Of course his brother had said something; there were no secrets in the Dillinger clan, he thought bitterly.
“The very one. But the point is, she lied to me, and I find I am still annoyed about it. I apologize if I have been a little off.”
“A little.” Kate scoffed, which made him want to shake her. He hated anyone scoffing at him, but a sibling, now that was especially annoying. “You’ve been a bear woken from hibernation too early.”
“What do you know of hibernating bears?” Daniel glared at her.
“Bernard told me.”
“Of course he did. Bookish Bernard.”
“Can there be no resolution between you and this woman, Daniel?” Mary said before Kate could insult him.
“No. She is an earl’s daughter. Now, this conversation is over, and I have no wish for anyone to broach it again. I have been honest with you both, but this is where it is put to rest.”
“I hate her.” Kate scowled. “How dared she lie you?”
A Dillinger may wish to strangle another Dillinger frequently, but they would not tolerate anyone upsetting another sibling. The arms of familial support quickly closed. It was both humbling and stifling sometimes, but he’d have it no other way.
“You don’t know her or the reasons why.”
“Surely you are not defending her if she has made you maudlin and weepy,” Kate said.
“Kate,” Mary cautioned her sister, but they all knew she’d ignore her as she always had.
“I have never been maudlin or weepy and will be displeased if I hear those words in connection with me again.” Daniel rose to glare down at his sisters—well, one of them anyway. “Now you know the reasons why I am in a foul mood,” he conceded. “I promise it will not last much longer, so you can leave now.”
“What’s her name?” Mary said.
“Why do you need to know that?”
“I’d like to know who I dislike. It adds authenticity.”
Her words surprised a laugh from him, and it felt good.
“Leave, both of you, and you can report that all is well and I am back to my usually charming, witty, and intelligent self.”
“Well, I guess there is a first time for everything,” Kate said, hurrying from the room before he rounded his desk and shook her, dragging Mary by the hand.
He really did have to push Abby from his head. There was no reason for his altered mood. She was nothing to him, surely, but a mild irritation. They had met only briefly, and that night he’d spent with her had not been as good as his memory suggested… surely?
When the knock sounded seconds later, he was ready for who would next enter his office.
“Lord Bloomhaven.” He rose and bowed, then waved the man into the seat Kate had recently left.
“Dillinger, I hope we can get this worked through with expediency, as I have an engagement shortly.”
“I shall do my best, my lord.”
Daniel looked at the man seated across from him. His shirt collar was high enough to take out an eye, and his nose was elevated. His jacket had padding in the shoulders, and his voice was grating.
“Just do what needs to be done, Dillinger.” Fingers flicked at him, a large sapphire twinkling in the midday sunshine. “I have no time to fuss with such things.”
Daniel glanced down at the papers on his desk. He’d read them extensively and did not need to do so again. However, it gave him the time to formulate the appropriate response instead of the words that had sprung to his lips.
You are a bloody wastrel!
“Because you have not fussed with such things, Lord Bloomhaven, your family’s finances are in dire circumstances,” Daniel said calmly. He dealt with fools like the man before him often. “In fact, if I don’t intervene, you will be forced to mortgage your ancestral land and sell your other estates.”
Bloomhaven spluttered. “We are not that dire!”
“You have unpaid creditors who are banging on your door and will soon not allow you to order further supplies unless they are paid their outstanding dues. Your staff are many months behind in their payments also—”
“I am a viscount! They will do what I ask them to. By God, I will not be spoken to this way!”
“Then I believe this interview is over, my lord.” Daniel pushed the papers on his desk together and rose. “Good day.”
Every time, it was the same. Daniel sighed silently. They came to see him because they were on the brink of ruin, having gambled, drunk, whored, or mismanaged their family’s funds. And every time, they acted as though the fault was his.
He enjoyed what he did but loathed the way these men treated him, their belief that because they were born into the vaunted aristocracy they were better than him. Such was the way this world worked, Daniel thought, eyeing the florid face of Lord Bloomhaven, who had yet to leave his seat.
“There is no need to be hasty, Dillinger.”
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
