Page 32 of Lady Audacious
She noticed that the Adonis on the roof had stopped working to watch the exchange. It gave her courage to assume that he would come to her aid if necessary.
‘I used to bounce you on my knee.’
‘We are related?’ Odile shook her head emphatically. ‘Somehow I doubt it.’
‘You really don’t recall?’
‘Recall what?’
‘Coming to this house with your mother and father.’
Odile inhaled sharply. ‘What cruel trick is this?’ she demanded.
‘Let’s start afresh. My name is Albert Brigstock. I was your father’s business partner.’
Odile offered him a disbelieving look. Not a single person had enquired after her at Miss Mackenzie’s for the eleven years she’d been a student and then a teacher at that establishment. None of the enquires she had instigated regarding her former life had thrown up a single clue. And yet within a few days of receiving a rich inheritance, this charlatan had found his way to her door with cruel and unfounded assertions that made her want to set the growling puppy on him.
‘What business?’ she asked in spite of herself, desperate for the smallest clue that would ignite her memory.
The man looked at her, first with speculation and then with growing confidence. Her lack of even the basic knowledge about her father’s life had clearly inspired that confidence, adding to Odile’s doubts about his credibility.
He looked as though he was in his thirties, she thought, and was handsome in a rather obvious sort of way. He was well dressed and exuded a superficial charm, but she hadn’t lost sight of the darkness she sensed about him and knew better than to be taken in by his claims, only to be disappointed. Better to remain in ignorance than to fall for a trickster’s ploys.
‘You are too young to have been in partnership with my father,’ she said curtly.
‘Why thank you, ma’am.’
‘Oh, for goodness sake!’ Odile threw her head back and growled in a manner that the puppy would have approved of, conscious of her hair escaping from its ribbon and falling in tangles down her back. Her visitor appeared to be momentarily transfixed by the sight, and probably highly disapproving of it too. Young ladies simply did not dress in boys’ clothing and leave their hair tumbling about all over the place. It amused Odile to think that she’d shocked him, and also increased her determination to send him packing. He was not to be trusted and she refused to allow him to give her false hope, which would doubtless come in expectation of reward. ‘I was stating a fact, not attempting to pay you a compliment,’ she retorted.
‘I was a very junior partner, an apprentice at his master’s feet, learning from the very best. You must be aware that your father was a pharmacist.’ Odile had known that much, but nothing more. ‘And a very successful one. He took me under his wing when I graduated, my specialist field being chemistry and…well, here you find me.’
‘Indeed, but I am still at a loss to understand why?’
Mr Brigstock, if that was his name, looked a little shocked by his inability to charm his way into her approval. ‘My, but you are direct.’
The puppy growled, a threatening rumble that echoed from the back of her throat. Clearly, the little thing was a very good judge of character, Odile decided, and she would fight the earl tooth and nail when he came to reclaim her. If he couldn’t take better care of his animals then he didn’t deserve such a fiercely loyal little dog. Perhaps the earl would agree to sell her.
‘What do you hope to achieve by coming here today, Mr Brigstock, other than to upset me?’ Odile placed her fisted hands on her hips and glowered at him. ‘There, is that direct enough for you?’
‘Your father wanted me to take care of you.’
Odile felt the air leave her body in an extravagant whoosh at such a bold and unbelievably cruel assertion. She recovered quickly though and laughed sarcastically in his face. She wondered if this sort of approach was what she must expect once word of her windfall became common knowledge. Even so, a small part of her also wondered how he could have learned about her circumstances so quickly, to say nothing of her father’s profession. She hadn’t said anything to anyone other than Mrs Blaine, whom she trusted implicitly despite their brief acquaintance. Then she recalled the local land agent whom Mr Sandwell had engaged to oversee the place and to whom Harris had reported before her arrival. How much did he know and to whom had he spoken?
‘Then you are ten years too late,’ Odile said briskly, thinking of her early days at Miss Mackenzie’s when she had felt so very alone, crying herself to sleep every night. Being bullied by the other girls because she had no family. Aching for a kindly word but remaining largely ignored.
‘Mr Sandwell wouldn’t allow me to contact you until you reached your majority. Ask him if you doubt me.’
‘Excuse me if I don’t believe a word of it. You are a fraud.’
‘I say. Steady on!’
‘A fraud,’ Odile repeated with emphasis. ‘My father was a young man when he died unexpectedly, not from a lingering ailment which would have given him the opportunity to put his affairs in order but from an accident that no one could have foreseen. He would not have spoken to any of his junior associates about his daughter’s welfare in the event of something happening to him—and if he did, he would have backed it up with something legal. He was a thorough man,’ she added, unaware if he was or not, but this charlatan wasn’t to know that she couldn’t even remember what either of her parents had looked like.
‘You imagine that I am a fortune hunter?’
‘The possibility crossed my mind. Your appearance so soonafterI have taken control of my inheritance is awfully suspicious.’
‘I can once again only refer you to Sandwell.’
