Holland smiled. “I have some conditions.”
“Of course you do. After all, nothing is free in this world.”
“You and I are beginning to understand each other. My first requirement is that you invest the funds, not spend them.”
“A reasonable request. I hope you have some investment suggestions to offer?”
“I do. I’m told you know the Duke of Margrave?”
Jack blinked, surprised and wary. “I do. Why do you ask?”
“Margrave is a famous man. He navigated part of the Congo. He discovered a species of butterfly. He’s quite the explorer.”
“Yes, Stuart’s rather a legend. It’s hard on his friends, for we can’t hope to compare, but—”
“So the two of you are still friends?” Holland interrupted, causing Jack to grimace. “I heard you’d had a falling-out.”
He shrugged. There was no point in lying about being on the outs with Stuart, not now. “We’ve reconciled.”
“How convenient.” Holland smiled. “Prior to her marriage, his duchess was Edie Jewell. If memory serves, after her liaison with Van Hausen became known, he refused to marry her, and that ruined her reputation. I begin to think your actions involving Van Hausen have something to do with Margrave’s wife.”
He gave the other man a noncommittal smile. “I cannot say. But what I can tell you is that I don’t like being cheated out of what little money I have. Why this interest in Stuart?”
“He knows Africa. Miss Jewell’s marriage portion was enormous, and from what I understand, Margrave invested it quite wisely—diamond mines, gold mines, coffee, railways, shale . . . and I’m told he’s become even wealthier as a result. Africa’s brimming with opportunities like that. I’ve wanted to invest funds there for quite some time, but I’ve never had the connections.”
Jack began to see. “So you want to buy mine.”
“Yes. I propose that you, Margrave, and I form an investment group, much as you did with Van Hausen, and that you use the sum I stake you as your share of the investment.”
Jack felt a jolt of excitement at those words, but he quashed it. “Are you sure you want to do this? My venture with Van Hausen didn’t go so well.”
“By design, unless I miss my guess.” Holland’s shrewd eyes met his across the desk. “Given all his successful investments, it’s amazing Margrave wasn’t able to steer you and Van Hausen toward mines that actually had gold in them.”
“Yes,” Jack agreed, working to keep his features blandly neutral. “Quite amazing.”
“Still, I’m willing to take the chance our investment group would prove more profitable than Van Hausen’s.”
Jack’s lips twitched a bit at that. “It could,” he conceded. “In doing this, we would share out thirds, I assume? If so, Stuart should have the 34 percent, and you and I 33. Since he possesses the information we’d need, he should have the controlling interest.”
“I’m amenable to that. So you like my proposal?”
“Like it?” Jack laughed a little, feeling dazed. But as he began to consider what such a venture could mean, shock began giving way to hope. This could be a chance, the first chance he’d ever had, to truly make something of his life. “You’ve just offered me the opportunity to change the Featherstone family history. How could I not like it?”
“Before you get too excited, I have one other condition. We can’t tell Linnet about it until after the wedding.”
Jack’s exhilaration faltered at that, and he frowned. “I don’t see why not. What is there for her to object to?”
“For one thing, it makes the motives for your proposal of marriage no less questionable. But the main objection she’d have is to me. If she knows we’re forming a company together, she’ll never marry you.”
“Why should it bother her? I would think she’d prefer that to giving me a personal settlement. Make the groom earn his way, that sort of thing.”
“Oh, Linnet’s got a bee in her bonnet about me just now. She won’t like my interference. It’ll be hard enough convincing her to wed you after what you’ve done, and if you tell her about our deal, it’ll be impossible. She’ll view it that we’re aligning together against her.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “So, you want me to lie.”
“It’s not a lie,” Holland corrected him at once. “We’ll form the company after the wedding, and I’ll put the money in trust until then. We’ll do the usual settlements you Brits seem to need—funds for your estates, a trust for the children, that sort of thing. All you have to do is make the grand gesture and refuse a personal settlement.”
