“That’s how you caught Gwen. You…you balanced her.”
Edward’s mouth dropped a measure, and his face colored up to his ears. “I can’t say that I would ever manage your sister as such. That’s not at all—”
“Of course it is!” Robert cried as he set down the brandy to lean forward onto his knees. “Tell me what you did. Gwen is lively, she likes to dance, and she—forgive me, Edward—she never would have noticed you in the usual way. You don’t dress well enough, you aren’t even in London for most of the Season, and she even told me you hate dancing.”
Edward nodded his head. “Got no sense of timing. Been told that since I was a boy.”
“Well, then, what in God’s name did you do to stop my sister in her tracks?”
“Oh, she did walk right on past me, my lord. Time and time again.”
“Come on, out with it, boy. How’d you stop her?”
“I asked her to help me get a wallflower some dances. A particular friend of my sister’s, actually. Very shy gel.”
Robert leaned back in his chair. “But isn’t that a gentleman’s job?”
“Of course it is, and I had already danced with all the wallflowers. But as you said, I don’t come to town that often. I had no influence over the other men at the dances…”
“But she did. My sister knows everyone and was courted by just about everyone.”
The boy grinned. “She does and she was. Up until I spilled some lemonade on both ladies…” He paused, his ears once again coloring. “Begging your pardon, but that is exactly what I did. Splashed it everywhere, I fear, and then I…well, I convinced her to help out Debra. Find a man for the girl. But of course, she didn’t really know Debra or what kind of man she needed.”
“But you did?”
Edward shrugged. “She’s a friend of my sister’s from school. Came to stay with us one summer. Two years older than Connie but painfully shy.”
He frowned, thinking back. “Was that the wedding of a Debra Smythe to Sir Henry Barnes? Good Lord, you arranged that? Gwen talked of nothing else for months!”
Edward raised his hands in denial. “I did nothing of the sort! That was all Gwen’s doing. I just pointed out the girl.” When Robert obviously didn’t understand, Edward set down his own glass of brandy—untouched—and attempted to explain. “They’ve all got good hearts, you know. My mother and aunt, too. They just can’t see how someone would want to sit in one’s room for years on end.”
He was talking about Robert’s mother. “I don’t understand it, either, but it’s what she says she wants.”
Edward nodded. “And you and I respect that, but not them. They think that deep down she wants to go out, so they force her to whether she thinks she wants it or not.”
And maybe it was all to the good. Maybe that was exactly what his mother needed. Robert resolved to visit her later today to see if she had improved or was worsened by the interference. “But that still doesn’t tell me how it got you engaged to Gwen.”
“Gwen was bored, and Debra was terrified. All I needed to do was point out the imbalance to them both and they worked to solve it by themselves.”
Robert remembered that Season, what little of it he paid attention to. Debra was Gwen’s project. Debra seemed to be ever so grateful for the help, and eventually true love blossomed for Miss Smythe. “But how does that win you Gwen?”
“Well, once she was in balance, her good sense was restored. And there I was, being the humble progenitor of her success. So long as I didn’t interfere in whatever she was doing, she and I got along famously.”
“Famously,” Robert echoed. “That’s not what I remember.” Actually the courtship had been rather tempestuous, but no one had expected anything less from Gwen. In fact, Robert had sometimes wondered if all of his mother’s spirit had been poured into Gwen at an early age.
“Well,” Edward said as he ducked his head to take a sip of his brandy, “you asked how I got her attention. Not how I kept it.”
But Robert already knew the answer to that. Edward was an extraordinarily levelheaded young man. And that was exactly what Gwen needed. “All you did was point out a problem.”
“And step back out of the way. That’s most important.”
“Yes, with Gwen that certainly would be.” And could that, perhaps, be the solution to not one but two of his own problems? After all, what he needed was an innovative business approach to satisfy the miners and still allow the mine to be profitable. Sadly, he was fresh out of ideas, as were all of his usual confidants. There was only one other person he could think of who had already demonstrated an ability to think of different solutions and had the boldness to see them through.
Helaine, of course. After all, she was the one who’d made the unheard-of request for him to pay in advance of service. She was also the one to suggest that Gwen—an unwed girl—be allowed to make her own decisions regarding her funds. Could it be as simple as pointing Helaine at a problem and seeing if she had a solution? He had nothing to lose, especially as he had already exhausted all his other choices. Even if she had no new ideas, he would still count it a success if it got him deeper into her confidence.
“Point them at a problem,” he said.
“And then step out of the way,” said Edward.
“Well, of course,” said Robert, not really listening. He was thinking instead of exactly what he would do once he got deep into Helaine’s confidence. Of all the things he could do to her. And that she would do to him. “I’m not really the interfering sort.”
“Er, that’s not exactly how Gwen describes you.”
“What?” Edward started to respond, but Robert waved him to silence. He didn’t really want to hear what Gwen thought of him. “Look, I won’t bar the door to your relations. To my mind, I’ve been spectacularly unable to help my mum, so if your mum can do what I can’t, then I shan’t interfere. But I do have one request.”
“Name it.”
“Have Gwen bring all the women here to get their dresses made. She can set up the dressmaker in one of the upstairs rooms. We’ve got women up to the rafters. Don’t see why we can’t have them all involved in the project. And if it gets my mum bathed and out of her bedroom, then all the better.”
Edward frowned, obviously stunned. “You cannot wish to have all those women running around your home.”
Robert grinned because he didn’t much care about
So it was done. Between that and asking for Helaine’s advice, she was sure to tumble into his arms inside a week.
Chapter 10
“No, no!” Penny gasped, obviously horrified. “I just want you to listen! I just…I want a chance and no one will give it to me.”
“Little wonder, if you’ve been trying to blackmail—”
“Please!” Penny was visibly trembling. Enough that little Tommy looked up from inspecting a beetle to stare at his sister. A moment later he was crawling back. “Just listen. For a moment.”
Helaine sighed. She remembered being this desperate once. She had a mother to feed, not a babe, but it amounted to the same thing. “What do you want?” she asked, her tone softening against her will.
“I know how to make shoes,” she said. “I’ve been working with my father for years. His hands didn’t work so
