She took his grunt as assent and stepped in, taking care to close the door behind her.
Charlie sat at his desk, curls tousled and lips turned down. “I didn’t give you permission.”
She hurried to his side. “I can’t speak above a whisper in case Father is listening.”
That piqued his interest. He set down his pen and straightened his spine. “Father left the house half an hour ago. I suspect he went to inform Mr. Finch that he is engaged.”
Elizabeth pressed a hand to her midsection. “That’s why I need your advice. How can I be rid of him?”
Charlie’s brow ticked upward. “Isn’t it a little late for that?”
She couldn’t explain why she’d taken such a drastic step. If Charlie didn’t know that Anabelle was their half sibling, she couldn’t add that distress to his already shattered life.
She drew in a deep breath. “I don’t intend to go through with the engagement, but I must make Father believe I will until tonight.”
“I knew it! I knew you couldn’t abandon Rourke.”
“I won’t. I can’t.” She sank onto the chair beside his desk. “But how do I rid myself of Mr. Finch before it is too late?”
“Refuse him.”
“I have refused him three times already. He will not listen. Father will not listen. I can’t understand why they are so determined.”
“Your inheritance.”
Elizabeth stared. “You know about that?”
“I’ve known for years. Mother told me. Grandmama refused to settle it upon her and insisted it go to you instead.”
“If I marry the right man,” Elizabeth said dully. “But I don’t understand. I thought Grandmama approved of Father. Mother said—” Too late she realized she’d betrayed knowledge that Charlie could not know since he hadn’t seen the diary. “Mother always led me to believe that Grandmama and Grandpapa were pleased she married Father.”
Charlie shrugged, apparently not noticing her slip of the tongue. “The point is that Mr. Finch is desperate to get his hands on your inheritance. Have you told Father this?”
“Not in so many words. I don’t think it would matter. Father is set on this match.” She couldn’t divulge that he expected her to rescue the family, since that largely meant helping Charlie. Her brother would never approve.
“That’s odd,” Charlie mused. “Usually Father sniffs out a man’s motives from the first conversation, yet he can’t see a thing wrong with Finch.”
Elizabeth’s pulse quickened. “You’re right. He appears to have a blind spot concerning Mr. Finch.”
“The question is why.”
“I don’t know.”
“Mr. Finch might be blackmailing him.”
Elizabeth couldn’t believe her brother would think such a thing, least of all say it.
“The question is over what,” Charlie said.
Her thoughts drifted to the conversation she had overheard in the dining room. “Aunt Virginia told Father that someone stole a document from her trunks.”
“That must be it. I wonder what it was.”
“I don’t know. She was very upset, though, and blamed Anabelle.” She puzzled through the events that had bewildered her at the time. “She said Mr. Poppinclerk locked her trunks the moment we arrived on the Windsprite, so the paper must have been taken from here.”
“Finch.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “I’ve considered that, but he was always surrounded by our family when he visited. When could he have slipped upstairs to search her trunks?”
“Maybe it was Mr. Poppinclerk, then.”
“What did he stand to gain?”
“We can’t know until we learn what was in the document,” Charlie wisely pointed out.
Elizabeth sighed with frustration. “None of this helps me figure out a way to get rid of Mr. Finch.”
“It would if we knew he had stolen the document, especially if it had anything to do with your inheritance.”
“I don’t think so.” Elizabeth thought back. “Father told me about the inheritance the night I arrived. Mr. Finch wouldn’t have had any opportunity to take the papers before then. Oh, this is all so confusing.”
Charlie grinned. “It’s like chess. To beat your opponent, you need to consider all the possible moves and what will happen for each one much farther into the game. We’re considering all the possibilities.”
“But none of them tell me what to do.”
“To best a man, you need to know his tendencies and his desires. What are Finch’s tendencies? Where does he spend his time and with whom?”
Elizabeth stared. “How do you come up with this?”
Charlie grinned. “You probably don’t know where he goes and whom he counts as a friend.”
She shook her head.
“Neither do I, so let’s concentrate on his desires. What does he want?”
“Money. Status. To marry me.”
“All of which come back to money. Now, let’s consider how we can use that against him.”