Boodles hummed with quiet conversations punctuated by the click of dice. Theo stood at the entrance of the coffee room and looked around. Colin Tallis sat alone, a cup of coffee on a small table at his elbow. Mentally girding his loins, Theo walked up to the man. He held out his hand. “Colin Tallis, I believe? I’m Theo Crombie. We have several things to discuss.”
“What?” Tallis’s face looked like a thundercloud on a winter afternoon.
Several heads turned in their direction.
“Before you start raving, hear me out. It is to your advantage.”
Tallis eyed him uncertainly. The word ‘advantage’ obviously piqued his interest.
Theo sat down unasked on an easy chair and faced Tallis across the lacquered coffee table. “I think you need me,” he said.
* * * *
An hour later they shook hands on a deal making Colin Tallis one of Theo’s prime investors. The sweat pooled at the base of Theo’s spine as he casually dropped the word ‘divorce’ into the conversation.
Tallis didn’t fly into a rage, however. He just looked puzzled.
“You see, sir, it’s a question of balance.”
“Balance?” Tallis looked even more mystified, but this time there was a stirring of irascibility.
Theo knew he’d better state his case and get out. “By balance I am referring to the balance between business and personal. Sir, I wish to marry your daughter and without a divorce between you and—” Hell! He’d nearly said ‘Aunt Barbara.’ The less said about his uncle, the better. So he finished up weakly with, “My name is respected in business circles in Town and—” he shrugged.
“I understand, Crombie. The success of your business is dependent upon your good reputation. I suppose I should do something about a damned divorce. Would have done it long ago, but I enjoy having the whip hand.” He flicked a sideways glance at Theo and gave a man-to-man smirk.
Theo swallowed his distaste. “Agreed, Tallis. I’m the same way when it comes to business.” Theo wasn’t proud of himself concurring with such a scourge of a fellow but needs must when the devil drove.
“You’re a wise man. A pity your uncle is not as intelligent. Bloody fool, taking on my soiled goods.” Tallis snorted in derision. “Very well. I undertake to at least look into applying for a divorce. Can’t say fairer than that. So you want to marry my daughter, eh? Well, well. Best to keep it in the family, what?” He heaved himself to his feet. “Come back with me and we’ll discuss settlements. I shall send for Emmaline and see how she feels about all this. She’s young yet and—”
“Emmaline? No, sir. ’Tis Alexandra I wish to wed.”
Tallis stared at him for a few seconds then burst out laughing. “My God, Crombie, you clever devil! You want the one with the inheritance.”
Theo gritted his teeth.
“I was hoping to keep her in my household. That inheritance would come in handy. I’d rather you took Emmaline. She’s prettier. What do you say?”
Tallis’s green eyes stared into Theo’s. For one awful moment Theo imagined this excuse for a man had guessed his intentions.
“Don’t worry, sir. You will make the amount of that inheritance many times over when your first few investments bear fruit.”
Outside Boodles, Tallis waved down a hackney. They clambered inside and Theo continued, “However, I could take Emmaline off your hands. I reside in Town most of the year apart from a few visits to my estate. When we marry, Alexandra could take over the role of chaperone for Emmaline. We will get Emmaline satisfactorily married off.”
Tallis ruminated for all of ten seconds. “Excellent, my boy. Excellent! By God, I’m gaining a son-in-law after my own heart.”
That’s what you think. Who would want a heart as black as yours?
“Very well, sir.” Theo rustled the papers his man of business had prepared. “I took the liberty of preparing some documents prior to meeting you. Perhaps you’d like to take them to your solicitor to have them checked over?” His tone was slightly insulting, as if he was amused that a man would run to his solicitor for help before he made a decision.
“What are they?”
“The first document appoints you as one of my three major investors; the second one is in regard to the settlements for my marriage to Alexandra and the third document cedes guardianship of Emmaline to Alexandra.”
Tallis snatched them up and perused them through his eyeglass. Theo turned up the lantern inside the carriage so Tallis could see more clearly. However Tallis merely skimmed the documents and said, “Hmph. That’s fine. Don’t need to take them to my solicitor. We are to be family. Where do I sign?”
No wonder the man had made loss after loss and been duped so easily.
As the hackney drew up before his townhouse, Alexandra’s father glanced up. “I’ll sign them inside. Come in.”
Theo mentally cursed. He didn’t want Tallis to be given an opportunity to change his mind. Leaving Theo to pay the jarvey, Colin Tallis barged in through the front door. “Bring brandy to my study,” he barked at the housekeeper who took his coat.
Theo followed, nodding to the housekeeper. So this was the Mrs. White who had stood in loco parentis to the girls. When he and Alexandra set up their own household he would ask Mrs. White if she wished to work for them. She looked like a capable, kind sort of person.
Tallis beckoned him into the study. Without further ado he scrawled his signature on to the three documents and sprinkled sand over his signatures. “There now. Shall I call Alexandra?”
“If you please. Much obliged to you, sir.”
“No, my boy. I am much obliged to you.” Tallis chuckled as he rang the bell to summon Alexandra.
