All in Good Time (The Gilded Legacy) - By Maureen Lang Page 0,113

when I tell you a little something about this man you’re so eager to dress up for. He’s got a secret too.”

Such words confused Dessa; what could Mr. Hawkins possibly want kept a secret? He lived a life apparently as close to a monk’s as Dessa had ever seen. He worked and went home, then rose and did it again. Having seen him in social settings, she guessed he probably wouldn’t even mind taking a vow of silence.

“Look, I’ve got a deal for the two of you,” Foster said, all business now. “Hawkins, you let me in on your little soiree tonight, pretend you believe I’m on the up and up. And, Miss Caldwell, your job is to pretend you think I’m worthy of somebody like you. If only for a limited time.”

Mr. Hawkins and Dessa exchanged a glance.

“Been talking to Lionel Metcalf lately, Foster?” Mr. Hawkins continued to look at Dessa instead of Foster. “It must be true that Mr. Foster wants a place in next year’s election, and he thinks he needs our help to lay the groundwork.”

Mr. Foster held up a finger and thumb, cocking an imaginary gun in Mr. Hawkins’s direction. “Your aim is straight, Hawkins. And who better to help me than the stiffest banker in town and the most saintly woman? With your help I’ll get votes from all the wards, not just the Fourth. Enough to send me straight to Washington.”

35

“I SUPPOSE I should expect blackmail from someone like you,” Henry said. His entire body felt weighted, as if the very air around him had taken on a new heaviness that pressed into him inch by inch.

“Blackmail!” Foster repeated. “Hardly. This is what’s called a business deal. Same thing you do at your bank every day of the week.”

Henry wasn’t sure which he hated more: feeling helpless against the power Foster obviously held over them, or the fact that Dessa was present to witness his forthcoming shame.

There was only one thing to be done: release the power Foster held, at least over Henry. He’d planned to make his confession to Dessa tonight anyway, hadn’t he? If she by some miracle would have him once she knew the truth, it wouldn’t matter what the rest of his investors thought. And if she wouldn’t have him . . . well, even less did the censure of others matter then. He would have to start over, but he wasn’t too old to do that. His own father had handed over the rigors of the smithy to start a mercantile when he was even older than Henry. Henry could do the same.

“The secret you hold over me means nothing, Foster. What does matter is your offer to help Miss Caldwell. As I said already, she’s done nothing wrong. But if you can avoid trouble with the Chinese, it’s no less than your duty. She owes you nothing in return for what common decency demands you do. Perhaps if you show some of that, you might honestly earn a few of those votes you’re after.”

“And who’s going to tell the public at large if I do the right thing? You?” He shifted his gaze to Dessa. “Both of you?”

“If you can keep the girls I’m hiding safe,” Dessa said, “I have no reason not to tell everyone that you helped. If it’s the truth.”

“It’s no good,” Henry said. “We just went to considerable trouble to distance Pierson House from this man. Now we’re supposed to forget all that and pretend he’s a friend?”

“That’s why it’s fortunate for me that I have reason to hope for cooperation from both of you,” Foster said. “One without the other might not be enough, once you tell everyone all I’ve ever done was sincerely want to help Pierson House.”

“If you think for one moment that Miss Caldwell is going to pretend you’re worthy of her personal consideration—”

Foster still looked far too confident. He raised a hand to rest it amicably on Henry’s shoulder and offered him a smile. “Henry—you’ll have to grow accustomed to me calling you that, since we’re about to face the world as allies in my upcoming campaign. So, Henry, let’s first discuss how Miss Caldwell should present herself. As your love interest, or mine? Shall we leave it up to her, once she knows you’re not all you claim to be? While I, on the other hand, have never claimed to be anything but what I am?”

Henry didn’t want to look at Dessa’s face, but couldn’t help stealing