The Secrets of Lord Lynford

by Bronwyn Scott

  Was that true? It was quite the epiphany and it set him back. How long was it since he’d been truly, deeply happy? Perhaps it wasn’t that he was unhappy. He laughed with his friends, he had compassion for others. He knew he wasn’t the sort to let disappointment shape him into a grumpy, reclusive hermit who groused at the world. But he hadn’t realised his happiness hadn’t gone bone deep, that his happiness hadn’t been joy. Not until now. Not until Eliza.

  There was joy and peace with Eliza. With Eliza he was content sitting before the fire at the dower house in the evening, strolling in the orangery and playing with the parakeets, or walking the surf line of the beach. He didn’t need to be rushing from project to project or worrying about what came next when life slowed down and he had to face the void. Eliza was no longer another project, something to begin and end. Eliza filled the void. The realisation was followed by another just as stunning. He didn’t want Eliza to go back to Truro.

  He wanted her to stay. But he couldn’t have that. To stay meant to offer marriage. She was not looking for marriage and she would not want the marriage he could give her. There was nothing inside that offer for her. He could not give her children, the one thing she felt she’d had to give up for the sake of her independence, and the only thing that might compel her to rethink her position on marriage. A certain inevitability settled on him. At some point, he would have to give Eliza up. But not today. Today, she was still his and there were still things he could give her. It would have to be enough.

  Eaton returned his attention to the journal and set to work in earnest. He noted the different percentages owned by which shareholders. He began to work combinations that afforded Eliza the most leverage for the least amount of money. Before long, he had an arrangement that would suit her purposes. When she arrived, Eliza would be pleased. If they could convince these shareholders to sell, she would have a modicum of power against the mutineers. She should be pleased.

  * * *

  He hadn’t waited for her! To say she was displeased was an absolute understatement. Eliza huffed up the stairs to the office, steaming with anger. This was precisely why she should not have got involved with him! What had Eaton been thinking? She threw open the office door—no need for a key apparently when Gillie Cardy was letting in everyone who waved a title around. She’d have words with him later, once she’d had words with Eaton—Eaton, who was lounging decadently in the room’s one chair, long, booted legs propped on the fender of the fireplace, a ledger in his lap confirming his worst sin while he managed to look desirable in the world’s most uninspiring room. It was not a space designed for desire and yet he’d succeeded wildly in transforming it with his presence. ‘You! You started without me!’

  ‘And finished, although I much prefer when we finish together.’ He was all smug insouciance against her rage. Did he not understand what he’d done?

  She marched over to him and grabbed the ledger off his lap. ‘No! You do not get to be in a good mood after you’ve violated my privacy. What did you think you were doing? This is my office. You’ve flustered poor Gillie Cardy to no end. He had no idea to expect you.’

  Eaton gave a hearty laugh. ‘I was taking a leaf from your book, Eliza—the power of a surprise visit. Cardy was not ready for my unexpected arrival and I used it to my advantage. You’re right, it does create a certain momentum. Instead of waiting for you and letting the day slip by, I found the answer.’ He was unfazed by her scold, another reason she should not have indulged. She had no power with him. He ran roughshod over her usual strategies and then followed them up with an irresistible grin. ‘It’s a little different when the shoe’s on the other foot, isn’t it, Eliza?’

  ‘You should have waited, as a courtesy,’ Eliza snapped. This was not a game. Her future as the leader of the mining corporation was at stake.

  Eaton glanced at the clock. ‘So that it could have taken us four hours to discover what I did in two? Perhaps I was mistaken, but I thought time was of the essence with the shareholders’ meeting looming in a few days? I thought the plan was to buy out the necessary shareholders by then.’

  ‘It is,’ Eliza acceded, untying the ribbons of her hat and hanging it on a peg. But she didn’t have to like it. She was still uncomfortable with the idea that the plan was Eaton’s, that the resources she’d be using to repopulate her board were Eaton’s. Yet the decision to follow the plan had been hers. She should not take her frustration out on Eaton. ‘What did you find?’ After the morning she’d had, it was time to get down to business.

