“Wonderful,” he muttered to my delight.
We were silent for a bit, save for the sea. Then he turned to face me. “I am not ignorant, Anna. So I know you’ve already made your decision. But if I have to beg, I will. Ineedthis investment. What can I do to change your mind?”
Tabs’s eyes closed, and I sighed. “Graham, can’t we talk of this later?”
“All I’m asking for is a chance.”
“I told you. I will do my best—”
“Afairchance. Sitting on a beach all week is not Brighton. Let me take the reins. Let me give you a real tour, a real Brighton experience. Then you can make arealdecision based on your impression of this place, not your opinion of me.”
“Don’t forget to say please,” Tabs added sleepily.
Graham smirked, then tilted his head. “Please.”
He hadn’t been horrible today. But an investment of this magnitude would require meetings, decisions, more time apart from Papa. I might as well be asking him into our family for the next decade with how focused Papa’s attentionwould be on him. And I needed Papa beside me now most of all after Mr. Lennox’s deceptions.
Panic stuttered my heart into motion, wrapping around my throat with a strong hand. I imagined news had already started to spread. How long would it take to reach Brighton? If I handed Graham this investment, how could I be certain I would ever have Papa’s attention again?
Unless ...
I thought for a moment. “Say I do give you a real chance ...”
Graham straightened, eyes alight. “I’ll make this trip unforgettable. Exciting. I won’t ask you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
I nodded once. “Then will you swear, after I’ve followed you along all week, that no matter what I decide, you’ll leave my father alone after this venture? No more investments. No more random evening calls.”
He drew back, brows furrowed, frowning. “You speak as though I am some unwanted horsefly. Your father and I are friends.”
Friends? My father was twice his age. I started to laugh. “Honestly, Graham—”
“Honestly, Anna.” He was serious. Offended. “I count your father in the highest regard. Indeed, he may be the only person alive I confide in fully. Investments aside, I will not forsake a friend who has become essential in my life just because his daughter throws a fit.”
My lips parted, and I drew back, armed with the most hateful retort on my tongue.
But I stopped short, surprised to see Graham’s jaw set, his face reddening and a boyish pain shadowing his features. LikeI’d wounded him somewhere deep where few people could reach. Tabs stirred in her sleep, and I placed a hand on her shoulder. “It would appear youare the one throwing a fit at present,” I muttered instead.
He cleared his throat, rubbing a hand over his face as though he could wipe away his feelings. Facing the sea, he said, “So it isn’t Brighton, then. It’s me. You don’t want your father to invest withme.”
“I don’t want my father to invest his time with anyone.” Anyone but me.
Graham’s gaze fixed on Tabs. He watched her, then picked up a small rock and smoothed it over with his thumb. His voice came out serious, low. “Will this agreement eventually terminate? Say, upon your marriage?”
I considered his offer, imagining myself a lonely spinster, too weakened and embittered by gossip to try her hand at love again. I couldn’t let Mr. Lennox be the end of me. I would rise above this embarrassment. “As long as it takes.”
“You are asking me to abandon a close friend for the mere possibility at an investment that I dearly need. You hate me that much?” Graham’s eyes flicked to mine with a vulnerability I’d yet to see in him. He wanted to know, but he also didn’t.
I leaned in. “Do you know who escorted me through half the Season while my father was away in Bath withyou?”
His brows furrowed.
“My great-aunt Agnes. We left every ballroom early. I took callers while she dozed in the corner. I had to send regrets to dinner parties when she took ill.”
“She sounds like every young woman’s dream.”
“Oh, I enjoyed myself.” I smiled. “But I assure you, allthe finest gentlemen were taken halfway through the Season, and I did not appreciate that fact until it was too late.”
Graham sighed, rolling his shoulders like I’d placed a new weight upon them. Guilt tugged at my heart, but his friendship with my father was not permanent. One day, he’d marry, have children, and build a life full enough that he’d forget about my father and our little corner in London. He had no blood ties to us. Only forced ones that could be clipped with no lasting damage.
