The Convent's Secret: Glass and Steele Book Five by C. J. Archer

Author:C. J. Archer [Archer, C. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, Fiction, Gaslamp, General, Historical, Juvenile Fiction, Magical Realism, Mystery & Detective, Paranormal, Romance, Romantic, Urban, Victorian
Google: ttE4DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: C.J. Archer
Published: 2018-03-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Once again, Matt had already left the house when I went down for breakfast. Once again, no one knew where he'd gone. When Bristow informed me, I got the most awful tightening in my chest.

"I already checked his room," Duke told me, pressing a cup of tea into my hands in the dining room. "His clothes are still there."

"He wouldn't leave London without telling us," Willie said from the table where she attacked a pile of bacon heaped on her plate.

"Or leaving a note," Cyclops added. "There's no note."

I looked to Bristow. "No note that I've found," he added.

That was a relief. I served myself breakfast from the selection on the sideboard but found I wasn't hungry and hardly ate.

Matt still hadn't returned by the time breakfast finished. I retreated to the sitting room, where waiting became extremely trying. I wanted to speak to Abigail Pilcher again, but I didn't want to do so without Matt. If he didn't return soon, however, I would go alone.

It occurred to me that he had gone to see her without me to avoid my lectures. That was more disheartening than thinking he'd gone to speak to Lord Cox, and I resolved to be more pleasant today and not even bring up Patience's situation.

My resolution didn't extend to Miss Glass. She joined me in the sitting room mid-morning and settled her portable writing desk on her lap.

"What an awful business about Patience," I began.

"Very."

"Do you think Lord Cox can be convinced to change his mind?"

She pulled out a letter from the desk and perched her spectacles on the end of her nose. "No. He's much too proud, so my brother says."

"Has Lord Rycroft even tried to speak to him?"

"He has written."

"A letter isn't enough. He must go in person and try to sway him."

She sighed and lowered the letter. "Richard does not grovel."

"Not even for his daughter's sake? Indeed, for the sake of all his daughters?"

"Not when there is another, more palatable alternative."

She meant Matt marrying Patience. From the sympathetic look Miss Glass gave me, I suspected she assumed that was the path Matt would take. It would do me no good to tell her otherwise. That was Matt's responsibility—and clearly he had not done it.

With a sigh, Miss Glass set aside her writing desk and came to sit beside me on the sofa. "I know it's not what either of you want, India, but it's the way it has to be. Matthew has a duty. He is not free. He must do what is best for his family, his lineage. Do you understand?"

"We've been through this." I looked away to hide the burning tears welling in my eyes.

"But do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good. Matthew does too."

I whipped around to face her again. "He does?"

"He said so last night, right to Richard's face." Her features softened, and the wrinkles bracketing her eyes and mouth flattened out. "If you love him, you will let him go, India."

I opened my mouth but shut it again. I wasn't entirely sure what I'd been about to say, only that I felt I must protest.

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