Dodger, in the worst possible framing, that you are a financial liability. That there is a scandal attached to your name. That choosing you would bring instability. Nora looked out at the lawn. I know.
So, what do we do? Nora thought for a moment. She thought about the dowager's words that morning. Know what you value. She thought about the duke by the stone wall asking whether what he already believed about her was real or constructed.
She thought about the fact that if this came out through Lord Harwick's version of events, it would look like concealment. Like she had been hiding something damaging. I tell him first, she said. Tilda stared at her. You tell the duke about the debt and the land dispute yourself?
Before Harwick does. If he hears it from me, it is information. If he hears it from Harwick, it is ammunition. Tilda was quiet for a beat. Then she said, that is either very brave or very stupid.
It is what moves toward the problem instead of away from it, Nora said. And she said it without drama, just plainly, because it was simply true. She went to find Percival. He was in the small office off the main corridor, surrounded by updated schedules and what appeared to be a significant quantity of redirected correspondence. He looked up when she knocked on the open door.
Miss Vane, he said, with the tone of a man who had been expecting additional complications all day and was receiving one now. I need 10 minutes with the duke this evening, she said. Not tomorrow morning. Tonight. It is important.
Percival looked at her for a moment. He was a careful man who made careful assessments. He had also, Nora suspected, and been called a Reinhardt secretary long enough to have strong instincts about what actually mattered. After dinner, he said, the study. I will let him know.
Thank you. She turned to go. Miss Vane, Percival said. She looked back. For what it is worth, he said, with the careful neutrality of someone choosing each word deliberately, the last time someone was honest with His Grace without calculating the effect first was a very long time ago.