Without a word, she sat and took a sheet of paper from the stationery stand. She quickly penned a short reply, folded it, sealed it, and held it out to Poogan.
“Please apologize to the footman for the delay, Poogan. It is never necessary to be rude or ignorant of another’s time.”
Poogan disagreed with her over thiseccentricityof hers for he’d told her so. When she’d asked him about his reaction the first time, she offered an apology. Waiting was part of a footman’s or house maid’s or other servant’s job, he’d explained, and they expected it when carrying out their duties—to literally and figuratively wait on their betters.
She, however, did not live or treat those who worked for her as her parents and society and even those like Poogan did. A little kindness went far in keeping a loyal and respectful staff in both her house and her school. And that would never change.
Poogan bowed and took the letter, placing it on the tray he held. He nodded as he left.
“So, will you go?”
Clare entwined her fingers together and rested her hands on the desk in front of her. The sound of Samantha’s tapping foot echoed in the silence of the room.
“I must.” Samantha let out the breath she’d been holding. Clare allowed a smile to break. “Weakness is one thing he seeks out in an opponent. Refusing now would expose my fear to him.” Clare shrugged as she stood. “So, aye, I will accept his invitation to dinner.”
Samantha went to the door and opened it. “Dinner only?” Clare nodded. “I will help you choose a dress if you’d like?”
“That would be helpful. I am sorely out of practice at such things.”
“Clare.” Samantha stopped before entering the foyer and took hold of her hands. “If you do not wish to. If you are opposed to taking this step. I do not want my earlier words to force you to do something you are not ready to do.”
She appreciated Samantha’s support and nodded at her.
“I am not being forced to this by anything but my decision to find out more about him.”
“You hire employees to do that.”
“But, Samantha, I may succeed in learning more about the man this way. I may discoverhisweaknesses.Hisfears. And more.”
Clare wrapped her arm around Samantha’s and led her to the stairs. They were halfway up the first flight when she leaned over and whispered.
“But I will do this on my own terms.”
Chapter Nine
Lady Clare wouldmeet him for supper.
He laughed aloud drawing the servants’ notice. Iain read the reply again and laughed... again. From their reserved but yet obvious glances, his household was questioning his sanity.
The lady declined, however, to accompany him to the ball.
So be it.
From what he’d learned, she’d not attended a society function since she married Logan. Better that than to be constantly snubbed by family and friends and even strangers. Iain understood that feeling having lived it most of his life. Even after he’d taken over Old Buchanan’s factory and inherited the rest, a fortune by any standards, he was still not enough for society.
Oh, they profited from him and with him and he was soon too successful to ignore, but they interacted with him as though the stench of the street yet hung about him. No matter that he had forced the cant from his speech and learned to present himself as a gentleman, it did not make them welcome him into their private affairs and gatherings.
Iain folded her reply and placed it on the table next to his bed. He nodded to Paul that he was ready to be shaved. His valet waved the other servants from the room and held out a chair to Iain. Seated, with his face and neck wrapped in a steaming towel, he felt a wave of sympathy for the widow. A moan escaped him.
“Too hot, sir?” Paul asked.
“Nay, Paul. Continue.”
He simply could not allow softer feelings into this matter of the properties. He could not. He would not. He needed to keep her in perspective—an opponent who wanted something he wanted, nay needed, and who stood in his way of one of the greatest accomplishments since his rising from the dead.
The expansion of his businesses, aye his empire, would not be stopped because a maudlin widow wished to hold onto the properties of her dead husband two years after his passing. It would not be stopped because they’d share the same shaming by society and the same position as outsiders staring in and wanting to be accepted.
Nay. The companies that spread around the kingdom, the continent and even in the previous colonies, now a united country, gave him as much solace as he needed to soothe his hurts over the insults. Almost unlimited wealth that he could use to acquire anything he wished softened the blows of his earlier life. And the accumulated power to make men do what he wished eased his now shiny path amongst those who had shunned him before.
