When there was a knock at the door, I was fully prepared not to break down while having one last walk with David to discuss the dissolution of our engagement.
Mary was at the main house, so I motioned for Mama to stay seated and went to the door myself. Smiling what I hoped was a confident and friendly smile, I pulled open the door.
Only to find Mr. Green standing hat in hand, his greased hair slicked down to the side in an effort to cover the balding spots on his head. My stomach lurched at the sight of him.
“Miss Atwood,” he said stiffly. “Is your mother at home?”
“I ...” What was he doing here? And why would he want to speak to Mama? “She is.”
He nodded. “Good. I have some papers for her.”
I frowned. What kind of papers would Mr. Green have for Mama, and why couldn’t he have simply sent them through the post?
Mr. Green cleared his throat, and I grimaced, realizing I’d been standing there staring at him as though he were an apparition. I wanted nothing more than to shut the door in his face, but instead, I opened the door wider, and he stepped in.
He sniffed at our closet-sized foyer, then looked to me for directions. Gritting my teeth, I led him to the drawing room.
“Mama, Mr. Green has come,” I announced when we walked in.
Mama’s eyes flew to mine and widened in a way meant to convey that this time, she’d had nothing to do with his arrival. She stood from her sewing. “Mr. Green, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Her voice held anything but pleasure in its tone.
“I’m afraid visits of pleasure are no longer possible between our two families,” Mr. Green said with an air of superiority. “Today, I’ve come on business.”
The color drained from Mama’s face. “What business?”
Mr. Green walked unbidden to a small table and placed a satchel on top of it. He unfastened the strap and pulled out a stack of papers. “I have here a list of items with outstanding debts. Debts I have been overlooking for the past five years, due to our”—he took a sidelong glance at me— “connections. But now that those connections have been severed, I would like to take care of this business in the most expedient manner possible.”
He handed Mama the papers, and she rifled through them, her eyebrows furrowing as she glanced quickly down each page. “Almost every one of our purchases are on here,” she said. She pulled the last page from the stack. “Going back to 1844.”
Mr. Green nodded. “1844 is when you started receiving a discount.”
I marched to Mama’s side and looked over the papers with her. It was true. Every purchase we’d made at the haberdashery and the butcher shop was there. Most of the totals were small—only a portion of what meager items we bought for ourselves—but a few were larger. One, in particular, caught my eye.
“My coat? You gifted that to me,” I said.
He shook his head. “No, I credited it to you.”
“This is preposterous, Mr. Green,” Mama said. “You never set any expectation that these were credits that would need to be repaid.”
“Do you have receipts to prove that?” Mr. Green pressed his thin lips together while waiting for our reply. Of course we didn’t have receipts to prove anything, but anyone could look at Mr. Green’s accounts and understand what he’d done.
“Why would we keep receipts for five years?” I asked, letting my exasperation show.
“I did.” He pointed to the papers calmly. “And I will expect payment within two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” Mama gasped.
“Yes, but I’m certain that won’t be a problem. After all, your daughter is engaged to a viscount’s son. An amount like that should be paltry to his father.”
“I don’t want to ask David for money,” I burst out.
Mr. Green winced at David’s name. “That, Miss Atwood, is your concern, not mine. I’ll be sending my solicitor to collect the payment in two weeks’ time.”
With a groan, I stormed out of the room and raced through the foyer toward the kitchen, where my coat hung. I ripped it off the rack and marched back into the drawing room.
“You can take this payment now.” I threw the coat at him, and he barely managed to catch it, the top half of it covering his face. “Mama, scratch the coat off the list.”
Mr. Green pulled the coat from his face and held it out. “It is not at all in the same condition as when I bought it for you. If I sold it now, it wouldn’t be worth half of what I paid for it.”
