Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Rose, are you busy?” Marianne appeared in the doorway of the office. She stood awkwardly by the open door, not sure if she should walk in or not.
“Oh…” Rose pulled her attention from the work she was doing. Not that it was tough, as she hadn’t been able to concentrate now for days, and was thus getting little work done. “I… no, Marianne, not at all.”
Marianne breathed a sigh of relief and walked into the room. “I wanted to ask, have you… If you have had a chance to speak to Father yet?”
“Not yet, Marianne. But I will.”
“When will you?” Marianne pushed. She stood on the other side of the desk, fiddling with her hands. “I know you promised that you would, and I do not wish to pressure you – I know how busy you are. But… but…”
“I said that I would, Marianne, and that is a promise. As soon as there is time –”
“But there is no time,” Marianne said desperately. “Father is already speaking of other arrangements. He is already seeking the interest of other lords. You told me that if I came home, you would help.”
“And I will help.”
“But when? When will you help? I fear that if you do not say something soon, it will be too late.”
This was the last thing Rose wanted to deal with. Her thoughts were clouded. Her mind was elsewhere. And while she knew it was an awful thing to think, her sister’s woes were low on the list of things that she currently cared about.
“Today,” she said, forcing a smile because she did not want her sister to see how upset she was. “I promise, before Father leaves, I will –”
“Marianne!” Their father appeared suddenly in the doorway. “What are you doing in here?”
“Father!”
Their father stood in the room, making sure to look warningly at his youngest daughter. “I told you not to disturb your sister while she is working.”
“I was not disturbing her.”
“You are,” he said. “And you promised that if I brought you along today, you would remain out of the way.”
“I am, Father. I was only –”
“Enough.” He held up a hand to silence her, and his expression was one of deep warning. “Your sister is busy, and the last thing she needs is you pestering her.” He raised both eyebrows at Marianne, who bowed her head in submission. “Good.”
Marianne then looked at Rose hopefully…
“And how are things going with you?” their father asked Rose next. “Is everything coming along?”
“Yes, Father,” Rose said simply, hoping it would be enough to see him leave the room with Marianne. Oh, how she needed them both to leave.
“Good… good…” He bit into his lip. “And thank you again, dear, for agreeing to help.”
“It is fine.”
“And be sure to thank His Grace when he returns from his trip,” he added. “For allowing us to use his office.”
“I will…” Her stomach twisted, and she thought she might be sick.
“It is a shame he is not here,” he continued. “But no matter, when he returns, we will have you over for supper. Yes?”
“I am sure he would like that.”
“We should spend more time together, no? Now that we are family.”
“That sounds lovely.”
“Oh! Before I forget…” Her father swept around the desk and started sifting through the piles of parchment that were strewn before Rose. “Regarding the North Umbrian property… where is it…”
“It is fine, Father.”
“You made sure to add the extra tax from the last quarter? Compounding at 10 percent interest? I don’t want it missed.” He continued to push aside documents as if they were not perfectly ordered… which they had been. “Or was it twelve percent?”
It was neither.
Rose knew well enough what her father was referring to, just as she knew what he wanted done. As this was Rose, who had been doing this same work for her father now since she was a teenager, she had made the necessary changes. In fact, her father thought to even check…
Let him bluster. Let him pretend that he is helping. The sooner he does, the sooner he will leave, and the sooner I can get back to pretending that the world isn’t about to end… or at least distracting myself enough so that I can forget that it is.
“Where is it?” he cried.
“It is fine, Father,” Rose said softly. “I will see it done.”
He exhaled with relief. “I knew you would. Gosh, you have no idea how stressed I have been.” He laughed and shook his head. “Without you home, this work has piled up, and I never thought I would get through it.”
“Lucky I am here.”
“Lucky that you are.” He rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. Rose forced herself to look at him, and then she forced a smile. “Now, if you do not mind…” She gestured to the table.
“Yes, yes, we will leave you to it.” He hurried around the desk. “Marianne, come now.”
Her father was halfway across the room when he came to a sudden stop, done because Marianne had not moved to follow him. He turned and saw her standing still, a look of determination on her face as she looked from him to Rose.
