If Mr. Corbyn openly rejected her, she couldn’t keep using their supposed romance as an excuse to refuse other suitors.
What he needed to do wasfail. And not just a little bit. He needed to fail so spectacularly that Mama would have no choice but to back down.
How on earth am I going to pay him enough for all this?
Her winnings that first night at the gambling club had been a rare stroke of good fortune, but Hannah didn’t often have ready access to that sort of money. If only there were some way she could get at her dowry. Three thousand pounds, just sitting there uselessly in a bank when she had real need of it.
“I’m going to need new clothes,” she announced. That might serve. “If I’m to be a married woman soon, I need to look my best. And my trousseau doesn’t have more than a few linens in it. Might I have some money to go to the shops?”
Even if it was only a few pounds, it would go to show Mr. Corbyn that she could be trusted to pay him eventually. She might find a way to send little bits each week until she’d fulfilled her debt.
“Your trousseau wouldn’t be so empty if you’d been working on it like I asked you to instead of arguing that you didn’t need it. Whatever happened to that tablecloth you were supposed to embroider last winter? Did you even finish it?”
“Let’s not worry about the tablecloth now,” Hannah pleaded. It was gathering dust in their country house, along with her hopes and dreams of freedom. “Might I please have a little money?”
“I can take you to the modiste tomorrow.”
Drat.That was no good. She wouldn’t have any chance to pocket the funds and slip away to Mr. Corbyn’s house with her mother standing watch.
“Couldn’t I please go with Miss Annabelle? You haven’t let me see any of my friends in weeks.”
“You can see your friends again once Mr. Corbyn has proven he’s worthy of this family and made a formal offer for you in marriage.Not a moment sooner.” Mama frowned. “He can start by coming by the house for supper on Tuesday so that we can all meet him properly.”
“ThisTuesday?” Hannah squeaked. That left her no time to plan! How was she to instruct Mr. Corbyn on his spectacular failure? What if he succeeded instead?
Wait, that doesn’t make any sense, she scolded herself.It isn’t as though he actuallywantsto marry me.The greatest danger wasn’t that he might persuade Mama that he could be a worthy groom; it was that he might grow tired of Hannah’s continual demands and expose their whole subterfuge before she’d regained control of the situation.
If only she weren’t so wretchedly dependent on him. It was her own fault for having kissed him in the office that night, but she’d never imagined how quickly that one little lie would spread. With every step, it only seemed to grow bigger, until it threatened to dictate all her actions.
“Your brother can extend the invitation.” Mama finally turned back to her floral arrangement, apparently considering the matter settled. “Do you think I’ve added too much lavender? I don’t want it to overpower the other elements.”
How could she think about flowers at a time like this? Hannah drew a shaky breath.
There was no need to panic. She could still turn things to her favor. She would just have to find some way to get Eli to pass on a message to Mr. Corbyn along with his dinner invitation. Some signal that would convey her desperate need for assistance without revealing anything to her brother. After all, Mr. Corbyn had proven willing to help her so far.Remarkablywilling, in fact. Hannah might not enjoy having to rely on him again, but it was the only way to keep one step ahead of her mother.
This new turn was merely a wrinkle in her plans, not a defeat. Everything was still well under control.
* * *
“I’d like us to go to the hops warehouse this week,” Marian said over their supper of quail and fresh greens. “We can think about our choices, once we have the funds to buy. I think it makes the most sense to focus on pale ale. We can’t afford the space to cellar much of the beer ourselves, so we’ll turn a better profit if we can ship it to India or America and let it cellar on the voyage.”
Silas was silent as he chewed his meal. Marian’s cooking was a distinct improvement over the fare he’d been eating at the local public house before he’d moved his things over here. Though he wasn’t sure he agreed with their decision to spend so much on rent, he had to admit that their lodgings were a vast improvement. And Marian seemed to think that she could make valuable connections in this neighborhood, which was known for its breweries. In the month since their arrival, they’d toured most of the larger breweries of London and invited more than one manager to dine with them. Silas was learning a great deal. He only hoped he would get the chance to use any of it.
“When are you getting your funds, though?” James watched him expectantly. “It’s been a month and we still haven’t seen a tuppence from that chit. Don’t you think it’s time to march over there and demand what she owes?”
“How exactly am I supposed to do that without letting her family know that the whole thing was a ploy?”
The way James carried on, one would think Miss Williams owedhimthe money.
“I don’t see how that’s your concern,” James insisted. “You’ve given her more than enough time to pay.”
Silas took another bite of his supper, mainly to avoid the need to reply.
Truth be told, he’d begun to share James’s worries. Marian did too, though she was too good to say it directly. He could tell from the look in her eye whenever the subject came up. She’d harbored her doubts about the plan from the start, once Silas had explained what he’d done.
He’d expected Miss Williams to turn up on their doorstep any day, face flushed and nervous to intrude, just as she had been that first time. But in the weeks that followed his dramatic declaration on her lawn, Silas had received no word from her.
Maybe she doesn’t know where I’m staying. He’d sent a note to her house when he’d moved lodgings, but her mother was almost certain to destroy it. And though he’d left instructions to the other residents to pass his new address along if any visitors came looking for him, he didn’t think Miss Williams would have the nerve to ask them if she knocked at his door and someone else answered.