  ‘In a moment.’ Eaton went to the desk and lifted the room’s second chair out from behind it. ‘First, come sit and tell me why you were late.’ He placed the chair by the fire, angling it to meet his satisfaction. ‘I’m afraid a chair is the most comfort I can offer. This office is most incommodious. I do recommend stocking it with decanters at the very least and think about redecorating.’

  There he went again, being charming, all the while he was stealing control away from her. ‘No decanters. They’ll just fall off the shelves and smash when we blast.’ She’d known indulging with him would be hazardous, but she’d misjudged the depth of the danger and of her liking. She didn’t want him to be charming, or considerate. Why couldn’t he be an arrogant bully she could despise?

  ‘I’ll add it to the list of problems to solve.’ Eaton grinned. ‘Now, about your morning? Is Sophie well?’

  ‘No, as a matter of fact, Sophie ate something disagreeable at supper.’ A supper she’d not overseen because she’d been too busy arguing with Detford. Sophie had been asleep by the time Detford had left. ‘She woke up sick this morning.’ Which was something else she’d almost missed because she’d been in bed with her lover. She’d been home barely five minutes before Sophie had woken up retching and needing her. Eliza shook her head, trying to dispel her remorse. ‘I should have been there.’

  ‘You mean, you should not have been with me,’ Eaton corrected.

  ‘Yes, but I was with you and now things are just as bad as I knew they’d be.’ She leaned forward, dropping her voice to a hiss. ‘Detford is downstairs. Gillie Cardy told him you’d been here since nine. He knows you’re up here alone, with carte blanche access to the office records.’ She would look like the whore Detford had implied yesterday. Miles would think Eaton was her lover and now he’d be right. If Miles told anyone, she’d look immoral and weak. Would Miles expose her like that or was he still her friend? She fixed Eaton with a stare. ‘This is exactly the kind of opening the shareholders needed and I’ve handed it to them on a silver platter.’

  Eaton disagreed. ‘Yes, I do know what this means. Those who plot against you will be very concerned about their duplicity when they realise a peer of the realm has taken an interest in their industry. Would you like to see the list? These are your best options for a buyout. If they sell, you can increase your majority in the company by fifteen per cent. Brenley’s bunch can’t muster more than forty per cent if anything comes to a vote. Even if Detford’s five per cent sides with them, you’d still have a margin.’

  The whirring of her mind halted at his words. ‘Say that again?’ Had she heard him correctly?

  Eaton grinned. ‘I said, Eliza, you can make yourself fireproof. But you’ll have to act fast.’ You. Eaton was empowering her, not taking anything away from her. It might have been his suggestion, but she had to enact it and the shares would be hers. Eliza smiled. It felt as if a weight had been lifted from her, her doubts evaporating in the wake of success. They had found a way through. She was on the offensive now.

  * * *

  Eliza Blaxland wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Miles eyed the group assembled over ale, crumpling Eliza’s note in his hand. ‘She’s refused our offer. Well, we expected as much. She’s never been the most biddable of women.’ Miles’s dissatisfaction was palpable as he addressed the group. His interviews with Eliza had been disappointing. He’d hoped she would have found the
offer more appealing. ‘We never expected Bude’s heir was in her pocket,’ he said, trying to rationalise the refusal.

  ‘More like he’s in her bed,’ Gismond Brenley supplied derisively. ‘Looks like someone beat you to the finish line, Detford.’

  ‘Hardly matters where he is, only that he’s involved now and that makes him part of our problem,’ Miles replied, redirecting their attentions back to the subject at hand. They could not blame Lynford’s presence on him. ‘We have three days until the shareholders’ meeting. We have to make sure we have a case against her if she means to refuse our generous offer. If she won’t step down for a nice offer, we have to force her out.’ He liked the idea of force. He was done playing nice with Eliza Blaxland. It was time she learned her place.

