The other men quickly excused themselves. Ferris looked put out. “What are you doing, Mari? Flushing the game into other yards?”
“No. I don’t desire—”
“I have two offers for you already. And four more just waiting. Think we might even be able to bring Plufield up to scratch. My sister, a high lady. Just think of it! We’ll use the others to advance his suit, of course. And if a bigger fish finds himself in our net, well, then we will scoop it up.”
“Ferris—”
“I’m the most glorious brother, I know.”
“No. Why are you doing this?”
Ferris’s brow furrowed. Kennen looked uncomfortable, but for the first time he didn’t run off at the sign of a fight. He threwhis shoulders back and braced his feet. He would need to work on his neck and head, hanging lower and pressed forward, but pride rushed through me. Kennen was finally growing up.
I knew who to thank. Gabriel had done something to him. Shoved a spine up his tail or pulled a string through his core. Kennen had gone to visit and thank him a few days ago and come back a new man.
“The opportunity is there. We must grab it.” Ferris must have read my face correctly for once, because his tone changed to disbelief. “You can’t tell me you don’t want to be married, Mari. There are plenty of good matches here. Solid ones. I think you should wait out Plufield, myself, but if you think the lure is only good for a few weeks, perhaps we should take one of the others. Nice, ready blunt there. Good connections.”
If Ferris knew that Gabriel was the reason our estate was blooming again, he’d try to serve me to him naked on a platter.
“Blunt is one of the things of which we need to speak.”
“Really, Mari, I hardly think a girl need worry about such things. I have extra pin money for you,” he said generously. “You can buy a new bonnet or ribbons.”
“You can’t keep spending, Ferris.”
“’Course I can. I have the funds, don’t I? Steelcrest was quite considerate.”
“Ga—” I cleared my throat. “Master Noble hired an accountant for the reward funds, the compensation, and settlement. You will reach the limit on the quarterly cap soon.”
“I’ll just take a loan against the rest, nothing to it.”
Anger pushed past my shields. “Have you learned nothing? We will be penniless once more. Beholden and ruined.”
“Which is why you will marry Plufield. Or Ratching. They can keep us flush. Won’t let their in-laws starve.”
“You are unbelievable. I can’t—”
Kennen held up a hand, chin high. “I’ll talk to him, Mari.”
I stared at Kennen, and out of the corner of my eye could see Ferris do the same. I nodded slowly, elation and pride coiling. “Very well, Kennen. Thank you.” Even if he couldn’t talk sense to Ferris, the shock of him trying was sure to keep Ferris silent for at least a few minutes.
Besides, maybe Kennen would be the one to get through to him. “I believe I shall retire. I’ll send the carriage back.”
Kennen nodded. Ferris still looked flabbergasted, his long face even longer with his jaw dropped so far. I turned and walked outside, bypassing the well-wishers, the gossip hounds, the suitors. It wasn’t that the suitors weren’t acceptable. There were even a few young men on Ferris’s list who would make solid, respectable husbands.
But none of them were Gabriel. None of them were mine.Hewas. And I was going to let him know it.
I gave the driver the direction, ignoring his look, or the fact that he might tell someone that he hadn’t dropped me off at home. The carriage moved. The wheels rolled forward. Hooves clomped. Closer and closer.
I stepped from the carriage as soon as it stopped. “Go back to the ball. I will be fine.” I pressed a coin into his hand, then turned. The carriage rolled off behind me. I would have to hire a hack if this didn’t work.
But it was going to work. I’d make it work.
I straightened my shoulders and marched up the walk.
The brass ring in the lion’s mouth glimmered in the faint light of the gas lamps. Fierce yellow eyes surveyed me from above the loop, questioning my nerve. My trembling fingers curled around the cold metal and rapped it against the plate.
A large man answered the door, the light this time allowing me to see it was truly a butler, austere, but with the look of a man who could hold himself in a fight. His eyes traveled over my cloak, my shoes, my face, my hair. Chimes rang in the hall,clocking the time as eleven in the evening. Too late to be calling, by any stretch of protocol.
