, stroking his head with her left hand. “I am safe. You can trust me. Mr Aubrey, do you see—?”
But it wasn’t Mr Aubrey who answered her. That gentleman had been watching them the whole time with his characteristically focused and intent attention ... so not one of them had taken any note of the quiet easing open of the far door.
“A touching sight indeed,” Sir Gareth drawled as he crossed the room towards them in long, purposeful strides. “Now, hand my dragon over, if you please. I am tired of playing childish games.”
Rose leapt to her feet with a barely swallowed scream. Thank goodness Llewellyn had vanished at the sound of his former captor’s voice; even better, there were doors on both ends of this room, which was why she had used it as a passageway. “Rupert, go! Take your friend with you immediately. We need to have a private, adult conversation with Sir Gareth.”
Mr Aubrey had stiffened and swung around to face the other man already. She lunged around the side of the settee and grabbed his closest arm, pulling him with her to create a human barrier between Rupert and Llewellyn’s hiding place and the closer door.
“Do you really imagine you’re up to a round of fisticuffs with me, Aubrey?” Sir Gareth’s upper lip curled. “Perhaps your lovely fiancé might be a tad more successful – she certainly seems fierce and unladylike enough – but—”
“Now, Rupert!” Rose snapped.
Her youngest cousin might be an unstoppable force of adorable mischief, but even he knew to obey when he heard that particular tone of voice from a trusted adult. Multiple sets of light footsteps scrambled behind her. She didn’t dare take her own attention from Sir Gareth, but she heard the door open and close behind her, and she trusted that Rupert wouldn’t have left Llewellyn behind.
Still, she didn’t ease from her position. “You wouldn’t dare attack either of us in my uncle’s home. He’d have you hauled before the magistrate.”
“Then it’s a good thing I have no intention of getting embroiled in such a pointless scrap, satisfying though it might be to finally take my own turn at beating Aubrey to the ground. Has he shared much about his school years with you? Now that we’ve met in person, I can see why the other chaps found him so irritating. A little jumped-up commoner with his nose always pressed in a book; he should have known he could never pass for a real gentleman.”
Rose opened her mouth for a hot retort, but Mr Aubrey placed one hand over hers where it rested on his arm in a gentle but unmistakable warning. “And yet,” he said, “not one of those school beatings ever did send me running in defeat. Strange, that. A cleverer man might come to wonder whether physical strength wasn’t the most powerful factor after all.”
“No one is attacking anyone,” Rose said through clenched teeth. It would have given her the most enormous satisfaction to deliver a stinging slap to Sir Gareth’s sneering face, but she would try her best to follow her almost-fiancé’s high-minded example. “Now, I don’t know exactly what you imagined you saw from all the way across the room, but I can assure you—”
“No. More. Games.” Sir Gareth finally turned his brooding gaze to her. “That is what I came to inform you, after witnessing the havoc you left behind at my home. I’ve wasted too much of my time running in circles purely because of your shameless scheming—and no, you needn’t guard the door from me, Miss Tregarth, enjoyable though it might be to put you in your place along the way.”
“Miss Tregarth?” Mr Aubrey’s arm stiffened under Rose’s hand. “Hold a moment.”
Sir Gareth disregarded his request. “I have no intention of wasting any more hours tearing after my lost property, especially when I know how difficult it can be to catch the particular item that just left.”
“What a shame ... for whatever you’re talking about, that is.” Rose bared her teeth in a false smile. “Perhaps you should show us your certificate of ownership, so that we can be certain of your right to it.”
“Perhaps you should begin to take me seriously instead.” The sudden snap in his voice made her shoulders instinctively brace even before Sir Gareth’s lips curved into an ominous smirk. “Let me read your future for you, Miss Tregarth. I can see it quite clearly at the moment. Within the next three days at most, you will return to Penryddn House, where, this time, you will not take advantage of my niece’s hospitality but bring with you the dragon that just left and every other dragon you have dared to keep from me. You will not report their existence to any authorities, nor will you ever again attempt to interfere with my private affairs.”
Rose’s breath had shortened in her chest, but she met his eyes fearlessly. “What an interesting and unlikely story. What would ever make you imagine that it could happen?”
“Because I know your weakness.” His smirk deepened. “Your cousin Serena does like to talk and talk, and she’s been delightfully trusting in answering every question about her family that I’ve asked so far. So, I happen to know that you don’t have any family or security left apart from her and the other impractical fools in this ramshackle abbey, do you? Mr and Mrs Parry took you in only out of the kindness in their hearts ... and if you don’t do exactly what I say, they will be ruined.”
Chapter 25
“What do you mean, ‘ruined?’” Rose demanded. Behind her, a soft creak sounded in the walls, but she didn’t let that distract her; she’d learned months ago to ignore the many creaking and settling sounds of this ancient house. “Unlike you, they've done nothing to be ashamed of. My uncle and aunt are models of propriety!"
“Ha. ‘Eccentricity’ might be a better term, and yet, their far more interesting daughters ..." Sir Gareth's eyes gleamed as he luxuriated over that final word. “I did say that your cousin Serena was delightfully trusting, did I not? It was all too easy to persuade her to meet me alone in the dark in the abbey ruins, without a chaperone ... as you saw for yourself the other night, did you not?”
Rose's mouth fell open. “That was entirely your fault! You invited her—”
“And yet that isn't how society will view the matter. I assure you, I'll face no consequences. After all, gentlemen are expected to push their limits ... little though you may understand that with a weakling as your fiancé.” He let out a contemptuous huff of air. “We all understand that it is the responsibility of a young lady to protect her reputation above all else ... and not only for her own sake.”
Rose's free hand tightened into a fist by her side. “Are you threatening to reveal Serena's indiscretions with yourself to the wider world?”
“Why not?” He shrugged. “It'll be quite the entertaining story for all of my friends. I won't even need to take any liberties with the details. I remember quite clearly her long hair hanging loose in the moonlight as she did everything I asked without a single word of maidenly protest ...”
“You only asked her to tell you about me and the dragons!”
