Argent (Hundred Days Series Book 3) by Baird Wells

Author:Baird Wells [Wells, Baird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Two Birds Ink
Published: 2016-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

They hunched over the narrow dining room table, and Alix wondered by their proximity and distraction, why they made any pretense of hiding their cards. She had seen Spencer’s hand no less than four times, and he had seen hers.

Wind rattled the panes beside them, hinting at a storm she couldn’t have predicted earlier at the pond. “I think we’ll be confined indoors tomorrow,” she offered, drawing a card without being certain it was her turn.

His fingers pressed the bend of her arm and traced a rough path to her wrist. He claimed her cards and set them on the table. “We’ll muddle through.”

“We have cards,” she chuckled, pointedly ignoring the meaning in his words.

“I enjoy cards, a great deal in fact,” he swept their abandoned hands into the discard pile. “But I believe that is true of many men. I would play them with you every day, but for fear you’d grow bored.”

“There’s such a variety of games!” she protested. “You cannot bore me with cards. Father and I played them every night until he was too ill; I never tired of them.”

“No cards with your brother and Mrs. Paton?” he quipped.

“Chas and Paulina have as little to do with each other as possible. When they do interact, I am not often included.”

“How do you fill the hours? Books, I recall. And what else?”

Alix held her breath and weighed the danger of what she was about to confess. “I read every bit of business correspondence in the house, any ledgers Paulina keeps about, anything she brings in regarding the company.”

“Sounds dry,” he teased.

“At first it was just for my benefit, to see if my shares were being managed and where the money had been put. One night, I found a letter from a shareholder tucked into the ledger; he was deep in the pockets and begging Silas to buy him out.”

Spencer shook his head slowly, brow furrowed.

“The amount he was asking was a pittance, and I have no doubt Silas wanted those shares back. But he never does a favor for anyone, wouldn’t help someone unless he was helping himself. So he hadn’t answered, probably biding his time to get the shares for even less.”

A small smile played at his lips. “I perceive this wait was a boon to you?”

“What I did was dangerous, but I was desperate. I pawned my mother’s ruby ring and got twice what the shareholder was asking. Not without a great deal of bickering,” she grumbled, “and not nearly what it was worth. But I sent the money to my father’s solicitor with instructions.” She swallowed at the memory. “I hadn’t spoken to him in years, not since my father died. I had no guarantee he wouldn’t tell Silas, or give me away by accident.”

“My God, Alexandra,” breathed Spencer, claiming her hand.

Awe in his voice thrilled her head to toe, and a pang in her chest stung at how brave she’d been, once. “I engineered my coughing powder, to be assured of time alone and then, I wrote.

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