By The Sea, Book One: Tess by Stockenberg Antoinette

Author:Stockenberg, Antoinette
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gilded age, historical, masterpiece, americas cup, downton abbey, upstairs downstairs, historical 1880s romance
Publisher: Antoinette Stockenberg

Chapter 11

So this is what drink does, she thought in fuzzy wonder. You dream with your eyes open. Without taking her eyes from the money she asked simply, "Why?"

"I want you to spend the night with me."

She looked up; he was serious.

"You will find one thousand dollars in there, enough to start a nice little hat shop in town. You can live above the shop with your family; you need never tug at a forelock again—except, of course, as a matter of better business. From what I have learned tonight, I have not a single doubt that you will be successful."

"Then make it a loan!" she said in anguish. "Charge me a fair—even an unfair—interest, and I'll gladly pay. You're right; I would be a success. I'm clever, and I'd work monstrous hours. Even Cornelia would patronize me eventually. All I'd have to do was sell one hat to one of her friends; she couldn't bear it! Oh, I would do well at it!"

"If I were an ordinary businessman, I might consider your offer. But look around you, Tess. Give me more credit than that. Surely you see that I am a collector of beautiful objets d'art. The Enchanta itself is such an objet. She is not the largest yacht in the harbor, or even the most opulent for her size, but she is by far the most beautiful, the most exquisitely fitted out. So it is with you, Tess. You are exquisite, and I want very much to have you."

She tried to cut through the sherry in her brain with only partial success. "But I'm not an ... an 'obe-zhay,'" she wailed. "I'm ... a Catholic!"

"Whatever you are, you're very desirable," he said seriously, and poured more cognac in her snifter. "Listen to me, Tess. Suppose I lend you the money with interest, as you suggest. Suppose we do it all quite legally, a business transaction. What do you think will be the reaction of Newport Society when you suddenly flaunt the means to open a smart little shop on Bellevue? Everyone knows I brought you away from the Servants' Ball; everyone will assume the worst in any case. Short of your posting sworn affidavits and the promissory note in your shop window, I can't imagine why they would think otherwise."

"You knew you were compromising me when you helped me!" she said angrily.

"And so did you, Tess. If you thought about it at all, you knew you were taking a risk."

"Out of desperation!"

"Absolutely. I'd be the first to admit that." He waited.

It was such an unadorned offer. So rational, so measured, so brutally logical. She stared at the delicately rendered cobalt and emerald pattern on the box, then stood up and tossed it across the table at him. It fetched up against his gilt-edged plate with a thunk and he winced; it was clear that Aaron Gould really was a devoted collector. It gave Tess a sharp little thrill to see that she'd caused him pain. She wondered why, as she walked away from him and stared out a porthole at the drumming torrents of rain.

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