Page 23 of Snowy and the Seven Doves
Margaret inclined her head. “And the favor?” she asked.
Mr. Snowden leaned forward in his seat, his eyes wide and earnest. “You could be of great assistance to us. If you told us what he was about, and what he plans to do…” He raised his eyebrows in a hopeful question, then added. “But only if you can do so safely.”
“You want me to spy on him,” Margaret said.
“I wouldn’t put it like that,” Snowden protested. “Not spying; more just passing things on. As a friend, of course.”
“I see.” Margaret began packing the empty tea cups back onto the tray. “Well, then, gentlemen. You have delivered your message and asked your question. I am going to have to ask you to leave. I have unfinished business with my aunt.”
“Will you do it?” Mr. Snowden asked.
In response, Margaret went to the door and called to the butler. “Please escort Mr. Snowden and Mr. Deffew to the door.” She turned back into the room, and said, “Thank you for calling, gentlemen.” She then continued walking out the door and up the stairs, leaving them no alternative but to go away.
She felt grimy, as if covered in a slick of grease that was in turn coated in dirt and dust. Between the confrontation with Aunt Aurelia and the machinations of Snowden and his son, the happy mood in which she had returned from the afternoon’s outing was completely gone.
On the other hand, tomorrow she was meeting Snowy again. It would be nice to think that the lift in her heart at the thought of their next meeting was because she wanted to help his cause by telling him about the untimely visit of the two young men. The attraction, though, was Snowy himself. She was in danger of developing a tendre for the main, despite the warnings of her friends, and her own concerns. Despite Snowy’s own disinterest in her except as a means to an end.Ah, Margaret, you are in a sad case.
Chapter Nine
That evening, Lilyshocked Snowy by telling him it was time to hand over his bookkeeping responsibilities. “Orchid is ready to retire from the trade, and she has always been good with numbers,” she said.
Snowy knew Lily would not have to recruit to fill Orchid’s place, either. Not only did the House of Blossoms have a record of keeping their girls safe from the worst kind of clients, but the girls kept most of their earnings and were encouraged to invest them. The house charged a fee on which it made a profit after providing accommodation, medical care, and a clothing allowance, but made most of its considerable income on drink, food, and games of chance.
Added to that, Lily and her friends offered their workers advice on saving and investing, and on retraining to anyone who wanted to leave the lucrative trade and take up one that was less physically and emotionally demanding.
“Iam your bookkeeper,” Snowy complained. “Find something else for Orchid to do.”
“You can’t be a viscount and the bookkeeper in a brothel,” Lily told him.
“I haven’t made up my mind to claim my title,” Snowy pointed out. Which wasn’t altogether true. The more he learned about Snowden, the more revolting he found the idea of the man benefitting from his crime.Crimes, probably.The deaths in the Snowden family needed some explaining, and Snowy had not yet been able to discover what happened to his mother. He didn’t remember the woman, but the urge to protect her even in death was strong in him, as strong as it was for any of his foster mothers.
Lily rolled her eyes. She had always been able to see right through him.
He grumbled anyway. “Besides, there’s no guarantee I’ll succeed, even if I do make a claim.”
“You will win, Snowy,” Lily insisted, shaking her head at his pessimism. “You are the rightful heir, and we have proof.”
The sworn testimony of women, particularly women who earned their living on their backs, would not have much weight in a court of law, especially against a titled gentleman. Snowy didn’t bother to point that out. Lily already knew it.
“Teach Orchid, Snowy,” she ordered. “Whatever happens to your claim, you cannot remain our bookkeeper. You are an educated gentleman. If something happens to prevent you from taking your title, then you will need to find employment doing something worthy of your education and status. Orchid and the other girls don’t have many choices. You do.Youcan be anything, my boy.”
Not quite anything, but Snowy, with his university training and his investment wealth, certainly had more opportunities than a retired harlot. He sighed. “Very well, Lily. I will show Orchid how I keep the books, and we’ll see how she gets on.”
The training got off to a bad start when Orchid tried some of her seductive tactics on her tutor. Even if Snowy’s mind had not been full of a certain countess, and even if he was not aware that Orchid was just trying to win the bet with Daphne, he would not have been interested.
“Stop that, Orchid,” he told her, when she placed a hand on his thigh as if by accident, then ran it up toward his groin on purpose. “You know I don’t bed any of the House’s girls.”
She would scoff if he told her he’d sworn off sex altogether. The encounters of his randy adolescence had soured when he’d first come to understand the inequalities between those who purchased sex and those who provided the service. His knowledge came from first-hand experience; he’d funded his first investments by selling his body to bored widows and matrons.
Never again. He would never allow himself to be so used, nor would he ever use another human being for his own pleasure. As for mutual encounters, in that direction lay romance and commitment. The thought of either scared him witless.Unless the commitment was to Lady Charmain.The thought surfaced, and he shoved it down, again.
Orchid didn’t need to know any of his thoughts. “Keep it up, and I will send you back upstairs. If you want to learn what I have to teach, behave yourself.”
After that, the lesson proceeded well. Despite what Lily said about Orchid’s skill, Snowy was surprised at how much she already knew. “I used to help my father with his books,” she told Snowy when he praised her. “He owned a shop.”
Her eyes were far away and moist for a moment. Pleasant memories, clearly, but painful to her because of what came after. She never spoke about her past, but Snowy knew Lily bought her contract from a much worse brothel into which she’d been sold by the creditors of her shopkeeper father after both her parents died of a fever when she was only a girl.
He arranged to meet her again the following morning and went to get ready for his outing into Lady Charmain’s world.
