“I’d be happy to teach you. But not if it means losing my chance with her.”
There was a long silence and then Charlie leaned his hands on the table. “I wouldn’t take away your happiness. That seems more like our father’s way of running things than my own. And perhaps you’re right, the change in this family must come from us moving more toward you and away from him than the opposite direction. I’m sorry, Silas.”
“You’re saying you would accept me?” Silas asked. “And her, if I’m so lucky as to win her?”
“Yes,” Charlie said. “I would accept you. And I doubt anyone could do anything but accept her. I think she would demand it and somehow make it the other person’s own idea.”
“She would at that,” Silas said with a chuckle.
He suddenly felt so…light. So free. He could stay here in London and still be who he was. He could start to create a family with the siblings who had once been taught to push him aside. And he would have Arabella. Or at least try his damnedest to win her.
But if Charlie seemed resigned to this arrangement, Reginald now squirmed. There was something troubled to his face and Silas sighed. “You’re going to cause me trouble, aren’t you?”
Reginald shook his head. “No. I’ve only ever wanted to protect Charlie. If he agrees to this new arrangement, I would do nothing but what he wishes. What you need. The problem is more that…that…”
“What?” Silas’s voice was sharper now. He couldn’t help it as his brother’s guilty expression created a fear in him that he couldn’t quite define. “What is it?”
“I was contacted by a man a few days ago,” Reginald said. “His name is Albert Comerford.”
It felt like someone had pulled the rug out from under Silas’s feet and now he was falling. His ears rung and his hands shook as he managed to choke out, “Arabella’s father? You talked to herfatherabout her?”
* * *
Arabella had never trudged in her life, but when she stepped out of her carriage and onto her drive, she almost felt as though she couldn’t fully lift her feet.
She’d done the right thing, of course. Setting Silas free, pushing him back toward his family, that was the best course. Now she could focus on forgetting her feelings for the man and he could focus on building the relationship he always should have had with his siblings.
But it didn’t feel like the right thing. It felt awful.
“Good evening, Miss Comerford,” Barnaby said as she stepped up to the door.
“Good evening, Barnaby. Is Julia at home, then?”
“No, she went out with Miss Reynolds again. She told me she wouldn’t be home until late.”
There was relief in that fact. She didn’t want her sister to read the pain she couldn’t hide for much longer. She forced a smile. “Well, then do you think you might have something light sent to my room to eat? And then you are relieved of duties. I’ll be in for the night.”
If her butler thought it strange that she’d left for a supper engagement but returned early and in need of food, he didn’t express it. He merely agreed to the request and left her to her own devices.
She took the opportunity to go into her parlor. The fires weren’t lit in the small room, not that she’d expected them to be. She’d been out, after all. Not likely expected back until late, if at all. But the dark suited her and she moved to the sideboard only by the moonlight streaming through the front window. She was pouring herself a drink when she heard a sound from the back corner of the room.
“I wondered how long I’d have to wait.”
She froze, for she knew that voice well, even if she hadn’t heard it for six years. She swallowed hard, set down her glass and turned toward him slowly. He was nothing but a shadow in the dark, the shape of a demon come to collect her.
“Father,” she said, and was proud her voice didn’t shake. “I didn’t expect you. How rude of my servants not to give you light and refreshment.”
“Don’t be stupid, you know they aren’t aware that I’m here.”
She inclined her head. “Of course not. If they were they wouldn’t have let you in.”
That was her standing order, after all. To keep away the man who regularly threatened her. She was even happier Julia wasn’t here. At least the threat was only directed at Arabella for now.
“As if you have the right to lock me out.” Her father moved closer and the moonlight hit his face. For a moment, she was ripped back in time to when she was a very little girl with no way to fight him. No way to stop him from hurting her with his words or the back of his hand. When she’d been terrified of him.
She still was, but now she could remind herself that she had power. Or at least she wasn’t a child who was entirely weak.
“What do you want?” she asked. “Have you come along to speak your threats in person? I’ve received them, you needn’t bother.”
