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Xavier just shrugged. I tried to pretend it didn’t mean anything, but I was starting to wonder the same thing. Given our discussion, I still wasn’t sure he really wanted us here, to begin with, and this interaction wasn’t helping things.
“I’d better be off,” she said. “I promised Papa I’d be back for tea, but we’ll dine with you this evening. Speaking of horses, I promised Tommy we’d go riding tomorrow. Would you and Francine like to come?”
This time, I couldn’t stop my scowl. “It’s Francesca.”
Imogene didn’t answer.
“Er, Ces doesn’t ride,” Xavier said. Then he finally looked up from his computer at me. “Do you?”
He was so hopeful; I wanted to say yes. Unfortunately, I could not.
“No, stables aren’t particularly available in the Bronx,” I admitted. “Or Brooklyn, for that matter.”
“I’ll teach you one day, babe,” Xavier assured me, and I enjoyed the way Imogene almost winced at the endearment. “Probably not tomorrow, though.”
Imogene just laughed. “That’ll be the day. Better let me teach her. I showed this one how to get his foot in the stirrup without kicking the horse.”
With a dry cackle, she crossed the room once more to deliver a quick kiss to Xavier’s cheek. At the window, Sofia tensed, but shockingly kept quiet, though I now saw her blue eyes hadn’t missed a thing.
“Tonight, then,” Imogene said to both of us.
I just nodded politely as she left.
Xavier relaxed back into his chair and started flipping through papers again. I waited for him to say something to Sofia and me, but when he didn’t, I wondered if he thought we had left, too.
“I’m sorry you have to deal with all of this,” I offered awkwardly. “Is there anything I can do to help? I’m pretty good with numbers. And organizing stuff.”
He sighed and dropped the paper he was holding. “No, not really. It’s not exactly what I wanted to be doing when I invited you two to spend the summer with me. I knew I’d have to pop up occasionally, but I was hoping to put it off until September.”
I frowned. September. Of course. Because that’s when we were going to leave.
It was the first time he’d stated that was his overt expectation, though, and though it had always been my plan, it hurt.
Sofia had left the window and started venturing around the room, exploring as quietly as a four-year-old could. This apparently consisted of her mimicking Gibson’s quick history of the property to Tyrone, only this time involving as many magical creatures as she could think of. Especially mermaids.
I took the opportunity to join Xavier on his side of the desk, comforted when he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close while he continued perusing the mess in front of him.
“It’s making me wonder how long Henry’s been this way,” he said quietly. “He sent me some odd letters this year—I thought it was just because he wanted me back. But now…” He shook his head. “Something is really wrong here in how he’s been managing things. It’s good I came. The tenants, for one, need more from the steward.”
“Tenants?” I frowned. “You actually have tenants? Like inDownton Abbey? I didn’t think estates like that still existed.”
Xavier looked up from his desk, brow arched wryly. “It’s not really like that. Large rural estates suffered for a long time and many collapsed, although some did come out ahead. People like the Parkers—”
“Like you,” I interrupted.
“Like them,” Xavier insisted with a scowl. “Gentry, I mean. They still own about thirty percent of all the land in the UK.” He shrugged. “The Duke of Kendal was the eighth largest landowner in England, owing mostly to lands granted over a thousand years ago. There are more than a few other peers on that list alongside the Crown. So yes, we have tenants, though they tend to be commercial farmers rather than individuals. Not to mention leases on other parts of the land for things like this. Bloody mines and what. And then there are all the other investments that sustain things.” He tossed the papers around on the desk like he was fluffing a pillow. “It’s a lot to manage. Clearly too much for one old man who has been struggling for who knows how long.”
I balked. This was on a scale that was completely baffling. “There isn’t a…team of people?” I asked. “It’s like running a corporation, isn’t it?”
“There is,” Xavier said. “We have a financial firm that manages the portfolio. But the temporary steward was apparently quite the tyrant with the others. Most of the people Henry hired over the years to oversee the other sides of the family holdings have left at this point. Now there’s no one.”
Xavier was clearly in over his head with it all. Maybe that was what was most shocking of all. My man always seemed to be perfectly in control of things. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t conquer, along with his trusted team. Except, apparently, his own family’s legacy.
“Look,” he said with a sigh as he pushed back from the desk and pulled me between his knees. I leaned back to sit on the edge of the wood. “I’m bored to tears looking at this rubbish, and I’m in charge of it all until I can find someone better to do it. But there’s no way I’ll be able to leave after the weekend. There’s too much to do. I wouldn’t blame you at all if you’d rather go back to London. It’s a lot more fun there.”
I peeked over my shoulder and found Sofia sitting on the floor, quietly paging through an old atlas she’d found. I turned back to Xavier and set my hands on his broad shoulders.
“Do you want us to go?” I asked. “Would it be easier if we weren’t here?”
