She sounded remarkably blasé about the whole idea.“You will have to explain that.”
“Last year, one of the nursery staff was caught trying to sneak Preston out of the house,” she told him indifferently as she examined a small Rodin bronze near the window.“She confessed that she and her brother were planning on holding Preston for a king’s ransom.”
Whatever Aylesbury had been expecting, that wasn’t it.“My God!How did I not hear of this?”
“And you really think you’re so much smarter than I?”Fiona asked with a spark of that feistiness she had brandished so well moments before.“If they had reported it and the news made the papers...”
“It would have only served to spread the idea amongst others.”
“Ah, a learned man indeed.”
“I fear I haven’t a classical education in villainy and sadism,” he countered, following in her path as she continued to move about the room.And out of his arm’s length?He shook his head.“Still, I cannot understand their motive.Why target Glenrothes?There are other nobles with higher rank and connections to the Crown who would have made more prime targets than Glenrothes heir.”
“No A-levels in Economics then?”Fiona tsked.She picked up a crystal orb from the mantel, absently turning it in her hands.“You are forgetting that Francis has something that none of those high-ranking nobles have.Eve.”
“Lady Glenrothes?”
“And her money, yes.Don’t you recall?Eve and Kitty’s father was one of those shipping barons you hear about.They have millions.Each.”
“Americandollars,” Aylesbury dismissed.
Fiona laughed aloud at that and set the crystal back in place.“How very British of you, Harry.But the translation of those pitiful ‘American dollars’ into pounds is still more than enough to prompt avarice, envy, and treachery in even the most saintly Briton’s heart.”
Taking a moment to absorb what she was telling him, he leaned a shoulder against the mantelpiece nearby with a sigh.Eve and her sister had made their debut in the year or so before his father’s death.At the time, he’d been at university and not current on the ton’s gossip.Even so, enough casual references were made among the MacKintosh clan during the time he lived among them to make Fiona’s reasoning make sense.“That much, then?I had no idea.”
“Most don’t.Even the nursery maid who attempted Preston’s kidnapping was motivated by nothing more than gossip among the household staff.”Her spirits dimmed once again.“If the truth were to get out...If it already has...”
As much as he hated the thought of her facing any danger, Aylesbury had to admit that her deductions made sense.“You believe someone is kidnapping you for monetary gain?”
“I’m an easier target than any of the children now.They are well-guarded,” she told him, with a shrug as she continued her perambulation around the room.“What else could it be?”
What else indeed?“Why don’t we get you home and let your brother know what has happened?Perhaps he will have some theories of his own.”
“No!That is the last thing I want to do,” she argued.“Francis and Eve live in fear of this after what happened with Preston.I’ll not worry them anew over nothing.”
“Nothing?”he retorted incredulously, pushing off from the limestone fireplace to trail her once more.“You think this is nothing?If I hadn’t been there this time...”
“I will take precautions not to be alone,” she assured him.“I will stay in public, surrounded by people.”
“You were in public, surrounded by people just then,” he pointed out.“It didn’t seem to stop him.”
Fiona winced but didn’t give in.Instead, she set her jaw stubbornly.It seemed she didn’t like to be challenged, even on matters that had nothing to do with him.If it weren’t so tragic, it might have been reassuring for his cause.“The driver timed that very well.”
“It could happen again.”
“That is not your problem.”
She turned to face him with a stern look that he suspected was meant to brook no rebuttal, but what Fiona didn’t know about him was that under the affable exterior she knew from him in the past, he possessed an intractability to match her own.
His jaw tightened as he caught her shoulders, frowning down at her.“The hell it isn’t.I can’t let you endanger yourself.”
“And I can’t have you about, Harry,” she admitted, then bit her lip.“What I mean is, I have my brothers’ company to keep me safe, and I will use it.You needn’t worry over me, though I appreciate the concern.”
“It isn’t something so impersonal as concern,” he told her.“Though you refuse to accept it, you must at least see that I care for you.”
She laughed lightly.“And that isn’t impersonal?”
“There’s nothing impersonal about this.”
