Chapter Twenty-Two
The last board member closed the door behind him with a click as swift as a guillotine, leaving Seth and Cooper alone with a towering stack of parchment on the desk between them.
To avert scandal, and with respect to Cooper’s station, the board was gracious enough to allow them to forfeit the contest on ‘unstated ethical grounds.’ They could keep their designs, the rifle, and the telescope—of which Duke Kendall had no serious interest in—as long as they reimbursed all expenses incurred on their behalf over the course of the stay.
All painstakingly detailed.
Each page landed harder on the desk than the one before it as Cooper flipped through them.
“Administration fees. Solicitor fees. Stable fees.” Flip.
“Cassandra’s physician’s fees. Your physician’s fees.
” Flip. “Soap?!” Flip. “Oil from the lamps!” FLIP.
“It’s impossible that the three of us drank that much tea!
” FLIP. “They’re charging us for the quills used to sign our forfeiture statement! ”
Cooper slammed his hands on the table. Loose pages fell to the floor like snow.
“How could this happen?” Shoulders shaking, he turned to Seth. “One week! You couldn’t control yourself for one week! For ten thousand pounds!”
Shadows darkened Cooper’s swollen eyes. Stubble marked his chin, and his voice grew hoarse after a night of struggling to convince non-budging gentlemen to reconsider.
Dead on his feet from pacing floors while Seth pored over rules, while the constable gave his statement, while a confession corroborated their claim.
None of it mattered.
There wasn’t a self-defense clause under the words: Violence of any kind will be grounds for immediate disqualification.
“What should I have done?” Seth countered through gritted teeth. “Let those men have their way? All four of them?”
“You should have waited for me in the square! Like I told you to!” Cooper snapped. “What were you doing in that alley?”
“Making our way to the carriage. We lost you in the crowd!”
“No.” Cooper seethed, each word a slow hiss.“What were you doing in the alley behind the bakery with my sister, Reeves?”
“Defending her.”
“Do you know what you have done?” Cooper’s volume rose with each rapid-fire word.
“You have beggared my family! Cassandra won’t be able to marry!
No one will have her now! No one except that vulture, at half the price he offered before.
And I’ll have to accept! How do I give that news to her?
! How am I to—and Caroline—” he choked. Turning red, he shouted, “What am I to say to Caroline?! Everything is gone! No one wants our designs! Not even the Earl, and you said he would! I’m out of options!
” He sank down onto the chair, head in his hands, shaking.
“I put every promise I ever made in your hands, and you took away my last option.”
His words fell on Seth’s shoulders like iron chains, greased by his own self-loathing and an unending stream of never-should-haves.
He never should have placed them in that position to begin with.
Never should have drank the ale. Never should have taken her into that room, kissed her at all, touched her at all, talked to her at all, but he hadn’t been able to control himself.
No.
He hadn’t wanted to. Caught up with Cassandra, he let a lifetime of discipline evaporate. And even now, he had the overwhelming urge to find her and hold her.
She must be so frightened.
When he thought he would win, it was all too easy to promise her he would do anything to take care of her. To remove the heavy burden of responsibility from her shoulders and place it on his own. To be everything she needed.
Right now, Cassandra Cooper needed the safety of her family. My family, Seth thought. Family who took him in and treated him as one of their own. Given to him freely, effortlessly. Loved him when they had no obligation to do so.
To their detriment.
Guilt pierced him far worse than a knife ever could at seeing Cooper broken and helpless.
His best friend. Made a lord too early and a parent to his siblings.
The noblest and hardest working man he knew.
Cooper didn’t deserve this. Seth betrayed his trust and threw away months of hard work and every resource the Cooper family had left.
He had to make it right.
There was only one thing to do.
“You’re not out of options.”
Cooper scoffed.
“Lord Bolderwood… doesn’t want this rifle.” As his tongue tied, Seth swallowed and placed his own shaking hands under the table. “He wants the next rifle.”
