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 of interest.
“Why can’t I get you out of my head?”
Looking around the large room that was his office, he studied each piece of furniture he and his mother had collected to furnish it. She’d wanted it to look “comfortable and yet prosperous.” “People need to feel confident you can help them,” she’d said. Daniel hadn’t the heart to tell her that any man of noble blood who entered his office would be far from comfortable.
His, he thought. This was his, just as the rooms he lived in were his. For a man raised in a room with all his siblings, it was something to be proud of. Strange how he felt that, and yet there was also the emptiness. He felt like he was always searching for something that was just out of his reach.
“You are an eejit,” Daniel muttered.
The rumble of male voices told him another client had arrived, or a family member. His door swung open, and there stood his eldest brother, filling the doorframe. It appeared that today had been allocated “visit Daniel day” in his family.
“Good morning, Daniel.”
“Oliver.”
“I just saw Bloomhaven looking a bit green as he climbed onto his horse.”
“The man’s a fool, and because of that his family is about to suffer unless I can perform a miracle.”
“Which you will, as you are the best at what you do,” Oliver said with that unwavering belief that siblings had in each other.
“Thank you. I will try.”
Three years ago, he’d set up this office and started taking on clients who needed financial help. Investments, running their affairs, helping to keep them out of the bankruptcy courts. Lately, his clients had been noblemen. Men who had inherited titles upon the deaths of their fathers, inheritances that were debt-laden.
“And succeed.” Oliver wandered around his office, picking up small objects off shelves and then replacing them. Daniel knew the signs. His brother had something to say and was building up to it. Hell, not him too.
“The Bartholomew project will house many, Daniel, and is close to completion.”
“I will come over later today and take a look.”
Daniel also worked with his brother, oversaw projects, and was Oliver’s extra set of eyes and ears. He loved to work and feel needed. Loved to feel as if he was worthy; it had not been a feeling he experienced often as a child. In fact, he’d simply been another mouth that his parents had struggled to feed.
“We will keep the rents low. There are many in need.”
“Yes.” Daniel waited. Oliver would get around to what was circulating in that large brain of his sooner or later.
“Iris played an
