Page 48 of Undercover with the Heiress
‘I don’t think it’s for selling,’ Phineas said. ‘I think it’s for kindling.’
Still arguing with one another, the men of Argonauts Trading clustered around the boxes. Mr Sanders dropped a heavy ledger, maybe the one Rosanna had found in their offices, onto one. Lord Richard flipped the book open and ripped a large page from the binding. He scrunched it into a ball and stuffed the mass between a gap.
Rosanna rested her elbow on Phineas’s knee to steady herself. Then, curse her, she stayed. Reliant on him. Needing him.
He leant in as close as he dared, hoping to avoid her scent, but he still inhaled her freshness, the lingering aroma of roses and sunshine. ‘Why would they burn it all?’ he asked. ‘They’ll have nothing to sell for their big share push, and the company’s expansion—’
‘But maybe that was the plan all along,’ Rosanna finished for him. Phineas held her gaze as realisation lit between the two of them, then fizzed and burned as they solved the riddle in the same instance. ‘That’s how they’re going to keep everyone’smoney,’ she continued. ‘They’ll say they lost all their stock in the fire, then claim bankruptcy.’
‘It was one thing to take the company from us, but I will not let them destroy it. This is not how Papa’s dream ends.’ Iris stood and marched past the rows of grimy windows to heave the door open. ‘Gents!’ she bellowed into the cavern. ‘Might I have a word?’
‘I am not missing this.’ Hamish scarpered after his wife.
Rosanna rested a hand on the window ledge, as if she was about to push herself up to follow, but paused. Instead, she turned to face Phineas. She brushed at the dust that had settled on his shoulders. ‘I’m sorry for ruining everything. And for making your life intolerable. It’s likely little consolation, but I… I will always be grateful for your help.’
‘I didn’t mean what I said, about you ruining everything.’ A little of the dirt from the windows had smudged its way onto her cheek, and he wiped it away with his thumb. ‘I work best alone, is all.’
‘Have you always worked alone?’ Rosanna asked.
‘Of course,’ he replied.
‘Then how do you know that’s your best?’
Always one for the off-hand questions with complex answers. The simplicity of it crunched, like an unexpected punch. He didn’t know—but oh, how he yearned to find out. He ached to take her hand and confess as much, but he shoved the urge down. He was a former convict, a bank clerk with a name that wasn’t even his. She’d do better without him. He couldn’t give her even a sliver of the life she deserved.
‘Do you want to watch from here or follow?’ he asked.
‘Follow,’ she said, and gave him her most spectacular and mischievous of grins. Sunlight in her eyes, energy and anticipation in her step, brimming with life and vitality, sheskipped past him. ‘As if I’m going to watch Lord Richard’s downfall from a distance.’
Phineas followed her into the warehouse.
There, the four men of Argonauts stood frozen with their mouths hanging agape, like a line of well-dressed fish. They were all staring at Iris. Hatless, gloveless, stiff with rage, she glowered back at them, even as they shuffled their feet with guilt. Iris crossed the distance to the boxes and the ledgers at a steady pace. Lord Richard took a menacing step towards her, only for Hamish to pull himself up to his full height. Lord Richard promptly faltered, then moved back into line.
Iris possessed one of the keenest minds Phineas had ever known, not just for numbers but for pounds and pence. She tallied columns, read annotations, and, like him, she understood the stories hidden in the margins. Methodically, she scanned each page of the heavy book, then turned to the next, her brow furrowing deeper. Lips set thin, she turned to Mr Sanders.
‘It wasn’t meant to be like this,’ Mr Sanders stammered. ‘At first, it was just one little advance. It seemed so harmless. Then half a per cent increase in the dividends. Things became a little worrisome, so we thought a new board member to replace Abberton might help. Lord Richard seemed to know so much about shares. But he lost as much as Mr Collins at the races. It all happened so fast.’
‘You took over one of the healthiest companies in London. It’s gone.’ Iris slammed the ledger closed. ‘You must refund the shareholders. You have to tell them it was a lie. Or I will. I will take it to the papers.’
‘No!’ Mr Sanders cried. ‘If this becomes public, the investors will come to the office, demanding answers. Crowds like that grow angry, sometimes violent. If you make it public, all those people will lose everything—’
‘They don’thaveanything,’ Iris countered.
‘But they think they do!’ Mr Sanders pressed his palm against his forehead, his eyes widening with panic. ‘They have bits of paper that are their fortunes. If you tell them the truth, you’ll destroy them. Terrible things happen when companies fail. Remember Tipperary!’ Sanders pleaded. His hectic gaze darted between all of them, settling on Phineas.
‘Tipperary? In Ireland?’ Hamish asked.
‘Not Tipperary the place, the Tipperary Bank,’ Phineas said. ‘The owner lost all the money, everyone’s money, in bad investments on the stock market. He took out loans from other banks, stole customer’s bonds, embezzled the family fortune. When he couldn’t find a way out of the debt, he shot himself. But when the bank’s failure became public… Let’s just say he wasn’t the only one to suffer a terrible fate. People will do things you can’t imagine for money.’
They would pretend to love. Pretend to hate. They would destroy other people. They would shatter a world.
The only thing more malicious than greed was revenge.
What would Iris do?
‘How much debt?’ Iris asked. ‘Show me.’
‘It looks worse than it is. It just—’
