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“When your door is closed, you know very little that happens outside your room.”It was sharper than she normally spoke to him, but he did deserve some chastisement after their rare quarrel in the carriage.
“Would you have a moment for a word?In my office?”He spoke gently.Rose seemed fragile with her slightly drawn brow and anxious expression.
“I’m not sure I can contribute anything positive to your endeavors,” she said.
“Positive or not, I want your opinion,” he said.She walked by him and went to stand at the window.She didn’t speak, only held her hands tightly, squeezing her bonnet, with her lips pressed together.
“What is it?Did something happen?”he asked.
She shook her head and blinked up at him.“You wanted to ask me something?”
“Yes, about my brother Levi’s daughters.I need to do something with them,for them, to arrange their future.I don’t want them to be factory workers, or fall prey to anyone who could abuse them.I thought you might have suggestions.”
“Send them to school.That is a solution any rational person would make.”
Was that a subtle barb about his irrationality?“They’ve never been to school.”
“How did you learn?”
“A different sort of school.One I want to keep them away from.”
“Then your decision is made.”She turned away.
“Rose.Wait.Please, for a moment longer.”
She did so, reluctantly.“In Bath, there is a nice school that welcomes indigent children.I’m sure there are others, especially Oxford.”
“They aren’t indigent.They have a wealthy uncle and kindly patron.”
“I need to check on dinner, Matthew.”
“How was Abigail?And Lord Chester?”He wasn’t ready for her to leave.Not when she seemed troubled.Not when they’d ended their last conversation so contentiously.
She sighed, her shoulders rising then lowering in defeat.“Sandhurst was at Hyde Park.He insisted on talking with the girls.Privately.I don’t know what he told them, but they barely spoke the rest of the afternoon.”
“Did he say anything to you?”Matthew reached across the desk and took her hand.“Some pressure or rudeness?”
“He mentioned the slight of not being invited to our gala.I told him he was invited but I was the one who felt it wasn’t appropriate for him to participate.Then he had the gall to say, ‘Perhaps next year.’Hell will have to freeze over first.And he knows what he did.Why does he think he can continue to torment me?He’s never done anything to the girls.He barely talked to them.I don’t understand why they are afraid of him.”
“Because you are.”
“That’s not true.”
“I think it is, and I think I can tell you when it happened.Somewhere between the time you agreed to lie in his bed and the next day when he ridiculed you for your appetites.My God, he must have been cruel.You’ve only talked about it once.It is easy to see your feelings reflected in the girls.
“Did he mention the diamonds?”Matthew asked, curious more than anything.He’d delayed his conversation with Alice about the gambling only because Rose was truly disturbed by the man.But he wouldn’t have traveled all the way to Islington just to see how Rose was faring.Cyril wanted the diamonds as badly as Matthew wanted to use the diamonds against him.
“Matthew, I want to give the diamonds to him.For some reason, he is overly attached to the idea of owning them.I have other gifts from my father that I still cherish.”
“One miniature?”He wasn’t surprised that she wanted to appease Cyril.She still believed he had power over her.
“Matthew, don’t.”
“My dear, whatever our conversation in the carriage the other day, I had no intention to alarm you about my own aspirations.I frightened you once, on purpose, to make a point that I thought important at the time, but now—” He shook his head.“My sole purpose in life right now is to care for and protect you and the children.All our children.”
“He must not see me any more until well after the baby is born.Don’t you see?If I give him the diamonds, he has no reason to be in my life.I am too heavy with child and seeing me at just the right angle with a dress that is too tight, he will figure it out.”
“Is that what you really fear?That he will have some claim on our child?Never.”
