Mary Blayney - [Pennistan 04] Page 4

  “Please wait and see what happens after this Season. If you are away awhile I am sure people will forget. Perhaps the mad king will die, or the Regent’s wife will take a lover and have another child. Now that would be a serious problem, would it not? No one would think about Mia Castellano. Your adventures would seem tame by comparison.”

  Janina started to stand up and Mia jumped to her feet to help her.

  “I am better,” she said with surprise. “I want nothing to eat yet, but I do feel well enough to help you into a fresh gown.” As Janina spoke she put one of her hands on the wall to steady herself.

  “No new gown. There is not a soul here I want to impress.” Mia led her maid to a chair and made her sit. “I can manage.”

  “But, Mia, Lord David is so handsome.”

  “You and Miss Cole have read from the same book.” How many times a day would she have to hear this?

  “But the serious look, the sadness around his eyes makes him so much more of a mystery. It makes a woman curious, does it not?” Janina’s own woeful expression lightened as she spoke.

  “And what would Romero say about that?” Mia teased as she ran a brush through her hair.

  “We have talked about it and he knows I am as true as he is.”

  The two were very close. If Romero did join them, wherever they settled, Mia might start to believe in love again.

  “If you could entertain Lord David with some of your outrageous adventures,” Janina continued, “then I am sure his sadness would disappear.”

  “Yes, I could do that,” Mia said thoughtfully. She stopped brushing her hair as the glimmer of an idea presented itself. She tapped her mouth with two fingers but could not keep the words back. “You know, Janina, I could try to seduce him.”

  “Mia!” There was no doubting the shock in Janina’s voice. “That is a foolish idea. He is Elena’s brother-in-law.”

  Mia’s outlandish suggestion had the desired effect. She was sure that Janina was no longer thinking about her upset stomach. “Well, I only mean to tease him into a kiss. Besides, he already thinks I am a woman with no loyalty and loose morals and he would never tell the duke.”

  “Has he said that to you?”

  “Not exactly.” With a deft hand, Mia pulled her hair back to her crown and waited while Janina found her simplest combs. “I have hardly seen him since that awful night. But today he has treated me as though I were a pariah who could taint him if he said more than five words to me.”

  “By the end of this trip I am sure he will see you differently.”

  “Yes, I think you are right. Especially if I do my best to have him kiss me.” She fixed the two combs so that her hair was swept back and cascaded down her back. “I think I will leave my hair down tonight.”

  “It’s a look better suited to the bedroom than the dining room.” Janina made a move to take the brush, but Mia raised a hand and backed away.

  “I have but three days.” She added, “I need all the advantages I can find.”

  “It is very daring.”

  Mia could not tell if Janina meant challenge or caution. “He cannot like me any less than he does already.”

  “What if the duchess finds out?”

  “How could she? I will not tell her and I can’t imagine that Lord David would.”

  “If Elena does find out, the duke will insist that Lord David marry you.”

  “And I will say no. What will they do? Keep me in my room until I come of age? Fine, between the two of us we can arrange for where we will go and what we will do after my birthday.”

  “No is an amazing word,” Janina agreed. “If you are serious about kissing him, then you must wear a new dress.”

  “A new gown would be too obvious.”

  “As if leaving your hair like that is not.”

  Mia shrugged. “I will wait to wear the new ones when we arrive at Pennford. They will distract Elena from my ruined engagement.”

  “I am sure she will understand about Lord William. I am sure she will.” Janina spoke with more worry than conviction.

  “Then you are more certain than I am. She and William are very close and he has never irritated her half as much as I have.”

  “Elena is a new duchess and close to her lying-in. She does not think of Lord William at all these days.”

  “Well, I can only hope that she is not thinking about me, either. In the meantime I will not worry about it.” Except at night, just before sleep.

  Janina nodded and sank into the chair, as if she had used all her quota of energy for the day. Mia told her that she would have some dinner sent up and made her way down the stairs with a book, in case she needed an excuse to stay in the parlor with Lord David after dinner. It would be a fine opportunity to practice being a silent distraction with her book as a prop.

  Mia nodded to the servant who opened the parlor door for her, and then she stopped on the threshold. Lord David sat at the table. He ignored the plate of food and mug of ale, preferring the stack of papers at hand, others spilling out from a leather satchel leaning against the side of his chair.

  The line between his brows hinted at an internal argument. As she waited for him to notice her, Mia saw that the candlelight made his hair darker than it appeared in the daylight.

  His brows were full and his eyes more deeply set than the duke’s. Lord David’s air of aloofness, if not mystery, made him so much more fascinating than his brothers.

  His brother the duke was a tyrant, but one expected that from a duke, though he did smile more since his marriage. “Open” and “friendly” perfectly described Lord Gabriel, as well as his sister, Olivia. Mia had never met Lord Jessup, which was odd considering how many times she had been with the family since Elena’s official engagement ball. According to William, David’s brother loved games and was a stranger to serious thoughts.

  She waited a full minute but Lord David did not look up, did not stand up, did not offer to fill her plate.

