Page 36 of Claws and Contrivances
Still, the atmosphere was subdued in Uncle Parry’s antiquated carriage twenty minutes later. After a sarcastically dropped comment by Georgie about Sir Gareth as they’d entered, Serena was pointedly not speaking to her; Beth sat squashed between them, looking pale and ill with nerves; Georgie was deep in frowning thought, her long legs stretched out before her; and Mr Aubrey, almost needless to note, was reading a book on the seat beside Rose, impervious to the simmering silence around them.
Rose was anything but impervious. Unease thrummed more and more urgently through her veins with every bump of the carriage along the ill-kept road.
She set her teeth together and ignored it. Even if Sir Gareth did catch her poking around the house looking for illicit evidence, he could do no worse than escort her from the house with one of his forbidding scowls. Whatever sinister scheme he might be hatching with this sudden social invitation, Rose would never allow herself to be tricked into giving away Rhiannon or Griff’s location.
So there was nothing to fret about at all ...
And she reminded herself of that fact all the way through the rest of the silent carriage ride; as the mouldering front doors of Penryddn House slowly swung open, propelled by a glowering, ill-dressed butler who ushered her family group inside with the air of one doing it against his better judgement; and even as he stalked away to abandon them in the cavernous and dimly lit entry hall, which no one could possibly have dusted in decades.
Long cobwebs stretched in thick profusion along every shadowed nook and cranny, positively crying out for a broom. Chunks of the splintering banister along the long, circular staircase that led up to a narrow mezzanine had fallen off in multiple spots. Even the stairs themselves looked worryingly uncertain.
Serena let out a sigh of pure ecstasy at the sight. Beth let out a wordless squeak, scooting further behind Rose and Mr Aubrey for safety. Georgie let out a low, unladylike whistle as she stepped ahead of everyone else, her head turning from side to side to inspect every angle ...
And Rose’s fingers tightened around her faux-fiancé’s arm with a convulsive jerk as she caught a sudden flash of too-familiar movement in the shadows of the mezzanine above.
In that moment, she knew with sick certainty that she had been wrong, wrong, wrong to have agreed to this ill-fated visit ...
Because Rhiannon had not followed Rose’s instructions to stay.
Chapter 18
Mr Aubrey’s brows had been furrowed in deep and distant thoughts of his own as Rose led him into the house, but at her sudden, involuntary movement, he startled back into awareness. “What—?”
“Welcome! Welcome, everyone. But, oh, dear ...” Miss Thomas came rushing out of the shadowy corridor to the right in a whirl of muslin and panic. “I am so very sorry that you were left to wait here, of all places! I’d specifically asked Montrose to lead you, when you came, to the side entrance of the house, which is in a far better state of repair, but ...
“Ah, well.” She forced a smile and tucked back a stray strand of glossy black hair that had come free from its chignon in her urgent dash to rescue them. “As you can see, there is a good deal of work still to be done on Penryddn House before it is quite suitable for company. I promise I won’t make you drink your tea in such conditions, though!”
“No, really?” Serena’s sigh of disappointment was heavy enough to ripple the closest cobweb. “But it’s so very romantic!”
“It ... is?” Miss Thomas blinked.
Georgie sent her older sister a weary look but then strode forwards with a smile. “Never mind. It’s a great adventure! You must show us all round after tea. Serena has been hoping to find at least three ghosts by suppertime. Do you happen to have any dusty old skulls lying around for her to swoon over?”
“We-e-ell ...” Miss Thomas’s lips twitched. “Perhaps in one or two of the back cupboards. I don’t think anyone’s cleaned them out in centuries.”
“Perfect.” Georgie reached out with easy assurance; Miss Thomas’s eyelashes swept downwards and she took a quick breath, her chest rising and falling as their arms linked. “Lead on, then!”
“You are abominable, as always, Georgie!” Serena hissed, hurrying after them as they started towards the same shadowy corridor from which their hostess had emerged. “I’m sure Miss Thomas knows far better by now than to take you seriously ... but I would like to tour the house, if you please.”
“Ohhh!” Beth let out an unhappy sound as both of her sisters disappeared into that dark corridor. Scooping up her skirts, she hurried after them ...
And Rose finally let out a shuddering breath. Her chest had frozen rigid as she’d desperately prayed for no one else to glance up at the mezzanine for even an instant.
“What is it?” Mr Aubrey’s breath brushed against her ear as he leaned over her to whisper in her ear. “Something’s amiss. What are you afraid of?”
“It’s Rhiannon. She’s somewhere up there!” Rose didn’t dare even to point, in case any watchers like that glowering butler, Montrose, were lurking in any of the branching, shadowy corridors that fed off the nightmarish entry hall. “I caught sight of her hurrying along the mezzanine.”
“And you’re certain it was her?” Mr Aubrey frowned up at the now unmoving shadows. “It couldn’t have been another dragon that you spotted?”
“How many dragons could one man have?” If they’d been safely at home, Rose would have scraped her fingers through her thick hair in frustration; now, heedful of her public appearance, she clenched her free hand into a fist and kept it safely restricted to her sides. “But, no, even if there were a hundred dragons here, I’d still be certain it was her. Between the way she moves, the colour of her scales, and those horns: they’re crooked in a particular way ...”
“Ah, yes, that can be caused by poor nourishment in a dragon’s infant phase,” Mr Aubrey said absently, his attention fixed upwards.
Rose sucked in an outraged breath – then stopped and pressed her lips tightly together, forcing herself to remember years-old advice from her older sister.
‘If you want to win the justice you burn for, you must find a way to control your temper.’
Elinor had said those words while stroking Rose’s hair after a misadventure that had ended in bitter tears and failure; now, thinking back to that earlier catastrophe, Rose forced herself to tamp down her righteous fury. She could hardly berate Sir Gareth for his cruel lack of care without admitting that she had taken in his escaped dragon ... and if she wanted to keep the rest of the house from noticing Rhiannon’s stealthy presence, the last thing she ought to do was raise a noisy fuss.
