“So you still doubt me?” she asked softly.
“I did not say so.”
“Yet you refuse my tonic, and I know you are in pain. You fear I mean to poison you, is that it?”
“Damn! Give me that!” He grabbed the bottle from her and took a swallow. “There! Now tell me why you cannot forgive me.”
“But I do,” she said softly, her gaze steady. “I can only hope that you will be forgiving when I tell you—”
“Do not tell me.” He cut her off abruptly. “I want to hear no confessions from you.”
“But I want to tell you about—”
“No!”
She stood up and glared at him, all meekness gone. “You would make me wait and dread your anger until someoneelsetells you? Well, I will not do that. My lord, I dismissed your steward and I am not sorry for it.”
She waited for the explosion, but Rolfe simply stared at her in amazement.
“Is that all?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied stonily.
“What—what did you expect me to do, Leonie?”
“You have every right to be angry, and it won’t hurt your wound if you feel like shouting at me.”
“Perhaps,” he said quietly, trying not to grin, “if you told me why you dismissed him?”
“I discovered Master Erneis was stealing from you, and not just a little. Hundreds of marks.”
“How do you know he was stealing?” he asked sharply.
She quickly explained. “I am only sorry that I handled it badly, for he is gone now and so is your money.”
“You still have not said why you are sure he was stealing.”
“My lord, I wouldn’t know how much you gave the steward to begin with, but he said you gave him eleven or twelve hundred marks. You have been here sevenmonths, and in that time he recorded spending nine hundred marks. That is far, far too much.”
“Leonie, how do youknowthat?” Rolfe asked in exasperation.
She flushed and bowed her head. “I—I was my own steward, which I did not tell you. I know that an estate this size should be self-sufficient unless there are frequent guests staying here, and I know what it costs to maintain a household of this size.”
Rolfe shook his head. Her own steward, yet she refused to take the reins at Crewel.
“It must be obvious to you that the management of property is not my strength. So I will have to take your word for it that I was cheated by my steward.”
“I swear I read his accounts correctly and—”
“I was not doubting you. But this leaves me without a steward. Evarard cannot take over, for he would know even less than I do.”
“Indeed.”
“So what do you suggest? You dismissed the man. Have you anyone in mind to replace him?”
“I can think of no one.”
“Well, I can. You will have to fill the position yourself.”