“My God, you’re ruthless,” Jack muttered, not knowing whether to admire the other man or despise him. “I can see why you’re rich.”
“I’m not rich because I’m ruthless. I’m rich because I know how to turn adversities into opportunities. This is a winning situation all around, and I think you know it as well as I do. Linnet’s temper will cool down at some point, but we don’t have time to wait for that. If she marries you, you can tell her all about it after the honeymoon. What do you say?”
Jack didn’t answer at once. Holland might be able to form a palatable rationale in his own mind for moving his daughter around like a chess piece, but when it came to deceiving a girl, Jack was not quite so sanguine.
On the other hand, there was more at stake here than Linnet’s pride. This was, first and foremost, about doing the honorable thing. But it had also just become something more, something that took his breath away. He had the chance to change a fate thrust upon him before he’d been born. He could control his own destiny. He could make a future for himself and for the future generations of his family. How could he turn that down?
He couldn’t. Holland knew it, too, and as he looked at the smile playing around the other man’s mouth, he appreciated just why Linnet would be opposed to her father’s interference in her life. But Jack knew his course had been set the moment he’d kissed her, and he wasn’t about to back down just because everything he wanted had just been tossed in his lap if he succeeded.
“You have a deal,” he said. “Provided Stuart agrees, and with one other condition. I have no intention of waiting until after the wedding to tell her. I’ll tell her when we negotiate the marriage settlement, after the engagement has been announced.”
Holland bristled at that. “She doesn’t have to know beforehand. Business matters aren’t a woman’s concern anyway.”
“We do it my way, or I won’t be talking to Stuart at all.”
“Oh, very well. I know my daughter, and I think it’s a mistake, but I’ll leave it to you. If she balks at the last minute, and she’s ruined as a result, not only will we not be forming a company, I’ll kill you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Now, I must go.” Jack rose to his feet. “I have to book passage on the next ship home.”
Holland also stood up. “I’ll be following you to England in about two weeks. If you’ve done your part and convinced Linnet to change her mind, you’ll arrange a meeting with Margrave, and we’ll make the final arrangements for this venture when we settle the dowry, and I’ll put your funds in a private trust.”
Jack nodded, hoping like hell those funds didn’t turn out to be thirty pieces of silver.
LONDON IN EARLY September was less pleasant than London in the season. It was hotter, smellier, and seemed swathed in more coal soot than ever. And despite the fact that the official end of the season had occurred several weeks earlier, the streets of the city were as congested with traffic as ever.
Linnet leaned out the window of the hansom cab, but the carriages along the Strand were jammed as tightly as sardines in a tin can, and she drew back with a sigh.
“I knew we should have stayed at Thomas’s,” she murmured. “We could have walked to our appointment from there. As it is now, we’re going to be late.”
“Nonsense.” Helen settled herself more firmly in her seat. “We’ve still plenty of time to reach the
West End. Though I wish I was sure you know what you’re doing. Featherstone is willing to do the right thing, and since he is the one who compromised you—”
“I am not marrying Lord Featherstone. We’ve gone round and round on this during the voyage over. How many times must we discuss it before you accept my decision?”
“A bird in the hand is always worth two in the bush.”
Linnet decided that if her mother uttered that phrase one more time, she was going to smash her head through a window. “I can’t see that it matters to you whom I marry as long as he’s a peer.”
“I’m delighted you are reconsidering a peer, Linnet. But,” she added, her voice suddenly tart, “I can’t be expected to feel delight at the reason behind it. And a peer in the family is by no means certain. It won’t take long for word of what happened to spread to London. How that information will be received by the British gentlemen here, I have no idea.”
“Which is why we are going to Lady Trubridge. If she can’t find me a husband, I don’t know who can. Her reputation for introducing American girls to British peers is well established. She’s quite successful.”