  ‘Lynford is the case against her,’ Isley Thorp put in with a sly grin. ‘If we put it about that she’s his mistress, her reputation is in question. We can’t have an immoral woman running the corporation.’

  ‘It depends on how the rest of the board sees it.’ Detford shook his head. Under regular circumstances, the current board would find such behaviour inexcusable. But if the board was under Lynford’s thumb, it would hardly matter if Eliza walked down the street naked. Miles waited until he had everyone’s attention. ‘There’s something else.’ He pushed forward a letter. ‘I got this from one of the minor shareholders last night. She’s made an offer to buy his shares, at profit. I am assuming she sent similar letters to others.’ If she were successful, this would ruin everything. It would give her majority control against their coalition.

  Gismond Brenley seemed unconcerned. ‘They won’t sell. There’s the money to be made from extending the tunnel once the widow is removed. Profits will go sky-high, then. Surely these shareholders know that. Besides, she’d need to garner more than someone’s three per cent. She’d need to buy all the three per centers. Odds are, not all of them will sell out.’

  Miles wasn’t as confident. He’d seen how resolute she’d been when he’d put the offer to her. ‘Maybe. Or, perhaps those three per centers don’t want the risk of an accident. Everyone knows nothing ever goes smoothly in mining. But that isn’t the point. She’s building a new group of shareholders, people who are willing to champion her, to leave her in power. Gentlemen, she’s replacing us and it takes no imagination to know who is behind this.’

  Miles met each man’s gaze directly. There was a fortune in copper beneath the sea if they could just reach it. But they had to go through her.

  Brenley thought for a moment. ‘Then we have to get to her. She would never let a man control what she’s worked for. We need to convince her that Lynford will take control away from her no matter what he’s promised thus far.’

  ‘And if that doesn’t work?’ Miles pressed. ‘We may need to remove her in a more permanent way.’ A certain excitement roused in him at the prospect. Eliza Blaxland had crossed him too many times. Of course those methods were dangerous. There was too much money at stake for people to ignore her death. When those people included the Marquess of Lynford and the Duke of Bude, there would most definitely be an inquest. Yet, if it came to that, he would find a way to ensure the cards went his way. To be denied now, and by a woman who thought herself the equal of a man, would be an enormous loss of financial opportunity and pride. This was war. All was fair and the endgame was near. Eliza Blaxland would get a final chance to accept the offer at the board meeting and then she would get what was coming to her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The game had started without her. Eliza drew a deep breath to steady her nerves and her anger before entering the upper room at the Ship Inn on Budoc Lane. She could hear voices within that confirmed what the innkeeper had reported: the shareholders were already assembled and had been for half an hour. How dare they begin the meeting before she arrived! She was the chairman, the head of the company. She would remind them nothing they did without her presence had meaning.

  Eliza smoothed her skirts and squared her shoulders. She’d dressed to command today in a tailored ensemble of heather grey, the coat cut with military lines and trimmed in black velvet, a white stock peeking up at the collar. There would be no disputing that she was the one in charge. She ran through her mental list of resources, reminding herself what her goals were here today: to emerge with her leadership of the mines intact.

  Eliza turned the knob and entered, gratified when the conversation faltered, when all eyes turned to her, some of those eyes looking guilty. Good. Six of those men had happily taken her money last night when she’d bought their shares in the company. Her chair at the head of the table was empty. Also good. They hadn’t replaced her yet. To the right of her chair sat Miles Detford. Today, the sight of him didn’t fill her with the usual comfort. But he was still her friend, still her ally, she told herself. He’d brought bad news, he’d counselled her to take an offer she didn’t agree with—that didn’t make him less of a friend. Perhaps it made him more of one.

  ‘Now that I am here, we can begin.’ Eliza strolled to her chair and consulted the watch pin she wore; ten minutes until the hour. ‘That is, if no one disapproves of starting early? We did agree to meet at eleven.’ She surveyed the room with a cool gaze before sitting. ‘I do appreciate how very...prompt everyone is.’ She took her seat. ‘I officially call the quarterly meeting of the Blaxland Mining Corporation to order.’ Miles Detford read the minutes and Eliza pasted on a cool smile as though nothing was out of the ordinary. They would see that their contretemps had not shaken her.

