Page 86 of An Honorable Deception
He couldn’t mean an actual one ... Though he wouldn’t put it past Neville to have applied some greasepaint and added an extra level of scare. But he didn’t know why that would have made Barclay frown so.
“A guest not on the list. Not sure how he slipped past theushers, but there was definitely a body in a seat that should have been empty, for a while. Vanished again before we had a chance to get close.”
Yates glanced down at Lavinia. Lavinia glanced up at him.
It was odd, but he had no idea what to do about it. All he could say was, “Interesting. I suppose we ... wait to see. If whoever it was turns up again.”
Barclay nodded. Held out a hand. “Good working with you, Mr. A. Always available for another job when you have them.”
Yates shook. Smiled. “And see you for lessons next week. Bring the girls. They need them far more than you.”
Barclay snorted and put his fedora on, turning toward the nearest door. “Letyoube the one to tell them that, mate. Me, I value my head.”
The streetlights were on in Grosvenor Square by the time Lavinia and Yates strolled up to her father’s door. It hadn’t taken nearly as long to empty the theater of evidence of their one-showing-only production and return the shell of a building to its abandoned state, especially with the many hands to help.
The original crew. And then the sixteen women and one girl Merritt and Samira had freed from the Empire House had arrived. They’d brought them there solely so that Lavinia could give them the money and train tickets she’d arranged for them, if they wanted them. The invitation to travel to her once-empty estate to recover. The promise that they could stay as long as they wished and help other women like them, if they chose. That if and when they were ready to return to their home countries, they’d have help with that too.
They certainly hadn’t meant to put the women immediately to work—but Lavinia had understood the need to blink back tears and pick up brooms. To put to rights what could be righted so simply. It was the first step on a long road.
It felt like her own first step—or maybe her second—as she rang the bell and waited for the doorman to answer.
His eyes flashed surprise when he saw her, and a bit of censure too. Henderson didn’t appreciate her recent habit of showing up in the city without letting her father know, though he never said anything.
Not that Papa was hiding anything she might stumble into. Nothing other than his own brooding silence, so much like hers.
She found him in the library, as she had expected she would, a fire laid in the hearth and a cup of tea at his side. It would keep him up half the night, but she suspected that was the point. His dreams didn’t seem to treat him well these days.
Yates’s fingers curled more tightly around hers, and his thumb stroked over her knuckle.
Lavinia drew in a long breath. “Good evening, Papa.”
“Vinia?” He started, spun in his chair to verify, presumably, that he hadn’t imagined her voice, and then leapt to his feet. Pleasure lit his eyes, though without the worry that often chased it. This time, the joy multiplied and spread into a grin when his gaze dropped to her hand in Yates. “Oh, praise God. It’s about time. I was beginning to worry that even months in his company wouldn’t do the trick, what with how often you flitted back here.”
Thatwas why he’d been frowning at her appearances in Town? He’d been trying to play the Mrs. Bennet card, as Alethia had said her own mother would have done?
Yates chuckled, but she could feel some of the tension melt out of his arm.
Her father was rushing toward them, arms outstretched. He gave her a tight embrace, kissing the side of her head, and then pulled Yates in, too, holding him tight for four long seconds and then patting his back and stepping away. “If you’re here for my blessing, let me make it easy. You have it. You’ve always had it.”
It was Lavinia’s turn to rub her thumb over Yates’s knuckle. It had been six long years since he’d known a father’s embrace. His approval. Given the way his nostrils flared, it meant as much to him as it did to her, knowing that Papa was so ready to welcome him to the family.
Of course, thiswasYates. “Might want to hear us out first, my lord. For starters, you ought to know I’m strapped. Father left us with nothing.”
Papa’s brows drew together, but there was no surprise in his eyes. If anything ... apology? He motioned them inside, toward the sofa across from his chair. “I feared as much. I tried for years to get him to curtail his spending, or to make investments to cover them. He always said he would, but then he’d fund a new outbuilding or bring in a new troupe for months on end. I intended, after you and Marigold had time to sort through it, to talk to you. Offer my aid, if you needed it. But then the fever struck and...”
He paused, shook his head, and lowered himself back to his chair while they sat across from him. “I’m sorry. I was so distraught, I could think of nothing else. And then, once I could, it seemed you had landed on your feet. Or at the very least, tightened your belts enough to weather the storm. I let myself think you’d have come to me if you truly needed advice or a loan.”
“We managed.” Yates smiled, his expression peaceful.“Still are. I can’t exactly keep Lavinia in the luxury to which she’s accustomed—”
“Oh, bah.” Papa waved that away and reached for his tea. “You know very well she has her own fortune, enough to set the Tower to rights and manage the estate from her mother’s people besides. If I can give you nothing else, my dear, I have at least provided that security, such as it is.”
“You’ve given me much more than that, Papa.” Lavinia rose and moved to perch on the arm of his chair, so she could slide an arm around his shoulders and rest her cheek on the top of his head. “You’ve given me the things that matter most. Love. Faith. Family.”
Papa sighed and patted her knee. “I wish I could have made that family what it ought to have been. When I see what she’s done to you, how haunted you so often look...” He sniffed and shook his head. “But there’s light in your eyes now. I suspect you’re responsible for that, my boy.”
Yates flashed a grin, but he shook his head too. “We can credit only the Lord for that—but I’m blessed to bask in it.” He held Papa’s gaze, and love for him swelled in her chest as she saw the respect in his eyes, the determination. “I’ve always loved her—I imagine you know that. I always will. She is the only one in the world for me.”
Lavinia smiled. “Well. Mustn’t forget Penelope.”
