“We didn’t finish our last conversation five months ago.” He scooped his arm around her waist.
She peeled his hand from her. “I heard all I needed to hear.”
“But I have more to say. I made you a proposal which I thought might keep you in my bed at least until I returned. I had the idea that you wanted to be with me, too.” He held his breath.
“I didn’t tell you that.”
“Which is why I’m on uncertain ground now. There is much you didn’t tell me. You didn’t tell me that you knew what you were talking about when it came to colors. You didn’t tell me that my servants would blame me for the fact that you left, and you didn’t tell me that my house would never run as well without you. You didn’t tell me how lonely an unshared bed is.”
“I’m sure you’ve rectified the last. Lavender surely wouldn’t insist on her own bedroom.”
“I can’t say. Lavender married Hamilton. I’d like to think she will find happiness, but I doubt it. Time will affect her beauty, and I’m not sure she has anything else. I wish I didn’t feel sorry for her, but I do.”
“It’s been interesting catching up on your life. Now I have to get back to my sisters. At this time of day, the shop is very busy. Robin has only been with us a week, and she’s quite unsure as yet.” Starling backed, staring challengingly at Alasdair.
He smiled into her lovely, warm brown eyes. “These sisters of yours... Did Meg work at the inn?”
“Don’t you dare tell anyone.”
“And the others. Where did they come from? The same place?”
“They came from their various jobs, like me, and they learnt menial jobs in the home, like me. We had a pact that when one could help the others, she would. Perhaps we’re not related by blood, but we are sisters. I won’t let anyone interfere with our opportunity to make a new start. If you tell anyone we’re not respectable women, if you say a word about how I earned that money, I’ll... I’ll...”
“Kiss me,” he said in a low voice, unable to keep the yearning out of his tone.
“Of course I won’t kiss you,” she replied, indignantly. “You don’t see women’s kisses as a punishment.”
“I can’t remember. No one’s kissed me for a very long time. Maybe I’ve always hated being kissed. Come on. See if I can take my punishment.” He took her hands in his.
She lifted her fingers out of his grip, tilting her chin at an offended angle. “You’ve done this before—tried to trick me into doing what you want me to do by pretending you don’t. It won’t work. I learned my lesson from a master. You won’t tell. You’re not so petty.”
“I might be.” He pushed his hands into his pockets. “You’ve run my Kapunda store out of business.”
“Not so, just the women’s department, but it was at a standstill when Meg and I arrived here. The women bought cheap ready-made gowns from you. If they could afford higher prices, they needed to be offered special outfits, not just those made from more expensive materials.”
“Which you have provided by including your advice.”
“By including my interest in the garments they would like to have,” she said, firmly. “I told Mr. Brand what he should do in the emporium. You should sell men’s clothes and add higher quality there instead. Quite a few men here would like jackets like yours, but most can’t afford a tailor. They have more money in this town than they had, but not as much as gentlemen have.”
He nodded slowly. “You may be right. What made you come to that conclusion?”
“I studied. While I was in your house, I found everything I needed to know about merchandising by reading various books in your library. I learnt about accounts and how to display articles to their best advantage. And with no one to stop me, I’ve shown my customers that wearing the right colors makes them look like beauties.”
“I suppose you’ll make your fortune. Then how will I afford you?”
She stiffened. “You can’t buy me.”
“Not for a hundred pounds a year?” he asked, ruefully.
“No.”
“Two hundred.”
“I can earn my own way.”
“Three hundred. You could help a lot of orphans with three hundred pounds. I want you, Starling. I can’t get you out of my mind. Only Paul and Mary know we weren’t married, so if you come back with me, we can go on as before.”
Her eyes flashed. “I want to keep my good opinion of myself.”
“Would five hundred pounds elevate that opinion?”
“Indeed. Please, Alasdair. Find some other woman to impress with your money.”
Chapter 22
Starling outpaced him, but she knew he wouldn’t follow. Although her words had been final, her eyes ached and a constricted band around her chest caused her to gasp as she reached the door of the shop.
Meg stood just inside, hands on hips, eyes wide. “Mr. Seymour’s a flash one. A gentleman like him can have anything he wants. What does he want?”
“The same as he’s always wanted,” Starling replied, rolling up the fabric on the counter.
“Which is?”
Starling shook her head. “He hasn’t changed. Nothing’s changed, and that includes me.”
“I’m glad to hear it, if you mean you won’t let him tup you,” Meg said severely. “The lecher wanted to buy a gift for a lady.”
“His favorite lady married someone else, a man richer than he is.”
The doorbell tinkled. Alasdair re-entered the shop. “I still want...something.”
Starling had believed he wouldn’t follow her. Seeing him after she’d said her last goodbye was a shock. “We won’t refuse your custom, of course, but circumstances between us being as they are, Meg will assist you.”
“I want you. Strange. I think we’ve been through this before. You cost me close to sixty pounds the first time, but this time the budget is limited.”
She made a sound of disgust and began rearranging the rolls of fabric.