  ‘A report from the treasurer is now in order. Mr Thorp?’ Eliza called on the sallow-faced man, wondering if she’d imagined his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. She looked around the table when he finished. ‘Are there questions for Mr Stinson on our expenses?’ The question was met with silence. She stared at Isley Thorp, at Jerome Blackmore, at Sir Gismond Brenley. Who was the betrayer? ‘No questions?’ She kept her voice frosty, her gaze returning to Thorp. ‘I find that hard to believe when the lumber order for the Wheal Karrek tunnel was twice what it should have been. It is not our practice to deliberately over-order.’

  ‘What are you suggesting, Mrs Blaxland?’ Gismond Brenley patronised in a bored tone as if there was no need to be concerned.

  She met him with a steely gaze, her own tone matching him in condescension. ‘I am suggesting that someone countermanded our decision not to tunnel under the ocean. Why else would we purchase twice the required lumber? If that is not the case, I would think you’d be more concerned since it’s your money that’s been spent unnecessarily.’ How horribly telling that he wasn’t aghast. In fact, none of them was aghast, although a few of them exchanged looks. She did not give away her dismay. ‘Very well, let the minutes show that no one was bothered by the expenditures.’ She’d put them on notice, she’d gone on record in the minutes for having addressed the issue head-on. It would be harder to accuse her now of being inept, of having not been aware of what was happening in her own company. ‘Now, on to old business, the Porth Karrek tunnel and the schools.’

  ‘Ahem, Mrs Blaxland, I would like to table old business until we’ve discussed a proposal.’ The interruption came from Gismond Brenley. ‘I think it will affect how the discussion of the tunnel and the schools goes, which is why I’d like to have it introduced first.’

  Eliza braced herself. So the ringleader was Brenley. She was not surprised. He was the most august of the shareholders. Under friendlier circumstances, he would have been her right hand just as he’d been her husband’s. But he’d never been in support of her, having always fancied himself the heir apparent to the mining corporation. ‘Mrs Blaxland, in honour of your fifth year as the head of the company, and in recognition of your extraordinary efforts, we have an offer to put to you to help relieve the strain you’ve endured. With the advent of the new tunnel, the corporation is entering a new era and it occurred to us that it is an opportune time for new leadership, a chance for you to step
away and enjoy your life with your daughter.’

  On her right, Miles murmured, ‘These are good terms.’

  Eliza suspected the murmur was for show. But whose show? For her benefit or for the board’s? Would a polite refusal be enough? ‘Thank you, gentlemen. I am sure the offer is made with my benefit in mind, however, I have no intention of stepping away from the mines at this time. It is an exciting period and, precisely for that reason, I will remain at the helm for the foreseeable future.’ Eliza smiled her rejection. There was uncomfortable silence. No one spoke. For a moment, she thought she might have won, that all that had been required was a firm hand. Surely it couldn’t be that easy. She waited for the count of five.

  Brenley’s eyes grew hard. ‘It may not be up to you. The board believes it is time for you to step down. We want to go forward with the underwater tunnel. We feel financial resources are better spent on the pursuit of ore than establishing schools. We didn’t want to do this as a vote, but we will if we must.’

  ‘We definitely must. I want to see my betrayers, those who have plotted behind my back to bring about this moment,’ Eliza snapped. ‘The vote will be done by a show of hands and votes will be counted based on the allotted shares each member holds in the company.’ There were no grounds for argument there; it was how votes had always been counted. ‘Those in favour of new leadership?’ Thorp, Blackmore, Brenley—the usual coalition—raised their hands along with Stinson. ‘That’s forty per cent, Brenley.’ Eliza smiled coolly as she informed him, ‘That is not a majority.’

  ‘But Havens, Eldridge, Saxon, Halliday, Mycroft and Kincaid haven’t voted,’ Brenley replied.