“Go on, then,” Arthur said.
“Tell me.”
He didn’t push.
He had learned long ago that pushing Margaret Sinclair only made her dig in harder.
“First, my conditions.” Margaret’s voice was crisp and businesslike.
“You must be able to protect my granddaughter and guarantee that she lives safely, freely, and in good health.
If you can’t promise me that, I won’t tell you anything.
And don’t bother with pleasantries or half-promises, Arthur.
We’ve both been in business too long for that.
Let’s lay it all on the table from the start.”
Arthur chuckled despite himself.
“You haven’t changed a bit.
What exactly do you want?”
“One of your grandsons marries my granddaughter.
One she chooses herself, whom she actually likes.” Margaret paused.
“Second, the head of the Leighton family swears he will honor this arrangement and never betray it.
Third, if they have children, at least one of them carries the Sinclair name.”
That last condition cost her something to say.
She had always imagined a different future for Neve, one where a husband came to them and took the Sinclair name, and Neve never had to leave home at all.
But she had no choice now.
If the Sinclair line couldn’t continue under its own roof, then at least it would continue.
On the other end of the line, Arthur was silent for a long moment.
“Margaret,” he said slowly, “what in God’s name has happened to make you go this far?”
The more he heard, the less sense it made.
The Margaret Sinclair he knew would sooner cut off her own hand than send her granddaughter to live under another family’s roof.
“If you agree, we’ll meet in person and I’ll tell you everything.
If you don’t,” Margaret said evenly, “I’ll find another way.”
She meant it, and they both knew it.
Arthur considered.
He had seen Neve Sinclair at a charity gala last spring.
She was a lovely girl, bright-eyed and sweet-natured, and she had grown into the kind of beauty people turned to look at twice.
And the Leightons were hardly short of grandsons.
He had more than a dozen of them, and half were still unmarried, much to their mothers’ despair.
However he looked at it, he wasn’t losing anything.
“All right,” he said.
“We’ll discuss the details when we meet.”
“Then you’ll have to call home every unmarried grandson you have,” Margaret said.
“All of them.
I won’t have my granddaughter feeling pushed into anything.
If she’s going to marry one of them, she’ll choose.”
“That’s easily done.” Arthur’s voice softened.
“And Margaret, I promise you this.
As long as I’m alive, your granddaughter will never suffer the smallest hardship in my house.”
When they were young, he had never been able to have her.
Now his grandson would marry her granddaughter.
It wasn’t the life he had once imagined, but it wasn’t a bad second best.
They agreed to meet in two days.
Arthur had suggested a week, to give his grandsons time to fly in from wherever they were scattered, but Margaret wouldn’t hear of it.
“The sooner, the better,” she said.
“Trust me, Arthur.
Once you hear what I have to say, you’ll wish I’d called you sooner.”
Neve slept straight through the night and well into the next morning.
When she finally opened her eyes, the dizziness was gone.
Her head felt clear and light, as if someone had rinsed it out with cold water.
She lay still for a moment, staring at the canopy over her childhood bed.
She guessed she had simply burned through too much mental energy yesterday, going in and out of the space, pulling Nana along with her again and again.
It was like a muscle.
She would have to build it up slowly.
She washed, dressed, and went downstairs.
The house felt different this morning.
It was busier and quieter at the same time.
Doors opened and closed somewhere in the east wing.
Two guards she didn’t recognize, probably trainees, were carrying crates across the back lawn.
Nana wasn’t in the breakfast room, and there was no sign of Walter, which was strange.
Walter was always downstairs in the morning.
For as long as Neve could remember, he had been standing by the sideboard with a pot of tea when she came down.
She stopped one of the maids dusting the hall.
“Have you seen Nana?
Or Walter?”
“Madam’s been in her study since early this morning, miss.
Mr.
Hughes went out first thing with Ezra and a few others.
He said he’d be back this afternoon.”
Shopping, then.
Neve felt a small, fierce glow of satisfaction.
It had started.
She ate breakfast quickly, alone at the long table, then went to find her grandmother.
There were still things from yesterday they hadn’t finished discussing.
There were the supplies, the guards, and how much to tell Walter and the others about what had happened in her past life.
She knocked on the study door.
“Nana?”
“Come in, sweetheart.” Margaret looked up from a desk buried in papers and smiled.
“You’re up.
Have you eaten?
Come sit.”
She patted the chair beside her.
“I just ate.
Did you?”
“I did.” Margaret waited until Neve had settled, then folded her hands on the desk.
“Listen.
I want you to stay home for the next couple of days.
Don’t go out at all.
In two days, I’m taking you to meet some young men.
A matchmaking meeting.”
Neve stared at her.
“A what?”
“A matchmaking meeting.”
“Nana, the world is about to end!” Neve’s voice rose.
“Why would I go on a matchmaking date now?”
“Silly girl.
Listen to Nana.” Margaret reached over and took her hand.
“I would never do anything to hurt you.
You know that.
This is about making sure that whatever happens, you survive.”
She didn’t say the rest out loud.
Once Neve married into the Leighton family, the Ashfords wouldn’t dare touch her openly, no matter what Richard Ashford believed or wanted.
Not even the Ashfords would pick a fight with the Leightons over a girl and a piece of jade.
And if Margaret wasn’t there anymore, someone powerful would be.
“Nana, you don’t have to worry about me.” Neve squeezed her hand back, earnest and a little desperate.
“After everything that happened in my past life, I’ve grown up.
I’m not going to trust just anyone anymore.
And this time, I’m going to make sure I stay alive.”
She didn’t want to get married.
She had never really thought about marriage at all, and certainly not now.
All she wanted was to stay with Nana and keep her safe.
Besides, she wasn’t the same helpless girl she had been.
She had the space now, and a spring that could heal wounds.
She had years of hard-earned knowledge about how the world would end and what it would take to survive.
And the idea of marrying some stranger in a rush, with no feelings between them at all, just as the world was falling apart?
She couldn’t trust that.
She couldn’t trust him, whoever he turned out to be.
She had trusted the wrong person once already.
She wasn’t going to do it again.