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“Oh, but Grandfather! You cannot mean it.”
“I can.”
“Oh, but please—”
“Is that it? Nothing else to say? Well, I’m sure you remember where the White Hare is.”
“The White Hare? We cannot go there.”
“I’m sure their rooms are adequate.”
“But everyone will wonder why we’re there and not here.”
“That might be so. And if anyone has the boldness to ask you, then perhaps you’ll feel inclined to tell them what you refuse to tell me.”
“Oh, sir, please. Do not make us leave.”
“Why not?”
She swallowed. Glanced at Theo. Swallowed again. “We have nowhere else to go,” she finally whispered.
“I beg your pardon, child? Speak up.”
“My … my husband. He lost all our money in a series of bad investments. He, we …” She glanced at Theo. “Francis Mannering advised him, and Roger, well, he complied. But then we lost it. Roger, he … we lost the house. We have nothing. We need to stay here, as we’d have no money to pay even for the White Hare.”
“Roger lost your money?” Grandfather’s eyes narrowed. “What about your savings?”
“I …” She glanced at Theo again. “I have been a little careless.”
“Caring more for appearances than for your future, is that it, hey?” Grandfather sneered.
“I did not realize how bad things had become,” Seraphina confessed. “And I couldn’t return things when Roger told me, and now we have nothing.” Her bottom lip wobbled.
For the first time in years, the icy walls surrounding Theo’s heart concerning her sister thawed a little.
“Nothing?” Grandfather repeated. “Even that which is set aside for your children?”
“That is still in trust, but …” Seraphina shook her head again. “I don’t know what for.” Her gaze shifted to Theo. “I don’t even know if we can have children. I want a child so much, and each month I would cry, and now I can’t help but be thankful that they will never know what it is to be poor.” Seraphina gave a great gulping sob, then silently began to cry.
Compassion surged again, so strong that Theo couldn’t help but move close to wrap her arms around Seraphina, even as she marveled at how her sister could still retain her beauty and not even have a red nose when she cried. “You are not poor,” she murmured, clutching her sister near. “You have family, and that means you are never poor.”
“But I don’t want to live here,” Seraphina sobbed in her arms. “Grandfather hates me.”
“Don’t be silly, dearest,” Theo said. “Grandfather doesn’t hate you.” Although she could not say he felt the same about Roger …
She smoothed her sister’s blonde hair, the hair she had always been so envious of growing up. How silly such things seemed now. One could have all the beauty in the world, but it made little difference without character.
“What am I going to do?”
Theo peeked up and caught her grandfather’s scowl. She lifted her brows and held his gaze, silently pleading with him, until he shook his head, resignation in his features, before he pursed his lips and limped away. “I fear, my dear …”
“You fear what?” Seraphina pulled back. “What is it?” She glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, has Grandfather given up on us? Do you think he means to send us away? Oh, Theo, what is it that you fear?”
“I fear,” Theo said, “that you are going to have to learn how to tend to chickens.”
Chapter 24
The past hour had proved one of the most excruciating of his life. Daniel did not recall such times of tension in his household, but perhaps that was because his sister was older and his desire to join the army had stolen focus from much else. By the time he’d joined up, his sister had been married for nearly a year. But never had he witnessed the tension of the past hour.