  She would have to find a more direct way to draw his attention.

  Chapter Five

  MIA DECIDED THAT she would not garner Lord David’s attention with outlandish behavior. That would only add to his ill opinion of her. She decided on behavior that was subtle and genteel.

  Putting some cold ham on her plate, Mia rattled the dishes and made a loud clink of serving fork against platter. She took very little of the fish, unable to actually name it, and some haricots verts served cold and dressed in the Italian way. She chose a roll, realizing that she was rather hungry, and a slice of cheese—a hearty British cheddar, she thought. A white wine, nicely chilled, completed her meal and she sat, knocking the table so hard that it wobbled and everything on it moved. How could she have forgotten her perfume?

  Lord David still had not acknowledged her presence or touched a morsel of his very full plate. He must be hungry.

  “Put those papers away, Lord David, and make some conversation while we dine.”

  He looked up at her, pushed the papers aside, and reached for his fork as he did so. He cut into the well-cured ham, took a bite, and chewed.

  “Tell me what you are studying so thoroughly.”

  He raised his eyebrows, his mouth too full for any other comment.

  “If you please,” she added, and took a very small forkful of the beans.

  He swallowed, wiping his mouth with the serviette. “I am studying the design of the Long Bank Mill near Styal.”

  “Where is Styal?” The English had such strange names for towns.

  “Near Manchester.”

  “Why are you studying the design of a mill?” she prompted, feeling like a mother encouraging a child just learning to speak.

  “I want to build one like it.”

  “Build” sounded like it had to do with trade. That could not be. “What does this mill do?”

  “It makes thread out of cotton roving.”

  “I have no idea what cotton roving is but I do know you are speaking of trade.” When he did not
deny it, Mia could not suppress her shock. “You are going to involve yourself in trade! You must be teasing me.”

  “No, I am not teasing.” He sat back in his chair. “And cotton roving are the fibers twisted by the slubber to give it the strength to be spun into yarn.”

  “Thank you.” She pretended she believed him. “Slubber” could not possibly be a word. “But that does not make your story any more believable.”

  “The duke is providing half of the money, and I am going to oversee the construction and establishment of the business.”

  “But that’s,” she hesitated, “that’s shocking. I would never have expected you to do something so unusual.” Mia tasted the fish, which had been cooked in an herb-flavored wine sauce. To disguise its age, she suspected.

  “Manufacturing is the future,” Lord David said. Then, after a moment of silence, he continued. “Once I secure the other half of the funding I will be ready to move forward. I will supervise the construction and find someone to run the factory for me.”

  “That’s not as bad as it sounded at first. It does still hint of trade and you are the second son and the brother of a duke.”

  “I am well aware of that and I do not care. Neither will the people who will have work and those who will be able to afford the items made from the cotton.” He picked up his mug but went on before tasting it. “Once I am confident that the mill manager is reliable in all ways and is as interested in an honest profit as we are, I will move on to the next project.”

  He addressed himself to his food, and she thought about his plan as she buttered her roll. “The ton will be shocked.”

  “I do not plan to go to London for anything but business. I have no use for the Season or the ton.”

  “You are joking.” She waited, and when he did not respond she wondered. Could it be he felt the same way she did? “You must care. Everyone cares.”

  He leaned close to her over his papers. “I spent seven years in Mexico. My experiences there forever changed how I see the world. I have no use for mindless diversions.”

  “Yes, I understand travel will do that. But there must have been a social world there. One you could enjoy. Or were you deep in the country with only wild men for company?”

  They had both stopped eating and she waited for him to speak. Who would have thought conversation with him would be so intriguing?

  “Miss Castellano, where I landed they had never heard of England. No one even thought to ask about my station in life.”

  “Where was it? How could they have never heard of England?” She did not mean to sound so skeptical but she found it hard to believe.

  A muscle in his cheek moved and then he spoke very quietly. “I was on my first voyage as a naval midshipman and the sole survivor of a shipwreck. It took me seven years to find my way back to England.”

  MIA CASTELLANO stood abruptly.

  Now what had he done? David knew he would find out, because she would not hesitate to tell him. Miss Castellano was not inclined to silence.

  “I thought to have a civil conversation with you, my lord.” Moving behind her chair, she pushed it in with unnecessary force. “But pleasant conversation is too much to ask. You’ve tried to find a way to shock me, to make me wonder if you are serious, until you come up with something that leaves no doubt in my mind that you are toying with me.”

  David said nothing. Elena had warned him about Miss Castellano’s hotheadedness, and he understood her passion. Not that Pennistans were always diplomatic and deliberate.

  “Shipwrecked in Mexico, my lord! How ridiculous.” She looked up to the ceiling as if praying, then at him with her eyes narrowed. “If that’s true, then explain how it is that I have never heard the story before. It would be the first thing anyone in society would say about you.”

  She had raised her voice only a little, but her anger was obvious from her theatrical tone, her flashing eyes, her expressive posture. Miss Castellano waited no more than a second for him to answer.

