"Theo? What are you doing?"
Rosie's curious tones brought her out of her reverie, and she turned with a smile. "I might ask the same of you. Aren't you supposed to be doing lessons at this hour of the day?"
The child took off her spectacles and wiped them on a corner of her apron. Her blue eyes were weak and vulnerable as she peered myopically at her sister. "Reverend Haversham had to go to see the bishop, so he gave us a holiday this afternoon. I'm foraging."
"For what?"
Rosie shrugged. "Anything that takes my fancy. Nothing's wasted."
Theo laughed. "So what's happening at the dower house?" She patted the log beside her.
Rosie sat down. "Emily's still weeping about Edward, and Mama's starting to become a bit exasperated, and Clarry cut her finger on the carving knife yesterday. She almost sliced off the whole top, there was blood everywhere, and she had to have the sal volatile."
This matter-of-fact recital filled Theo with nostalgia and an uprush of emotion that she had to fight to control.
"I wish you hadn't married Stoneridge," Rosie stated, tuning uncannily into her thoughts. "It's not the same without you."
"Don't be silly," Theo said bracingly. "If I hadn't married Stoneridge, we'd have lost the manor. Anyway, you can always come up and see me whenever you like."
"Mama said I wasn't to bother you for three weeks," Rosie informed her. "I wanted to come up yesterday and the day before, but she wouldn't let me, and I most particularly wanted to ask your advice about my white mice. Mr. Graybeard is getting very fat, and I'm wondering if perhaps it's not a boy after all. He could be pregnant. Do you think he could?"
"Only if he's a she," Theo said absently, her ears catching the sound of wheels on the gravel from around the corner. "I wonder who that is." She stood up as the gig from the Dorchester Arms bowled around the corner, Lawyer Crighton on the driver's seat. He drew rein as he saw them.
"Good day to you, Lady Theo," he said with clear pleasure.
"And Lady Rosalind. I trust you're both well."
"Very well, I thank you," Theo said, wondering how she could have forgotten the lawyer's invariable practice of visiting his Dorset clients on the fifteenth of every quarter. He'd be hurt and embarrassed if he realized he was unexpected, so she smiled warmly and said, "It's a pleasure to see you, Mr. Crighton. I'll come up with you to the house." Turning to her sister, she gave her the armful of roses. "Take these to Mama, there's a dear."
Rosie nodded agreeably, burying her nose in the blooms. "Are you coming to visit Mama, too, Mr. Crighton?"
"I shall certainly do myself the honor of calling to pay my respects to Lady Belmont," the lawyer declared ponderously.
"I'll warn Mama, then," Rosie said, as always saying exactly what she meant. Theo stifled her grin, hoping that Crighton hadn't noticed. Her mother found the lawyer a dead bore, not that she'd ever show it.
She swung herself up into the gig, dispensing with the lawyer's helping hand, and settled herself on the seat beside him, waving good-bye to Rosie as the pony set off up the drive again.
"Allow me to tender my congratulations, Lady Theo," the lawyer said with a little half bow. "A most satisfactory arrangement, if I might be so bold."
"Yes, I suppose it is," Theo said, thinking it was a somewhat lukewarm way of describing a marriage.
"There are a few outstanding matters to deal with," Crighton continued, taking out his handkerchief and pushing up the brim of his hat to mop his perspiring forehead. "But the details can be seen to after we've had our usual little discussion on the matter of the investments and the trusts, and the rent rolls."
"What outstanding matters?" Theo inquired with interest.
She sensed the sudden stiffness in the lawyer as he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Oh, just a few details," he said vaguely.
"Details?" Theo frowned. "My grandfather's will struck me as crystal clear."
The lawyer succumbed to a coughing fit, his face reddening under the paroxysm. When he'd recovered, he said, "Oh, dowries, Lady Stoneridge… that's it… the matter of your sisters' dowries. And your own jointure. It needs to be made all right and tight."
"I see." Theo's curiosity was well and truly roused. She didn't think Lawyer Crighton was telling the truth, or at least not the whole truth.
But they'd accomplished the short drive to the front door before she could decide on a fresh tack.
When they drove up, Sylvester was in his book room reading a pamphlet by Coke of Norfolk on the rotation of crops. It was a subject about which Theo and Beaumont were enthusiastically knowledgeable, and one about which he knew nothing. In fact, the mysteries of agriculture were a closed book, which wasn't that surprising, he supposed, considering that he'd been a soldier for the best part of the last fifteen years. But he was also aware that Theo's taunt about the Gilbraith estate being like Lilliput compared with the Stoneridge lands was not that far off the mark. The Gilbraiths were definitely the poor relations, and even if he'd been interested, he'd have had no opportunity to master the knowledge that Theo had acquired.
God, how it must have galled the old man to think of his great landed wealth falling into the hands of a man not educated for it. Someone who wouldn't know how to appreciate the complexities of estate management, the techniques of farming.
He shook his head with a rueful grimace. He'd probably have felt the same in the same circumstances. Maybe there was more than simple malice behind the old devil's trickery.
He glanced casually toward the open window behind him at the sound of wheels on the gravel sweep outside and then pushed back his chair to get a better view. What he saw brought a cold sweat to his forehead and sent the blood pounding through his veins.
Theo in the company of Lawyer Crighton.
What the hell was the man doing here? Without a word of warning? And dear God, what had he been saying to Theo?
He drew a deep breath, waiting for his pulse to steady. Stupid to panic. It wouldn't make a blind bit of difference now if Theo discovered the truth about her grandfather's will. He had his inheritance, and no one could take it from him.
But he knew he was fooling himself. The thought of that deception coming into the open filled him with a dreadful revulsion. It was a despicable secret that he must live with to his dying day… so long as Crighton had let nothing slip, nothing to provoke Theo's needle wit.
His expression schooled to a calm neutrality, he walked into the hall just as Theo and the lawyer came in from the bright sunshine.
"Oh, Sylvester," Theo greeted him, blinking and bedazzled in what seemed like darkness after the brilliance outside. "Lawyer Crighton has come from London for his quarterly business visit. I forgot to mention to you this morning that he always comes on the fifteenth." Sylvester might be affronted at her negligence, but at least the fib spared the lawyer's feelings.
"Just so, my lord," the lawyer said, advancing, hand outstretched. "I have several other prominent landowners in the area whose affairs I'm honored to be entrusted with, so I do the rounds." He gave a hearty laugh at this, but there was a touch of uncertainty to it. He was remembering that the fifth Earl of Stoneridge was inclined to be even more irascible and impatient than his predecessor.
"Indeed," Sylvester said coolly, taking the offered hand in a brief clasp. "Then pray come into my book room, and we'll get on with it." He glanced at Theo, standing in the shadows. He could detect nothing untoward in her manner or her posture. It would seem that the lawyer had let nothing slip to arouse her curiosity, and a smile of relief softened the harshness of his features.