have a guest and you’ll need to stay in the floor above this one.’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘Is my aunt bringing friends?’
‘No. This is a visitor. A man. I do business with him.’ Her father stood, feet planted, his voice persuasion soft.
‘A visitor? One?’ She stared at his face. ‘And I’m to move?’
Her father nodded, his jaw working sideways.
The rose room was empty. In fact, both of her sisters’ rooms were vacant. Honour was in Scotland and Laura had married a man who’d courted her through letters.
‘Besides, you are getting older now and it will be comfortable for you to have your own storey.’
‘I’m to stay above?’ She glanced at her book, not really seeing it, and then looked again at his face. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Very.’ He nodded, his lips thinning. ‘Our guest is a man. His father, the Viscount, is ill and our guest handles the duties for the family. I want you to stay from underfoot, Annie. While he’s here at least. We’ll be discussing important matters. You must not be a distraction for me.’ His face relaxed. ‘Please, dearest. He and I will be busy. He wants to change the chandlery shops. He thinks the improvements I planned are not the right ones.’
She paused, studying her father’s face. ‘He’s a viscount’s son?’
Her father kept his mouth closed while he gave a quick nod. ‘Yes. But not an important one.’
‘Not an important one?’ She leaned forward, trying to figure out what her father was thinking.
‘No. A title is not everything.’ He checked his pocket watch. ‘It’s a lot. But not everything.’
Annie opened her mouth. ‘I’m glad to hear you say that.’
‘Well, it’s not that I didn’t want your sisters to marry well. I admit it. I admit it freely. And I do want you to have the opportunity they squandered. But this man, well, he is not marriage minded.’
‘I’m not either.’
‘Bite your tongue.’ He put the watch back in his pocket, the chain dangling. ‘Marriage is everything. The right marriage is everything. And your sisters did not understand. You will do us all proud and wed someone who will bring respect to the family.’
He lowered his chin and looked at her as if looking down the sights of a gun. ‘You’ll marry well. You’ll be happy. Just like your mother and I. And your children will thank you.’
She bit the inside of her cheek, waiting.
‘This is enough of this talk,’ he said. ‘You’ll be going to the upstairs room and you will be staying there until you come to your senses.’ He bent his head down. ‘I did not appreciate how you stayed off to yourself at Lady Cruise’s birthday celebration. You hardly spoke one word during your dance with Lord Richard. His father is a duke, and even if the lad is only the fourth son that’s still a duke’s son.’ He raised his hand in tandem with his face. ‘You hardly looked at him during the whole dance.’
‘Father. Have you ever listened to him? Yes, he’s a duke’s son and he can say that in five languages.’
His jaw shuddered when he shook his head. ‘Enough. I will not allow you to throw away such opportunities like your sisters did. We will do right by you.’
‘By sending me to the attic? Where the maid sleeps?’ When a viscount’s son visited? That was so unlike her father. She would have expected him to have pulled her by both arms into the room with the man.
‘In this case, yes.’
‘What’s wrong with him?’
‘Nothing,’ her father said. ‘But he’s spent his life...not like the Duke’s son. Lord Richard is admirable. Respectable. And I know he thinks highly of you.’
Before she could stop herself, her eyes flicked to the ceiling.
‘You will stay out of the way for the next few days.’ Her father’s brows met in the centre.
She tucked a finger into the book. ‘I have no wish to interfere. I just don’t wish to move to the upper floor. Although perhaps it will seem more lively with Myrtle about. I never know what she might say when I ask her for something. She once returned three times to ask me what I sent her for. It was easier to get it myself.’
‘She’s a good servant.’ Her father moved his head so that he looked into her eyes. ‘Myrtle has served my family her whole life. Loyal to the last heartbeat.’
‘But both my sisters’ rooms are empty now. The guest will have a place to stay there.’
He shook his head. ‘No. He is here to discuss business. We cannot risk you disrupting it. And it would not be proper for you to be near. Besides, he is not interested in a marriage. Lord Richard is. End of subject.’
She closed the book and watched her hand as she ran her fingers over the spine. ‘Do you not think I am wise enough to make my own decisions?’
‘Of course you are.’
‘I would sometimes like to... Perhaps I should go stay with my cousin while the visitor is here? I would like that. You always insist she visit me and never allow me to take the coach to their home. I hardly ever leave the house and, if I do, it is always with you and Mother.’
‘I do not want you, my only sensible daughter, to risk becoming ill like your mother. Your mother has never been the same since your birth.’ His bottom lip quivered. ‘But, of course, we are ever thankful for you and we would not change a thing.’
She could not answer. She hated her mother’s frailty as well, but she would risk her own health to step outside the doors.
‘It is only because I care for you.’ His chest heaved. ‘If you do not wish to wed, I can accept that. But if you do wed, then you will marry a man of standing. It is for your benefit to marry well.’
‘I know.’
‘Promise me you’ll keep out of sight while my guest is here. And not forget like you did last time. I heard you in the hallway.’
‘I won’t forget.’
It would be no use arguing with him. He only cared for her safety and happiness. She smiled at him. He nodded, glanced at the book in her hands and left.
She turned back to the novel although she wasn’t fond of Swift. She didn’t feel like reading.
Twisting the bracelet on her arm, she stared at it. The circle of sapphire stones in the silver setting swallowed her arm. But what good did it do to have jewellery if no one ever saw it?
If she had mentioned a wish for a dozen horses, her parents would have put them at her fingertips, but not at her disposal.
She knew the man had been in the sitting room the day before. Had heard the deep rumble of his voice and had followed it. Then the physician had almost
