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“Creditors knocking is unbecoming. What I am doing is fiscally responsible.”
The woman harrumphed again as she picked up the pillow and then tossed it on the bed. It landed in the middle and Emily’s eyebrows lifted again. Before the countess had touched it, it had the smallest crease from where she’d pulled the jewels back out from under it. Now it was a disheveled mess.
The baroness sailed past them. “Dinner will be served in an hour.”
Emily shook her head as the other woman disappeared down the hall. “It’s a good thing she has at least a few servants. She’s terrible at making beds.”
Jacob’s laugh echoed down the hall before he snapped the door closed. “I can’t deny that.” But then his gaze narrowed. “So she searched your trunk and your bed and she tried to have the carriage searched as well when it was brought into the carriage house.”
Her father’s papers were in that carriage! “What?”
Jacob touched her elbow with a soothing caress. “My driver, fortunately, was with the vehicle and didn’t allow any of her staff inside.”
“Your staff. You should remind them of that before you let them near your trunk.”
“My staff,” he agreed, his expression softening as he moved closer, the heat from his body warming her through the thin robe that covered her partial state of dress.
She shivered, resisting the urge to shift closer. “How did you survive a childhood with that woman?”
“I managed. Now, I simply spend as little time with her as possible. Which is my plan today. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
Jacob stared at his mother across the table as he took a sip of his wine. He’d hardly drank since he’d taken up Emily’s care, and he barely did now. He found he actually liked the clarity of thought that accompanied the sobriety.
It was refreshing…
Like everything that surrounded Emily from the warmth in her brown eyes to the dew on her lips, she infused his life with an added depth and light he hadn’t experienced in years.
And he be damned if he’d let his mother ruin any part of her.
His hand tightened on the stem of his glass as he gave Clara a subtle nod. She winked back.
He and his aunt had a plan. He’d told Emily to stay in her room and he’d had a tray sent up to her. He didn’t know what his mother was up to, but he was going to find out.
Clara sauntered over toward his mother, her glass of red wine dangling precariously in her hand as she swayed a bit. Would his mother notice that Clara hadn’t even consumed her first glass or that she’d been absolutely fine two minutes ago?
Stumbling over the lush burgundy carpet, she tripped as she moved, her glass sloshing a bit as wine dripped onto the floor. His mother straightened, frowning at her sister-in-law even as Jacob kept his face expressionless, despite his desire to grin.
Clara should get an award for her ability to act.
She stopped in front of mother, swaying, her gaze unfocused as she murmured. “You and I have never seen eye to ear.”
“What?” his mother asked, her nosing wrinkling.
“Eye to eye,” Clara clarified with a sloppy jerk of her chin. “But I want you to know that I never…” And then it happened. Clara’s wine went tipping out of her glass, spilling all down the front of the baroness’s gown.
Jacob arranged his features into a properly shocked expression as though he hadn’t put Clara up to the entire ruse. His acting wasn’t half bad either.
His mother let out a cry, stepping back as her hands lifted up, and she stared down at her ruined gown. “Clara! You silly fool. Look what you’ve done!”
“Dear me. Sorry,” Clara said sounding completely sincere as she bent over to swipe uselessly at the fabric.
He pulled out his kerchief and stepped up next to his mother, also attempting to dab the spots. She pushed his hands back. “Stop,” she gritted out, pulling the fabric away from her body and nearly knocking Clara’s face with her hand.
“That might stain,” Clara said, not even pretending to be sorry.
His mother glared at his aunt. “Why must you always be so consistently…you?”
It was a fair question to ask anyone, he supposed, then again, perhaps it was a ridiculous one as well.