“Marianne,” he said. “Come now, let us leave your sister to her work.”
“Father…” Marianne straightened and held her chin high. “There is something that we need to talk about. That you and Rose need to talk about…”
Rose suppressed the urge to groan.
She intended to help her sister with Julian, as promised. And she would help her sister with Julian, as she had promised. But there was a time and a place for it, and Rose would have liked to have been in a better state of mind before pressing the issue.
“Marianne…” She spoke slowly and carefully. “Perhaps we can speak of this later?”
“No,” Marianne folded her arms and scrunched her face into a tight ball. “I want to speak of it now. You promised that we would speak of it now.”
“I said we would speak of it when there was time.”
“But there is no time!” Marianne cried. “And by the time you get around to it, it will be too late.”
“Too late for what?” Their father stormed back in. “What is going on? Rose, what is your sister speaking of?”
“You know what I am speaking of.” Marianne stamped her foot. “I am in love with Julian, Father. I want to marry Julian.”
“Not this again…” He moaned and ran a hand through his greying hair. “Marianne, we have had this conversation, and we are not having it again.”
“We are!”
“No, we are not. It is not even a conversation! It is not to be discussed. I have made a decision, and I expect you to honor it. Dammit, I expect you to thank me for saving you from –”
“From what? From being happy!”
“From being destitute!”
“But I love him! And he loves me!”
“Love!” Their father laughed. “Foolish girl. Rose!” He turned to Rose. “Tell your sister that this is not an argument. You of all people should realize what marriage is for. Look at you and His Grace! What started in turmoil has blossomed beyond what anyone could have imagined. Tell your sister!”
“She is on my side,” Marianne declared. “Rose, tell him you are on my side! Tell him!”
“Tell your sister she is a fool,” their father cried out.
“And you, Rose! I would have thought that you, of all people, would see reason. Again, I can’t help but bring His Grace back into the conversation.
Were you not as certain your marriage would not work until it did?
Were you not just as against such things?
And now look at you! As happy as you like. ”
“But I love Julian!”
“I don’t care who you love! You are not marrying him, and that is final!”
Rose sat silently as her father and her sister argued over her.
She stared ahead, desperate to ignore them both, praying that they ignored her, begging silently that they would forget about her, and that through some miracle they might walk out that door and solve their own problems without dragging her into it.
That they would realize that her entire life did not involve saving them.
To understand that she had her own problems and that, for once, just maybe, someone would help her rather than her always being the one who did the helping.
Just one time… just one time, it might be nice if my father, if my sister, helped me when I needed it. And not just help me, but recognize that I need help. Can they not see that I am hurting? Can they not see that I am breaking? Or do they just not care…
Her body was shaking as she tried to contain her anger.
The side of her lip was twitching as she tried to keep calm.
Marianne screamed. Her father shouted. And Rose sat there silently, feeling the ceiling collapse, sensing the walls close, knowing that things were going to get worse before they got better. Which was a tough realization to accept, as things right now were as bad as they had ever been.
“Rose?” Marianne said. “Tell him, Rose.”
“Ignore her,” her father snapped. “Keep your mind on work, and I will deal with your sister.”
“I am not a little girl.”
“You are my little girl!”
“Rose? Rose!”
Deep breaths… let it pass… do not break…
When Rose’s father had asked if he could visit her today so that she might help him with his work, Rose had foolishly thought it would present a chance to distract herself from the depression that had flattened her these past four days.
It took all of five minutes after her father and sister arrived for Rose to realize how silly such an idea was.
It started with Christopher and the drawing that she had found. While Rose could not say for sure why it was so significant, she’d had days since to think about it, and was certain that she knew who the woman was in the drawing and why Christopher had reacted the way he did.
The answer, when it dawned on her, made her want to leave the house and find Christopher to tell him she did not care. That she wanted him to come home was not a reason for their marriage to end.
Before she did that, she thought a little more about it.
If she was right in what she thought she knew, then she doubted Christopher would change his mind. In fact, she wondered if she would ever see him again. He was running from his past, and for good reason.
As for that reason? To put it simply, he was afraid.