“Not for you,” came Max’s immediate reply.
Bryony’s hidden smile was brittle.
He was angry with her for forcing him to make a compromise not of his choosing.
She hadn’t wished to hold the property deed over his head like blackmail, but she had been desperate. He had backed her into a corner from which she saw no other escape. She could not bear to lose him from her life so soon after finding him.
A month from now, her parents could have her betrothed and headed a hundred miles away. But between then and now, she wanted to spend as much time at the Cloven Hoof as possible.
It was the closest she had ever come to feeling like she was somewhere she belonged.
“—and ever since, the Queen of Diamonds has been my lucky card,” explained the current guest.
“When gambling one’s unentailed home,” Max said with considerable patience, “there is no such thing as a lucky card.”
Bryony grinned at the folding screen.
It would be easier if she could dislike him. If he truly were the demon Society painted him to be. But she had seen the truth. She gazed at him through the crack beside the folding screen.
He was the angel of the underworld. A granter of miracles. A giver of hope, to those most in need.
One could not help but admire him.
“Have you considered my offer?” came a new voice, crackling with hope.
“I have,” Max responded. “I shall invest at ten percent.”
Her heart gave a little flutter. Everything she’d wished she could be doing when she used her anonymous accounts to transfer funds out of her savings and into lives where it would make more of an impact, Max did every day. Without pseudonyms. Without secrecy. Without shame. He was able to openly help others and receive much-deserved credit for all of his accomplishments.
Women like Bryony would never be able to do the same.
To be sure, she would soon be praised on the fine catch her parents managed to scrounge for her. It would be a lie. Her elder sister was sweet, biddable, and beautiful, and the suitor their parents had procured for poor Camellia was a man twice her age from the other side of England. So far away, the sisters had feared they would lose contact altogether.
Bryony’s fortune would be far worse than that. Her strongest qualities weren’t the sort that anyone admired.
Except for Max.
As angry as he’d been with her for manipulating him, he was no fool. He was a pragmatist. Once the deal was struck, he’d immediately put her to work. She was not behind the settee twiddling fingers as she eavesdropped. She was sharing the settee with a stack of old journals, a pile of new pencils, and a fresh journal in which to analyze, calculate, and conclude for Max’s benefit.
“What if he doesn’t pay his vowels?” came a tremulous voice on the other side of the folding screen. “I cannot take him to the courts. If the House of Lords won’t convict murder, they certainly won’t side with a humble shopkeeper over a marquess.”
“I don’t need the House of Lords at my disposal in order to ruin him.” Max’s voice was calm. Simply stating facts. “Tell him he has a fortnight or he’s answerable to me.”
Bryony’s stomach flipped. He was as brilliant as he was ruthless. Driven to succeed at any cost. She could not have respected him more.
If she were forced to come up with something she disliked about Maxwell Gideon, it would be that he was able to perform his amazing feats and defy every odd, while she was powerless to even try.
Proper ladies did not run businesses of any kind. They were too busy running their husbands’ household. Any assets they possessed prior to the marriage were forfeit the day of the wedding. The husband’s word was now law. The wife’s role, to provide him with children. Sons. Someone who could inherit and be important. Someone capable of starting a legacy of his own.
It was enough to make a woman scream.
“Closing time,” came the low, familiar rumble of Max’s voice. “We are alone.”
A delicious shiver raced down Bryony’s spine.
Ever since that one electrically charged moment when he had almost kissed her, Max had not tried again. Perhaps he no longer wished to.
Bryony did not feel the same.
