Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
The shouting coming from within Michael’s study was growing to a fevered pitch, and Audrey worried that soon, people walking past on Curzon Street would even hear it.
She hesitated at the bottom of the stairs.
Privacy was a sacred thing. Just because she lived under the same roof as Michael, Genie, and Cassie, it didn’t mean she needed to be part of every conversation.
Or in this case, dispute. However, she’d not heard Michael bellow this significantly in a long time. Perhaps ever.
Once again, he and Cassie were quarreling over the release of her inheritance once she reached her majority. Genie was with them, but her voice was so low and calm, it was barely audible through the closed doors. Her usual pacifying presence did not seem to be having much of an effect.
Earlier, on her way to the front hall, Audrey had heard raised voices in the study.
She’d been checking with the footman at the front door, to be sure no message from Hugh had been forgotten in the salver.
Hugh said he would go to see Sir Gabriel first thing, and she’d been dressed and ready to hear the outcome for two hours.
It was noon and she’d yet to hear from him.
Passing back through to the stairs, she’d only intended to listen outside the study doors for a moment, but now minutes had passed.
Cassie would come straight to her afterward to divulge the argument in its entirety anyway, so for efficiency, it would be better to simply join them. She drew a breath and pushed open the study doors.
“…you are not equipped for such a thing!” Michael was saying before all eyes skipped toward Audrey.
Cassie and Genie beseeched her with pleading looks. Cassie, wanting Audrey to come to her defense, and Genie, wanting her help in diffusing the argument. Michael tossed up his arms at the addition of another female.
“Unless you would like the neighbors to discuss your private matters, I’d advise you all to lower your voices,” Audrey said. “Excepting Genie, of course.”
Cassie crossed her arms tightly. “He refuses to listen.”
“She refuses to see good sense,” he shot back. “If you refuse to ever marry, you will find yourself set apart in society.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t mind that very much,” she said.
“There are precious few options for unmarried women, Cassie, even heiresses.” Michael looked undone by the argument as he tugged at his already drooping cravat.
“Why should I be content with marrying some man just so I might be able to mingle better in society? I want more than that out of my life, thank you.”
Genie, who stood between the brother and sister as a kind of buffer, turned toward Cassie. “And you should want more than to just marry some man. You should be able to marry the man of your choice, and Michael is not saying otherwise.”
Audrey wished Genie’s good sense would be taken to heart, but she knew the mulish cast of Cassie’s expression too well.
“I have yet to meet anyone who I would even wish to take a stroll with, let alone marry.”
“Perhaps you would, if you would give any suitor an honest chance.”
Cassie deftly swerved away from Michael’s cutting observation. “This discussion isn’t about whether I marry or not. It’s about receiving the inheritance our father settled on me.”
“As I have already stated, you are not equipped to manage such a fortune.”
“Equipped?” Cassie balked.
“Yes, equipped—with good sense!” Michael roared, his patience visibly breaking. “One only need look at the debacle with Renfry to prove it!”
Audrey winced, and Cassie’s face turned to stone as she stared at her brother. Even Genie appeared stunned, her hand settling over her lips.
“How dare you throw that into my face?” Though she spoke softly, Cassie’s vehemence filled the suddenly quiet room.
Michael seemed to realize his blunder but, in his stubbornness, wouldn’t be moved toward contrition. “You were foolish. Too trusting, too na?ve.”
“Michael,” Genie started to say, but she didn’t appear to know how to continue.
Audrey went to Cassie’s side and took her hand. Her fingers were slack, though, as if too stunned to grip hers in return.
“You’ve been sheltered, Cassie,” he went on. “Coddled and spoiled and you’ve no idea the realities of managing more than your pin money.”
“That is unfair,” Audrey said, feeling the cut even though he hadn’t made it toward her. “She hasn’t been given the chance.”
He turned his incisive eyes toward her. “And you think I should give her that chance with an income of nearly two thousand pounds a year?”
“Yes, because it is mine, not yours,” Cassie replied. “You cannot withhold it from me.”
“Legally, I can, as it is in a trust, and I am the holder of that trust. Besides, what would you even do with it?” Michael asked.
