#adearlittlething

"Darling?" Sybil gently knocked on her nieces door, announcing her presence before turning the doorknob and entering the room. When Sybil’s youngest had asked after her cousin, Edith had informed the family that Marigold was holed up in her bedroom and Sybil, thinking it could possibly be a bug her dear niece had caught, sought to make sure the girl was comfortable. “Are you alright? Why are you hiding up here all alone?”

He may have disapproved of Edith and Michael’s relationship at the time (which, in hindsight, was incredibly hypocritical of him, however much he believed he had been looking out for her best interests), but their daughter was perfectly charming, and seemed overjoyed that she had another uncle to dote on her. He was in the small library, looking through the books he’d had sent over from the agent’s office. Since Robert’s untimely death, he had had the weight of the estate’s many problems piled upon him, which was only magnified when he dismissed Tom from his previous position. His reasoning was simple—he had opened a business and he didn’t want him to have to split time between a used car shop and the estate. The truth was that he saw him as the Brutus to his Caesar.

Glad of the distraction as his niece wandered into the room, he smiled, pushing the files aside and turning around in his chair. “Of course. What is it, darling?”