Spurned

  Chapter Twenty Two

  She gathered herself for a moment. She needed to do this right. First she needed to spy on her father to see if he dropped any clues that indicated Anna was lying. He was always in his study, so she would start there. She wanted to slip down to the kitchens, see if she could check on Wanda and Jennifer, but her old servant friends would have to wait.

  As she turned left to head to her father's study, she shook her head at her own arrogance. The dogs could catch her scent around the old spring house easily now while out for a casual run. It likely would not be long before the tunnel was discovered...

  Not if you poison all the dogs, that small little voice whispered. It will take months to canvas other estates for hounds of such good breeding. Anna would be crushed if her babies were dead. By the time she got a good pack together and trained again, you will be long gone.

  Kara was disturbed she had such thoughts. She did not like the hounds, but it was not their fault their mistress had trained them to be so cruel. She climbed the rickety steps to the second story of the passages, keeping an eye out for any clues that they had been used. There were none that she could see. Dust lay thick, showing no footprints, not even her own from the last time she had been here.

  She drew up to the panel that had peepholes looking into her father's study. She pressed her ear against the wall. Like any manor, the walls were a combination of thin board and thick stone. Thin board was excellent for eavesdropping. She heard nothing, not even a servant bustling about. She slid the peephole panel aside, wincing at the creak it made, and looked in.

  The sight of her father's study sent a wave of conflicting emotions crashing down on her shoulders. And she had heard no noise because her father was sitting behind his desk, utterly silent, his face drawn, his shoulders slumped.

  Rage and love and hate all swirled in her breast as she looked upon the man who had always been too weak to protect her. The noble Lord Brahm, head of a proud family and vast lands.

  Ignoring his fine dress, the great Lord looked like a portly middle-aged man who drank too much and did not sleep enough. Observing him made her think of her mother, and she wondered where she had gotten her own strength from. Both of her parents were so weak. Her mother always accepted slavery with quiet reservation, while her father bowed before the might of Lady Brahm time and again...

  They were a pitiful pair. Kara wondered if that made her pitiful too.

  He sipped his favorite brandy and set the glass down as he continued to stare blankly ahead of him. She dared to hope part of his sorrow was regret from rejecting her so completely. Could she use his regret against him?

  A light knock at his study door, then Lady Brahm swept in, her bronze hair piled atop her head, her russet gown no doubt cut in imitation of the latest fashions of the capital. There were no mixed emotions for Kara as she looked at her. She hated Lady Brahm with a passion. The only person she hated more was Anna. How many cruelties, large and small, had this woman piled on her and her mother over the years?

  Lady Brahm settled in a deep armchair as her husband nodded coolly at her. She began speaking in her pompous way without preamble.

  “Anna's presentation at court is overdue.”

  Lord Brahm took a sip of his brandy and set the glass down carefully. “Indeed it is.”

  “Why the delay? This is the third time I have petitioned you. Most girls have it at fourteen. She is well past that age. People will begin to talk. The will say we cannot afford to have her presented at court.”

  “The cost is considerable. As is the cost of the new gown you are wearing. How much was that bit of cloth and thread?”

  Lady Brahm stiffened and she inhaled sharply. “Are you joking? Are you truly asking me about trifling matters such as how much this dress cost? And what is a few thousand coins compared to our reputation at court? We could make an excellent match for her if we hurry. Lord Jusha's son is of an age with Anna-”

  “Lord Jusha's son is a weakling. Anna is being openly courted by Lord Liam's heir. Since our estates border, it would be a perfect match. Her presentation is a token gesture only. We will pass on it.”

  Kara blinked, surprised at the deluge of information this conversation was dumping on her. She had not known Anna was being courted by Matthew Liam. And her father was not just meekly caving in to his wife's demands? Strange...

  But it seemed a new strength had infused him. He was not talking around the subject or using gentle words. He was being blunt and firm.

  Lady Brahm's face flushed. In a low tone, she said, “You have denied me one desire after another of late.”

  “You desire much.”

  A rustle of costly fabrics as Lady Brahm rose, all wounded pride and dignity. She said, “This all started when I sent away that slave.”

  “That slave is my daughter.”

  Kara's heart did a double thud. So her father did regret.

  “That slave plots against us. Why else would she take the family name? She would try to take the estate away from Anna using trickery!”

  “You know as well as I how unlikely that is. She did it to tweak your nose. And it worked. My Kara was always strong-willed.” A note of pride had crept into his voice.

  “Strong-willed? She is a mule-headed wild child. All that time you spent doting on your bastard daughter you could have spent on your heir.”

  “Anna does not care overmuch for my company, thanks to your constant berating of my person to her.”

  “Clearly there is ongoing cause for beratement. When the heir of the Brahm line is not even worth being presented at court, what does that say of your opinion of her?” Lady Brahm stuck her noble nose high in the air and swept out.

  A tiny spark of hope glowed in her. No one had mentioned anything about babies. Maybe the hint really was a nasty trick of Anna's, a complete lie.

  Another knock at the door. Her father called, “Come.” He took another sip of his drink. His eyes were red and he seemed a little disjointed.

  Her father's steward stepped in, and she smiled in the dark. Stewards managed the household, the grounds, and the accounting books. He was a man who worked hard to maintain a vast property and demanding family, yet he had always had a smile or two for a little girl who had tracked mud all over his spotless floors more than once...

  Gernan looked very serious as he bowed. He seemed aged in the short year she had been gone. His brown hair was streaked with gray and his beard was threaded with white. He had lost weight, too. He had always been a thin man, but now he was edging towards gaunt. He said, “My Lord Brahm. I fear I need your council in the matter of the household finances.”

  Lord Brahm rubbed his face with both hands. “Do we need to sell more stored antique furniture?”

  “There is no more to sell, my Lord. Nor any jewelry excepting Lady Brahm's.”

  Kara was incredulous. Her father was supposed to be one of the richest Lords in the kingdom. His lands were bountiful, the peasants who tilled the soil fruitful. Why was he so desperate for coin?

  Lord Brahm said quietly, “So my secret will be out soon. Either my wife notices we are selling off her jewelry or the furniture on display about the manor. Or the debt collectors pay a visit and she finds out that way.”

  “I see no other path before us, my Lord. With the yearly tithe of the peasants not due to you until winter, we have no income to run the household for months. We either have to let go of paid servants or start selling more heirlooms.”

  Kara's mind was whirring and clicking. Her father needed money-badly. This was very good for her. If she materialized in his study, clutching a cache of diamonds, would he be more inclined to free her mother?