“Meg, can you help me with a woman who’ll snuggle into me in bed at night? One who’ll bear my children, who’ll love them and tell them all about men, religion, and politics? A brown-haired beauty who treats my staff with respect and me with honesty? Show me what you have in medium-height and slim.”
Meg glanced at Starling’s set face and said, “I think we ought to close for lunch. Lizzy, Dove, Robin, come with me.”
Starling didn’t watch the girls collect their hats and coats. Trembling, she clasped her hands behind her back and breathed in deeply, willing the thundering inside her chest to cease. The doorbell tinkled. When Starling glanced around, she saw Meg had turned the sign to Closed.
“I didn’t think we had any more to say to each other,” she said in a voice she hoped sounded firm.
“When I go through my list of needs in a woman, you’re the only one who suits. When I met you five months ago, I didn’t know that. I know better now. Then, I made the arrangement businesslike but that’s not the arrangement I want now. I can’t give you up, Starling, not until I’m sure there’s no hope.”
“Miss Smith. And there’s no hope.” She glanced away from his slate-etched eyes. How she had managed to withstand him for those two weeks was a mystery to her. The expression on his face, a combination of optimism and contrition, was a lure she could scarcely resist. She wished she could trust him, but after she had given him her body, he had betrayed her in the cruelest way, describing her as a whore while planning to marry the devious Lavender.
He took her hand in his, brushed his thumb over her palm, then lifted her fingers to his mouth. Not only her hand but also her whole body experienced the same melting sensation. She wanted to bury her fingers in his fashionably brushed hair, snuggle into his magnificent tailored jacket, and love every manly inch of him. However, she couldn’t be his mistress any more than she could run away from her obligations when she had so many unfulfilled hopes, so many sisters in adversity, and so many more ideas to put to the test. She
took her hand back.
He shook his head with regret. “I think you love me, Miss Smith.” Angling his head, he leaned forward, touching her lips with his. “But unless you tell me you do, I won’t ever know for sure.”
“Please. Don’t humiliate me any more than you have,” she said, her eyes prickling with suppressed tears.
“If I ever have, then I’m sorry, for I’ve never meant to,” he said in a gentle voice. He gave a wry laugh. “I must be knuckleheaded to think that a proposal of marriage to the woman I love is more flattering than shaming.”
“Marriage?” She covered her mouth and nose with a palm. “When did you propose marriage?”
“Five minutes ago. One minute ago. And I’ll do it again if only you’ll tell me you love me.”
A tear raced down to her chin and she wiped at the streak. “Did you say ‘the woman I love?’”
“Did I? Didn’t I? You are the woman I love. You can’t doubt that. Why else would I be here?”
“To put me out of business.”
“I’m here because I love you and I want to marry you. If I do, I won’t have to put you out of business. I’ll get your shop, too.” A faint smile curved his mouth.
Her head reeled. She looked at her racks of lovely gowns, possibly none worth the price of his cravat. This rich and handsome man wanted to marry her! He loved her! Using a palm on each cheek to dry her tears, she took a deep breath, tightened her mouth, took two steps forward, and shoved him hard with both hands. “I thought you were asking me to be your fancy-piece, and I won’t be any man’s paid woman.” She left her hands on his hard chest.
He covered them with his. “In that case, I take back the offer of an allowance of five hundred pounds a year.”
She slid her hands to his neck, pressing right against him. “And so you should,” she said severely, her lips nuzzling his cheek. “A woman likes to give freely where she loves.”
“Ah. You do love me, Miss Smith. I don’t doubt you’ll be buying and selling me before I know it if I let you keep this business of yours.”
“I must warn you.” Her thumbs caressed his jaw. “I love you, but you won’t find I’m a duke’s illegitimate daughter. I’m a foundling, never placed in an orphanage but found on a doorstep. I’m probably a bastard child of no one who cares, and I have worked as a menial since I was twelve.”
“That’s a ‘yes’ to my marriage proposal, I believe.”
She made a considering face, smiling as he circled his arms around her waist and dropped on her lips an earth-shattering, word-stealing kiss. Tightening her arms around him, she felt the needy flare of her body and the familiar yearning of her blood. Had they not been in full view of anyone who passed, she would be pulling at his clothes.
As if he had read her mind, he lifted his purposeful mouth from hers. “We’ll do it quickly and quietly. I don’t want anyone to know we didn’t marry five months ago.” He set her at arm’s length.
“In that case, we’ll have to do it quietly. That is, if I agree.” She blushed. “But I don’t ever want to do it quickly.”
He laughed and hugged her again. “Not the bedding. I meant the wedding, my love. I’ll have to send to Adelaide for a license, and I suspect that will take a couple of days. If you insist, I’ll wait until we’re wedded for the other.”
“I should hope so,” she said, trying to sound shocked. “But I can’t consider marrying you until I know the truth.”
“What truth?”
“Did you make your money mining gold?”
“I want to know the truth about your dealings with John Brand.”
“What dealings?” She made an innocent face.
“You told him how to run my emporium. Was that to take my business away?”
“Not at all. I took your quality gowns’ business on my second day. But I can’t manage men’s tailoring, not unless I find the rest of the Birds and convince them that the new middle class will want better clothes.” She tilted her head, watching him hide his expression.
