“Did you see what I found?”
The desk chair creaked as he turned to face her. He had a brandy snifter cupped in his hand, and his cheeks were bright enough to tell her it wasn’t his first.
“Pour yourself one if you like,” he said, noting her attention on the glass.
Tess did, though only a small amount. The champagne was beginning to wear off, and now that she was with Fenbridge, the anger burned fiercer.
She approached the front of his desk and sipped the brandy. It was smooth and its bite sharp in the back of her throat.
“Why did you deny me?” she asked when she thought she could do so without her voice breaking.
Fenbridge’s silver brows dove closer as he frowned. “What do you mean?”
Good God, had he forgotten?“I asked to explore that mound. Tristan and I came to you with a plan, and you refused us.”
“Ah,” he said and then lifted his glass for a drink.
“You sit in here as if you can’t bear the Americans, and yet you let this happen. You signed the agreement and took his money.”
He simply stared at her.
“Have you nothing to say?”
Tipping his head, he told her, “No, I’m waiting as I suspect you’re not finished.”
Tess narrowed her eyes. “Is it that you only care about the money?”
Fenbridge burst into laughter. A raucous yet bitter sound. “My dear Miss Hawthorne, you’re too clever for such a hypothesis. Have I ever sought your rents on Foxdene?”
Dropping her gaze, Tess twisted the snifter in her hands. The overdue rent was yet another point of shame to add to her others, but what he said was true. He’d not even sent a notice of eviction or mentioned the matter during her meetings with him each morning since the start of the dig.
“Then why?” Her voice came out plaintive, full of all the frustration she felt.
“Your father.”
Tess snapped her head up, locked gazes with the old man. “What does that mean?”
“Did he never tell you that he wanted more for you?”
“More?” Her father had urged Tess and her brother to pursue their interests.
“He wanted you both to move beyond Wiggenstow, both literally and in terms of your ambitions. Though perhaps you were staying for him, and he didn’t want that.”
“We were staying for him.” Tess had once considered goingto a lady’s college in London, and Tristan had almost been convinced by their father to study mathematics at university. But as their father’s illness progressed and he grew weaker, leaving seemed unthinkable.
“So, he was right.”
“Yes, but when we came to you, it was because we wanted it. Father didn’t care if we dug up the mounds. He was content to write his book.”
“There are six mounds on my land.” He took a swig of brandy and seemed to savor it a moment. “Now that you’ve found treasures in one, the others will draw interest too. This is a project that will take years.”
Tess slumped into the chair in front of Fenbridge’s desk. “Are you saying our own father thwarted us?”
Fenbridge sat forward. “I hope you don’t see it as such. He mentioned it out of love, out of hope for your futures.” He lifted his bearded chin. “But the decision was ultimately mine, so you may blame me if you please.”
“Oh, I do.”
The nobleman winced at that, then he settled back in his chair with a heavy sigh. “I denied you the dig because I thought it might spare you a life’s obsession over this corner of Norfolk, and yet here you remain.”
