Page 24 of Sweet Siren
"So you dislike Mister Hanniford forthat."
"I hold him accountable for his actions,yes."
"I see. Was the pricefair?"
Liv squared her jaw. "Not the price my fatherasked."
Camille turned her face to her own window, her brow furrowing. "But grandpapa had other businesses. The coal mines. And wasn't he invested in a train? With the old duke of Seton? Julian'sfather?"
"He was allied with him, yes. Seton bought him out for a pittance." Another bad bit of bargaining on the part of her father. Liv bit her lip. She hadn't meant to share that last. But Camille was a smart girl, capturing everything said in her presence and everything unsaid as well. Family secrets were difficult to contain with such a wizard in hermidst.
"Does that have anything to do with MisterHanniford?"
"What? The purchase by Seton of your grandfather's shares in the train? No, nothing."But it was part of a series of challenges from which my father did notrecover.
"This purchase of your father's shipping line happened how many years ago? In eighteen-sixty?"
"Sixty-one." Liv frowned. Camille knew foreign affairs, too. She was well versed in reasons for the great recession that had occurred in England because of cotton shortages in the mills. Liv could not avoid expanding her knowledge. "Eighteen yearsago."
"Isn't that a long time to hold agrudge?"
Liv squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed the sharp words she wished to scream so the world would hear. "Your grandfather's financial failures had long termeffects."
"So much so that after all these years, you cannot enjoy Mister Hanniford'scompany?"
"Yes. Some hardships are not forgotten." Lack of food. Lack of money. The fear for tomorrow. The disgrace. A mother crazed. A father stunned and stoic. "Some failures are not easy todismiss."
"Even if you likesomeone—"
"Even if youdo."
