It had? She looked at Lord Byrn. “You accomplished all that this afternoon?”
“As you said yesterday, it was a beneficial plan for everyone.” Elliott’s smile flashed white in the gloom. “And Lord Easterly vows to support my resolution and bring his friends’ votes along with him.”
Oh, good. That was good news.
“I need only to secure Lord Morthan’s vote with the brooch, then everything will be in hand. And you will be well on your way to being married respectably. You need never return to this cage again.” His opinion of the tiny dark cage was abundantly clear. And now that she stood in it, she noticed how very small it was, how it smelled as bad as the main floor, if not worse. Now that she looked about, she realized that it was a fraction of the size of the bedroom she had at Lady Dunnamore’s home.
How had she spent so much time here?
And now it became even more cramped as her father came in.
Lina retreated back to her corner, lifting her abacas and beginning the steady click-clack of her work. Lord Byrn backed into the other corner, clearly trying to be as small as possible, which was hard given the breadth of his shoulders and his height. Her father set down the tea before her grandfather, then turned to her with a big smile.
“Have you come to thank me, my girl?” he said with a hearty laugh. “You always said you would marry a prince, and look at you now. My grandsons will go to English schools with titled lords, and you will teach them to never come to a place like this, yes?”
What was she to say to that? The idea that her sons would never know this place was wonderful, but that was like saying they would never know their own mother.
“Papa, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what? Things I never dreamed possible? It was Lord Byrn who arranged it. You must do a good piece for him. The best you can make, for he has been generous with you. A good bargain, yes? You make a brooch and get a fine husband in return.”
Was that how he saw it? A brooch for a husband, as if the two were marketable commodities.
“It is too cramped in here,” her father said. “We will go downstairs.”
Amber jolted in surprise. Her father never invited gentlemen to go down to the shop unless he intended to sell them something. “But what if someone comes to the cage?” Her grandfather hadn’t been able to accurately appraise anything for at least a year.
“Lina will send word, yes?”
Lina nodded in agreement.
“See? All good.” Then he turned to Lord Byrn. “We did not have time this afternoon for a toast. Let us go share a drink now, yes?”
“It would be my pleasure, Mr. Gohar.”
Her father snorted. “I left that name a long time ago. I am Mr. Gold here.”
He was Mr. Gold. She was Amber Gohar. And everybody wanted her to become Mrs. Somebody Else. Everybody, that is, except her. But no one was asking her. So, when Elliott and her father went downstairs, she followed like a silly child and said absolutely nothing.
