Page 57 of Claws and Contrivances
It was difficult, though, to know quite how to relate the next part of the story. The fact that Sir Gareth and Serena had had a clandestine meeting was an inescapable element, but when Rose came to that night in her own chronology, she found herself hesitating. Perhaps, if she didn’t mention that part until the end, and then referred to it only as a claim made by Sir Gareth ...
“I shall tell everyone what happened next.” Serena pushed herself up from the settee, her hair a wild thunderstorm around her shoulders and her usually pale cheeks flushed with colour. “My cousin may be too afraid to share this with you, Mama, but I won’t hide from the truth any longer. She wasn’t the only one who took part in a scandalous rendezvous that evening!”
“Serena!” Rose gasped.
“What—what—?” Aunt Parry stiffened in her seat. Her gaze darted back and forth between her oldest daughter and her niece. “What exactly took place for both of you?”
“There was nothing scandalous about my meeting with Mr Aubrey!” Rose said desperately. “We are betrothed, remember? ... Well, at least officially. And we were only discussing the unusual powers that I had observed in my dragons. Nothing more!”
Mr Aubrey made a small, choked sound beside her, perhaps remembering their kiss.
“Ha!” Serena tossed back her hair with a magnificently scornful laugh. “That is not what I observed. But—”
“‘Observed?’” Aunt Parry pushed one hand against the side of her head as if to keep it from falling off. “Dear Lord. Humphrey, was I the only one who slept a wink that night? Or has our entire home become a French farce?”
“No, my dear. I believe I fell asleep before you, in fact. But then, I generally—”
“Does anyone in this family have the slightest interest in the fact that I have been ruined?” Serena demanded.
A long and painfully echoing silence fell over the room.
When Aunt Parry spoke again, her voice was brittle. “Tell us everything.”
Even Serena visibly flinched. Still, she described everything from the secret message she’d received to the questions that Sir Gareth had asked about her family while they were wandering alone in the ruins. Rose followed with the discoveries that she and Mr Aubrey had made at Penryddn House, finishing – with her eyes lowered, her breath tight, and her pulse beating heavily in her ears – on the ultimatum that Sir Gareth had set her.
Serena mournfully confirmed that she had overheard it ... and Rose forced herself to look up at her aunt and uncle for the first time since she had come to that final point in her recitation.
They both looked somehow smaller than before, as if the news had actually shrunken them in their seats. Sagging against the back of the sofa, even Aunt Parry appeared weary and defeated.
“I know ... you may never be able to forgive me.” Rose choked on the words; she had to stop and clear her throat before she could continue. “I also understand that leaving now would not affect the consequences of my mistakes, or what I’ve brought down upon all of you. However, I promise, that is the only reason I am still here: so that I can do everything possible to help. Once all of this is finished, I promise I will go and—”
“Don’t be absurd,” Serena snapped. “I’m the one who will be leaving. I’m the one who shamed our family. Once I’m gone, everyone else will be perfectly safe. So—”
“Gone?” Uncle Parry enquired querulously. “But where would either of you be going?”
“To ruin, Papa. Do you not understand?” For the first time since they had met, Rose heard Serena’s voice wobble with real fear. “Perhaps ... perhaps I may find some acting troupe that will take me on for the sake of my voice. If not ... well, it’s probably best simply not to think of me from now on or—”
“No one is going anywhere!” At Aunt Parry’s bellow, everyone in the room jumped, including Cwtch, who leapt to his feet in front of her, barking frantically as he looked wildly around for the source of her unheard-of outrage.
Aunt Parry’s eyes were every bit as wild as she glared around the circle of humans and dragons as fiercely as if she were facing down a firing squad. “I will not hear another word of this nonsense from any of you. Do you hear me? If you think I’ve worked and prayed all these years to raise and protect my family from every danger, only to lose my own daughter or my sweet niece to ruin and despair for the sake of placating a petty little would-be dictator of a—a—well, a ghoul, as Serena used to call him—well!”
Panting, she came to a halt. Her expression defied anyone to question her.
“Quite right, my dear.” Uncle Parry patted her hand, straightening in his own seat. “We’ve always taken pleasure in our own company, have we not? If society chooses to turn its back upon our family, well, what need have any of us for society when we have our books and our home and one another?”
Rose’s chest squeezed tight with a mix of desperate love, gratitude, and comprehension that her beloved uncle was agonisingly wrong.
Of course, they all had a need for society, and not only because Uncle Parry’s dwindling inheritance would inevitably run out one day. Aunt Parry’s novels might be deliciously entertaining, but they only ever brought in pennies. If the family was ruined and none of the girls or their younger brother could marry, there would be no money left to support any of them ... and no friends left even to lend them aid.
Rose saw Aunt Parry shut her eyes in response to her husband’s reassurance and knew that the same bleak calculation was running through both of their minds.
But there was even more to it. The drawing room had been filled with love and light and laughter only two nights ago when Aunt Parry’s full community had gathered around her for their reading. Rose’s aunt and cousins had lit up, too, with the joy of that gathering.
For years, Aunt Parry had made Gogodd Abbey a haven for homeless animals and relatives and friends. The very idea of it transforming into a prison of isolation was intolerable.
The sound of a light knock at the door behind her came as a welcome relief from her thoughts.
“Begging your pardons, but we had a courier for Mr Aubrey. Urgent business, he said it was, and couldn’t possibly wait.” Bobbing a brief curtsey, Carys darted into the room to pass a bound folder of paperwork to Rose’s quasi-fiancé before leaving and closing the door firmly behind her.
