Spinster Ever After (The Spinster Chronicles #7) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,54

I think.” He gave them both a quick smile, then sobered just a touch as they continued their walk. “I believe I may understand how I came to be so, if you care to know.”

“By all means,” Charlotte allowed, lacing her fingers before her. “How?”

“I was not raised in Society,” he said plainly. “I’m from Rossendale in Lancashire, near the town of Haslingden.”

Charlotte’s jaw dropped. “You’re from Lancashire? You don’t sound like it.”

Mr. Riley laughed and looked at her fondly. “I learned long ago that men of business do not take a man seriously when he speaks like a mill worker. When I am home, near my family, I can assure you, no one would doubt my heritage.”

“Is it more natural to speak that way?” she asked out of outright curiosity. “You may do so now, if you like.”

“Oh, I’m quite used to the finer accent now,” he told her without concern. “When I’m perfectly at my ease, the accent slips in some ways, but it’s still there. I hardly notice it now.”

They walked in silence for a moment or two, while Charlotte tried to imagine the curious accent of the counties of the north in Mr. Riley’s tone.

It was a rather warm, inviting, and particularly charming voice, in her imagination.

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly, realizing she had interrupted his speaking. “You’re from Haslingden.”

“Yes.” He nodded and tipped his hat at a passing phaeton. “My father was a rather driven, hardworking man, but distinctly middle class in Rossendale. He was a foreman in a cotton mill. Tough, but fair, and all the workers respected him greatly. You’ll find that not all foremen are so, and mill masters sometimes less so.”

Charlotte could not comprehend any such thing, being so far removed from any of the industrial camps and cities in the north.

“When the master of the mill decided to sell, my father went to him with an offer,” Mr. Riley went on. “It was a daring move, some would even say rash, as he did not have even half of the funds requested for the sale. But my father is a canny thinker, and he had a plan.”

“What was it?” Charlotte asked eagerly, caught up in the tale of this tough but kind man, seeing what his son had come to.

“A partnership,” he said. “My father would put everything he had towards the sale, and the former master would continue to fund the mill until the agreed upon percentage of profits could pay him off outright, allowing my father to then claim sole ownership.”

Charlotte gasped, shaking her head. “Unfathomable. Why would the master accept it, if he wished to retire from the task?”

Mr. Riley laughed and gestured down another path as they came to a fork. “Because he did not wish to retire in truth. His health did not permit him to continue on as he had done, so he thought selling was his only option. My father gave him the means to continue maintaining an interest and a share while his health would continue to decline, and by the time it was all paid, he might be ready in truth to retire in full. So, given how he respected and valued my father, he accepted.”

“How marvelous!” Charlotte clapped and barely restrained herself from grabbing Mr. Riley’s arm. “And? How long did it take?”

“Five years only,” he replied with a proud smile. “He implemented some new ideas, found the latest machinery, increased production at an ambitious rate, and the mill flourished. A few years after that, he was one of the wealthiest mill owners in the county and can also boast the lowest rate of death and illness from his workers. He worked a mill as a child, you see, so he is mindful of the conditions of his own workers.”

Charlotte’s mother made a soft sound of approval. “Charity and ambition. Quite a rare combination, you must be proud.”

“I am, Mrs. Wright.” He nodded repeatedly, looking as though he might burst from it. “And while we, his children, never worked in the mill, he did insist that we try our hand at all the positions to learn how exactly things worked. We were frequently visitors to the mill, but never put in harm’s way. He does not employ children, you know. Thinks it unnecessary and unscrupulous.”

“Huzzah for that, I say,” Charlotte praised. “And you? Are you taking over the mill?”

He smiled at the question. “I have inherited my father’s visionary taste and drive to succeed. I am his partner now, and