“I only want to help. If you recall, I had promised to set you up in a shop like this.”
“I did not know if I would ever see you again,” she said. “I made the best bargain I could.”
He nodded his understanding. Meanwhile, she glanced at Druina who had been silent the whole time. Without needingYihui to ask, Druina crossed to the side table where her book sat in what would become a protected corner. She carefully opened the pages and drew out the written page on which Yihui had affixed her name.
He scanned it quickly, his lips tightening. “You will never make this rent,” he said grimly. “And then you will need to borrow money from her to delay payment, but she will charge interest. Very soon every penny you make will go to her and you will have nothing left on which to live.” He looked up at her. “You have been tricked.”
She winced, her gaze locking for a moment with Druina before she looked down at her hands.
“I had little choice.” It was a lie. She could have waited for him. Hadn’t Emmaline promised that they would find her? Didn’t she know that he would try? At a minimum, he would have tried to protect her.
“There is a way out,” he said. “This paper is not legal. Women cannot sign contracts. As your fiancé, she needed my signature.”
Her gaze rose up to his, and once again her emotions churned in fury. “I do not need a man to make my promises!”
“You were duped!”
“I agreed.” She pointed at the paper. “Even if it was a bad choice, I agreed. Madame Sabate, too! She had no man there to sign.”
“Which makes it even less legal.”
If she could, she would have shot to her feet and stormed out of the room. But she couldn’t, so she leaned forward as far as she could. “We know what we promised.”
He frowned. “Do you think she will honor it?”
Yihui pursed her lips. “It is a trap for me. Of course, she will honor it. And as you say, the rent is reasonable for a thriving business, yes?”
He nodded. “Yes, I believe so.”
“Then I must thrive.”
“It is not possible,” he said. “Not without borrowing the money from someone.”
Yihui threw up her hands. “Max, I am the girl daughter of a gambler in Canton. It was not possible for me to come to England to be engaged to a prince, but I was.”
“I’m not a prince,” he said. “And that was Prinny being—”
“Nothing that has happened to me is possible. And yet I am here.”
“Just because you have experienced a miracle doesn’t mean you should rely on them.”
“I rely on my skills. I rely on my intelligence. I jump however I must to survive.”
His lips curved but it wasn’t a happy smile. The expression held frustration and dismay. “Come back home with me Yihui. I will set you up in a new shop. One without Madame Sabate dogging your heels every time you turn around.”
“I have already promised myself here,” she said.
“And this is a trick.”
“If I go back on my word, then I am nothing. Trick or not, I promised.”
He nodded slowly, his lips pressed tightly together. She didn’t want to anger him. She already knew that he was her only hope of escaping the trap. But he had to know that she would not put herself in his care. For all that he had done nothing to harm her, he was not a god. He answered to the prince, to his father, to any number of other responsibilities. She needed to stand on her own, even with broken feet and a woman as her taskmaster.
“There is an obvious answer,” he said finally said. “I can loan you the money you need. Enough to survive until the shop is established.”
“I would welcome that,” she said. “Thank you.”
And she was enormously grateful despite becoming beholden to a man. Her declaration of independence had lasted four days.