  “Lord David, no one, I tell you, no one anywhere in society, no one in the Pennistan family, no one has ever mentioned that you were missing for so many years.”

  She drew a deep breath to fuel her tirade and David made a Herculean effort not to even glance at her décolletage.

  “If I had swallowed that, no doubt you would have told me something even more preposterous. That you have a wife and five children waiting for you in Manchester, or that you prefer the company of men, or that you kill people who take God’s name in vain, or that you resorted to cannibalism while you were supposedly shipwrecked.”

  She did have a vivid imagination, but so far she had not named a truth. He opened his mouth, not to speak, but just to see what she would do if he did try to have his say. She shook her head sharply.

  “Do not try to justify your behavior. Unless you mean to apologize. I will leave you to your cold dinner, your papers, and your wild tales of trade, abandoning society, and, oh yes, your shipwreck in Mexico. I will leave, which is, I am sure, what you wanted all along.”

  Miss Castellano left the room, without slamming the door, which surprised him.

  Quiet descended at last, but the air still sizzled with the last sparks of her temper. David laughed. Out loud.

  He had told her the absolute truth.

  He had set aside his papers and did as she asked, had a conversation with her. She had been a good traveler, never once complaining about her maid’s illness even though it must have made the trip very uncomfortable. He’d seen how Lady Belfort’s cut had hurt her feelings and even noticed that she left her hair down this evening so as not to trouble her maid further.

  With all that in mind he had done his best to be a pleasant dinner companion. And failed miserably.

  The result only illustrated his complete lack of social grace. “Let that be a lesson,” he announced to the empty room. Instead of telling her that he was hoping to build a cotton mill, that he had been in the navy, and that yes, he had been the only survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of Mexico, he obviously should have made an effort to find a subject more conformable, like the colors favored in this year’s fashions, or even suggested renting a horse so she could ride tomorrow if her maid was still unwell.

  Refilling his mug, David abandoned the meal, and moved to the desk so he could return to work, clearly the only thing he was fit for. First he’d write the letter to the trustees of the Meryon entail.

  As he opened his writing box and organized quill, paper, and ink, he recalled the lively hour he and Lyn had spent discussing how to approach the trustees with something so unconventional as investing in a cotton mill. That was after hours of far more tense debate convincing the duke first. God, but his brother took his role seriously.

  “I’m determined to leave the estate in even better condition than I found it,” Lyn had said. “Father worked hard so that the finances had a sound footing. I am not going to undermine that even to support you, David.”

  That was not the vote of confidence that David hoped for, and it left him feeling like the beggar he was.

  If he was not so convinced that manufacturing would create even more wealth than the thousands of acres of land the dukedom owned, David would have walked out then and there. Land, land, land had been the measure of Meryon wealth for more than five hundred years, but times were about to change, so David had pressed on.

  The winning argument had come from his heart, and he knew that if it failed there was no point in hoping to convince the duke. “Brother, I learned firsthand in Mexico how hideous it is to be without resources, what a nightmare it is to be under someone else’s control with no idea of what the next day will bring, to have almost no hope.

  “Providing work for as many men, and even women and children, as possible will help to put an end to the unrest and will give everyone faith in the future. If there is any good that came from the shipwreck, it is my understanding of how the poor live and what might help them most.” He did not need to add that i
t was something that the Duke of Meryon could not begin to grasp.

  The duke, his brother, nodded, and David did not have to listen to what he said to know that the duke was convinced. He could see it in his eyes, in the sympathy in his voice.

  Ever cautious, the duke insisted that the trustees agree.

  “You don’t need their approval, Lyn, and I’m not saying that to save me writing a letter.”

  “I have found it best to keep them informed.”

  The duke pushed his chair back and raised his feet to the desktop, a sure sign that they were now both on the same side.

  “Never think I mean to include them in the process, David. The point is that one never knows when their support will be needed for something over which they do have control.”

  “So let me outline what I will tell you and them.” David remembered pacing the room as he ordered his thoughts. “The plan to work with Thomas Sebold to develop a second mill like Long Bank is sound on several levels. His mill is profitable.”

  “That’s key. The trustees’ interest in profit is only exceeded by their lack of imagination.”

  “Yes, but I will try to be more tactful in my wording.”

  “I trust you will. You may be blunt in speech but your letters are always reasoned and thoughtful.” Lyn did not expect any explanation for that fact, any more than David could give him one. The duke laughed as he put his feet down and sat with more authority. “Even with a profit I do not think the trustees will be impressed by the housing Sebold provides for his employees.”

  “But I will make it clear that we are adamant on that. There is a precedent for it in our family, so they will not be surprised. We all learned from Father and his experience in France during the Revolution. He would never let us forget. Neglect of servants or mill workers is a sure prescription for unrest and revolt.”

  “You know, David, that explains our inclinations, but Sebold had none of those experiences. When you meet him next, do ask what motivated him.”

  “My biggest concern is whether Sebold will be amenable to moving the site to a different city. Once he agrees to that it will truly be our project.”