He leaned on the desk, placing both hands on top, and looked at the man. Deliberately intimidating him.
“Why are you here, Lord Bloomhaven, if it is not to turn your finances around?”
The nobleman dropped his eyes.
Thirty minutes later, he had talked at the man and directed him in what needed to be done. Chastened, the nobleman left. Daniel sat and made notes on what would need to be done and tried not to think about the perfidious Lady Abigail.
He worked through some papers and tried not to remember her watching him play the flute.
“God’s blood, this must stop!”
Chapter 11
Daniel was staring out the window when the door to his office opened for a third time.
“He’s gone, then?”
Short, with a ring of hair around his head and nothing on the top, Alan Sullivan fell into the chair that Bloomhaven had recently vacated. Daniel had never asked his clerk how old he was, but thought it was close to fifty years.
“The man is a fool, like most of them are.”
“Not all, Daniel. A rare few even manage to say good morning to me when they enter the office.”
Daniel snorted. He had met Alan in a coffee house. He’d been staring into the depths of his cup as if searching for the meaning of life. His shoulders had been slumped, and he’d presented a dejected picture. Daniel had sat beside him and introduced himself. They’d worked together since that day.
“How is Grace, Alan?”
The man’s smile took over his face. Alan had three children and loved each, but it was his wife who deserved that special smile.
“She’s well, thank you. The doctor you sent said she has a chill, and with rest she’ll be right in no time.”
“Excellent. Now I need you to do the things I have listed here. Getting the Bloomhaven finances into working order so the next generation can plunder them is going to take some time.”
“Daniel.”
Alan was Irish, and his voice surprisingly deep for a man of his size.
“Yes?”
“I can never thank you enough.”
“We’ve gnawed this particular topic to death many times, my friend. Can we not just let it alone now?”
“I’m Irish. I was broke, and my family sick and hungry. Had you not entered my life, I fear we would have ended up living on the streets. How is it you expect me to not say thank you often? It’s an eejit you are if you believe I won’t.”
“I’m an eejit now, am I?”
Alan laughed, then reached across the table and held his hand out to Daniel.
“You’ve turned my life and that of my family around, Daniel, and for that I will be indebted to you forever.”
“You’re an extremely intelligent man and have a way of looking at things that I have yet to fathom. This partnership we share works on both sides, my friend. Please remember that.”
“I will try.”
“I call you my clerk, but in all honesty you are so much more. And on that note,” Daniel said, opening his drawer and pulling out a sheaf of papers, “look this over, and if it appeals, then I think you should invest. I’ll stake you to begin, and you can pay me when it starts to yield a return.”
“No—”
“You’ll do this for Liam, Fiona, and Molly, Alan. For their futures, if not for your own.”
Alan took the papers. “Very well, I’ll read them.”
“No more thanks, please. I would be lost without you.”
“As I would have been without you,” Alan said. “Mary has gone home, and I have sent Kate out to get some of those cream cakes you like, which, incidentally, she and I like.”
“My sister will sell one of her siblings for any form of cake.”
“I shall make tea when she returns.”
“I’d be grateful.”
“If you wish to speak on the other matter, you have my ear.”
Daniel sighed again. Of course Alan knew what was going on. “I would rather not.”
“Very well, but should you change your mind, you know where I am. The last thing I will say on the matter is that if she is the one, you will find each other again.”
“She is not the one.” But he’d believed that just maybe, she could be.
Alan closed the door softly behind him.
Daniel pushed aside the thoughts rolling around inside his head and worked steadily through the next hour. He never had trouble focusing on his work, however, today that was proving a problem.
Are her brothers tormenting her? Why did he care? Abby had deceived him, and that alone should have been enough to douse the flames