Céleste slipped from the room, somehow managing to cling to her dignity even as she looked, to Aldric’s more attuned eye, rather defeated.
Benicks ruin everything.
Everything.
Crofton lowered himself back into his seat once more, but Aldric found himself entirely unwilling to do so.
“I’d wondered why all my things had been moved to a guestchamber,” he said. “I thought perhaps you simply wanted the use of the master’s chambers while you were here. I hadn’t realized it was a permanent rearrangement.”
“I am willing to give you a couple days, but do not press my generosity.”
“One cannot press something that does not exist.” Aldric chided himself for the insult as he made his way from the room. While Crofton deserved all the disparagement that could be heaped on him, Aldric did need to keep the peace enough not to be thrown out immediately.
The Beaumonts would, he didn’t doubt, allow Céleste to stay with them and would accept Adèle if need be. But Aldric didn’t want to lose them yet. And he had this time with Roderick, which was far too rare a thing.
He made his way slowly up to the wing containing the guestchambers. It had taken a little doing and the help of a couple servants to sort out where his things had been taken. The house was in a bit of chaos, which ought to have raised his suspicions immediately. It had been running seamlessly since he had taken over. Nothing short of Crofton arriving and ruining it all would have upended things so entirely.
He really was going to have to ask Niles and Penelope to let him stay at Fairfield. Or perhaps they could drop him at Lampton Park to see if Lucas and Julia would make room for him. How hard they’d all worked to pull Henri out of this very situation, only for Aldric to be in it himself.
He’d only just stepped into the doorway of the room he was using when Céleste’s voice a couple doors down stopped him. “Aldric.”
He looked in that direction, and she waved him over. As much as he would like to have not needed to explain things any further to her, she deserved to understand her situation. Crofton’s announcement had, after all, necessitated a change in all their plans.
He met her in the doorway of the room she was using, and they both hovered there on the threshold.
“If I had known Crofton was here, we would have gone somewhere else,” he said. “And if I’d known he’d been planning this mischief—”
He had suspected Crofton was up to something. There’d been far too much of a look of satisfaction in his eyes as Father’s will had been read and the estate settled. Aldric had assumed it was simply delight at having his inheritance. He ought to have known the idea of hurting his brother would have appealed to him even more.
“He is doing this to be cruel,” Céleste said.
Aldric nodded. “That is who he is, I’m afraid. He inflicts pain, and he enjoys it.”
“A person ought not to be permitted to simply snatch away another person’s house.” Her fierceness proved a balm in that moment. “And you deserve to have a home, a truehome.”
“You don’t have one either.” He brushed his hand over her arm before catching himself and pulling back. He had promised Stanley to look after the Gents, and that promise needed to extend to everyone who mattered tohis brothers-by-choice. He needed to be wise where Céleste Fortier was concerned. He’d not only made a mull of things in France; he was, in England, now homeless and, thanks to the loss of his mother’s necklace, hadn’t enough income to ever change that.
Distance was, without question, best.
“Your mother’s necklace—”
“It’s fortunate for all of us that you already know the Beaumonts.” He didn’t usually resort to interrupting people, but he still couldn’t talk about having had to trade away his mother’s gift. And he was certain she had been about to bring up precisely that.
“Your mother—”
“Adèle can stay here until I am forced to leave, but at least you’ll be nearby.”
“Aldric.” She spoke his name quietly. He’d expected frustration; he hadn’t expected compassion.
His shoulders drooped in a sudden wave of exhaustion. “He’s taking my home away, Céleste. And I can’t stop him. I promised you and Adèle that Norwood Manor would be a safe place to rest and decide what to do next, and he is making me break that promise.” He took a tight breath. “How am I going to tellma petite doucethat she can’t stay here after all the times I told her we would? She will never trust me again.”
Céleste softly touched her fingers to his jaw. “She loves you, Aldric Benick. A change of residence is not going to alter that.”
Adèle loved him. That meant the world; it truly did. But Céleste ... he closed his eyes and took a breath, forcing himself to regain some of his equilibrium.
“Your mother took Crofton’s measure.” Céleste’s hand dropped to his chest. He barely resisted the urge to set his hand atop hers and press them both to his heart. “She wisely gave you a means of escaping him.”
“And I lost that escape.” He opened his eyes, feeling a little surer of his emotions. “What was done had to be done, and I know she would have understood. But I’m still disappointed and frustrated.”
