Page 93 of The Truth About Lord Stoneville
As he whirled to face her, the blood drained from his features. “Maria! What are you—” He halted as he took in her clothes. “What’s happened?”
“Father is dead,” she snapped, barely able to remain civil.
“My God!” He looked sincerely stricken. “I’m so sorry. I hadn’t heard.”
“Yes, I know that perfectly well.” The words poured out of her. “I sent you several letters, all of which you failed to answer. Meanwhile, the trustees couldn’t settle the estate without you, because of Papa’s cursed will.”
She marched forward, her fury growing with each step. “I had to use my dwindling resources to travel to England in search of you. Now I can’t even afford to pay Mr. Pinter his fee for finding you. And here you are, using the knowledge thatmy fathertaught you, to start a business that would ruin his company!”
“I can explain,” he said in a hoarse voice as he stepped toward her.
But there was no stopping her now. “And all this time, I thought you might be dead somewhere!” Tears welled in her eyes that she ruthlessly fought back. “Freddy and I scoured London, sure that you had met with some dreadful mishap.”
“Oh, my darling, I’m—”
“Don’t you dare call me that!” she cried. “It was all lies, wasn’t it? The marriage proposal, your kisses.”
“Maria,” he said, glancing at Mr. Pinter, “it is not appropriate for you to mention—”
“Appropriate!” she practically howled. “What about lying to your business partner and stealing from him? Are those ‘appropriate’?”
He drew himself up, clearly offended. “I didn’t steal from your father. I would never do that.”
“Really? So you somehow acquired a fleet of clipper ships that you’re offering for sale, even though half of them don’t belong to you?”
He flinched. With another glance at Mr. Pinter, he lowered his voice. “Could we please have this conversation privately?”
“Absolutely not.” She’d learned a thing or two from herreading about crime. Schemers always used their victims’ soft hearts against them. She needed Mr. Pinter’s stony good sense to deflect any urge she had to believe Nathan’s lies. “I want Mr. Pinter to witness this. I don’t trust you.”
“It isn’t what you think!” He fixed her with an earnest gaze. “I did it for us.”
“Forus?” She was incredulous that he could even claim such a thing.
“Has it never struck you that four years is a long time for a betrothal?”
“Of course, but Papa said—”
“I know.” His lip curled in disdain. “He said he had to be sure I could run the company before he entrusted you to me.”
“He was only testing you. He always believed in you. Why else would he leave half his company to you in his will?”
“Did he? He said he was going to. But I could never be sure he’d do as he promised.” Taking her by surprise, he seized her hands. “He has dangled you before me as a prize for four years, and every time I brought up the possibility of us marrying, he said I wasn’t ready.”
She gaped at him. “That can’t be true!”
“Trust me, it is.” He squeezed her hands. “I began to fear he only wanted to get as much work out of me as he could, before selling his half to some other chap.”
She snatched her hands from his. “Why would he do that? He had no son to inherit. He needed a strong man like you to run the company after he was gone.”
“Yet he refused to let us marry. I couldn’t wait. I wanted a wife.”
“So you went off to find one in England?”
“No!” He rubbed his side-whiskers nervously. “He told me if I could make the deal in London work, he’d let us marry. But negotiations in London fell through. They kept saying your father was an old man—that they couldn’t trust New Bedford Ships to provide the ships when I owned only half the company. If something happened to your father, they would be left in limbo.”
As she stared at him uncertainly, he softened his voice. “I explained about our betrothal, but they hesitated to trust such an informal arrangement. They feared you might decide not to marry me and instead sell your half to some other partner. Where would that leave them?”
“You knew I wouldn’t do that.”
