Page 75 of His Stolen Duchess
“Was there any business, Your Grace?” Francis asked.
The four men laughed together. Lysander immediately looked over at Georgina, talking with her sisters, to see her staring back at him with a slightly furrowed brow.
He turned back to the matter at hand. “Yes, I do have some business to discuss. I’d hoped someone had a good head for figures, and I value a frank opinion over one meant to placate. I have a mill on my estate, and the returns last quarter were passable. Not great, but still a small profit. Now, with the price of cotton wavering, is it the right time for me to enter into a new partnership?”
Uncle Francis cleared his throat and spoke first. “When it comes to cotton, I find it is the Manchester men who are the boldest, and they will often undercut prices, even running at a deficit to put others out of business before raising prices again when they have the market to themselves. The question is whether a short-term loss is worth it for you. If your production is notlarge, it might be an inconvenience to continue running a cotton mill when other opportunities come with more profit and fewer problems.”
No one else spoke for a moment, and all four men looked at Francis. He merely sipped his drink and made no further comment.
“The problem for me”—Ambrose took another look at Francis—“is ensuring the proper running of the mill before the cotton is to be sold, and that the product is not being undercut. I always insist upon having a trusted man on the farm to oversee the production.”
“I have many men who are trustworthy, but I worry that none of them are suited for industry,” Lysander said. “I don’t want to put someone there who doesn’t know the business inside out.”
“Such men are hard to come by,” Vincent admitted. “It is harder to find a trustworthy man than a hardworking one, but the latter can always be taught. In times like these, we all must roll up our sleeves and get stuck in. I’m not only talking about the men we trust, but ourselves. Wealth is not as gentlemanly as it once was.”
“Yes, but thetonwould have you believe that the only thing you must do is to have enough money to make it grow without doing anything more about it,” Oliver added. “The daysomeone from thetongets their hands dirty is the day that pigs fly.”
“That is something I wouldn’t mind seeing,” Francis commented.
The four men burst into laughter again, and even Francis smiled, though he didn’t really know what he was smiling about.
“I see that some glasses are running dry,” Oliver said. “In this house that is shameful, so allow me to have someone refill your glasses.” He clicked his fingers in the air. “Once we have that, I must insist we get back to boring topics, or we will never hear the end of it from our wives. We must live up to their expectations and nothing more or less.”
“Another thing we can all drink to,” Vincent said, raising his glass.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What do you think they are talking about?” Ava asked, her arms folded across her chest. “Whenever I get close to a conversation between the three of—I guess it is the four of them now—it nearly bores me to tears. How can they laugh so much about such things?”
“I’m not sure I’ve seen Lysander laugh before,” Georgina admitted. “I have no idea what they are talking about.”
“It is likely something so boring that they have no other option but to laugh or they will all go insane,” Emily said.
Juliana’s eyebrows dropped as she considered her youngest sister. “You haven’t seen your husband laugh? Are you sure that everything is well?”
“Oh yes, of course.” Georgina instantly regretted that she had spoken so quickly because it made it sound as if there was something wrong. “Everyone is different. I am sure if wewere to compare our husbands we would find vast differences between them, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t marry good men. Lysander is not the sort of man to make jokes or be playful like others do. And I don’t mind that because I know he will protect me whenever the time comes.”
“Like at the ball with Lady Eastbeck,” Emily replied. “I still can’t believe that happened. Has anyone seen her since?”
Juliana shook her head. “If she has been seen, no one is talking about it.”
“I do feel sorry for her in a way.” Georgina took a sip of her drink. “I look around here, and I have the three of you to depend on, and I feel very loved by all of you. And then I see our husbands altogether, and even if it might seem strange, it is heartwarming to hear them laughing and getting on so well. When I think about the life I have had, I can’t complain that much about it. I don’t think she has any of that, and it makes me sad.”
“If we had been there, it might have been Lady Eastbeck who got struck across the face.” Emily presented her balled fist in the air.
The other three sisters laughed.
Ava leaned in to whisper her next comment. “Now, the men will be looking over and talking about us, wondering what we are laughing about, and how can we ever tell them that we are laughing at the thought of Emily punching another woman?”
“Perhaps they are talking about strange things, too, and that is why they were laughing,” Georgina commented. “If we are talking about fighting, then maybe they are talking about dresses and flowers.”
The sisters burst into laughter again, and when Georgina looked over at her husband, he was looking back with a slight smirk on his lips and his eyebrows raised slightly.
She returned her own smile, shrugging as if to say, ‘If you tell me what you are talking about, I’ll tell you what I’m talking about.’
Lysander followed that with a shrug of his own.
For a long time, it had felt like it was them against the world, and she still felt that to an extent, but seeing him being more open, not just at home but with her family, made her hopeful that they could someday be part of something greater.
