“Take Miss Doyle to her chambers and order new clothing. I’ll expect her to be presented before me to begin instructions tomorrow morning.”
* * *
Achallenge? Eve had no wish to be a challenge for anyone.
Anger boiled within. How dare Lord Kilsyth decide what was to become of her! Further, she’d not be ordered about. “I didn’t ask ta come here, and if it’s the same ta ye, I’ll be leavin’.”
“Did you forget that you now belong to me?” Lord Kilsyth waved the guardianship papers in front of her.
She grabbed them. “I’ll read for meself if ye don’t mind.”
“By all means and feel free to ask any questions if a meaning is unclear.”
Eve gritted her teeth and walked away from Kilsyth, Pickmore and Mrs. Peade and made her way to a window where she might have better light. As she strained to read the print, Eve slipped her hand into her reticule and drew out her spectacles. As the words unblurred her heart pounded anew. Brendan had relinquished all rights to guardianship and handed them to Henry Cochran, Earl of Kilsyth, until she achieved her twenty-third birthday. The document was signed, dated and witnessed.
This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. Instead of accepting the truth that was before her, Eve read through the papers once more.
“Is there something you don’t understand, Miss Doyle?” Kilsyth asked.
“I understand all ta well, my lord. I was just hopin’ I’d misread the first time.”
“Yes, well, you didn’t.” he reached out a hand. “Now hand them over so that I might secure them in a safe place.”
Eve clung to the documents. “Ye don’t trust me?”
“No more than you trust me,” he replied.
With reluctance and a sigh, she gave the papers to her new guardian.
Kilsyth frowned down at her. “How the blazes do you see anything out of those lenses.”
Instinctively Eve pulled them away from her face. “I see well enough.” They were scratched, which she was well aware, but new spectacles weren’t something she could afford.
“Hand them over.” Kilsyth held out his hand.
“Why?” She couldn’t part with them or she’d not be able to read anything.
“Give them to me.”
Reluctantly Eve placed them into his outstretched hand.
“Mrs. Peade, have a footman summon my man and explain that we need a replacement forthese,” he said with disgust.
Eve was well aware that there were more scratches than clear spaces on the glass, but she saw well enough, for the most part. “I can’t afford a new pair.” She reached to take them back but Kilsyth closed his fist around the spectacles.
Her heart pounded. What if he crushed them, then she’d not be able to read a single word.
“As your guardian, I will not allow you to continue to try and read through such…dilapidation.”
They were in poor shape and Eve had wanted a new pair for months…but should she accept such a gift? Was it even right to do so?
“Eve, I have grand plans for you.”
It wasn’t his place to make any plans for her, and she wasn’t quite certain he was even in his right mind.
“You’ll have the world you were once used to. Horses to ride, carriages to ride in, new gowns, jewelry and pen money.”
“No!” Eve took a step back. “I’ll not have ye spend what’s left of me dowry. I’ll need it for meself when I reach my majority.”
