Was Lady Jane Montfort also a member of Father’s network?

Father frowned, and Lady Jane glared back at him.

“If you could but see the bruise on Perry’s back…” She inhaled sharply and turned a hot look on Fox. “And you. I don’t even want to ask why she was out on that road last night.”

“We’ve been over this before. It wasn’t his fault.”

“I take full responsibility,” he said.

Perry pushed back her chair and hurried around the table, gripping his shoulders. “It was my own foolishness.”

She swallowed hard. Fox didn’t reach up to touch her. Father had shown her more affection this morning than Fox.

Maybe he hated her.

Lady Jane shook her head. “Look at them, Shaldon. Would you keep them apart? She has been mooning over him since the wedding ball. Enough to run away and come to him.”

Perry gasped. “I didn’t know Fox was here.”

She thought back to the day she found the papers about this house. She’d been snooping, as usual, when Father was out, and that time he’d left his study unlocked, the documents relating to this property on his desk. It had been during the turmoil of Charley’s and Gracie’s problems, and she’d thought it had been an uncharacteristic, and for her, fortuitous, moment of carelessness on Father’s part.

Father’s face was unreadable, as usual. She wobbled, and Fox pulled out the chair next to him, helping her onto it.

His warm strength enveloped her. Perhaps he didn’t hate her. If only they could be alone and she could talk to him instead of in this room with Father, Kincaid and Jane looking on with disapproval.

And yet, and yet…had Father manipulated her into this reunion with Fox? If Lady Jane had seen her interest in Fox, then Father had seen it also. Perhaps Father was throwing them together, not keeping them apart.

And perhaps, he’d seen that Fox had some interest in her.

Heat shivered through her. Well, of course. Even if he didn’t wish to wed her, the drawings, the painting, those were proof Fox had at least been thinking about her. Perhaps Father had seen them.

Where her brothers were concerned, Father had been making up for the many years of his absences, the lost time he could never recapture. He had been watching them, and manipulating them.

Into the matches of his choice.

She reached for Fox’s hand. Surely, they already had Father’s blessing. He might have expected her to behave better, but he himself hadn’t, had he? Not when her eldest brother Bink, Father’s by-blow, had been conceived.

Lady Jane’s gaze bore into her. She certainly expected better from Perry. And…what had she said about Sir Richard?

Blast it, she’d been distracted again.

“What’s this about Sir Richard, Lady Jane?” Perry asked.

Lady Jane’s frown only deepened. “You are the very image of your mother at your age. Is she not, Kincaid?”

“Yes, you are very like your mother, Lady Perpetua,” Kincaid said. “She also was not averse to a gamble and would occasionally get a hair up and—”

“Kincaid.” Lady Jane tapped the table.

Kincaid nodded and leaned back.

“I’d first met Sir Richard many years before that ball I mentioned, when I was a child. I’d been brought along to a house party where your mother, Felicity’s, engagement to Lord Shaldon became known.” She turned to Father. “That was Lord Shaldon, your brother. You were still in Ireland.”

Father did not so much as nod.

“Sir Richard hadn’t yet succeeded his uncle as baronet. He was simply Richard Fenwick. It was clear, he’d set his sights on your mother, and especially her lands and her dowry.” She leaned across Perry for a long look.

Her mother had been sole heir to a great fortune amassed in trade and banking.

“Sir Richard followed her around for days, trying to lure her out alone.” She shook her head. “She did go eventually, but not alone,” Jane said, glancing at Perry. “I was there.”

“You were friends with my mother?” Perry asked.

“No. I was but a child, as I said, following the older girls around. Your mother was kind to me, and as it turned out, I was useful to her.”

“Did you intervene directly?” Fox asked, his voice laced with concern. “Will he remember you?”

Perry’s mind skipped back and forth. If Jane had interfered…surely Sir Richard would not pull up a memory of her as a little girl.

“I ran for some grooms. Her grandfather bribed them soundly to keep silent and dealt with Sir Richard. I don’t know how, but the villain departed within the hour.”

“What exactly did Sir Richard do to my mother?” Perry asked.

Jane blinked and glanced at Father, who was staring intently, his face still without expression, but with a tightness around his mouth that hadn’t been there previously.

Father, who knew almost everything, hadn’t known about this.

“He had a carriage waiting. He planned to force a marriage.”

“What did he do?” Father asked.

“She was struggling in his arms, fighting him while he tried to carry her off to a waiting chaise. The grooms arrived in time and her grandfather soon after.” She looked around the table. “He is not a mere bumbling baronet. He is a brute, I daresay quite capable of assaulting a boy and a young woman dressed as a boy on a dark road.”

“He wanted Mother’s money.”

“Yes. But I believe he also wanted her.”

Perry shivered. She didn’t have her mother’s fortune, but she had her looks.

Fox’s arm slipped around her. “He’ll not lay a hand on you,” he murmured.

Father’s gaze had gone somewhere else. Had he cared for their mother? She’d always wondered. When his brother died, he’d claimed the title and the fiancée. After the marriage, Father had been away more than he’d been home. She’d always thought it a marriage arranged for money, on his part, and status on her mother’s. She’d always imagined the love of his life had been Bink’s mother. Perhaps she’d been wrong.

Lady Jane’s gaze went to Father. Sirena had hinted that the lady had once had a beau, so many years ago. And she’d also met Father, a long time ago.

And Sir Richard had wanted her mother. All the ancient romances, the ancient discords and plots, swirled around them, reaching from the past, confusing the present.

Fox’s hand dropped from her shoulder, making her heart plummet. Perhaps love was always a muddle.

Farnsworth swept in from the kitchen, silently, glancing around at the change in seating and taking the chair at the foot of the table. “Mac will check at the inn on the whereabouts of Carvelle. And I’ve sent word to the cutter that I’ll stay on land tonight. They’ll patrol to the north.”

“And if they land further south?” Fox asked.

“We’ll bring the dragoons up at dark,” Farnsworth said. “Every moment we delay the landing is to our good.” He leaned back in his chair. “And I’ve set men to follow Sir Richard.”

“We’ll join him for dinner tomorrow night,” Father said, “and see what is what.”

“I shall go,” Perry said. “Perhaps my presence will unsettle him.”

“Let us get through tonight first.” Father stood and looked from Kincaid to Farnsworth. “Join me in the study. Fox, you have learned the terrain around here. We’ll need your services tonight. In the meantime, I should like sketches of Lady Perry’s captors. She will help you, and we can have the boy brought over also.”

They left, and Fox’s hand rested on hers. “You will be safer here tomorrow night than at Sir Richard’s.”

“That is true,” Lady Jane said.

Perry took a deep breath and put his hand aside. “I thought we could announce our engagement and see how he reacts.”

“I don’t believe I was invited,” Fox said. “Only you, your father, and Lady Jane.”

“All the more likely to bring about a reaction from Sir Richard, if, in fact, he is a villain.” A shiver went through her and she frowned. “The villain.” If he was the man who’d attacked her, she could take her revenge. But she must visit his house to do that.

“Let’s start with those sketches,” Fox said. “The light is better in the parlor. I’ll get a sketchbook.”