"After this meeting."
"You are joining me in there, aren't you, India?"
"If you wish."
"I most certainly wish it." He gave me a wry smile. "With you there, they might restrain themselves."
"Do you think they're here because of Patience and Lord Cox?"
"I have no doubt about it."
Miss Glass's head was bowed when we entered the drawing room, her hands demurely folded in her lap. Lord Rycroft stood over her, the fat beneath his chin folded into thick layers as he scowled. They could not be less alike. She was thin where he was broad; she had gray hair and most of his was still black; she was submissive while he was domineering. It was easy to forget they were brother and sister.
"Do you understand, Letitia?" Lord Rycroft demanded.
She gave a small nod.
"Say it. Say you understand so that I know you heard me."
"Rycroft," Matt cut in with a scowl of his own for his uncle. "Aunt Letitia doesn't appear to be up to your questioning. May I help?"
Lord Rycroft regarded Matt down his nose. Since Matt was taller, it meant he had to tilt his head back quite a way. "It's of no concern to you."
"When you're in my house and my aunt looks afraid, it becomes my concern."
Lord Rycroft continued to glare at his nephew and Matt glared right back. It took the arrival of Bristow with tea things to break the standoff. I poured and handed out cups, hardly breathing until Lord Rycroft finally sat.
"Richard ordered me to travel with Beatrice and the girls to the estate in preparation for the wedding," Miss Glass said, looking up from her lap. All the color gained from our walk had drained from her face, and her eyes had lost their brightness.
"Do you want to go with them or come later with me?" Matt asked.
"She doesn't have a choice," Lord Rycroft said, setting down his teacup without taking a sip. "She's going with Beatrice. It's for the best."
"For whom?"
"For everyone! She's Patience's aunt. She'll be needed."
His wife rolled her eyes. "It's the best place for her," she said. "You can't keep an eye on her here, Matthew. You're too busy. She needs companionship and security or she'll just wander off again like last time."
"Last time she wandered off, she was with you," Matt shot back. "She returned here, as I recall."
Lady Rycroft sniffed. "Yes, well, it just goes to show that she must be watched at all times."
"She doesn't wander off when she's here alone, and she has India for company a lot of the time."
Fortunately Miss Glass did not dilute his argument by mentioning I was rarely at home lately.
"She's no trouble," I added.
Lord and Lady Rycroft ignored me. "Very well then, stay here," Lady Rycroft mumbled into her cup.
Her husband turned his icy glare onto her. "Beatrice," he hissed. "We agreed."
"It's all well and good for you, Richard, you're coming later. You're quite happy to saddle me with the responsibility of caring for her in the meantime. What if she wanders off again? She could go into the woods or the lake. Imagine if she turns up in the village talking nonsense. I'll never live it down."
"If you force me to leave London with you, that's precisely what I'll do," Miss Glass said with a pinched smile for her sister-in-law.
I wanted to applaud her for speaking up. Alas, her courage was short lived. She bowed her head again when her brother snapped, "That's enough, Letitia."
"So it's settled," Matt said. "Aunt Letitia will travel with me. We'll arrive the day before the wedding."
"Oh no," Lady Rycroft said. "You must come at least three days before. My girls will be desolated if you deprive them of your company, Matthew."
He looked slightly panicked at the prospect. I wasn't sure whether to smile or be panicked too.
"That's if there is a wedding," she added with a loaded glance at her husband.
"That brings us to the main reason for our visit," he said, puffing out his barrel chest. "But I won't discuss it in front of the companion." He didn't look at me so I felt no compulsion to leave the room.
"India stays," Matt said. "If you have something to say to me, say it in front of her."
Lord Rycroft's lips puckered and pursed with his indignation. When Matt didn't back down, he clicked his tongue. "Hope told us everything about a certain sheriff acquaintance of yours and his attempt to blackmail my family. I will not stand for it, do you hear me? I will not stand for it. Clean up your mess before word gets back to Lord Cox."
"I cannot control what Sheriff Payne does or says," Matt said.
"You can and you will! Do as he demands, for God's sake!"
"He has made no demands of me. If I knew where to find him, I'd attempt to convince him to stay away, but I don't know where he is."
"Then find out." A vein in Lord Rycroft's neck bulged. His collar looked far too tight, all of a sudden. "The situation is precarious. Patience is hardly a fine catch at her age, but for some reason, Cox wants to marry her. Suppose it has something to do with his children needing a mother, although that's nothing a good governess couldn’t solve."
"Perhaps he loves her and will overlook her past," Matt said.
Lady Rycroft's nostrils flared. "Don't be absurd," her husband muttered.
I had often thought myself less fortunate than the privileged Patience Glasses of this world, but listening to her own parents speak about her made me glad I wasn't born to that class. She was nothing more than a tradable object to them, as expendable as a horse unfit for racing.
"You must fix this, Matthew, before it's too late," Lady Rycroft said. "This family is counting on you."
"I'll do my best, but I can't stop Payne if I can't find him."
"Try harder! If the wedding is called off, all the girls will suffer. Even Hope will find it difficult to secure a husband if the scandal gets out. They'll all be ruined. The girls won't be able to show their faces in London for at least two seasons, and by then it'll be too late!" She set down her teacup and pressed the edge of the turban at her temples. "This situation is unbearable, and it's your fault, Matthew."
"It is not," Miss Glass said huffily. "Patience should have been more careful. A young lady's reputation is her most valuable possession. Lose it and lose her chance of a secure future. Patience was gullible enough to believe that reprobate cared for her, but she was young. As her mother, you ought to have warned her about such men, Beatrice. It is your fault that she's in this predicament now, not Matthew's."
Lady Rycroft's features contracted so tightly her lips almost disappeared altogether. "You dare to accuse Patience of not being careful with her reputation! You, of all people! Are you going to let her speak about your daughter like that, Richard, when she is no better?"
Miss Glass's fingers splayed on her lap. She looked away. "Patience's situation is not the same as mine."