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Helen walked blindly to the closest of the canvases as if to admire it, realizing belatedly she was staring at a newly stretched blank one.
∞∞∞
An arc of energy moved along Nicholas’s spine, and he paced through the room for a moment, wishing that he could hold his marble rock. He was at sea and needed an anchor.
His mother shot him an unnecessary look of shock and disapproval. He had known he was being impolite by relentlessly questioning Helen, but his unquenchable desire to know more about her had temporarily overpowered his judgment.
Cool your head, Irons.
Wryly, he wondered which head he was speaking to. Helen’s satin gown at once lowered him to his knees and made his manhood rise. Her knowledge and skill in matters of trade intrigued him.
He nearly excused himself from the studio before he behaved any further with uncharacteristic recklessness, but Helen’s stiff spine and valiant effort to appear unaffected pulled him back to her side.
“I apologize for my bad manners.” He knew he should stop there, but he didn’t. “I’ve never met anyone like you.”
Defiance shone in her gaze, and he knew she had misunderstood him.
“This shall be an important year—for all of us,” his mother interjected, having joined his side. “Helen, you don’t know the story. Vassilis, he looks well now, doesn’t he? But a few months ago, he lay dying.”
“Oh, no!” Full of concern, Helen looked from him to his mother.
“A terrible fright.” Joining her thumb, middle and index fingers, she made the sign of the cross. “I thought I would lose him to fever as I did my friend, Lady Anne.”
“Thank God he lived,” Helen said quietly.
“Yes,doxa to theo,” his mother said fervently. “1849 was difficult for this family. Hmm, for you, too, Helen. But 1850 will be a very good year. Remember, son? The coin in thevasilopita.” After explaining the tradition of the orange-and-spice Greek New Year’s cake to Helen, she continued. “As soon as I heard Nicholas’s spoon against the hidden coin, Iknew. He wouldn’t have only good luck this year. But happiness.Greathappiness.”
He refrained from narrowing his eyes as he stared at his mother, surprised. She looked from him to Helen, then back meaningfully. This was the first time he could remember his mother signaling to him about a woman’s suitability, at least in a positive regard. As their eyes met, it was obvious what she was envisioning on his behalf.
From the time he and Adrian had been boys, everyone knew Adrian would grow up and marry an aristocrat—the final piece of their parents’s plan to achieve the highest level of respectability in England—just as it was equally clear that Adrian would one day take over their father’s place at the helm of the Sideris shipping empire.
Nicholas’s fate was amorphous but also known—he would simply do whatever was expected, take whatever role at the firm his father or brother deemed appropriate.
He blinked and looked away from his mother, his instinct to rebel against whatever direction she would push. Hadn’t his parents learned their lesson when he had announced he would be working for David Chadbourne rather than his father?
He would forge his own future—one of his own choosing, and one chosen through careful reason, not guided by meaningless omens like finding a hidden coin in a piece of cake!
But it was difficult to remain annoyed with his mother when he heard her love and best wishes for him. Impossible to remain indifferent in the presence of radiant Helen. He turned to find both women staring at him.
“This year will bring us good fortune,” his mother said decisively. “We all need it after the difficult times of late, eh? Here we are. Nicholas, you are back fromIspaníawith the silver. Helen, your brother will sail to China and bring all thattsái. Yes, it will be a good year.”
Helen turned to her, only briefly glancing his way first. “I hope so.”
Hearing her aspiration, Nicholas knew the same feeling of determination he had when they met a week ago—the one that had him commandeering one of his father’s steamships with little notice to travel to Bilbao for a fortune in silver, his mind on her rather than tea or profits.
The sense of purpose that told him to do whatever he could to ensure her happiness.
