Page 44 of Claws and Contrivances
As Rose spun around, nearly tripping in her haste, their hostess raised one elegant eyebrow, her dark eyes no longer sparkling and her lips a thin line of anger. “I think it’s time for both of you to give up your charades and tell me the truth.”
Chapter 21
“... The truth?” Rose repeated faintly. She turned, hopelessly, to Mr Aubrey, who stood beside her. He looked back at her in silence, eyebrows rising.
She moistened her lips, buying time.
Miss Thomas’s voice was as cold as ice. “Please recall that you said I wasn’t foolish. Unless that was only one more move in whatever deep game you’ve been playing?”
Oh, no. It wasn’t the chill in her hostess’s voice that struck so deep in Rose’s chest; it was the pain behind it. “This isn’t a game. I meant what I said about you.” Drawing strength from her not-quite-fiancé’s steady and expectant gaze, Rose turned. “I think,” she said, “you had better see this truth for yourself.”
Please let Georgie have been right about her. Oh, please ...
Taking Mr Aubrey’s arm, Rose drew him with her to one side and raised her candlestick high to reveal exactly how the shadows in this room were really filled.
Miss Thomas let out a muffled sound of shock, and then clamped her mouth shut. Her gaze continued to move swiftly, taking in everything before her as her cheeks hollowed with some firmly repressed emotion.
As Rose waited, nerves prickled painfully through her skin ... and she realised with a sudden, uncomfortable jolt that Georgie might have been more right about her than she’d realised. Apparently, she must be more prone to managing people than she’d thought, because letting go of control over this felt terrifying. She had to bite down hard on her lower lip to hold back a stream of anxious commentary and let Miss Thomas draw her own conclusions.
When Miss Thomas did finally speak, Rose couldn’t read any emotions in her voice. “So, you found your dragons here?”
“No.” Rose fought to keep her own voice as uninflected. “They escaped and found their way to us. Rhiannon was badly hurt by those manacles.” As she gestured towards them, she lost control over the steadiness of her voice. “Her horns never developed properly because she wasn’t even given proper food, beyond all the other horrors of the conditions she was kept in.”
Miss Thomas’s chest rose and fell with a long breath before she spoke again, her own voice tightly controlled. “On the voyage from India, I believe some valued pets were kept in cages much like these.”
“For a temporary journey, perhaps. But were their cages left uncleaned? Were they half-starved, too? And did the food they were given look and smell like that?” Rose gestured furiously at the half-eaten meal left behind by the most recent escapee. “These creatures are astoundingly intelligent and loving! They deserve every care we can give them. Why, they’re actually ...” The word magical hovered at the tip of her tongue, but Mr Aubrey, as if he’d read her mind, gave a quick, warning jerk of his head.
Rose only paused for an instant before she finished, “They’re worth a fortune because of their wonders, but these are all being treated like rubbish, deprived of exercise and company and left here in filth and darkness. Caged and abandoned. Can you even imagine how they must feel?”
“Only too well.” Miss Thomas’s low whisper made Rose’s eyebrows shoot up but Miss Thomas’s expression didn’t soften. Instead, she lifted her chin and drew herself upright, as if bracing for a blow. “Tell me, did my uncle use my inheritance to purchase these as well?”
Unexpectedly, Mr Aubrey spoke up before Rose could. “I can’t see how that would have been possible. He must have had them smuggled illicitly into the country, so he wouldn’t have had any paperwork on hand, and your father’s solicitors would never release any large sums into his hands without evidence of a necessary purchase on your behalf.”
At Rose’s look of startled but intense appreciation, he winced. “My grandfather is a banker, you know. I did have some notion of accounts hammered into my head before I hired a man-of-business to see to all that nonsense for me.”
Miss Thomas let out a long sigh. “Well, at least it’s some comfort to know I’m not financially responsible for this.” Shoulders sagging, she stepped forwards and looked into the nearest cage, her expression bleak. “But what are we to do with all of you now, eh?”
“Did Sir Gareth really never mention them to you?” Rose couldn’t let go of her own fears so easily – not when those manacles still lay so close as a reminder. “When you asked me about my dragon the other night—”
“You think my uncle took me into his confidence about his underhanded criminal activities?” Still gazing into the shadowy cage, Miss Thomas let out a bark of laughter that sounded raw. “My uncle barely even speaks to me most days, except to ask me to pass him the salt—no, rather, to order me to pass it. He never, ever bothers to ask.”
She shook her head abruptly, as if shaking off a fly. “I was astonished when he summoned me, two days ago, and told me he’d introduced himself to our neighbours. I could scarcely believe it when he said I might pay you a visit. I actually imagined ...”
The fingers of her free hand flexed by her side. “Never mind what I thought. But I was happy to please him, for once, by passing on a message for him while I was there, and I was happy to keep watch for any dragons, too. He said he’d heard rumours of mistreatment of a local pet with the colours of the dragon you had with you that first night. I was so relieved, though, when you said that she belonged to your fiancé and had only just arrived. You all seemed so amiable, and I was so happy to find myself among friends at last … I didn’t want your dragon to be that poor local one who had been so badly treated.”
Her lips twisted as she finally looked away from the closest caged and desperate dragon and met Rose’s gaze in the twin lights of their candles. “You may claim that I’m not foolish, but my uncle has certainly played me for a fool.”
Rose made a pained sound of disagreement ... and Mr Aubrey, stepping closer, bravely entered the social fray. “None of your wits, Miss ...” He paused, clearly searching his memory for her name without any success, before he finally, awkwardly, cleared his throat. “... appear to be lacking,” he finished in a mumble.
Rose pressed his arm in warm gratitude for the effort, which had given her the moment she needed to regroup. “Of course they’re not. But how could you have known the truth?” she asked Miss Thomas. “Whom else could you have asked for confirmation of your uncle’s story? That dreadful Montrose?”
Miss Thomas let out a startled spurt of laughter. “Ah, so you don’t care for him either?”
“Who would? Georgie called him a ‘thoroughly nasty fellow’, and she’s generally right about people.” ... Even when I wish she wasn’t, Rose added silently, thinking of her cousin’s disconcerting recent insights.
“Oh, Georgie ...” The name came out on a sigh. “Of course, she must have known all about this, but she didn’t breathe a word of it to me.”
“Only because I made her promise not to. She told me I was wrong not to trust you from the beginning.”