“So you suggested to him that I might want your idea?” he said, his bland tone giving her no satisfaction whatsoever.
“Actually, no.” She pursed her lips. “I saw no reason to give you more than you have. It was Meg. She has an eye on Mr. Brand. She wanted to help him look efficient.”
“Are you telling me he isn’t?”
“Could we return to the original subject?”
“What original subject?”
“The mining.”
“Ah, the mining.” He hesitated. “I can see you are very interested in details. You will make a very fine business partner if I take you on as such.”
She raised her chin. “I couldn’t marry a man who didn’t see me as his equal.”
He sighed, his expression quietly indulgent. “I seem to be hearing a list of conditions.”
“Isn’t that the way you strike a bargain?”
“My love, you are not my equal. You are superior to me in every way.” He reached out to take her back into his arms.
She balked. “I’m better than you at staying on the subject. You haven’t convinced me about making your fortune with your emporium in Ballarat. You had an interest in a mine, Mrs. Trelevan says. What sort of interest?”
He rubbed his fingers across his chin. “You do realize, don’t you, that gentlemen do not work as miners?”
She planted her hands on her hips. “Is it more important to be a gentleman than truthful?”
He chewed at the inside of his cheek. “More expedient, let’s say. I don’t mind if you know I am not a gentleman and that I was a miner, a very lucky one.”
She leaned back, grinning in triumph. “I knew it was a Ballarat story from the beginning.”
He lifted his brows in query. She smiled and shrugged.
With his amused gaze on her, he said, “And, while I’m telling the whole truth and almost nothing but, I have to say I want to make love to you sooner rather than later. Tonight is not quickly when you consider that we met each other at the beginning of January.”
She laughed. “I didn’t mean that sort of quickly. I meant rushed. Not enjoyable.”
A smile lit his face. “Now you’re really putting pressure on.”
“I expect you to wait until after we are wed.” She tapped a finger on her cheek. “Or, if I have a word with Meg, she can let the story slip that we married months ago. But before I completely burn my bridges, I do want five hundred pounds a year.”
“Then the money is yours.”
“Don’t you want to know why I want it?”
“You like money. You like to bargain about making love.”
“I don’t,” she said with a gasp. “You know I’m—”
“You want to run your shop and others like it for your fellow orphans. You want them to learn a trade so that they don’t have to rub their hands raw, work as servants, or prostitute themselves.”
“You know all that?”
“I found out a lot about you after you left. I’m agreeable. Very agreeable.” He took her into his arms.
Absolutely, totally, and completely in love, she forgot the months they had been apart and concentrated on the moment. “I love you,” she said into his cravat. “And I agree to marry you as soon as we have the license.”
His palm flattened onto her back and he laughed softly. “Perhaps you haven’t thought this out, but marrying you will do more to make me socially acceptable than marrying almost any other woman. I can’t believe I was clever enough to find you.”
“Clever? You were just plain lucky.”
“Clever. Your charities will make you, and thus me, a very influential person.”
She kissed him. “If you are saying you’re marrying me for my money, that is yet another Ballarat story.”
He shook his head, still laughing. “We’ll discuss business later.”
Meet the Author
From art student to stylist, to
nurse and midwife, Virginia’s life has been one illogical step to the next, each step leading to the final goal of being an author. When she can tear herself away from the computer and the waiting blank page, she immerses herself in arts and crafts or gardening or, of course, cooking.
Don’t miss the other books in
Virginia Taylor's
South Landers Series!
Ella Beaufort knew better than to rely on a sexy stranger. But with two sisters to support on the modest earnings of the family sheep station, she accepts shearer Cal Lynton’s help—along with his intoxicating kiss. The most Ella can hope for is an affair. Something a woman in her situation wouldn’t dare—or would she?
Heir to his family fortune, Charlton Alfred Landon Lynton abandoned his privileged life to prove his independence. He doesn’t have time for a woman, but once he woos the lovely Ella into his bed, he is ready to make her his wife…until she shocks him with her refusal, claiming she can only marry a rich man! Angry and brokenhearted, the heir in disguise leaves the beautiful golddigger behind…
But amid the breathtaking landscape of South Australia, Ella and Cal are destined to meet again. Will their heated reunion lead to cruel confrontation—or the kind of passion that lasts a lifetime?
Click here to get your copy!
A marriage most inconvenient…
After losing his first love in childbirth, Nicholas Alden knows with a great certainty that he must never be a father. But to be a husband is a very different matter—mandated by South Australian society, necessary for his family name. So when he meets beautiful social climber Charlotte, he believes he has found a wife he can keep at arm’s length. He is terribly wrong.
orn on the wrong side of the sheets, Charlotte hopes Nick can prop up her reputation long enough to secure a suitable match for her beloved cousin. She assumes that is all she can ask of her new husband—until they succumb to a night of uninhibited passion. Her heart is won in his embrace, but he doesn’t know the truth of her scandalous parentage. If he did, all would be lost.
Starling Page 24
