Page 47 of Claws and Contrivances
“No, a purpose.” Rose sighed as she remembered the blank Grand Plan in her commonplace book, a reminder of all her failures. “I want to do real, practical good, somehow. Not be carried away by impossible dreams, but actually help someone, as my mother helped everyone around her.”
“It appears to me that you’ve already made a start.” Mr Aubrey half-smiled as she drew back in surprise. “Since my arrival, I’ve seen you twist yourself into knots to help everyone around you. Haven’t you even noticed?”
“What I’ve noticed is what a muddle I’ve made of it! Don’t you remember the conversation we just had? Poor Miss Thomas is in terrible peril—”
“Because of her uncle’s actions – and, as I recall, you’ve now promised to aid her, too.” Mr Aubrey’s gaze was keen as he shifted to fully face her, her hand warmly trapped between them. “You avoided this question earlier, but I have not forgotten it. When will you ever believe that you, too, are worthy of care?”
Rose’s breath shortened in her chest again as she met his green eyes, more crystalline than she’d ever seen them. Her free hand floated, as if of its own volition, to press against the fine silver fabric of his waistcoat. His heartbeat pulsed against her fingers ...
And an unexpected voice burst through the air as Uncle Parry, of all people, came half-running, half-stumbling down the turn of the private road towards them, hatless, dishevelled, and panting for breath. “Thank God, I’ve finally found you, Aubrey! It’s all gone wrong while you were out gallivanting. Dash it, I’ve lost my dragon!”
Chapter 22
Rose gaped at her uncle as he stumbled to a halt before them on the open road and toppled forwards, bracing himself with his hands on his knees to recover from his unprecedented exertions. “Uncle Parry?” Shifting backwards, she swiftly extricated herself from her near embrace with Mr Aubrey. Fortunately, her uncle seemed too distracted to have noticed their scandalously intimate position. “What in the—? Wait. Did you say your dragon?”
“Ah ...” Mr Aubrey cleared his throat. “As you may recall, I have been attempting to persuade you both—”
“Oh, you needn’t ... cover for me ... any longer, old fellow.” Uncle Parry spoke between panting breaths. “Everyone’s ... bound to find out now. Disaster! Ruination ... humiliation ... Poor Angharad ... and the children ... Oh, I knew I should never have ... but—”
“Uncle Parry!” Rose hurried forwards to help him to his feet. “For goodness’ sake, what have you done?” She had never seen him in such a state of distress, not even during those startlingly anxious days when her uncle had taken to pacing through the house, muttering fretfully to himself as he’d awaited Mr Aubrey’s arrival. “Whatever it is, we’ll find a way to make things right somehow. I promise!”
How could she do any less? This was the man who’d greeted her arrival on his doorstep – penniless, sisterless, and numb with loss – with the kindest of smiles and a warm pat on her shoulder, telling her she needn’t worry about anything from then on, and to call him ‘Uncle,’ despite the lack of any such close family connection.
Behind her, Mr Aubrey’s sigh was long and expressive. “Again ...”
But Uncle Parry was already replying in a tone of deep despair. “It is no use, my dear.” Stepping away from her helping hands, he drew himself up to his full height, nearly two inches higher than her own. “There is nothing that you or anyone else can do to alter the consequences of my own illicit actions. You see, I have stolen a dragon.”
“Oh, I can see from your expression that you don’t believe me,” he said dolefully after a long moment had passed in gape-struck silence. “I may say I would never have believed it of myself until it happened, and I only wish I could pretend this was a jest. But no, dear Rose, the truth is, your own uncle has indeed become a thief, and I cannot expect you or anyone else to understand or ever forgive me for it. Why—”
“Uncle Parry!” Rose finally broke out of the shock that had held her silent. “If you’re speaking of either of my – I mean, Mr Aubrey’s – dragons ... that is, if you were visiting with them today while we were gone, even if you did remove them from my room, I hardly think that qualifies as theft.”
“If only it were so simple.” His shoulders sagged. “Your fiancé knows the truth, my dear. Aubrey, no matter what comes of my ill-advised actions, I hope you will not hold poor Rose accountable for my sins. She is a good girl, who would never bring such shame upon your family or—”
“What shame?” Rose demanded, turning on her quasi-fiancé. “What is he talking about?”
Mr Aubrey looked deeply pained. “If you will recall, I did tell you I was under a strict decree of silence and could not share any details of your uncle’s concerns. But in fact, I have attempted, multiple times across the past few days, to convince both of you to share certain details with each other.”
Rose’s eyes widened in horror as she realised exactly which of her details he was referring to with the worst possible timing. Uncle Parry was already fretting about the mere possibility of illicit dragons! “Oh, no, you mustn’t—”
“It’s no use trying to keep it secret anymore,” said Uncle Parry. “Sir Gareth will no doubt spread the news to all the morning papers.”
“Sir Gareth?” Rose’s eyes narrowed ... and at long last, all the sidelong pieces of information she’d disregarded as irrelevant across the past few days shifted together.
Sucking in a breath, she wheeled upon her official fiancé. “When we first met, you wouldn’t allow me to ask Sir Gareth about the dragon I’d found, but you refused to tell me why.”
The furrows between Mr Aubrey’s eyebrows deepened. “I had promised your uncle my absolute discretion.”
“But you already knew, somehow, that Sir Gareth wasn’t to be trusted with dragons. And you!” She swung round to her uncle, who startled back, eyes widening. “All that food you were gathering from the pantry yesterday morning. Was that not for yourself?”
“My dear! As if I would ever raid Mrs Davies’ pantry merely for my own selfish desires. Do you have any notion of how long she would withhold her bara brith from me for that offense?”
Ohhh, Mrs Davies’ bara brith ... mmm ...
A wood warbler in the nearby trees burst into a sudden flurry of urgent sound, and Rose snapped herself out of her wistful trance.
“There were four empty cages in that hidden room, not three.” She spoke through gritted teeth to the gentleman beside her, who had absolutely evaded that point when she’d tried to raise it in Penryddn House.
“Yes.” Mr Aubrey sighed. “Sadly, I wasn’t at liberty to explain why that number failed to surprise me.”
