“I was not disturbing her.”
“You are,” he said. “And you promised that if I brought you along today, you would remain out of the way.”
“I am, Father. I was only –”
“Enough.” He held up a hand to silence her, and his expression was one of deep warning. “Your sister is busy, and the last thing she needs is you pestering her.” He raised both eyebrows at Marianne, who bowed her head in submission. “Good.”
Marianne then looked at Rose hopefully…
“And how are things going with you?” their father asked Rose next. “Is everything coming along?”
“Yes, Father,” Rose said simply, hoping it would be enough to see him leave the room with Marianne. Oh, how she needed them both to leave.
“Good… good…” He bit into his lip. “And thank you again, dear, for agreeing to help.”
“It is fine.”
“And be sure to thank His Grace when he returns from his trip,” he added. “For allowing us to use his office.”
“I will…” Her stomach twisted, and she thought she might be sick.
“It is a shame he is not here,” he continued. “But no matter, when he returns, we will have you over for supper. Yes?”
“I am sure he would like that.”
“We should spend more time together, no? Now that we are family.”
“That sounds lovely.”
“Oh! Before I forget…” Her father swept around the desk and started sifting through the piles of parchment that were strewn before Rose. “Regarding the North Umbrian property… where is it…”
“It is fine, Father.”
“You made sure to add the extra tax from the last quarter? Compounding at 10 percent interest? I don’t want it missed.” He continued to push aside documents as if they were not perfectly ordered… which they had been. “Or was it twelve percent?”
It was neither.
Rose knew well enough what her father was referring to, just as she knew what he wanted done. As this was Rose, who hadbeen doing this same work for her father now since she was a teenager, she had made the necessary changes. In fact, her father thought to even check…
Let him bluster. Let him pretend that he is helping. The sooner he does, the sooner he will leave, and the sooner I can get back to pretending that the world isn’t about to end… or at least distracting myself enough so that I can forget that it is.
“Where is it?” he cried.
“It is fine, Father,” Rose said softly. “I will see it done.”
He exhaled with relief. “I knew you would. Gosh, you have no idea how stressed I have been.” He laughed and shook his head. “Without you home, this work has piled up, and I never thought I would get through it.”
“Lucky I am here.”
“Lucky that you are.” He rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. Rose forced herself to look at him, and then she forced a smile. “Now, if you do not mind…” She gestured to the table.
“Yes, yes, we will leave you to it.” He hurried around the desk. “Marianne, come now.”
Her father was halfway across the room when he came to a sudden stop, done because Marianne had not moved tofollow him. He turned and saw her standing still, a look of determination on her face as she looked from him to Rose.
“Marianne,” he said. “Come now, let us leave your sister to her work.”
“Father…” Marianne straightened and held her chin high. “There is something that we need to talk about. That you and Rose need to talk about…”
