Page 62 of One Dangerous Desire
“I suspect you’ve already made your choice, Miss Sedgwick.”
“Yes.” She would not lose a chance at happiness with Rex again. “I want to marry Mr. Leighton.” May twisted the ribbon on the front of her gown. “Yet I also crave the opportunity to learn more about my father’s business.”
“Then you must do both.” Graves spoke as if he had no doubt she could overturn her father’s stark either/or proposition.
“He will not yield.” Her father wouldn’t present such terms and then allow her to avoid choosing.
“Employ stratagems, Miss Sedgwick.” Graves jerked his chin down and seemed to study the carpet. Then he inhaled sharply and looked up at her, one gray brow perched high on his forehead. “Think like a businesswoman. Your father would never allow himself to be forced into such a choice. He would never have chosen Sedgwick’s over you or marriage to your mother. Above all, your father wishes for you to be happy.”
Despite the pain her parents had caused each other, Graves was right. Yet she suspected her father wouldn’t see their choices as equal. He was a man who’d devoted himself to business from his youth. She was a woman with a head full of daydreams and no practical experience in commerce at all.
“I know very little about running Sedgwick’s, Mr. Graves.”
“Luckily, I do.” He sat forward and balanced his elbows on his knees. “May I tell you one of the great secrets of managing a store like Sedgwick’s successfully, Miss Sedgwick?”
May nodded and scooted forward, balancing on the edge of the settee, eager to hear whatever wisdom Mr. Graves would impart.
“Hire good people.” He waited a beat before grinning. “Your father relies on me and many others to manage Sedgwick’s. Your input will be invaluable, but you will never need to bear the burden of managing the store on your own.”
“Thank you, Mr. Graves.” May reached out to take the older man’s hand, shaking it as if they’d just negotiated a favorable deal.
Soft knocks at the drawing room door drew their attention, and May released Mr. Graves’s hand.
A maid stepped forward and handed May a note. “A messenger has just come and delivered this for you, miss.”
The letter was short. Rex informed her that he would not join them for the evening meal, directed her to offer an apology to her father, and reminded her of his love. Her first impulse was to don a cloak and make her way to his house in Berkeley Square. What business would occupy him all evening, and why wasn’t he willing to share any of it with her?
That didn’t sit well. She hated how much it brought her father to mind and all the secrets he’d kept—or tried to keep—from her mother. Marriage to Rex was what she’d dreamed of since shortly after meeting him in that crowded glassware shop, but she didn’t want a marriage of secrets. Would he always shut her out? Were there parts of his life he’d insist on keeping hidden?
“Distressing news, Miss Sedgwick?” Mr. Graves asked in his calming tone.
“Yes and no. Would you mind dining with father alone? I must see a gentleman about a choice I’ve made.”
Mr. Graves caught her meaning immediately, grinned, and dipped his head. “By all means, Miss Sedgwick. Make your call, and I will do my best to dissuade your father from his ridiculous ultimatum.”
Chapter Twenty-One
REX’S HOUSEKEEPER WASconsidering whether to turn her away. May read it in the woman’s disapproving frown and the way her hands locked together until her knuckles turned white. But going away wasn’t a possibility. May had to see him.
“Are you on your own, then, Miss Sedgwick? At this hour?”
“Quite alone.” Fog blocked the glow of the moon, but the gas lamps on the street outside of Rex’s townhouse cast plenty of light for Mrs. Hark to determine that she was unaccompanied.
“So late at night?” The woman would be even more shocked if she knew May had walked the whole half a mile on her own. It seemed silly to rouse the coachman for such a distance.
May almost found the housekeeper’s hesitation amusing. If Mrs. Campbell opened the door to an unmarried lady on a single man’s doorstep in the middle of the night, she would no doubt cross-question her in the same chastising manner.
“I have no chaperone, as you see, Mrs. Hark, but I must speak to Mr. Leighton.”
The older woman glanced behind her, into the townhouse’s hallway, and pressed her lips together in a firm line.
“It is cold out here, Mrs. Hark.” May didn’t have to feign the quaver in her voice. “May I please come in?”
“Come on with you, then.” The woman stood aside to allow May to enter and dutifully took her coat and gloves.
“Where is he?” Some of the house’s lights were turned down low, but it was only half past nine. May couldn’t imagine Rex tucked away in bed at such an early hour, despite how much she liked the notion of him tucked into bed.
“Wait in his study, miss, and I’ll see if he’s at home.”
