Chapter 3 #4
She straightened and her lips pursed again.
“And so I wanted to make you aware of our plans to repair to Shropshire as soon as arrangements can be made for the house there to be opened. My fiancé will be arriving from the Continent in short order, and once we’re wed, you’ll no longer be responsible for me, of course.
My sisters, including the youngest, will come to live with me and—”
“An odd time to be planning a wedding, with your brother missing, Miss Woodmore. Or are you in such a hurry to marry that you intend to get the deed done before you even learn what has happened to him?”
Maia drew in her breath slowly and with great deliberation. How even to respond to such rudeness? She chose an oblique path. “My fiancé, Mr. Alexander Brad—”
“I am fully aware of the identity of your fiancé, Miss Woodmore.” His voice cut in coldly.
Corvindale pursed his lips, then continued.
“Over the years, your brother has been remarkably conscientious in providing me with whatever information I might need should this occasion—that I am needed to step in as your guardian—arise. I am only sorry it has done so.”
For the first time, there was a lessening of the chill in his voice. Or perhaps she was imagining it, for nothing else about him showed any indication of softening. Of course, his regret was most likely due to the fact that his life had been inconvenienced and not that Chas had gone missing.
Well, that made two of them being inconvenienced. And she was about to put an end to it as expediently as possible.
Maia looked over at his ink-spotted fingers, the outside of his left palm smeared with black.
Too impatient to let the ink dry fully before writing over it, of course.
Something she, as a left-handed scribe, had needed to learn.
At that moment, it struck her that she couldn’t recall ever having seen a man’s bare hands before, other than Chas’s or her father’s.
Without gloves, they seemed so much more powerful and elegant than when encased in white fabric.
She blinked and looked up, realizing a few moments of silence had passed. He was looking down at the ledger again, and Maia drew in a breath of relief that he wasn’t staring at her, waiting for her to speak.
“When Chas went off to Paris on this latest trip,” she said, walking toward the sunny end of the study, “he did something he’d never done before.
He left us instructions of what to do if we didn’t hear from him in a fortnight.
Almost as if he feared something might happen.
He left a sealed envelope to be opened only if that occurred—which, of course, it has done.
His letter directed us to contact you immediately after two weeks without contact from him, my lord. ”
“So your letter stated, Miss Woodmore. And so you’ve already—”
“I was hoping perhaps you might have had word from him. Or…knew something. He never tells us anything about why he travels so much, or what he is doing. I don’t even know…
I don’t even know how you are associated.
” Maia had to struggle to keep her voice steady.
She brushed her curled fingers over a table as she walked past.
“While I have not heard word from him directly,” Corvindale said from the desk behind her, “I assure you I have begun my own investigation into his disappearance.” His voice was smooth and low.
“You have?” She turned in surprise, a great gust of relief in her breath.
“Indeed.” He was yet again examining what must be the most fascinating ledger in the history of the world.
“I fear I have nothing to report as of yet, but, Miss Woodmore, I will find out what happened to him.” He looked up at that.
“Your brother is a valued business associate of mine. I don’t wish anything to happen to him either, Miss Woodmore. ”
The certainty and underlying threat in his words gave Maia the first sense of relief since she’d realized Chas had disappeared. “Thank you, my lord,” she said, for once allowing emotion to color her voice. “And I vow to remove myself and my sisters from your care as soon as I am able.”
“Do not be too hasty, Miss Woodmore.” He glanced toward the open door, then briefly back at her. “Mirabella will be quite disappointed if you should leave so soon after arriving. She has been looking forward to what she thinks of as a proper Season this year.”
Maia nodded. That had become quite clear during her conversations with the pretty redheaded girl, who had just turned eighteen and looked nothing like her elder brother.
She actually smiled and laughed. “She mentioned that she hadn’t seen you for years, my lord, and that she’d given up on ever getting a proper come-out.
She hasn’t even been presented yet at court. ”
In fact, while Mirabella seemed more than capable in the ways of organizing and maintaining a household—according to her, she’d had much to do since being summoned from the small estate in the north to prepare for the Woodmore sisters’ arrival at Blackmont—she seemed woefully hesitant in the ways of the ton.
Since the girl hadn’t been to London in more than seven years, Maia wasn’t surprised at her lack of confidence.
“Indeed.” Corvindale’s response was noncommittal. “I understand you three are to attend some event tomorrow night?” He was back at the ledger again, but this time he’d picked up one of the pens. Apparently the audience—such as it was—was over.
“The Midsummer’s Masquerade Ball at Sterlinghouse’s,” Maia explained.
“Though your sister hasn’t debuted yet, she can attend incognito.
She is quite…” Her voice trailed off. She knew when she was being dismissed.
“Thank you for setting my mind at ease, my lord. I pray you will have news of my brother soon.”
“I will,” he replied and stabbed the inkpen into its well, then commenced to writing.
The scratching of pen against paper filled the silence, pausing only as she passed by and fluttered the papers on his desk when she quit the room.