Chapter 13
Aknock at the door roused Elias. He blinked, and the first thing he focused on was the ribbon—Victoria’s ribbon—still tangled around his fingers.
There was that knock again. He sat up, suddenly wide awake. It was her, he thought. He cleared his throat. “Come in!”
But it was a maid backing into the room with a heavily laden tray. Elias’s shoulders sank. The adrenaline that had coursed through his system was for naught. He shoved the ribbon under his pillow and rubbed his eyes.
“Thank you, Anne.”
“I thought you might be hungry, Mister Elias.”
“Yes. Yes, I suppose I am.”
“You’ll be pleased to know that Miss Victoria’s guests have come and gone.”
“I am pleased that they are gone,” he agreed.
Anne set out the tray of food on the table, deposited Elias’s robe on the bed, and went around the room drawing back curtains.
“I do like that Miss Victoria,” Anne told him.
Elias raised a brow. “I can’t imagine why. I have a sneaking suspicion that the young woman is insane.”
Anne laughed. “Her opinion of you is far more favorable, sir.”
That caught Elias’s attention. “Why do you say that, Anne?”
Anne shrugged. “A woman gets a sense of these things. In any case, you would have liked the way she handled Miss Prichard and Miss Pembroke.”
“Oh?”
“For a moment, I half thought Miss Victoria was going to drag Miss Pritchard out of the house by her ear.”
Elias laughed a good, deep laugh. He could believe it.
Anne stopped her work to look at him. “Now,” she marveled. “It has been a while since I have heard you laugh like that.”
“There isn’t much to laugh at around here.”
“Seems like the Fairfax women might lighten the mood a bit. Nothing like a little change in company to brighten things up.”
Elias shook his head. “They shouldn’t be here.”
“Because of the wood? Because of that troll that came around last year at the Spring Bloom Festival?”
Elias’s face grew stern. He didn’t reply. Instead, he tore out of bed and shoved his arms into his robe.
“Miss Fairfax isn’t afraid.”
“The point is, she should be.”
“I’ve been here many years, Mister Elias, and the only time I’m scared is when my imagination runs away with me. I blame that on being raised on stories of a cursed forest.”
“The forest is cursed”
She ignored that. “Has anything around this house ever caused me harm or put me in any type of danger? No. Certainly not. And I don’t think Mrs. Charlotte or Miss Victoria are in any danger either.”
“I’d rather not test the theory.”
“Well, you won’t have much of a say in it—with the wedding and all.”
Elias groaned. The wedding. “I don’t understand what my uncle sees in that woman.”
Anne’s eyes grew wide. “Mister Elias! What a thing for you to say. Sure, there is a bit of an age difference, but people deserve to be happy.”
“A bit of an age difference!” The years between Victoria and Lord Harrington were a lifetime, but Anne was not thinking of Miss Victoria. She had been thinking of Mrs. Charlotte Fairfax based on what she had overheard at tea.
“It makes me sick to think of my uncle marrying a woman so many years his junior.”
“Now, Mister Elias, they are both adults!”
“Now, Miss Anne, I’m shocked you could condone a marriage such as this. Either that woman is taking advantage of my uncle, or he is taking advantage of her. There’s no other way about it.”
Anne shook her head. “In so many ways, you are still so young. You need to get out more or invite people in.”
“That is the last thing I wish to do.”
“Yes, I know it is. I am glad that you won’t have the final say in it anymore. I, for one, bless this union, if only what it will mean to you.”
Danger, Elias thought. It means a danger to myself and a danger to Victoria. The woman irked him; she irked him at a time when control was something that was slipping through his fingers. He didn’t want her at Edenbridge Hall. He didn’t want her in his room, leaving hair ribbons on his bed—and he was going to tell her that, once and for all.
“Where is she?”
“She left for the capital early this morning.”
“No, not Mrs. Fairfax, I mean Victoria—Miss Victoria.”
“Of course you do.” Anne smiled. “I do like that girl. Last I saw her, she was headed into the library.”
Then that’s where our final showdown will be, Elias thought.