Page 73 of Seducing a Stranger
Her eyes narrowed to slits as she tilted her delicate chin in assessment. “You must have been a rather incredible rifleman if you were asked to compete in exhibitions.”
“Tolerably good.”
“Oh come now, you’d have to be more than tolerable if they—”
“They called meDeadeye. It doesn’t matter.” He felt his neck heating again as he rushed past to avoid her comments or questions. “At one such event, I overheard my Captain discussing an investment scheme with an American by the name of Elijah Wolfe, a ruthless and unscrupulous miner who was drumming up funds to reopen his dying town’s defunct iron mines. He was able to find no support whatsoever and I could smell his desperation. But despite all that, there was something about him…”
“Did you save a grateful noble from being fleeced by this unscrupulous American Wolfe?” she guessed.
He emitted a low sound of amusement. “I gave Eli everything I’d won on the exhibitions for a ten percent share. It was barely enough to keep his mine open for a month, let alone pay the workers.”
Her eyes went round as saucers. “You made your fortune in iron?”
“No,” he said wryly. “The mine is still defunct, as it only took a month to exhaust it. However, another mineral often resides where iron is found. A great deal less of it, worth a great deal more.”
“Really?” she asked. “What is that?”
He caught her hand and gently squeezed the tip of her glove from the long middle finger, sliding the garment from her creamy skin. Holding up her knuckles, he kissed the ring on her finger.
“Gold.”
