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Irons sat back in his chair, regarding them as if they were entertainment he watched from a velvet-draped theater box.
Elijah stared back, daring him to disagree.
Helen didn’t allow her posture to change, but despair sucked the life out of her. The calmness in Mr. Irons’s voice when he replied lifted her gaze and her spirits.
“Something tells meyoumight be an expert in the realms of national pride and stubbornness, Captain Miller.” Mild amusement laced his words, but he spoke matter-of-factly and with aplomb.
Elijah recovered first, sitting back in his chair with a chuckle.
That’s Elijah. Quick to anger, quick to laugh.He was prideful, reckless almost, behaving this way while searching for an investor! Or perhaps these were precisely the traits needed to accomplish their ambitions. Could Mr. Irons view Elijah that way?
Helen inspected him as if he were a puzzle, a suspicious one. All the other potential English investors had looked down their noses at them. “You don’t seem offended.”
“I’m not.”
“Why ever not?”
He smiled. “Would you prefer for me to muster some offense?”
She didn’t smile back. “I prefer to understand.”
Now it was Elijah who looked her way with admonishment.
“Mrs. Gray, when others speak, it’s not so much the words I absorb but the intention behind them. The motivation.”
Perceptive, as I thought.“In this case, meaning what?”
He shook his head. “My conclusions are my own. Besides, I’m not an Englishman.”
Elijah looked him up and down. “No?”
“I was raised here, and I’m a British subject now. But I’m Greek. I’m not inclined to withhold an investment simply because of where you’re from.”
Her hope flared. Was their hunger palpable?Thank God Elijah is refraining from speaking.
“From where exactly do you hail?” Irons asked.
“Boston,” they answered at the same time.
Irons looked at her. “And your knowledge of building? Of timber?”
“Our father owned a mill and lumberyard. By the time he died, Helen all but ran the operation.” Elijah sounded proud.
“Women operate mills and lumberyards in America?”
She lifted her chin. “American women do what women everywhere do—whatever they must to survive.”
“I see. And now you’re by your brother’s side in London. Also to survive?”
“That’s none of your affair,” Elijah interjected.
“You’re not from here, you have no ties here, and you’ve arrived asking for silver to sail away with. Under no circumstances could I consider investing without knowledge of who you are.”
“My brother’s credentials speak for themselves, as doAlacrity’sspecifications.” She spoke before Elijah could. Proving himself to the British rankled, and his temper was close to being unleashed.
“You’re welcome to visit the ship.” Elijah’s offer sounded like a challenge. “The British Admiralty is begging for permission to board.”
Helen, like Mr. Irons, ignored her brother’s outburst and continued after squaring her shoulders. “If you wish to know who we are, I shall tell you, Mr. Irons, at least as applies to this venture. I am a widow in reduced circumstances. Elijah invested his every dollar to commissionAlacrity. Our future depends on the outcome of this single tea run.”
