Page 61 of The Paid Companion

His eyes narrowed faintly. “Never say she had the nerve to ask you for money?”

“No,” she said quickly, pleased to be able to put that issue to rest.

His expression lightened somewhat. “I am relieved to hear that. For a moment there I thought she might have tried to convince you to give her a loan, although why she would think that you might be willing to do such a thing is beyond me.”

“She did not ask for a loan,” Elenora said very carefully. “At least not directly. But you will recall that you have put it about that you are supposedly in town to form a consortium of investors.”

“What of it?”

Elenora squared her shoulders. “Juliana pleaded with me to ask you to offer Roland a share in your new consoritum.”

For a moment Arthur just looked at her as though she had spoken in some unknown tongue.

Then he leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees.

“I must conclude that this is your eccentric notion of a joke, Miss Lodge,” he said.

She searched his eyes and knew that it was irritation, not rage, that she saw burning in his gaze. There was a difference between the two. When it came to Arthur, she was quite certain that only the second reaction was truly dangerous. The first could be dealt with if one applied reason.

“Kindly do not attempt to intimidate me, sir,” she said calmly. “All I ask is that you hear me out.”

“There’s more to this nonsense?”

“I comprehend that it is a lot to ask of you under the circumstances, but I feel that you would be well-advised to grant Juliana this favor.”

His smile was as cold as steel. “But I am not forming a consortium at the moment, if you recall.”

“No, but you do form them frequently, and we both know that sooner or later you will find yourself brewing up another financial venture. You could offer Roland a share in your next project.”

“I cannot envision a single logical reason why I should invite Roland Burnley into a consortium, even assuming that he possessed the funds required to purchase a share, which, as you just pointed out, he does not.”

“The matter of the funds he would require to purchase a share is another issue. We will get to that shortly.”

“Will we, indeed?”

“Are you attempting to intimidate me, sir? If so, it is not working.”

“Perhaps I should try harder.”

With an effort, she possessed herself in patience. “I am attempting to explain why you should consider allowing Roland to become a member of your next company of investors.”

“I cannot wait to hear this.”

“The thing is,” she continued, determined to finish her argument, “When one views the situation from a particular perspective, one could conclude thatyouare the reason that Juliana and Roland find themselves in their present extremely unfortunate financial circumstances.”

“Damnation, woman, are you saying I’m to blame for the fact that those two eloped?”

She squared her shoulders. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”

He swore softly once again and sat back. “Tell me, Miss Lodge, do you feel that it was my fault that Juliana was so horrified by the prospect of experiencing a fate worse than death in my bed that she felt she had no choice but to flee into the night with another man?”

“Of course not.”She was shocked to the core by his conclusion. “I am saying that you are, in part, responsible for the outcome because you could have gone after Juliana and Roland that night and stopped them. Moreover, if you had given chase, I suspect you would have caught up with them well before the damage was done to Juliana’s reputation.”

“In case you have not heard the tale in its entirety, there was a ferocious storm that night,” he reminded her. “Only a madman would have braved it.”

“Or a man madly in love,” she amended, smiling slightly. “I have heard the story in several variations, my lord, and I must conclude that you did not fit that description. If you had been passionately in love with Juliana, you would have given chase.”

He stretched his arms out full-length on either side along the back of the cushions. His smile was as thin and sharp as the edge of a blade. “Surely by now someone has explained to you that I am a man who is motivated solely by money. People credit me with many attributes, Miss Lodge, but I assure you, strong passions are not among them.”

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