Hunting for Silence (Storm and Silence 5)

‘Then what are you doing here?’

If she’d hoped to get rid of him by being rude, she was about to be disappointed. Stiffening his spine, Edmund met her gaze head-on.

‘I’ve come to ask for your niece’s hand in marriage.’

Aunt Brank blinked. Then her eyes went back and forth between Edmund and me—and a smile spread across her face. Twice in one day? I had to remember to mark today red in the calendar.

‘By all means, take her hand, and the rest of her. When will she be out of the house?’

Edmund’s eyes widened, and his head snapped around to stare at me. I might have been a bit offended by the undisguised horror in his expression if I wasn’t close to bursting out laughing.

‘Um…I’m afraid you misunderstand me, Mrs Brank.’

‘Don’t tell me that you’re planning on a long engagement. If Lillian’s going to marry, I’m going to rent her room out, and I need it quickly.’

‘Err, no, Ma’am. That’s not what I was referring to. I meant that it’s not Miss Lillian I wish to marry.’

The smile vanished from Aunt Brank’s face. ‘Oh. Are you sure?’

‘Yes, Ma’am.’

‘And there’s nothing I can do to change your mind?’

‘No, Ma’am. I wish to marry Miss Ella.’

In an instant, my aunt’s demeanour shifted. Where, a moment before, she had been glowing with anticipation, she

now switched from -cipation to -pathy.

‘Are you a duke?’

Edmund’s honest eyebrows shot up. ‘A duke? No.’

‘A marquess? Earl?’

‘No.’

‘Viscount? Baron? Some other kind of lord?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

‘Then what are you?’

‘I, um, am training to become a piano tuner.’

‘A piano…out!’

‘Pardon, Ma’am?’

Raising her hand, she pointed a trembling finger at the door. ‘Out! Out of this house, now! You’ll marry Ella over my dead body!’

‘How kind of you,’ I took the opportunity to cut in. ‘Over there is a nice, open window. It should be quite high enough to bash your head in.’

My aunt gave me a dour look.

‘This is your doing, isn’t it.’

I tried to look innocent. Unfortunately, it was an art I had never completely mastered.