AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I am an acquired taste,” Apollo conceded before pointing to a carriage down the road. “I do have a proposition for you,” he offered, as he ushered her to the conveyance. “Why don’t I take you home, and we can discuss possible ways in which you can at least partially get yourself out of this mess.” He threw up his hands when she cut him a look. “Not your romantic troubles. Those you will have to solve yourself, and likely on your knees.”
“She’s right, about everything,” Cora admitted once they were in the carriage, and Apollo had stopped amusing himself with the double entendre. Everything Manuela had said was true. She had opened herself to Cora, unafraid, brave and beautiful, and she’d destroyed her.
“I can’t say that I’ve seen any evidence to the contrary,” Apollo confirmed after a moment. The man was a nuisance, but it was almost a comfort to be with someone who had no interest in coddling her.
“What is that you want with me?” Cora finally said.
“I have a solution for your conundrum with the railway,” he told her succinctly as Cora reared her head back in surprise.
“What are you talking about?”
Darnick lifted a shoulder, as if they were not discussing a transaction that amounted to millions of francs. “From what I could gather from Doctora Montalban, who is wonderfully loquacious when she is worried, it seems that if you are to walk away into the sunset with the gregarious Miss Caceres Galvan, you will have to begin to reduce your involvement in your many business interests.”
“That doesn’t explain how you know about my interests in the railway.”
The bastard actually lifted his hands in applause. “Very good, Your Grace. Sharp even when you are clearly not at your full capacities.”
“It’s a miracle no one has shot you yet,” Cora groused, and the idiot winked at her.
“Who says they haven’t?” His humor evaporated in the next second, and his face was all business. “I’ve known about your railway since you began sniffing around for land in Venezuela and Colombia. I suspected, like the canal, it would go nowhere.” He lifted a shoulder at the unfriendly look she sent him. “Given Monsieur de Lesseps’s unfortunate departure from my homeland, I find myself wanting a stake in your enterprise.”
“This is purely out of self-interest, then.”
“Naturally.” Cora had never met anyone more shameless. It was so brazen, she almost respected it. “But I am also attempting to garner some good will with Doctora Montalban, and she is very invested in her friend’s well-being,” he informed her, a little too casually, as he picked a thread off his shirt. “And it seems Miss Caceres Galvan’s future happily-ever-after is intimately tied to you.”
“She doesn’t want anything to do with me. You saw her send me away.”
“This self-pity is getting quite tiresome.” He had the gall to send her a disapproving look. “I have not heard this much lamentation since the last time I had to endure a dinner at a gentlemen’s club.” Apollo sighed, as if he found her despair exceedingly irritating. “You’re a woman,” he explained to her with a roll of his eyes. “I thought these matters were easier to discern for you. For God’s sake, it’s as if I’ve come to this continent solely to help aristocrats sort out their love lives.”
“You’rean aristocrat.” It would do a world of good for her soul to punch the man in the face, and she would’ve but for his offer to get her out of one of the many issues she’d have to quickly resolve if she was to get Manuela back.
“A very reluctant one,” he muttered, and for a moment Cora saw a glint of something that looked like discomfort. At any other time she would’ve squirreled that away to pursue at a later moment. But for now Apollo seemed to be one of the few allies she had.
“I assume divesting me of some railway shares won’t be your only request today.”
“Oh no, I wantallyour shares. And to take the helm in your stead.”
At his words, Cora saw it all as it would play out. They would know the reason she stepped down.She might buy herself a few weeks, but eventually the rumors would spread, and soon the rumblings that she could no longer be trusted in a business venture would start. They could tolerate her as long as they never had to think about her personal life, but after this, they had the excuse they needed to close the door on her forever. There would be no triumphant return to London with Alfie. So many years of pulling strings, of brokering little pieces of power, gone in a matter of weeks.
She waited for the despair to set in, the rage, the fury of losing everything she’d worked for. It didn’t come. She didn’t care. All she wanted was Manuela, happy, safe, with her.
Benedict, I hope you are proud of me, she said in a silent prayer and turned to the Earl of Darnick.
“Half my shares.”
Apollo’s mouth flattened at her counteroffer, those keen eyes sizing her up. Whoever assumed this man’s good humor was an inkling to a lack of intelligence made a grave mistake. Cora held up a hand when he opened his mouth. “Not for me,” she told him. The idea coming to her faster than she could relay it to the man. “To put into a trust.”
“A trust?” Apollo said, clearly doubting her sincerity.
“For a—” She had to look away from him then, before he saw the tears that were blurring her vision. Even if she had destroyed everything, she could at least make sure this happened. “For a women’s collective,” she said vaguely. She didn’t know the man well enough, and women organizing were not exactly regarded favorably by powerful men. “There is a meeting in the morning to decide on the bonds issue. You should be there.” She did feel a bit of satisfaction at the thought of the stuffy gentlemen of the consortium dealing with the Earl of Darnick.
“Now that the news about de Lesseps is out, everyone will want to invest in the railway,” Apollo said, approval in his voice.
“Yes.” It had been her grand idea. This would be the moment she’d typically make him aware it had been her idea, but suddenly the regard of this man or any of the others seemed to have lost its appeal. When the carriage stopped she opened the door. “I will have my man take you home, my lord. You will have the papers signing over my shares in the morning.”
“Will you be at the meeting?”
She shook her head as she descended to the street and looked up at her bedroom window where Manuela’s easel was still erected, waiting for her return. “I will not.”
