“Of course you can do it.” Marian brushed a stray hair from his lapels. “You’re a hundred times more genteel than any of us. What were all those tutoring sessions for, if not this?”
Silas said nothing.
His father had believed that a good education would help his son impress the officers and mingle in the right circles. If courting a well-bred lady had ever been on the agenda, it must have been a far more distant goal, only possible once he’d made his fortune.
But you never made it that far, did you?
Never mind. He wasn’treallycourting Miss Williams. He was performing a chore for her—one that would benefit them both. That was all.
“You’re sure this chit’s finally going to pay you?” James asked, watching them both from the other side of the room, where he stood leaning against the doorframe.
“As sure as I can be without speaking to her.”
“Sounds balmy, if you ask me.” James frowned to himself. “Why would shewantto be ruined?”
The storydidsound a bit absurd when Silas laid it all out.
“That’s her concern,” he replied. He couldn’t afford to start second-guessing his choice now, or he would never make it to dinner. “What matters is, she can help us get enough for your brewery. That’s what you want, isn’t it? Marian, help me with these cuff links, won’t you?”
“But she still hasn’t even paid what you’re owed from the last time.” James frowned to himself. “Wouldn’t it be simpler just to marry her?”
Silas would have choked if his mouth weren’t empty. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Language,” Marian chided as she fastened the cuffs on his left sleeve.
“If her family is as well-to-do as you say, she must have a dowry, yeah? And I reckon it’s worth more than whatever she’s giving you in bits and bobs for showing up to pretend you’re in love and fool her mum, or whatnot.” James shrugged. “So why not marry her? Then you getallthe money and we can do whatever we want with it. Seems safer than waiting and hoping she pays.”
“She doesn’t want to get married,” Silas explained. “That’s the whole point of this.”
“You sure the whole point isn’t just that she’s sweet on you and wants an excuse to keep you coming back?”
The look James shot his way rattled Silas’s understanding of the situation.
CouldMiss Williams have done all this to get his attention? It seemed a bizarre means to ensnare him. And her distress that first night in the club’s office had been real enough. He didn’t think her tears had been false.
James doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
He cast a glance at Marian, who seemed to sense his doubt. “Don’t pay any mind to James,” she assured him, echoing his thoughts. “He’s always spotting attachments where there are none. Still…”
“Still?” Not a word he cared to hear at this juncture.
“Itisa bit odd, her calling you back again and again this way.” Marian raised her eyebrows in a knowing manner. “And you do seem to enjoy playing knight-errant to her, or you wouldn’t keep answering.”
“I’m not playing knight-errant!” Silas sputtered. What nonsense. They’d never even met Miss Williams, and they thought they knew everything about her. “I’m going foryoursake,” he reminded them. “Or would you rather I stayed home and missed our chance to get the funds we need?”
“Of course we wouldn’t rather you stayed home,” James replied easily. “I’ve just said I think you should marry her, haven’t I? Why won’t you consider it? Isn’t she pretty?”
Silas recalled Miss Williams’s face: the way her rich brown eyes sparkled with determination; her straight, dark brows; the heart-shaped lips that had surprised him with their eagerness when she’d kissed him; her nose that was a touch too long.
“She’s…handsome enough,” he concluded, feeling a bit uneasy at this realization. This whole thing would be a good deal less complicated if he didn’t think about whether or not Miss Williams was attractive.
“Then stop stalling and go make us rich. It’s not every day one of ours gets a chance to catch one of theirs.”
“Are you going to be like this all the time?” Silas snapped, annoyed at his brother’s meddling. His view of the evening had been much simpler before James started talking. “I’m starting to wish I’d stayed at the boardinghouse.”
“You don’t mean that,” Marian said. “But James is right that you should be off.” She gave him a final once-over and tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear. “You have nothing to be nervous about. You look very dashing, no matter how the coat fits.”
“I’m not nervous,” he grumbled. Nor did he care if he looked dashing.
