Chapter 15 #2
“Prince Nicholas was spotted visiting Rundell, Bridge & Rundell around noon.” Selina’s eyes danced maliciously. “Whatever do you suppose a young Russian prince might be doing, visiting the Principal Royal Goldsmiths and Jewellers? Especially without the escort of his brother?”
Letting out a long breath, Peregrine contemplated that. “You think the youngest brother of the Tsar might have been buying a token for Princess Charlotte?”
“It is certainly a possibility.”
“A possibility that will give the Queen an apoplexy,” he countered.
“Yes, but it should turn her ire nicely towards someone else,” Selina said primly. “So I am off.”
“I can escort you back,” Thorne offered.
It was on the tip of his tongue to agree that Thorne should go, but Selina declined with a wave of her hands. “No, that is unnecessary. I will be safe enough in my carriage.”
Relenting, Peregrine had Jack escort Selina out, and then he looked back at their displaced knight.
“I am sorry, Sir Nathaniel. Perhaps we shouldn’t have involved you in this plan.
Not only have we compromised your honour, it puts you in a great deal of danger from my mother.
If you like, I will pay your way back to Alnwick on the next post chaise, so you can take shelter with your brother. ”
“Have your jest.” Thorne laughed briefly.
“If you really have a concern for the state of my conscience, Fitzroy, you wouldn’t even suggest this now.
I did not relish playing the part of the kidnapper, it’s true.
But I agreed to do it because I liked the idea of leaving your sister in such a precarious place even less.
I will admit, I did not care for you very much after the trouble your wager caused my brother, but even if that went unresolved, my honour certainly wouldn’t tolerate leaving you and the Duchess to your mother over it. ”
Perry nodded. “For what it is worth, I didn’t care for myself very much last year either, and I am glad Percy came out the better of that wager in the end. Shall we agree to let bygones be bygones?”
Thorne thrust his hand out immediately, and Perry clasped his forearm. “I will tell Owens and Quinn to get you anything you need. But for now, I should go speak with Lark.”
“Please give my apologies to your sister, Fitzroy.”
It was quiet in the hallway. Peregrine knocked softly on his sister’s door, and a prim, strapping maid answered the door promptly. She looked vaguely familiar—he must have run into her at some point in Selina’s household.
“My lord.” She stepped out of the doorway promptly, making way for him to enter the sitting room.
“I was told that Lark has been… spirited. How is she now?”
The maid gave a small shake of her head. “Done breaking things, for the moment. I’ll keep her in hand.”
The bedroom door stood open, so Perry only gave a perfunctory knock before stepping through. Lark was curled on her side on top of the covers, facing away from the door.
“Lark, it’s me,” he announced when she made no effort to see who was there.
“Leave. I do not want to talk to you right now,” she said, quietly furious.
“I know you are angry with me. But I wanted to talk with you. To explain, if nothing else.”
“What is there to explain!” she snapped, turning over on the mattress and propping herself upright. “After our ride, you clearly decided that I must have been lied to. Tell me I am wrong.”
“You have been lied to, Lark.” Perry’s chest hurt to admit it. “I know it will take some time to separate what is truth from falsehood. But try to be a little bit patient—”
“No!” Lark shouted at him, pushing herself off the bed. “You say she is the liar, but you are the one who had your friends snatch me from the park like common thieves. You knew I wouldn’t come with you, so you simply took me like it was your right—”
“It is my right!” Peregrine roared back at her, stung. “And not just my right, my duty. I am trying to protect you!”
Lark stomped over to him, shoving him in the chest with both hands. Already regretting his words, Peregrine let her hit him, only rocked back slightly from the force of it.
“I didn’t ask for protection! I don’t need any protection! What do I need protection for? From whom? Our mother? The woman who has done nothing but care for me when it should have been you caring for us?” she hissed.
When Perry closed his eyes, she continued on the offensive. “You betrayed our mother, you’ve betrayed me. You’ve broken with everyone. You’ve sided with the Cresswells—against us. You fired all of our servants. You have no loyalty! Mama was right. You have betrayed everyone!”
There was little he could say to counter these words. “I did not side with the Cresswells! I objected to causing harm to someone who had nothing to do with her parents’ actions. Charity is not your enemy.”
“Liar!” Lark shouted in his face. “You used her to rob me of my freedom. That makes both of you my enemy.”
You only thought you were free! Perry bit back the words He took a shuddering breath, struggling to rein in his temper.
“I don’t want to do this—to hold you,” he gritted out. “Unfortunately I don’t know how I can make you understand now that I am only doing it because I have to!”
Seeing that he wasn’t responding to her anger, Lark attempted reason. “Please, I would like to go back, now,” Lark told him. “I want to be with everyone at the Pulteney.”
“And I need you to stay,” Perry replied.
“Why! And don’t you dare say ‘for your protection,’ Perry!” she shouted.
Perry’s breath escaped in a frustrated hiss. “Unfortunately, that is the truth. And right now, it is the only truth I can afford to give.”
Tears overflowed. “I hate you,” Lark informed him, swapping to guilt, her lower lip trembling. “If you really wanted to prove you were caring for me, you would be honest. You want to use me as a pawn against our mother. You want to force me to betray her the way you have used others to.”
His heart bled a little more. She knew exactly where to strike him the hardest. It frustrated him so badly to know that the only course that might convince her—telling her the entire truth—was the one course he could not take.
Lark would lie, rage, plead, and scheme to go back to the Pulteney. There was a chance she could escape. There was a chance that he might be forced to give her back, especially if the Russians decided to involve themselves, and his act posed a threat to diplomatic discussions.
He could not tell her the truth, and as long as he kept her in the dark, she would believe what Marian had told her. There was no winning this battle. At least not this way.
“You aren’t a pawn to me. I would not play a game with your life,” he said softly, abandoning the fight for now.
“If you believe nothing else, believe that. I really do want you to be safe, Sister, and happy. It grieves me to know it doesn’t look that way, but your safety is the most important thing to me in the world right now. ”
Lark screamed, a single short high note of frustration. “Go away! I do not want to see you anymore.”
Peregrine let her be. But as he left her room, he came to a decision, and went looking for Quinn. His sister would never soften towards him if he didn’t show her that he was not their mother. And there was only one voice he could think of that she might heed.
Quinn knocked on Edmunds’s door, unlocking it and opening it for Perry.
Peregrine made himself look at his mother’s former butler, the only one of the former house staff who had survived, as far as he knew. Edmunds waited silently, as if knowing why Perry was studying him. Judging him.
“I have asked myself a hundred times since you came back here: can I really trust anything about you, and why you’re here?” Perry told him bitterly. “And I still don’t know. But I think I have to take the risk on you anyway.”
“You can trust me, Lord Fitzroy,” Edmunds told him, his jowls trembling. “If only because my life depends on your goodwill.”
“All well and good, until I have to entrust you with another’s. Tell me, Edmunds. Dare I trust you with my sister’s life? Because she needs a friend and confidant, and I cannot be it for her.”
“You have Lady Lark?” Edmunds breathed, his face lighting with joy. “I would never do anything to harm her, my lord.”
“I expect you to understand the burden of too much knowledge, Edmunds. Though I very much wish this was not the case, Lark doesn’t know what Marian is.
It is not safe for either of us to tell her, yet.
But I suppose at least your presence might prove to her that I haven’t broken quite with all the old household staff. ”
Edmunds licked his lips, nodding his understanding. “I understand. Thank you, Lord Fitzroy. Thank you for giving me this chance to reclaim my honour.”