“We’ll be done in a thrice, sir, once we have pen and ink,” the bailiff countered.
“Bevil, fetch it.” The butler left.
“No, wait,” Cassandra said. “This is not right.” She was horrified that her father was orchestrating Soren’s demise. He knew what Pentreath Castle meant to the Yorks. Why, it was as if he’d laid a trap for Soren.
Well, two could play those games.
She charged down the stairs. “Bailiff?” The man nodded. “I’m Lady Dewsberry and I want this man arrested.” She pointed at her father. “And taken before a magistrate.”
“On what charge, my lady?” the bailiff asked.
“He stole my inheritance.” That was what Soren had said and she believed him.
That raised eyebrows. “You stole from Lady Dewsberry?” the bailiff asked.
At first, her father did not appear inclined to answer and then words burst out of him. But he didn’t speak to the bailiff, he spoke to her.
“Your inheritance was spent on that ridiculous library of books you were so proud of and on the dresses you wore on your back. You tossed a fortune away just on shoes and hair things. Then there was the silliness of your ‘literary salons.’ Of course there isnothingleft.”
Her father had been drinking. The stench of brandy mingled with desperation.
“I had a fortune to spend,” she countered. “At least thirty thousand pounds and you are saying it is all gone? I think not.”
“Then you would be thinking wrong,” her father snapped back.
“Whatdid you do with my inheritance?” she repeated.
“It costs money to live in London,” he said as if pointing out the obvious.
“But Mr. Calder said you received a handsome dowry when you married Mother. You were supposed to be just the guardian of my money.”
“That man knewnothing.”
“He knew enough to make you give Mother’s jewelry to me.” She approached her father. “The cost of gowns and my books would not approach thirty thousand pounds, especially if invested wisely. Where is the money, Father? Did it pay for this house? Your last two coaches? Even then, there should have been a fortune left over. Instead,” she said, pointing a finger upstairs, “you have taken the sapphires and my belongings and donewhatwith them?”
“I sold them.”
She couldn’t believe it. “You act as if you are destitute—” A new thought struck her. “Areyou?”
It made sense. Lately, he had been grumbling about money. Then there was his quickness to toddle her off into spinsterhood.
Her mind worked furiously. “You’ve done your best to see that Idon’tmarry these past two years and more, haven’t you?” Could he truly be that deceitful? “You have turned down offers because you said you wanted a title... but what if you just didn’t want anyone to learn that you’d spent my fortune? Especially if it had been supporting you—?”
“Birdie, I was going to earn it all back. I needed time.”
“Earn it back? Are you a gambler?”
Fire came to his eyes. He did not like that charge. Then he would have been like one of the Yorks that he’d always railed against.
In fact, she realized, his insistence on his senseless feud with the Yorks might not have been about pride at all. Perhaps it had been guilt?
“I’m not a gambler. I invested it. I tried to do my best but luck wasn’t with me. I haddamnedluck. And now, everyone has their hand out. Including you and Helen’s daughters. Can you believe they are asking for money after the dowry I handsomely settled on them—”
“Ihandsomely paid for their dowries,” she said. “You told me to do it, and I’m not sorry. I would not begrudge my family.”
On her words, the arrogance vanished from his demeanor, to be replaced with wheedling. He took a step close to her. “Then you have to understand, Cassandra, how hard it was to have control over all that money. It was a temptation. It gave me the chance to be important, and I planned to replace it all. Once I’d had a bit of success, I’d have given it back to you. But I wasrooked. Several times.” His hands curled into fists. “There areliarsout there.”
“What would you have done if Camberly had offered for me? You said that is what you wanted.”
