Only her eyes betrayed her. A brightness he could not interpret.
“Miss Hale,” he said slowly, “what answer? There is no answer. We reviewed everything. The mill cannot be—”
“It can,” she interrupted softly, “if the conditions Mr. Bell created are all met together.”
He blinked. Once. Hardly breathing.
“Conditions?” he repeated. “You mean the clauses in the deed? They are separate—irrelevant on their own.”
“Yes,” she said. “On their own. But not when read as Bell intended.” She gestured toward the papers.
He stepped closer despite himself, his pulse lodging high in his throat.
“First,” she said, touching the top sheet, “the land lease.”
He shook his head. “The land is owned by the trust, not the mill. I told you—that lease will triple under any new owner.”
“And stay precisely as it is,” she said, meeting his eyes, “onlyif the current master remains.”
He nodded silently. He had known that. It was one of the reasons he begged her to sell—to spare her that loss.
“Second,” she continued, placing the next document atop the first, “the Liverpool import shares. They are not mine alone. They vest only in the household governing Marlborough Mills.”
He frowned. “Household? Meaning Bell intended them to fall to the next—”
He stopped.
The word strangled.
Household.
Not proprietor.
Not beneficiary.
House… hold.
She nodded. “There is no way for me to activate those shares,” she said quietly. “Not unless thehouseholdremains exactly as it was designed. The master and the heirs together.”
He stared at her, scarcely hearing the rustle of the papers.
“And third,” she said, drawing the map and the memorandum between them, “Bell tied the land, the import firm, and the mill into a single functioning estate. They were never meant to be separated again.”
She looked up, waiting until he met her gaze. “Not without destroying the protections he built.”
Thornton’s knees nearly gave way. He gripped the edge of the desk, knuckles whitening. She could not know what she was saying!
“Miss Hale,” he said, breath unsteady, “you don’t understand. As we said before, those protections died with him, and the mill cannot survive without—”
“Itcan,” she insisted. “Because those protections only activate under one circumstance.”
His heartbeat slammed once against his ribs. Hard. Shecouldnot mean…
“The estate survives only under a single legal household. One steward. One unified governance.” She hesitated. “Bell tied the fortunes together so they cannot function apart.”
He could not speak. But he could hear, and if his ears did not lie…
She pressed her hands to the desk, leaning in. “It is not sentiment,” she said. “Not romance. Not promise. Nothing of that sort is required of you. It is sound business. If the mill is sold, the Liverpool shares vanish. The land lease reverts. The protections fall apart.”
