Sudden understanding illuminated her aunt's eyes.
Sizing Drake up, as if he were a horse about to be auctioned, Lady Upworth asked, "You're Lady Noreen's son, aren't you?"
Thea felt her insides tighten. She shot Drake a quick look, trying to gauge his reaction to her aunt's statement.
Drake didn't flinch under the older woman's regard. "Yes."
"I see." The words held a wealth of meaning and meant nothing at all. "Thea sailed on your ship to England."
Drake, still as a becalmed sea, simply nodded.
She turned to Thea. "Why did you not sail on one of Merewether's ships?"
Thea was not sure how to answer. She didn't want to share her concerns with her aunt, and yet, she hesitated to lie. That clear-eyed blue gaze was entirely too discerning.
She had so many secrets, they began to weigh on her like coal dust, making her feel gritty and unclean. "If I had waited for one of our ships, it would have been another month. I would have missed part of the Season."
"I see." There was that comment again. "You're here now. That is what matters, however it was managed."
Lady Upworth moved to one of the chairs near the fireplace and sat down. She indicated with an elegant wave of her hand that Thea and Drake should do the same. Thea sat on the fainting couch and Drake sat next to her.
Lady Upworth raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.
"Lady Boyle thought you might want to join her and Thea shopping for her wardrobe for the Season."
Her aunt's eyes lit up even as Thea tried to stifle a groan. She didn't want to waste time shopping while she could be investigating the thefts from her company.
"Of course I will. We'll move Thea here first thing tomorrow and I'll make appointments with the modiste, the hairdresser—"
Drake cut her off. "Thea will be staying with my aunt."
His tone did not invite comment, but her aunt was no more intimidated by it than Thea had ever been.
Lady Upworth drew herself up until her spine was stiff. "Nonsense. She will stay with her family."
Drake's gaze snagged Thea's. "You said she was a friend of the family."
Chewing on her lip, Thea tried to look away from the inquiry in his eyes, but found she could not. "I…"
"It was a necessary deception to protect her from her father. Neither she nor her mother could ever acknowledge the connection for fear he would discover their hiding place."
Drake did not reply to her aunt.
Instead he pinned Thea with unrelenting eyes. "You could have told me."
She wanted to deny it, say he had no more right to know her secrets than anyone else, but the words would not come.
Instead she nodded her head. "Yes, I should have told you, but it did not seem important and then we were arguing."
She willed him to understand something she did not fully comprehend herself. She only knew that she hadn't felt completely safe admitting her connection to Lady Upworth until they had met.
"So you two have been arguing." Her aunt's smile was knowing. "From your letters, I gained the impression that you have more than the average amount of spirit for a young lady."
Thea felt her cheeks heat. "I assure you, the arguments are not all of my making."
Lady Upworth laughed softly, the sound melodious. "Most ladies would not admit to having started any arguments."
Thinking of her panicked refusal to Drake's offer of marriage, Thea knew she was responsible for at least one of their disagreements. She could have handled things so much differently. Beginning by not throwing herself at the poor man.