* * * *
Alexandra and Emmaline held hands as they waited, their hopes pinned on Theo Crombie.
“Please, please,” Alexandra prayed, her eyes closed.
“You don’t seem to have much faith in your betrothed,” Emmaline commented.
“Of course I do. Theo is the most wonderful gentleman I’ve ever met. ’Tis Papa and his moods that I fear. Even if he’s offered a bargain, he might cut off his nose to spite his face.”
Emmaline laid her head on Alexandra’s shoulder. “Lexie, I have not yet asked your forgiveness for that dreadful time when he whipped you. I was silly and did not foresee such a terrible outcome from my behaviour. Papa is just so…”
“Unpredictable,” Alexandra supplied, trying to smile.
“I was thinking of something stronger than that,” Emmaline admitted. “Please forgive me, sister. Please.”
“Only if you promise never to do that sort of thing again.”
Emmaline snuffled, trying not to cry. “If your Mr. Crombie manages to talk Papa around, I promise you I’ll be a pattern card of good behaviour.”
In spite of the tension, Alexandra laughed. “That I’d love to see! Which pattern card of behaviour will you emulate? Miss Sheldon with her dipped head and eternal hand-clasping, or Miss Aberstwyth, sitting in the corner, shrinking away from anyone who approaches?”
Emmaline burst out laughing. “Lexie, Miss Aberstwyth is fifty if she’s a day. How dare you!”
Mrs. White hurried into the room, wiping her hands on her apron. “Miss Alexandra, your father wants to see you in his study immediately.”
Alexandra released Emmaline’s hand and stood. She smoothed down the skirts of her best morning dress. “A week ago a summons like that would have struck me rigid with fear. Now I am more sanguine.”
Mrs. White narrowed her eyes. “What do you know that I don’t, Miss Alexandra?”
Alexandra patted her on the arm. “With a bit of luck, Mrs. White, we might all escape Papa’s tyranny. Cross your fingers.”
Outside the study door she hesitated, then knocked. Nobody entered Papa’s domain without knocking. The conversation inside ceased.
“Enter!”
She turned the handle. Lord, her father sounded positively jocular. What did that presage?
Theo stood to greet her.
Her father remained seated.
“Miss Tallis.” Theo bowed.
“Alexandra, you’re a lucky woman. Crombie has offered to take you off my hands.”
Alexandra winced. Surely Theo hadn’t said that? She peeped at him out of the corner of her eye. The poor man looked fearfully embarrassed. He cast a pained glance at her father and she stifled a nervous giggle.
“Sorry,” Theo mouthed silently. He took her hand and kissed her fingers. Alexandra felt the warm, soft dampness of his mouth and envisioned that mouth kissing all the way up her arm, around her neck, down to her breasts… She inhaled deeply.
He smoothed his long fingers over her wrist before stepping back.
“Be thankful for Crombie’s offer, Alexandra. You are an undutiful daughter with only a small inheritance to recommend you,” her father said tartly.
Small? Then she realised that Papa did not know exactly how much money Grandmama had left her. Mr. Blount was not Papa’s solicitor; he had been Grandmama’s and now he was hers. No amount of heckling by her father would persuade Mr. Blount to disclose his client’s affairs. Well, everyone was in for a nice surprise.
“Your sister is to live with you,” Papa said.
“Very well,” she answered meekly.
“Don’t forget that other thing, sir. If you could see your way clear to at least look into it, I’d be most grateful,” Theo struck in.
“Yes, of course. But that needn’t concern her.” Colin Tallis nodded in Alexandra’s direction. “If my solicitor advises against it, then I shall not proceed.”
Theo nodded. “Thank you for at least considering it and for understanding how it could impact on our business dealings, sir.” There was just the slightest hint of a threat in Theo’s tone.
“Not at all.” Here Colin Tallis’s eyelids drooped and his mouth almost met his nose in a sneer. “But do not expect me ever to have truck with your uncle or my faithless wife.”
“Good Lord, no! I should think not. You have my sympathy, sir.”
Alexandra silently blessed her wonderful Theo. How well he played Papa’s game. His manner was neither servile nor overly confident, just well balanced and businesslike. He was, no doubt, an effective negotiator in business matters.
Theo scooped the signed papers off her father’s table. “I shall take these to my clerk straight away, sir. When were you thinking of returning to Norwich?”
Colin Tallis’s eyes opened wide. “Why, I’d thought to see you and Alexandra wed first.”
Theo pursed his lips. “Considering the circumstances, I think it had best be a very quiet wedding, sir. Very quiet.”
“You can thank your mother for that,” Colin Tallis spat at Alexandra.
Alexandra did her best to look both puzzled and apprehensive. Until the wedding at least, she must keep her visit to her mother a secret.
“Very well. If I’m not needed, I may as well return to Norwich in the next day or so.” Tallis sighed. “London is not the same as I remember it. And thanks to you, dear boy, I have no more financial worries.” He turned to Alexandra. “You and your sister will stay here with Mrs. White until the wedding,”
“Yes, Papa. Thank you, Papa.” Alexandra dipped a quick curtsy and followed Theo from the room breathing a huge sigh of relief.