Page 48 of Heiress Gone Wild

“Clara, I am sorry I let you down six years ago.”

“So you said in your letter on the subject. No need to apologize again.”

“I think maybe there is,” he said gently, “if your face is anything to go by. But the truth is...” He paused and leaned forward to take her hand in his. “As long as Papa owned the company, having me come home and take over the paper would never have worked.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. And so do you. Papa would never have allowed me the autonomy and control he allowed you, and Irene before you. He’d have fought me every step of the way. Sooner or later, we’d have had another row, and he’d have tossed me out again.”

“Oh, I suppose you’re right,” she cried, her hand squeezing his hard. “But we missed you, damn it! It hurt when you didn’t come home. It really hurt.”

“I know.”

He paused, his thumb caressing the back of her hand. “What if I vow not to stay away so long next time? Would that satisfy you, petal?”

Her lips curved up a little at the use of her childhood nickname. “It might do,” she conceded. “Jack.”

At the sound of his own nickname—one his sisters had given him when he was about five because as a boy he couldn’t sit still and was forever jumping up and down like a jack-in-the-box—Jonathan laughed, and Irene gave a gratified sigh.

“Thank goodness you two are through squabbling,” she said. “Now perhaps we can return to the topic of Miss McGann?”

“Gladly,” Jonathan answered, relieved. Letting go of Clara’s hand, he leaned back again and turned to his elder sister. “As I was saying, Marjorie circumvented my plan to leave her where she was until she’s out of mourning, so here we are. The question is, what’s to be done with her now? She wants to make a life here in England—have a debut, do the season, find a husband, all that sort of thing. I don’t want to impose on you, but—”

He broke off as the butler entered with a laden tray. “Tea, Your Grace.”

“Thank you, Boothby,” Irene said as the butler placed the tray on a small table beside her seat. “That will be all.”

“Very good, ma’am.” The butler set the kettle back down, bowed and moved to depart, but he halted by the door when Irene called after him.

“And Boothby?”

“Your Grace?”

“Would you please have Mrs. Mason send some sandwiches and tea up to Miss McGann? The afternoon train from Southampton has no dining car, and the poor girl must be famished.”

The butler departed, and Irene returned her attention to the subject at hand. “First of all,” she said as she poured a bit of steaming water from the kettle into the teapot, “let’s dispense with any notion of imposition. We’re family, which means Jonathan’s obligations are ours as well. As to Marjorie, there’s only one thing to be done.”

She paused, swirling the teapot to let the hot water warm it, then she dumped the water into a bowl on the tray reserved for that purpose. “We’ll introduce her into society and make a place for her, of course.”

Clara nodded in agreement, and Jonathan squeezed his eyes shut in relief. “Thank you,” he said, opening his eyes again. “I’m glad I can rely on you to look after her properly while I’m in Africa.”

“Africa?” his sisters echoed in simultaneous surprise.

Jonathan tensed, his relief dissolving as he watched the two women exchange glances.

Irene spoke first. “You don’t think you’ll be going now, do you?” She shook her head, laughing a little, and he had the sinking feeling his plans were about to be tossed aside. “Jonathan, Clara and I are complete strangers to the girl.”

“So was I, until a week ago.”

“Which is a week longer than we’ve known her.” She paused long enough to spoon tea into the pot and add water from the kettle, then she went on, “More importantly, however, neither of us is Marjorie’s legal guardian.”

“That distinction hardly matters much at this point—”

“On the contrary,” she cut in as she put the lid on the teapot and turned to him again. “It matters tome.”

“I’ll be back by January.” He stirred again, appreciating that he was skating on very thin ice. “Maybe by Christmas,” he amended. “In the meantime, you two are far more capable of watching over the girl than I am.”

“Perhaps, but we are not the ones who promised to do so,” Irene said incisively. “You did.”

---