Page 66 of The Trouble with Tigers
He felt like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Just wondering what’s going through your head.” It was a true statement, as far as it went.
“Oh.” She blew air out of her cheeks. “If you must know, I was thinking about what Garrick said, before he…” She shook her head. “He insists he and I should marry, supposedly for my benefit.”
“By God, he’s got nerve.”Damnthe man.
She flashed him a grin. “I don’t buy the supposed magnanimity, especially as he hasn’t made any secret he holds me in contempt. I asked him why he’d wish to marry me.”
“Did he give you a straight answer?”
“If I understood him correctly, and I’m not at all certain I did, he sees marriage to me as his due.”
“Come again?”
“Apparently he bears a bone-deep grudge against my grandfather whom he believes usurped his grandfather's title.It’s all so absurd. After everything grandfather did for Garrick, too.”
She beetled her brows. “Grandfather welcomed Garrick into our lives. He thought having him around would be good for me after…Collin.”
“You’d lost your parents and your brother in a relatively short span of time. He probably hoped providing you with another family member might ease your pain.”
She smiled sadly. “I could have told him—should have told him how I felt around Garrick, before he contacted the solicitors.”
“Garrick made you uneasy from the start?”
She wrinkled her nose. “It was nothing I could name. Just a feeling something was off.”
“In that case, why didn’t you tell your grandfather?”
She raised her eyes to his. They were like green mist in the muted afternoon light, and he couldn’t look away if he tried.
“I didn’t want to worry him and I hoped Garrick might bring him some comfort.” She sighed. “I’d lost my parents, but he’d lost his only son. No parent should outlive his child.”
Zeke nodded, thinking of his own grandfather’s loss in a new, less selfish light.
“Grandfather was getting older and I hoped having Garrick at hand might allow him to begin the process of handing over the reins—again.
“By the time grandfather realized Garrick wasn’t the man he thought, he’d relinquished much of his control over the estate. Then his health took an unexpectedly sharp decline. Otherwise, he'd at least have tried rescinding what he had done with the help of a solicitor. In the end, there simply wasn’t time.”
That filled in a few blanks for Zeke—like why the baron hadn’t tossed James out on his ear.
“It must’ve galled the baron to no end.”
She nodded. “The worse things got, the more he pressed me to leave Hastings House.” She smiled fondly. “Silly man. As if I would ever leave him to fend for himself, especially while ill.”
No. Zeke couldn’t see her doing that, even though it would’ve made things far simpler for her. “So you came to my grandfather for help after your grandfather’s passing.”
“Yes,” she said softly.
“We…” He broke off, suddenly needing to clear his throat. “The earl has told me how glad he is you came to him.”
“Lord Claybourne has been so kind,” she said, in that same soft tone.
For pity’s sake, why didn’t he just say it?
“I’m also glad you came to us.” He meant what he said. He wanted to help her, and not simply to please his grandfather.
“Thank you for saying so, Zeke.” She linked her arms behind her and lowered her head. “I wish I didn’t have to trouble either of you.”
Zeke had to wrestle an almost irresistible urge to haul her into his arms again. His grandfather was right. She did have a way of getting under a person’s skin.
