Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The following day
C ynthia stood on the threshold of the grand room. Archer stood in the middle of the morning room. One side had waist-to-ceiling windows lined with a criss-cross of lead. Her father’s writing desk stood in the far corner. Archer wandered over and tugged on a drawer on the left. He smiled wide when he looked inside. She knew there was still a half-smoked cigar. Call it perverse, but she needed a reminder of the monster.
“Rifling through the drawers already. I’m not dead yet,” she said from behind him.
Archer jumped at her voice. “Just taking a walk down memory lane, Aunt Cynthia,” he said.
His genial smile didn’t fool her for a second. He didn’t like her, and that was fine with her. It would make it easier to do what she needed to do.
“Let’s talk,” she said, walking away to the red velvet sofas by the fire. It was too early in the day for the fire to be lit. However, the sun streaming in the window kept the room warm for most of the day.
He mirrored her position on the sofas precisely as he’d done the previous day. Cynthia brushed off invisible dust from her plaid skirt. This was a trait the headteacher used to do to intimidate people. She’d seen it many times when she had issued her father’s threats. But he wasn’t a patch on her for intimidation. She learned from the best.
“I’ve thought about your proposal,” Aunt Cynthia said.
“That’s great news,” Archer replied, smiling wide.
“Wait until I have finished before you assume you’ll get everything you came here for.”
She saw him flinch.
“I’m listening,” he answered.
“I’ll hand over the business for Edward Hall and the cottages,” Aunt Cynthia said.
“Fantastic,” Archer said and stood.
“Sit back down, Archer Turner,” she said, giving him an icy glare.
Archer returned to the sofa. His smile slid off his face.
She used silence again. “I’ll sign over the paperwork, but there are conditions,” she said, raising her palm when a smile played on his lips again.
“Okay,” he said hesitantly.
“You only get the business itself. You don’t have any hold over Turner Hall or Copper Island land.”
“That sounds fair,” Archer said.
“I haven’t finished.”
Archer kept quiet, keeping eye contact but barely breathing.
“You are to get married before I sign the papers.”
Archer blanched and sat back a few inches, clearly not expecting her to say that. “What?”
“And you have three months, or the deal is off.”
Aunt Cynthia cleared her throat and smoothed her hands down her a-line plaid skirt. Archer dropped his eyes to her shoes, positioned neatly together and to the side.
“A wife?”
“A wife, Archer,” she answered. “I don’t mean an engagement—a wedding where I am attending. You can get married in the family chapel. A single man living under my roof at your age brings all kinds of trouble. Next, I’ll hear that you’ve got half the town’s single women pregnant.”
“Seriously? What kind of man do you take me for?”
Cynthia gave him a hard stare. He was handsome, and any girl on the island would love to be his wife and live at Turner Hall.
“You look exactly like your father.”
Archer stood, buttoned his jacket, and stepped away from the sofa. She hadn’t heard his reaction to the implied insult, but she felt the room change. His mood shot across the expanse between them. Cynthia knew right then he would make a fine head of the Turner family.
“Thank you for seeing me, Aunt Cynthia. Will you permit me to sleep on this and come to you tomorrow?”
“Of course,” she answered and then rang her bell.
The following morning, Cynthia sat at her father’s writing desk with a fountain pen and a blank sheet of paper in her hand. She gave the impression he was interrupting her.
“I’m surprised you came,” she said without turning.
“We agreed I would come and give you my answer this morning,” Archer replied.
“I’m still surprised. I take it you’ve decided to take me up on my offer.”
“I have. It seems horrendous that you think so little of me. That I would be so careless with a woman and have an unplanned child.”
“Your father was exactly like that.”
“It doesn’t mean I would be. My dad loved my mother, so getting her pregnant wasn’t unwanted.”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Archer.”
“Why are you so bitter?”
She would never answer that question. She would never reveal who Jonathan was or Benny.
“Are you going to take the deal or not?”
“I am. I’ll be married within three months, and then you will jointly sign the business to me, my sister, and my brothers.”
“Can you find a woman to love you in that time?”
“I’ll have to if I want to get my siblings back all in one place.”
Cynthia felt light at his words. It was all falling into place.
“I’ll sign the papers to you only on your wedding day, directly after the ceremony.”
“Fine.”
“I’m sure the day will be perfect,” she said and turned her back on him.