Cassie ripped her hand from Audrey’s. “Maybe I would use it to help other women like me to escape from the overbearing men in their lives!”
He rolled his eyes. “Like you?”
“Yes, I was foolish. I was trusting. I believed the lies of a man because all my life I had been taught to trust them, depend upon them, know that they are honorable. Well now I know they aren’t.”
Audrey tried to re-capture her hand. “Not all men are dishonorable, Cassie.”
She moved away, toward the study doors, leaving Audrey grasping at air.
“They want only two things: money and pleasure. I know I’m not the only woman who’s been taken for a fool.” She stopped then and turned, her eyes bright. “Maybe I will use my fortune to help other women like me. Women who have nowhere else to turn.”
Michael threw up his hands. “You speak as if you don’t have anyone to support you.”
“Is this what you call being supportive? I am living under your thumb, brother, and unless I agree to replace your thumb with some other man’s whose only interest in me is my money and my body, then you will withhold what is rightfully mine.”
“You are being vulgar.”
“And you are being a tyrant!” she returned. “Very well. If you don’t wish to give me my inheritance, I will find a way to make my own living.”
Cassie seemed to sway with the statement, perhaps realizing the enormity of the threat. But then she turned on her heel and stormed out.
All was quiet for a few moments in the wake of her departure. Audrey was glad she’d joined them. She hadn’t been an ounce of help, but at least now Cassie wouldn’t have to work herself up into a froth by retelling the story to her later.
“You are being too stringent with her.” Genie’s tone was gentle but unyielding.
“If you don’t meet her in the middle on this,” Audrey agreed, “I fear she will land herself into some trouble.”
Not the same sort of trouble she’d found herself in two summers ago, when she’d allowed the roguish and charming Lord Renfry liberties and ended up needing to go away to give birth to a child in secret.
She would have been ruined had anyone ever learned of it, especially since Renfry had so cruelly posted the banns to marry an exorbitantly wealthy heiress.
At least he had never learned of the pregnancy.
Michael sat down heavily into a chair. “I only want what is best for her.”
Genie slid her hands over his shoulders. “You must allow her the chance to determine what that means for herself.”
He laid his hand on his wife’s and squeezed. “I’m a blind man when it comes to Cassie. Philip would have known what to say to her.”
Guilt flayed Audrey’s chest when the duke and duchess took a silent moment to acknowledge their loss. These moments continued to sneak up on her, and she was always left questioning if she would ever stop feeling like a fraud.
The study doors reopened, and their butler, Barton, entered. He held a shallow silver tray in his gloved hand, and within it was a folded note.
“A messenger has just delivered this for you, Dowager Duchess.”
Finally, she thought, eagerly taking the note. But even before breaking the wax seal, her hopes foundered. It wasn’t from Hugh. The handwriting addressing Audrey was unfamiliar.
“Excuse me,” Audrey said to Michael and Genie, who were looking on with curiosity. She left the study, reading the note as she went. It was from Flora Bertram.
Please come as soon as you can. My sister has not been home in a day, and I am frightened that something has happened to her, as it did to Bethie.
Audrey stopped in the middle of the hall, the breath driven from her lungs. Gwendolyn had been missing? For a day?
“Are you leaving?” Cassie was suddenly standing right in front of Audrey. She had not gone running to her room as expected. “I’m coming with you if you are. I need to get away from this house and my insufferable brother.”
Audrey’s heart re-started, and she folded the note, stuffing it into her pocket as she made a decision. She signaled a footman and requested a carriage be brought around, and quickly.
“I need you to wait here for Hugh,” she told Cassie.
She scowled. “For Hugh?”
“He is due to send word or come here himself, only I’m not sure when. But it’s important that when he does, you tell him that I’ve gone to the Bertram residence on Fitzroy Square. Tell him Gwendolyn has not been seen for a day.”
She followed on Audrey’s heels to the front door. “Who is Gwendolyn? What is this about?”
Another footman hurried to open the door for her, and she was grateful she’d already been dressed and ready to depart at a moment’s notice. “I can’t explain right now, but Hugh will understand. Please, Cassie, this is important.”
“Very well, I will tell him, but Audrey.” She grabbed her hand before she could dart outside. “Be careful.”