by Georgie Lee
‘It is remarkable.’ Lady Mary stood the same way Silas’s sister Millie used to when listening to an account of a Fairclough Foundation resident’s good deeds for the day. It was the slide of her eyes up and down the length of him and the appreciation and admiration dancing in them that gave her away. Silas wasn’t going to have to employ flowery prose when he discussed business with her today or when their deal became final and it was simply the two of them doing what such a contract allowed them to do.
I shouldn’t be thinking of that.
Still, a little flattery was never a waste.
‘Lady Mary, that’s a striking new watch chain you have. It’s about time such a lovely timepiece had an appropriate setting.’
‘I’m glad you like it since you gave it to me shortly after the investors’ dinner in September. A thank-you present, I believe your valet called it.’ The wry upturn of her full lips added to the chill-kissed blush heightening the apples of her cheeks. Silas bit back a laugh at having been caught out.
So that’s what Tibbs purchased for her. I should have asked.
‘Then I’m heartened to see it put to such good use.’ Especially today.
‘A very practical, and apparently memorable, gift. But I don’t suppose you’re here to discuss watch chains.’
‘I’m here because you invited me, or should I say, told me to come.’ This deepened the blush of her cheeks.
‘Yes, I did. Mrs Parker, will you see what’s keeping the tea?’
‘At once.’ Mrs Parker hustled out the door.
‘Do you think it’s prudent to dismiss your chaperon?’ Silas joked, amused at the older woman’s alacrity in abandoning her charge.
‘I don’t think you’ll spread any rumours about us having been alone together or make any untowards advances.’
‘How very trusting of you.’
‘I’ve been told you’re a very trustworthy gentleman. Shall we?’ She made for the sofa and Silas followed her precise steps, conscious that Mrs Parker had left the sliding doors open, not wishing to compromise Lady Mary’s reputation too much by shutting them. He wasn’t concerned about servants listening. Those in Richard’s employ were discreet with Silas’s and Richard’s affairs, and quite free with their gossip where the doings of business partners who had more loose-lipped servants were concerned. Healthy annual wages with a great many benefits and regular tips ensured their loyalty.
‘I hope I’m not keeping you from any other engagements,’ Silas said as he sat down.
‘My afternoon is completely free.’ She spread her skirt out around her, placing a respectable amount of distance between them.
‘Good, because engagement is exactly what I wish to see you about.’
‘I rather suspected it would be.’
‘You listen at doors, don’t you?’
She didn’t blush or drop her gaze from his, her confidence admirable. ‘From time to time I might happen by a room in which gentlemen are discussing various matters. I can’t help what I overhear and I don’t pay it much mind unless it pertains to me.’
‘How interesting, I have the same habit. My parents used to complain a great deal about it.’ Among other of Silas’s shortcomings. ‘Especially since my twin sister, Millie, doesn’t possess that particular inclination.’
‘So listening at doors when people talk about us is the first thing we have in common.’
‘Let’s see what other interests we share.’ He settled against the back of the sofa. ‘I prefer things of a more luxurious nature, as far as my means allow. I don’t like debt or puritan sensibilities.’
‘Neither do I, but until recently I haven’t had the ability to indulge my preferences. It’s an oversight Mrs Parker and I are working to correct.’
He motioned to her dress. ‘The two of you have done an excellent job of it.’
‘I’m glad you approve.’
‘But I think your attire is lacking in one important detail.’ Silas removed a small velvet box from his coat pocket and opened it to reveal the ring inside. His heart beat hard against his ribs as he held it out, more nervous than he was when investing money in a venture. In those endeavours there was always the chance of failure, but those risks weren’t as personal as this one and their success didn’t impact his life in quite the same manner. It was a hell of a die to cast, but he’d done it. The rest was up to her.
She gasped at the sight of the glittering diamond ring, but made no move for it. ‘You do come prepared.’
‘I can’t take credit for it. Tibbs, my valet, chose it. He has a much better instinct for what baubles ladies prefer than I do. I’ve never asked him how he came about that particular knowledge, but I think we can both guess.’
‘I think we can and tell him I’m most appreciative of his tastes, and yours.’ She still didn’t take the ring out of the box and set it on her finger or agree to the proposal. Perhaps she was waiting for a more formal declaration although he would have thought the ring would have been enough. Apparently, it wasn’t. This must be where a touch of wooing needed to come in.
He took the diamond out of the box and reached for her hand, but she gently moved it out of his reach.
Silas’s grip tightened on the ring. This was not going at all how he’d imagined.
‘Before we settle on anything, Mr Fairclough, we must be entirely honest with one another,’ she stated the way his lawyers usually did when he was negotiating a contract.
‘Honesty is always appreciated.’ He didn’t put the ring away, but continued to hold it where she could see it and be tempted by it and everything he was offering. She hadn’t rejected him yet. If his skills of persuasion were as good as Richard claimed, she wouldn’t reject him at all.