“Yes, but still . . .” Helen paused and sighed. “Going to a matchmaker? It’s all very well for the New Money girls, I suppose. But for a Knickerbocker? It seems a bit demeaning.”
“I find the practicality of a marriage broker the most agreeable aspect of the transatlantic marriage. A girl can have potential mates vetted by an unbiased third party and not allow herself to be carried away by romantic notions about British lords and living in castles. And Lady Trubridge can negotiate a marriage settlement that gives me control of the money.”
Her mother groaned. “You sound like your father. As if we’re talking of a Wall Street business deal, not a marriage.”
“Marriage has become a business deal,” she reminded her mother. “At least for me. It’s not what I wanted, but it’s what I’ve got. And though I have to marry in haste, I am doing my best to ensure I don’t repent at leisure. Lady Trubridge can help me.”
“Looking about for other candidates seems quite risky to me, but as your father and I agreed, it’s your decision.”
“Thank you.”
“Either way,” her mother went on, ignoring her daughter’s inflection of sarcasm, “I put my foot down about staying at Thomas’s while we’re in town. If you’re to be looking for a husband, the Savoy is much more suitable.”
Linnet knew her mother was right about that. Just a year old, it was already known as the hotel where the wealthy Americans stayed, and in its lavish tearoom, Yankee heiresses showed themselves to perfect advantage for the viewing pleasure of interested peers, even though it was obvious to anyone with a brain that those peers were trolling for heiresses like anglers on a stream trolled for fat trout.
To Linnet’s mind, it was all highly embarrassing, each girl like a display of goods arranged in a shop window, but she could hardly condemn the show. She herself was goods now, damaged ones at that, and she feared that even if she obtained Lady Trubridge’s help, her search for a husband would soon force her to preen before available peers in much the same way.
She felt a wave of resentment toward the men who had sent her down this path though she knew her own disregard for propriety had played a part. If she hadn’t met Frederick in the pagoda, none of this would have happened.
Frederick. Thinking of him now brought with it an odd detachment, as if she were thinking of a stranger. But then, in a sense, Frederick was a stranger. The man she thought she knew was nothing like the man she’d seen that night in the library at The Tides. The latter, she knew now, was the real Frederick.
The rapidity of his transformation from charming to malevolent had been nothing less than stunning. She’d pondered it through many a sleepless night on the voyage here and during the five days they’d been in London, and she still couldn’t quite believe she’d been so blind to his true character.
Suicide, Prescott Dewey had said, and though Linnet had been shocked and saddened by the news, she was well aware she’d had a lucky escape. And though she was prepared to acknowledge Featherstone had been the reason for that escape, she had little desire to thank him for the favor, much less marry him in Frederick’s stead.
The carriage jerked to a halt, and Linnet again glanced out the window to discover they had arrived at their destination.
Sixteen Berkeley Street was a narrow three-story residence of whitewashed brick, with black iron railings, window boxes of geraniums, and a red front door. When Linnet pressed the electric bell, they waited only a few moments before the door was opened by a very proper butler, who upon learning their names, led them up a flight of stairs and along a hallway to a pretty drawing room of pale green brocade and flowered chintz.
After announcing them, the butler stepped aside to reveal a slender, dark-haired woman in blue silk, and as she came forward to greet them, Linnet couldn’t help being surprised. Lady Trubridge did not look at all like a matchmaker, at least not the sort of matchmaker Linnet had envisioned as she’d composed her letter a few days ago asking for an appointment.
For one thing, the woman looked quite young. Not at all matronly, she had a pretty, heart-shaped face and a slim figure that made her seem more like nineteen than just under thirty.
“Mrs. Holland, Miss Holland,” she was saying, “how delightful to meet you both. And I’m sorry we didn’t have the opportunity to meet when you were in town before, but I had only recently given birth to my son, and I preferred to spend most of my time with him in the country.”
