Page 32 of The Secret Word
“Very well, lad. You’ve made your point. I get two for one, do I? Clementine? You’re going to help this lad of your’n, when he works for me?”
“Yes, Father,” Clem said, clutching Chris’s hand. Father appeared pleased, but he could not be trusted. Chris could. Chris would stop Father from hitting her.
“Lad, this earl, Jersey, that married Child’s granddaughter—he has just changed his name. Child-Villiers, he is now. Think of that. Goldsmiths, the family was, and before that, they tell me, cloth merchants. Child was the name of nobodies, and now, through the daughter, it will be the name of earls. Think of that!”
“Wright-Satterthwaite has a ring to it,” Chris said, and Father beamed.
“Just so. Just so, lad.”
“Perhaps, like the Earl of Jersey, after the birth of sons,” Chris suggested. “Jersey took the name after his fourth son was born.”
Father narrowed his eyes as he thought about this.
“We can put it in the agreement,” Chris suggested. “What do you think, Clem? After the birth of the second child, son, or daughter?”
That touched on one of the clauses they wanted to renegotiate. “Let us discuss that when we reach that point in the document,” she suggested.
Father was still beaming, but the smile turned to a scowl when Chris read out their first point.
“You want cash for marrying my daughter?” he growled.
“Money to ensure I can keep your daughter in the style to which she is accustomed,” Chris said.
Clem was relieved to see Father assume his business face—the one he wore when he was negotiating a deal. They had not been at all certain he would bend even a little. On certain things, she and Chris would not budge. If Father would not move, that would mean a dash for the border, and lean times as they lived on Chris’s savings while they found out whether the estate from the Thurgoods could support them.
Father baulked wherever they had expected him to object—the larger cash settlement on the day of the wedding, their wish to have their own house rather than living under Father’s roof,the limits Chris intended to place on his availability to Father’s enterprises—three days a week but for as long each day as Father wishes.
For those items and others, they had marshalled their arguments, and Clem was very relieved that Father was prepared to listen. For example, Chris pointed out that a townhouse in a more fashionable district was one of the lures he had placed before Chris at the outset, and that the reason for it—to put his grandson’s mother in contact with the ton—remained valid.
Father pushed back—in the case of a townhouse, he agreed to pay the rent on one and review it after a year. In the course of the long afternoon, they managed to hammer out most of an agreement. On two topics, Father was obdurate. His entire fortune would go to his eldest grandson, and any other children of their marriage would get nothing from their grandfather.
He would not consider settling for a granddaughter—if Chris and Clem did not produce a son, the fortune would go to Clem’s unknown cousin, the son of Father’s only sister.
*
“On the whole,”Chris said to Clem as they left at the end of the meeting, “that went better than I expected.”
The lawyer was going away to write up the revised agreement—they would each have a copy by the end of the day tomorrow.
“I’ve been wondering if we should employ a lawyer of our own,” Clem said. “I know you have a lot of experience reading lawyer-speak, but are we certain nothing is hidden in the contract that we have missed?”
Chris didn’t know any lawyers, except those who worked for Billy. “I could ask Billy if I could use one of his legal men,” Chrissaid. “Though I hate owing him even more than I do already. I have no idea what price he’ll exact!”
“I would rather not pay the cost of not doing it,” Clem retorted. “We need the document to be read by a lawyer who is on our side.”
She made an excellent point. Would Billy’s lawyers be on Chris and Clem’s side, though? Yes, he supposed, provided they had no conflicts with Billy. “You are right,” he told Clem. “I will ask Billy.”
Her smile was, as ever, a benediction. Chris had come to realize that Clem expected men to ignore her, and though she now trusted Chris enough to argue with him, her delight when he listened showed that her trust had very shallow roots.
Billy sent for him the following day shortly after his copy of the agreement had been delivered, and before he could request a few minutes. As usual, he did not bother with social niceties. “Christopher, how did you get on at your meeting with your father-in-law to be?”
“Quite well, I think,” Chris told him. He plopped the heavy sheaf of papers, still tied in red ribbon, onto Billy’s desk. “This is version two of the marriage agreement. I’ve been over it with Wright’s lawyers twice, the second time yesterday, to propose the changes that Miss Wright and I want. Those should be in this version, which has only just arrived.”
“Summarize it for me,” Billy said, as he always did when his employees presented him with something in writing. Billy could read—Chris had seen him do it. But Chris suspected he found it hard.
“If you have the time,” Chris said. “I was planning to ask if one of your lawyers could go over it with me, but I’d value your opinion.” Also true. Billy had a keen mind and a devious one. If Wright had buried traps in the agreement, Billy was the most likely one to see them.
“Tiny!” Billy shouted, and the bodyguard-aide opened the office door far enough to poke his head inside. “Clear my timetable for the next three hours, and let Anderson know I need him.”
