Page 34 of The Lost Lord
Thank Howard for that. Richard was not above taking credit if it benefitted him, however.
“What if I want to invest in your new venture?” Livingston asked lazily. A flint-spark of hope lit in Richard’s chest.
“I am happy to share the prospectus with you as well,” Richard replied with all the nonchalance he could muster. There was no prospectus, which meant he had to write one with Howard. His friend’s caution rang in his ears.Do not involve your future wife.
Howard had said nothing about the lady’s father, however. What a neat circumvention of the problem.
“Miriam has a good eye for investments, though I fear her judgment will be clouded in your case.” Livingston grimaced. “She has been impossible to live with ever since I ordered you off our property. I have never seen her so moody.”
Richard stifled a grin with great difficulty.
“You have my permission to marry Miriam. I ask only two things of you. The first is that you care for her health as religiously as I have. Mrs. Kent has saved her life on many occasions. She stays with Miriam.”
“I swear upon my life I shall do everything within my power to keep her among the living,” Richard swore.
Livingston nodded, satisfied. “Secondly, you must never take her away from me. Miriam is my only family. I want Miriam close by, no matter what old age I achieve. Lord knows I’ve already lived a sight longer than I deserve to.”
“Done,” Richard lied. Taking Miriam to England might be far as measured in physical distance, but he reasoned it was closer than the grave. Richard no longer trusted any land where Lizzie walked free.
“Last thing. I won’t have my daughter sailing across the sea unmarried. You’ll have a ceremony here.”
“I had hoped for Miriam to meet my family before we made our union official.” Richard protested with all the diplomacy he could muster. In his mind, the marriage would take place after he had established his business and secured the title his brother dangled in his letter.
“If you want to marry Miriam, you’ll do so under my watch. Mrs. Kent stays with her. Those are my terms.” Livingston rocked back on his chair legs and tipped the last of the whisky down his throat. He slammed the glass onto his desk and dropped the chair back to earth in a simultaneous loud bang.
“Done,” Richard agreed, scrambling up. “I shall make the arrangements.”
Damnation. Resisting the temptation to touch Miriam all the way to London was going to be hell. There was one way to keep his promise to her father. Richard would marry Miriam, but he refused to take her innocence until he had more than his stubborn, flawed heart to offer her. He was not Lizzie, and Richard was done trying to claim things he did not deserve.
Chapter 15
Two weeks passed in a whirlwind of preparation. Miriam studied the markets to discover which commodities had the best possibility of profit in England. They identified tobacco and cotton as the surest options for a successful start. Importing tobacco meant they had to go through London and pay hefty excise taxes. Despite this, Howard and Miriam insisted that for the first shipment they ought to stick with sure sales. There were the matters of insurance and customs and taxes and putting together a crew. Richard wrote and rewrote the prospectus a dozen times before he, Howard, and Livingston all signed it. All theThetisneeded was the right captain at her helm and a proper outfitting to make the voyage.
Miriam bit her tongue at being consulted but excluded from the partnership. Richard saw how it cost her to remain silent.
“I have no head for money, Miri,” he told her during one hasty afternoon visit to her father’s office. Miriam had returned to the city for a day to secure new items of clothing for her wedding and for their journey overseas. “Would you manage the finances for me? I trust your judgment better than my own.”
“How will that work?” Miriam scoffed.
“The same way it does with your Stock Exchange account.” Richard dreaded the day of their fast-approaching wedding. Once word got around that he and Miriam had married, Lizzie would undoubtedly come after him to take control of his wife’s funds and spend them on her behalf. “I shall set up accounts with your name listed to manage it all. If you give me an account to spend from, I promise not to touch the rest.”
Miriam’s eyes widened. “You trust me with the money?”
“Yes.” For one thing, the arrangement limited how much Lizzie could extract from him. “I’ll have it written into the marriage settlement.”
Miriam’s eyebrows knit with confusion. “We don’t typically do that here.”
Ah. “Of course. Well. Given our new business venture I feel it might be a good idea to arrange one, don’t you?”
To Richard’s vast relief, Miriam agreed.
There was also the matter of securing a warehouse on the other side of the Atlantic. Richard wished he had better insights to guide them. Instead he was having to count on his network in England, a dubious proposition at best considering most of the people he’d known socially were either chronically debt-ridden or aristocrats who wouldn’t go near a trade deal for any amount of profit or both.
“We shall find a buyer for our wares,” Richard promised with more confidence than he felt. “I’ll see to it. There are tobacco divans springing up all over the city like mushrooms after a rain,” —although he didn’t know how the establishments went about purchasing their goods — “and I shall ask my brother if he knows of any acquaintances might be interested in securing quality woven cotton. My sister-in-law might be of some help there as well.” Not that Harper owed him a single kindness after the way he’d treated her.
This morning, he had secured tickets on a comfortable ship leaving prior to Howard’sThetis. Their plan was to arrive before the ship and secure warehouse space, in hopes of selling their goods quickly. Richard planned to use the first few weeks of his homecoming to make connections with merchants. He refused to consider the temptations he faced as his old friends tried to lure him back to his former flawed ways. There was always a newly minted lord with more money than sense to buy drinks.
“Don’t be too reasonable,” grumbled Howard. “The point is to make money, not lose our shirts. When will you see Miriam next?”
