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“He pounded on my door at four o’clock this morning wanting to be let in. They’d broken his nose after he couldn’t pay.”

“How much?” her friend asked.

“He owes just under two thousand pounds this time.”

“Oh, Lavinia,” said Anika.

“I should’ve known he was playing cards again,” she said, giving voice to the guilt she’d been holding on to all day. “The signs were there. Bloodshot eyes, never at his office, always short of cash.”

“You’re his sister. You want to believe that he’s the man you think he should be,” said her friend.

“More fool am I,” she muttered.

“And so you said yes to your sailor,” said Anika. “Two thousand pounds is an extraordinary sum for an introduction.”

“It’s more . . . complicated than that,” she admitted.

“What does he want you to do, exactly?” Anika asked.

Lavinia tipped her head, trying to think of the best way to explain her task without revealing the sensitive nature of it, for although she trusted her friend with her life, this secret was bigger than just her.

“He wants me to . . .” She searched for the word. “. . . guide him into a friendship. Wark isn’t exactly a trusting man, so that would mean laying the groundwork for Andrew.”

“And spending a great many more hours tolerating Wark,” Anika said.

She shook her head, still in disbelief that she’d agreed to expose herself even more to such an odious man as Wark. That wasn’t even taking into consideration the matter of seeing Andrew at least once a week. Oh Lord, she’d be putting her safety, the future success of her business, and the security of her home into the hands of a man who hated her. What had she been thinking?

“Well,” Anika said as she strained the tea adding vanilla and honey before pouring the steaming chai into a pair of stoneware mugs, “I suppose you’d better start planning.”

“Planning what?” asked Lavinia, accepting the mug gratefully.

“What you’ll wear the next time you see this Mr. . . .”

“Colter. He was Captain Colter, but he’s gone into business selling buttons.”

Anika snorted a laugh. “I’m certain there’s a story there.”

Lavinia took a sip of the tea, relishing the sweet, comforting warmth of it. The first time Anika had invited her to take a cup in the parlor above the shop had been the first time she’d tasted chai, and much like her affection for her friend, her devotion to the drink had only grown over the years.

“A captain? Well isn’t that something,” said Anika, settling into the chair across from her with her own cup.

“It would be if I had even the slightest bit of interest in Andrew,” she said.

“Would it be such a bad thing to marry a man who looked like that?” Anika asked.

“Since he loathes the very ground I walk on? Yes.”

Anika patted her hand. “At least it wouldn’t be boring.”

“Never that,” she said.

Laughing, they clinked cups before settling in to gossip about the other shop owners on the street.

Andrew stood on a ladder in the front room of his temporary store, refilling drawers of buttons when what he really wanted to do was smash something.

He’d never tell Home or Gillie, but he’d been relieved when Lavinia had said no. Her refusal to cooperate gave him an excuse to call the mission a failure before it even got off the ground. After visiting Mrs. Sullivan’s and once again being rebuffed, he could’ve telegraphed London knowing that he’d done his best and then retired in peace. But now his big house with a view out to the sea and the little dinghy he’d had stored off the dock he’d built would have to wait a little longer. She’d said yes.

It was the money that had convinced her. The cynical part of him that still hurt just looking at her had barely been able to hold back the snort of derision when she’d named her price. He should’ve expected that of the woman who’d not even waited a year to mourn his supposed death before marrying the wealthiest man in Eyemouth.