A pair of sky blue eyes glanced over her, and though Lady Trubridge’s smile remained warm and amiable, Linnet felt a hint of nervousness, perhaps because the stakes of this meeting were so high, or perhaps because of the shrewdness of that glance, but either way, Linnet knew she was being carefully assessed.
“Lady Trubridge,” she said, giving the appropriate curtsy. “Thank you for agreeing to come up from the country to meet with us. I hope my request has not caused you any inconvenience?”
“Not at all. I often jaunt up to town. Kent is only two hours by train.” She laughed. “That statement betrays my nationality, I fear. To Americans like us, a two-hour train trip is nothing, but no Englishwoman would deem it a jaunt.”
At the other woman’s laugh, Linnet’s nervousness eased somewhat. “Still, we would have come to you in Kent.”
“No, no, as I said, I often come to town, especially when my husband is away. He’s in America, as a matter of fact.” She glanced past them to the doorway. “You may go, Jervis.”
“Very good, my lady.” The butler bowed and left the drawing room, and Lady Trubridge returned her attention to her guests.
“Please, do sit down,” she said, and indicated the green settee where she’d been sitting upon their arrival. When they had taken seats there, she moved to the chintz chair opposite. “Your letter intrigued me, Miss Holland, I must say.”
To Linnet’s recollection, it had been a mere request for an appointment. “I can’t imagine what was so intriguing about it.”
“For one thing, you wrote to me yourself. A girl doesn’t often take these matters into her own hands. She usually leaves such arrangements in the hands of her mother.”
“Had it been up to me, we would be in New York, planning the wedding,” Helen said, but waved a hand at once, before Linnet could say anything. “My daughter has other ideas.”
Lady Trubridge glanced from Linnet to her mother and back again. “Do tell me how I can be of assistance to you.”
Linnet took a deep breath, steeling herself to pour out the whole sordid story. “I’m in terrible trouble, Lady Trubridge, and I believe you are the only person who can help me.”
“I see.” She paused, tilting her dark head to one side and subjecting Linnet once again to that perceptive study. When her gaze lowered and paused at her lap, Linnet realized what implication her own words had carried.
“Oh, no, not that kind of tro
uble,” she said at once, mortified by the idea that was clearly running through the other woman’s head. “It’s not that at all.”
“I’m relieved to hear it, my dear. That would have made everything so much more difficult.”
“It’s going to be difficult anyway,” Linnet assured her, still hotly embarrassed. “Once you know the whole story.”
“This is a situation that calls for tea, I think.” Lady Trubridge rose, walked to the bell pull against the wall, and gave it a brisk tug, then returned to her chair, and a few moments later, the butler appeared. “A full tea, Jervis,” she said. “It’s early, I know. Can Mrs. Willoughby manage it?”
“Of course, my lady. I shall bring it straightaway.”
“Thank you, Jervis.” As the butler departed, she returned her attention to her guests. “I find that in difficult situations, tea and cake can be a great comfort.”
Lady Trubridge talked of other topics, but Linnet, anxious to have things decided, was quite relieved when tea had been brought and the marchioness at last broached the subject Linnet wanted to discuss. “Now, tell me all about your trouble, and we shall put our heads together and decide what’s best.”
“There’s only one thing that can be done, Lady Trubridge. I must find a husband, and the sooner the better.”
The marchioness’s dark brows drew together in puzzlement. “From what I heard of your season here, you did not seem all that eager to marry a British peer. You had multiple offers, I understand, but you accepted none. And while that fact is another reason your recent letter intrigued me, I must understand what has changed your mind. If you are not in a family way—”
“Lady Trubridge,” Helen interrupted, “is it necessary to discuss such indelicacies? Can we not accept that my daughter has had a change of heart and leave it at that?”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” the marchioness said, and beneath the apologetic tone, there was a determination that could not be ignored. “When I take a girl on, I require all the facts of her situation. I cannot be of assistance to her otherwise.”
Catch a Falling Heiress: An American Heiress in London Page 11
