Jeremy pushed the thought away, clearing his throat before lowering himself into the chair beside Baxter.
“I’m Leo, and this old grump of a fellow is Rudolph,” Leo quipped before taking his seat at the table. Based on the deliveryof the joke, as well as Rudolph’s unimpressed grunt, Jeremy had no doubt Leo had been using the same line for most of their adult lives.
At the far end of the table, Rudolph didn’t bother glancing up from what he was reading. Addendums to the contract—a rather satisfying collection of them. Jeremy flicked a glance over the thick binder of documents that he himself had compiled and then leaned back and crossed one foot over his knee.
Was he anxious to get this over with? Yes. Would he show it? Hell, no.
“We can’t all be the charming ones.” Baxter threw a quick but pointed glance in Jeremy’s direction, and Leo laughed.
“Makes you and I look even better, eh, Baxter?” Leo agreed. “I’d offer you a smoke, but perhaps we should wait until after the negotiations?”
“Brilliant, Leo, as usual,” Rudolph muttered without looking up from his reading.
A handful of begrudging-looking gentlemen, presumably the Ludwigs’ solicitors, leaned against the wall with their arms folded across their chests. They took their turns nodding as Leo Ludwig made introductions, but all the while Jeremy kept his gaze pinned on the grumpy one. Rudolph Ludwig would be the one to bring up all objections and questions.
Baxter took the seat beside Jeremy and then caught his gaze meaningfully. Although the club owner had, in fact, brought in considerable investment money, Jeremy would be the major shareholder, maintaining ownership of fifty-one percent. For that reason, and because he was the most informed, he would act as principal negotiator.
After waiting nearly half a minute, Rudolph finally raised his head and leveled his watery gaze on Jeremy. “This isn’t the asking price.”
The room fell silent at the gambit, and Jeremy immediately recognized his advantage.
These penny-pinching merchants considered gentlemen of the nobility to be foolish and cavalier where business was concerned. Jeremy was happy to be underestimated.
“It’s twenty percent more than the company’s worth.” Ten percent, but that was beside the point.
Jeremy would rather not bring up the missing ammunition nor the arms that had been tampered with.
But if necessary, he would.
Rudolph grunted, placed an unlit cigar between his teeth, and turned the page. “This ship is undervalued,” he said around the cigar.
Jeremy opened his own folder and offered the evaluation he’d had done. “I beg to differ. Unless you have documentation proving otherwise?”
Rudolph only grunted again, and then went on to dispute something else.
Two and a half hours later,having made zero allowances where price was concerned, Jeremy and Baxter stepped onto the docks as the new owners of one of England’s oldest shipping companies. Official paperwork in hand, Jeremy stared up at the gray and cloudy sky and waited for relief that didn’t come.
Buying Ludwig Bros. was only the first step in clearing Arthur’s name. Tomorrow, he’d begin the task of sifting through the company’s original accounting records. It would be one of those undertakings where finding nothing would be considered a good thing.
He’d sift out the traitors, bring them to justice, and there would be no mention of his brother.
Would he find relief then? Would it be enough?
Arthur had not been a saint. Arthur had just been… Arthur: the charming brother, the ladies’ man. Yes, he had cheated on his wife and then failed to take the necessary steps to provide properly for his daughter, but he wasn’t a traitor.
Jeremy was certain of this.
None of this would have been necessary if Lucas and Blackheart had simply left well enough alone. Jeremy wouldn’t have had to remain in London over the winter, putting his mother’s health at risk; he wouldn’t have had to buy a damn shipping company nor would he have been forced to go to war with an army of dock thieves.
And he’d already be married to Lydia.
Lydia, without whom, he was coming to realize, his life was nothing more than a series of monotonous days.
And endless, frustrating nights.
And having come to that conclusion, he realized he was going to have to change the way he’d been thinking. His gut roiled at the thought of enduring their betrayal, but Lydia was worth it.
She always had been.
