No. He would not act until he was certain his feelings were reciprocated.
He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I don’t blame you.”
She leaned back. “You don’t understand. I’ve put you in a terrible position. If you overtly approve of Mr. Dawson, she’ll use that to overlook any flaws she sees. But if you make Mr. Dawson forbidden, as the earl and my father did to me, then he’ll become much more tempting. If we are to separate them, you must playa careful game of neither encouragement nor disapproval. Can you do that?”
It did sound complicated, but he would not abandon his daughter without a fight.
“I will try.”
A tap came at the door, and they quickly separated before it creaked open. “Your daughter wishes to speak with you, my lord,” Mrs. Quill said.
Constance stepped into the room with her head bowed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about John sooner.”
Thel’s heart ached. Why couldn’t life be as simple as one of his stories? The conflict in them never lasted more than a few days before the characters reconciled and lived happily ever after. He wanted to sweep his daughter into his arms and chase her troubles away. At the same time, his coddling might have brought about her duplicity. All her life, she had come to him with her problems. Until now.
It was time she faced the consequences of her actions.
“Is that all?” he asked.
Mrs. Quill cleared her throat.
Constance wrapped her arms around herself. “He said he needed more money. He said you would never find out.”
Mrs. Quill tutted. “The girl has given this daft man most of her jewels.”
A pit opened in Thel’s stomach. He had done wrong by his daughter, insulating her from the world when he should have been educating her about evil men.
The future unfolded in his mind in horrifying detail. Constance would marry Mr. Dawson. Furious that he’d not gotten his way, Felix would leave the house, taking Thel’s nieces and nephews with him. Elijah would follow soon after, having no reason to remain.
He could not allow it to happen. Even if it caused a split between them, even if it wasn’t exactly what Olivia had suggested, he had to stop Constance from starting the chain of events that would lead to him being left alone again. “I thought better of you, Connie.”
“Thel. Don’t,” Olivia said, before he spoke over her.
“Lock her in her room.”
Constance let out a sob before running away, with Mrs. Quill following. As the door slammed shut, Olivia spun around. “What was that?”
Thel ran a hand through his hair. “I-I don’t know. I panicked.”
How could he explain that the very idea of living by himself terrified him? A highly independent woman like her would never understand.
She heaved a sigh. “Well, the damage is done. I will see what I can do to prevent this from getting any worse.”
There was nothing he felt he could say to that, so he only watched with a growing sense of desperation as she turned and walked away from him.
###
Mrs. Quill opened Constance’s door at Olivia’s gentle knock. The maid’s fair hair fell around her face and there were bags under her eyes.
“How is she?” Olivia asked.
“She cries,” Mrs. Quill said.
“Let me speak with her.”
Thel might not have seen it, because his life had been blessed in comparison, but she knew what it was like to be involved with a man who was an expert at strumming the strings of her heart. She knew the ecstasy that resulted from pleasing her manipulator, and the devastation that came from failure.
“Yes, my lady,” Mrs. Quill said, opening the door.
