He was going to find them a new home. She vaguely remembered that being discussed last evening during dinner. If he went alone, he’d stay at the London office. If she went with him, he’d need to get them rooms at a hotel. She saw no reason to incur the extra expense. She hadn’t asked him about his finances. It wasn’t her place to ask. In the few conversations that she’d managed to hear when she wasn’t so deep in self-pity, she gathered that he’d found new markets in the Caribbean and was no longer worried on that front.

“I’ll stay here,” she replied.

“You’re feeling better?”

There was a great deal of concern in his expression. There was also some hesitancy in his tone that wasn’t like him. Her state of nearly deaf distraction since his return must have begun to seriously worry him. But she saw no reason to hedge about the subject now.

“Better, no. Fully cognizant again, yes.”

He smiled gently. “A little absentmindedness never—”

She cut in, “I might as well not have been here, Father, for all the awareness I’ve had lately. Do you know, I don’t even know what detained you from returning home when you were supposed to. Each time it has occurred to me to ask you, we haven’t been in the same room, and then I as quickly forgot about it again. But I’m sure Thomas and everyone else knows by now. I’m sure you’ve mentioned it to me as well . . .”

“Three times, actually.” He chuckled, then surprised her by saying, “Damn me, never thought I’d reach the point where I could laugh about any part of that ill-fated trip.”

“Ill-fated?”

“From the moment we entered the warmer waters of the West Indies. The island we came to first wasn’t a major one, though we were so happy to see land of any sort, we stopped there anyway. But as soon as we docked, we were met by the local magistrate and a full troop of guards, and charged with attacking one of the local plantation owners. The man was there to support the charge, and quite a gruesome account he gave of it, that his plantation house burned to the ground, including his barns, that our ship just sat offshore and continued to rain fire down upon his property for no apparent reason.”

“Someone actually did that to him?”