‘Being a fellow countryman, you understand better than anyone how unusual it is for the unmarried daughter of an earl to live in another country under another man’s care and that there must be a reason for it.’ Her voice wavered with each word, but she remained steadfast in her desire to speak and he admired her courage. She was being more forthright with him than some of the businessmen he dealt with.
‘But we aren’t in England, are we?’
‘Where we are doesn’t change what happened and how it could impact any future that we wish to create for ourselves, especially with all your business dealings in England, Mr Fairclough.’
‘Please, call me Silas.’ He wanted to hear his name in her lilting voice, to draw her in closer to him so she couldn’t refuse his offer.
‘Silas, my past could impact your future and I don’t want it to do that or to ever have you look at me and regret that we married.’
‘I’ve never regretted any other investment before, there’s no reason to think I’ll regret you.’ He cuffed her under the chin, trying to disperse the pall of seriousness that drained the light from her eyes.
‘You can’t say that because you don’t know. You don’t know what happened.’ She jerked her chin away from his hand and rose and went to the fire, picking at the marble while she spoke. ‘I want to be your wife, to be on your arm at balls and the theatre, to sit at the head of your table, but I don’t ever want to see you turn your back on me because I’m not who and what you think I am. I endured that once before. I can’t endure it again.’
The shame in her voice cut him deep because it was the same feeling that plagued him on the dark nights when he allowed himself to think back to Liverpool and the letter he’d written to his mother before he’d boarded the ship, the one that hadn’t reached her until he was miles out to sea. Richard had called him brave for daring to strike out on his own to achieve his dreams. He called himself a coward for having sneaked away because he knew his mother would object. He refused to allow Mary to suffer about her past decisions the way he did.
‘You won’t have to endure it because I won’t walk away. I know exactly who you are. You’re the w
oman who stood beside me last night and went along with every one of my bald-faced lies and whimsical ideas, the one who sat at the head of Richard’s table and flattered potential investors, the one before me at this very moment unafraid to show me her true self and not running from yet another of my crazy ideas. That’s the woman I want for my wife.’
‘Be serious, Silas.’
‘I am being serious.’ He came to stand behind her, the ring pressing the outline of itself into his palm where he clutched it. ‘We’ve all done things we regret, Mary, failed to live up to the expectations of others, especially loved ones.’
‘But what happened...’
‘Unless it involves killing off rich husbands, which, given your present financial situation, suggests you’re not in the habit of doing, I don’t want to know about it.’
‘Killing them, no, scaring them off, well...that’s a different matter,’ she said with a laugh half-choked with bitterness. Whoever had hurt her, he’d done a hell of a job crushing her trust. Silas would do all he could to rebuild it, the way he’d had to do for himself in the years after his father’s death, the way he still worked to do.
‘I don’t scare easily. If I did, I wouldn’t have half the success I enjoy.’
‘You might have a great deal less of it if we marry and someone from England tells everyone what happened to me.’
‘If they do, I’ll call them out for besmirching my wife’s good name.’
‘You’d call a man out for telling the truth?’
‘Yes, because what’s done is done and there’s nothing either of us can do to change it. What we decide to do from here on out is the only thing that matters, not the past.’
She straightened a porcelain figure of a shepherd kissing a shepherdess. ‘But it might some day.’
‘And we’ll deal with it then, together as husband and wife, assuming it ever even arises at all.’ He clasped her hand and slipped the ring on her finger. ‘There’s more to us than our pasts and our failings, and together we can help one another discover what that entails.’
* * *
Mary slid her hand out of Silas’s grip and studied the ring, amazed that he still wanted her, that her past didn’t matter to him. Almost everyone she’d ever known and loved had turned their backs on her and here was a near stranger offering her more comfort and forgiveness than they’d ever shown. She couldn’t fathom why. Surely there was some unsullied Baltimore girl who could give him everything he sought without fear of gossip or worse. If there was, he’d chosen Mary over that unnamed woman and she should thank her lucky stars. She was hesitant to do so, afraid he and everything he was offering would be snatched from her the way it had been after Preston and then again when Ruth had died. Silas was the most tolerant gentleman she’d ever encountered and she feared it was all too good to be true. ‘How can you be so understanding?’
‘It’ll all make sense to you when you eventually meet my family.’ He twisted the gold signet ring on his pinkie finger, the air of optimism that always encircled him fading for a moment. ‘I might be a success here, but coming to America, and other things, have made me quite the disappointment back home.’
‘I’m so sorry.’ She laid her hand on his, offering what comfort she could. Whatever mistakes he’d made, he hadn’t allowed them to destroy or define him and she admired him for it as much as she’d marvelled last night at his confidence in society. For far too long she’d let her mistakes smother her, but not any more. She would strive to be more like him and look to the future instead of being dragged down by regret.
‘Don’t be.’ He laid his hand over hers, cupping her fingers between his, the tenderness in his expression easing her fears and raising the slow rhythm of her pulse. He stood over her, the two of them so close she could see the delicate pattern in the wool weave of his brown waistcoat. His hand in hers was clean, as expected of a gentleman, but the heady scent of sandalwood shaving soap and coal dust surrounding him spoke of hard work and it called to her more than Preston’s French-milled scent ever had. Mrs Parker was right, there was something very enticing about this self-made man who possessed the strength of character to succeed and the tenderness to forgive.
