‘Connie?’ He pulled the little package from his jacket. ‘I have your necklace. The clasp broke, so I will send it in to the jeweller in Lincoln to have it repaired.’
‘Oh, Bas.’ She took the package from him and her lower lip began to tremble.
A second weeping woman in one day was a bit much, Sebastian thought reaching for his kerchief. He let his hand drop, remembering the piece of cloth was already sodden from Isabel’s tears.
He sat down on the footstool and took her hands between his.
‘Now, now, what’s the trouble?’
Connie sniffed. ‘I had a terrible fight with Fanny,’ she said. ‘I found her in my bedchamber. She had my earrings, Bas!’
‘What did she say?’
Connie’s nostrils flared. ‘She said she was looking for the gloves she lent me last night and happened to see the earrings and was just having a look at them.’
Sebastian sensed an unspoken ‘but’, so he raised an eyebrow, which was all the encouragement Connie needed to continue.
‘But I had returned her gloves, and I had made sure the earrings were back in their box. I’d already lost the necklace. I didn’t want to lose the earrings too.’
‘Do you want me to speak to her?’
The anger had begun to die in Connie’s eyes. She had never been a girl to hold a grudge for long.
‘No. I think I said everything that needed to be said, but she called me a common little piece who thought, just because my brother had come into a title, I could act like lady of the manor.’
Sebastian rose to his feet. ‘Only one common little piece in this household and that’s Fanny,’ he said darkly. ‘And when Isabel retires to the dower house then yes, you, as my sister, take her place—as the rightful lady of the house.’
Connie stood up and threw her arms around him. ‘You are the best of brothers, Bas, but leave Fanny alone. I slapped her good and hard, as only a common little piece can.’
Laughter rose in his chest and he squeezed his sister.
‘They’ll both be gone soon, Connie. I promise.’
Connie gave one last sniff and let her brother go. She looked around the room.
‘This is a bit florid for your taste, Bas.’
‘I thought you might like to have a go at redecorating it, but I don’t have the money to spare for it at the moment.’
‘Are things dire?’ She picked up the report she had been reading.
‘Not in the sense that you and I would understand them, Connie, but dear Anthony seemed to leak money from every pore.’
‘Do you mean the regular payments of one hundred pounds a month?’
Sebastian nodded. ‘Bragge can’t account for them. It seemed to be a private payment Anthony made outside of the usual payments.’
‘They started in March last year. Maybe he was being blackmailed?’ Connie suggested.
Sebastian stared at her. ‘What do you read?’
‘Evil novels, brother.’
Sebastian looked back at the paper. Blackmail would explain the payments.Ridiculous!He set the report down again.
‘Isabel said at breakfast that she is hoping to move into the dower house in the next day or so,’ Connie said.
‘I know. I just paid a call.’
