Page 40 of Not Quite a Lady
‘Thank you.’ She waved a hand at the ledgers on the shelvesand the paperwork in front of her. ‘You see, I have to work at it. I research other investments as well, so I can discuss them with my trustees. It would be helpful if you could explain more about your mine and what it is you hope to achieve before the next trustees’ meeting.’
‘The paperwork is not yet ready.’
Lily lowered her eyes so Jack could not read the irritation in them. Why was he too proud to approachhertrustees when he would happily advertise in a newspaper?
Because she was a woman? Because he had made love to her? Well, if he was too proud then she would simply have to trick him for his own good.
‘Are you on your way out?’ He was holding his hat and gloves in his hand.
‘Yes. I have learned of a manufactory to the east of the City which is employing a new design of steam pump and I was going to visit it.’
‘Oh. So you will be out all day?’
‘Yes. I have told Mrs Oakman – or perhaps you wished me to accompany you to an At Home this afternoon?’ He assumed an expression of spurious willingness.
‘Certainly not, Mr Lovell.’ Lily kept her lips pursed in an effort not to smile. ‘Your rates are far too expensive for me to hire your escort more than once a week.’
‘Ma’am.’ He bowed, making no attempt to hide his own amusement. ‘I hope your work prospers.’
Lily waited until the front door closed, then ran into the front room and twitched aside the drapery. Jack was striding down the road towards Oxford Street.
She watched until she saw him hail a hackney carriage at the end of the road and then whirled round. How long had she got? Probably two hours, safely.
She snatched up pen and paper as she passed the study andhurried down the garden path to the door up to the studio. As she hoped, it was unlocked and the table was covered with neat piles of notes and diagrams. She stood for a minute fixing their positions in her mind before she risked touching them.
Her cousin Tobias had explained to her how, as a lawyer, he “got up” a brief so as to be able to present a case powerfully in court. Now she had two hours to study Jack’s proposals so that she could argue them in front of her trustees.
Lily found a clear area of table and lifted the first piece of paper from its pile with great care. Jack would never know she had been there – not until the trustees had made their decision.
Jack stayed out all day, giving Lily time to creep nervously into the studio twice more to check that she had left everything exactly as she had found it.
He was still out when she kissed her Uncle Frederick goodbye after extracting his promise that there would be an extraordinary meeting of the trustees the next afternoon to consider her mysterious proposal.
‘You aren’t usually totty-headed, my girl. Coal mines indeed.’ Her great uncle peered at her suspiciously from under beetling grey eyebrows.
He was past seventy, a canny merchant who ruled his own silk importing company – and his three adult sons – with a rod of iron. He did not approve of women meddling in business, although he was prepared to admit that Lily was less foolish than most of her sex. Always provided she paid attention to what her male advisors told her, of course.
‘And I am not being so now,’ she assured him affectionately. ‘I believe you will be very interested in this opportunity. After all, you did say, only the other month, that we ought to think about diversifying into canals.’
‘Canals are a very different matter to coal mines, child.’
‘I know, dearest Uncle Frederick. One is horizontal, the other vertical.’ He snorted at her frivolity, but patted her cheek.
‘Modern girls! I do not know what the world is coming to.’
She was sure he was still grumbling away as his carriage bore him off back to Brown’s Hotel, the sombre establishment that always enjoyed his patronage.
But grumble as he may, he would be sure to appreciate the merits of Jack’s mine and the prospect of rich seams of coal, just waiting to be exploited. If there was one thing her trustees understood, it was the importance of having a market for your goods, and London would never cease to devour thousands of tons of coal every year.
The lack of canals in the area was a problem. She could understand that, now she had thought about the problems of hauling such a bulky and heavy product, but amongst Jack’s notes had been some ideas about steam locomotion.
Lily was not at all sure she understood how that worked. It all sounded very dangerous, but Jack seemed excited about it. Once she had persuaded the trustees to let her invest in the mine, it would be an easy next step to venture into this new world of iron and steam.
And if Jack became rich and successful and covered Northern England in these new steam tramways…
Lily was still sitting in the blue salon, her chin cupped in her hand, dreaming of herself on the arm of the newly ennobled Lord Lovell of Somewhere, wealthy and influential industrialist, when one of the maids came in to draw the curtains.
‘Are you all right, Miss France?’