‘What shall I be, then?’ she asked, laying her hand over his.
‘The happy bride-to-be.’ He lifted her hand over her head and twirled her around, making her laugh in a way she hadn’t done in years and breaking the seriousness that had settled between them. She was near breathless when she faced him again, the room spinning, her skirt swinging around her legs. She steadied herself in front of him and his fingers tightened around hers. She heard the catch in his breath for it matched the one in her chest. In the depths of his eyes flickered the desire running beneath this very sensible proposal, the one she’d noticed when she’d taken off her coat and he’d admired more than her watch chain, the one that had left her dizzy last night when he’d laid the cloak on her shoulders. She’d longed for him to sweep the naked skin of her shoulder with his lips as much as she craved his arms around her today. It hinted at more than a simple business proposal, but the promise of a pleasurable union. She shouldn’t desire this aspect of things, it made her no better now than when she’d fallen for Preston’s lies, but she couldn’t help herself. Silas was not Preston.
‘I promise, I will be.’
‘Good.’
She held her breath, waiting for him to bend down and take her lips, but he didn’t. Instead he let go of her hands, showing a restraint she wished she could better master. She took a small step back, determined to prove that she was as respectable as he believed.
‘I also want you to be ostentatious in amassing your trousseau. Have Mrs Parker make appointments for you with the most fashionable merchants in Baltimore. I’ll establish an account for you to draw on so you can spend accordingly.’
‘I don’t need it. I have my pin money from Richard to buy things.’
‘And you’ll keep it. It’s important for a woman to have her own money so she can spend it without her husband questioning her.’
This surprised her as much as his insistence on carrying through with the proposal. Her mother had never been allowed to have her own income or even spend so much as a ha’penny on anything without her father demanding she justify the expense. Mary had fallen under the same suffocating scrutiny when she’d come of age and suddenly things were needed for her coming out. She hadn’t been able to buy as much as a new fan without worrying about her father. It’s why she’d fallen so easily for Preston and his tricks. A trinket here and there had been enough to tempt her into mistakes. Except Silas wasn’t offering her baubles and false promises, but belief in her and a respectable marriage. ‘I don’t wish to take advantage of your generosity.’
‘I assure you there’s little generous about it. I want people to think you’re spending your own money, the considerable fortune your father settled on you when you, I don’t know, make up whatever story you wish about why you’re here. There isn’t anyone to dispute it. This is a chance to begin again, Mary, I want you to have fun with it.’
Fun wasn’t how she’d ever think of her past, but the idea made her smile. She’d been all but hiding at Richard’s and at a real loss for what to do next, afraid to do anything for fear her past would rise up to slap her down. Here was a gentleman, a fellow countryman who didn’t care what had happened and who was offering her the chance to start over, not as some forgotten and derided lady’s companion, but as the wife of a prominent businessman and member of society who would finally take her place at the head of a table as an honourable wife. It was far more than she ever could have imagined when she’d set sail from England. She would do her best to make him proud and to be the partner he desired. Even if this was not the grand love match she’d once dreamed about in London, they would be a success, she’d make sure of it.
Chapter Five
‘What is all this?’ Mary asked when
Mrs Parker escorted her into the sitting room. It was the first week of January and, in the four weeks since Silas had proposed to Mary, the two of them had spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve together at balls and dinners and private parties with various prominent members of Baltimore society. In the midst of the festivities, their time alone had been greatly curtailed, the two of them having become very much sought-after guests since word of their engagement had spread. His appearance this morning was an unexpected surprise, although they weren’t likely to enjoy too many private conversations today. Silas stood in the centre of the large rug, thumbs hooked in his waistcoat pockets, beaming with pride. The masculine room had been transformed into a lady’s paradise with bolts of fabric leaning against the walls, stacks of ladies’ pattern books piled on the tables and Mrs Lindsey, Baltimore’s leading dressmaker, waiting for Mary with a number of assistants.
‘Your dress fitting, my dear fiancée.’ Silas opened his arms to the room, but she noticed the slide of his gaze to the dressmaker’s assistants whose jaws dropped at the news. The dressmaker’s eyes practically flashed with coins as she imagined the windfall order she was about to receive.
‘But I have dresses,’ Mary whispered, hesitant to object and see all the beautiful fabrics packed away, especially the bolt of blue silk. She’d owned a gown that shade of blue during her Season and she’d worn it as many times as she could, much to her mother’s displeasure. It had been her favourite. Of all the possessions she’d been forced to leave behind when she’d been packed off to Ruth’s, that dress had been the one she’d regretted giving up the most.
‘And they’re fine, but a more extensive wardrobe is needed for a lady of your status. You also haven’t been taking advantage of my generosity with the merchants and it’s time we rectified that. I’ve already paid Mrs Lindsey for her time so you might as well enjoy it,’ Silas whispered in reply before taking her hand and raising it between them so that the large diamond flashed in the morning light.