Cooper turned to him, voice and eyes cold. “Explain.”
“The Earl… wants us to work for him.” Seth set his shoulders. “He’s offered employment.”
“If he wanted to employ us, he would have asked us. What does he want?” Cooper scowled. “You, clearly.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll do it together.”
“Another convenient save from Captain Reeves.” Cooper sank to pluck the pages from the ground and placed them back on the top of the stack. “He doesn’t have a use for me. Who am I to the Secretary at War?”
“You’re the man who put a telescope on a rifle,” Seth said. “The cartridges were your idea. I may have designed the rifle, but you invented the system.”
“But that’s all in your head now, and we don’t have a patent. You can replicate it without me, easily.”
“I won’t profit off of your ideas. We’re partners.
Think on it. A project spear-headed by a viscount with influence in the House of Lords will carry weight in higher circles.
Wherever I go the word ‘bastard’ will follow.
My mind might be a steel trap, but yours is open.
You’re better with people than I am. Lord Bolderwood will see it that way. ”
The corner of Cooper’s lip lifted briefly, then fell as if he didn’t have the strength to keep it up.
“Work with me,” Seth implored. “Whatever he’s planning, it will be large scale. He’s too ambitious for it to be anything less. I’m willing to bet that Mr. Sanderson is in on it, as well.”
Lord Bolderwood brought him to Cooper House, so there must have been a plan in the beginning. Seth considered the deliberate questions Mr. Sanderson asked, how quickly he became their shadow after they approached him, and the clandestine meetings with the Earl with The Bible open to the telescope.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not in any position to make bets.” Cooper sighed.
“No, you’re not.” Seth took in a steadying breath. “But I’m in a position to negotiate.”
Cooper studied him, face trained in the expression he always wore as Viscount Lincolnshire. “If you offer yourself to Lord Bolderwood, he will never let you go.”
Seth sat firm. “I’m aware of that.”
“You would march into a cage with a bear and lock the gate behind you? Trade your open sky for chimney stacks and factories? Can’t go for a walk without bumping into someone. You’ll keep Sabre… where? Tied up outside your boarding house?”
“We managed before.”
“You would do this for me?”
“All of you.” A memory flashed in his mind of the four of them talking over the breakfast table in the only place where he had ever been truly happy. “We’re family… aren’t we?”
“Reeves.” Cooper’s chest rose with his inhale and he met Seth’s eyes. “Before I agree to this, is there anything else you need to tell me?”
Seth shook his head. There wasn’t time for it.
“No.”
“Right,” Cooper said, his face set in a flat line. It was a good while before he spoke. “Well? What are you waiting for, Mr. Reeves? Go make a deal with the devil.”
***
From the library’s window, Cassandra watched the preparations for the final competition. White tablecloths danced in the breeze as guests found their way to their seats. Well-to-do aristocrats who wouldn’t look her in the eye.
How could this happen? Everything had gone so wrong so quickly. She gave into temptation and it cost them everything. And Caroline—hot tears formed in her sore eyes. What am I going to tell Caroline? Her nails dug into her palms. I never should have come here!
She stood on a rock in the ocean, not knowing the tide was rising until it was too late. Those looking down at her from their boats were as ruthless as the sharks closing in. She needed someone to tell her what to do, chart out her next steps, but there were no steps to take.
Matthew would want to leave as soon as possible.
But where would they go? Dorchester? Aunt Valentine won’t leave us out in the cold.
From the window, she watched as the three Dorchesters found their seats.
Aunt Valentine fluttered between guests, doing her best to avert scandal.
She would surely give Cassandra the long list of unmarried gentlemen Jasmine passed over. Maybe one would be interested in her.
Who am I fooling? Cassandra held her head in her hands. No one will want me now.
Wallowing in it was a waste of time. Much would require her attention in the coming days. She would do what she normally did in crisis. Take one step at a time. Solve the problems she could as they arose. Determine what was within her control.
The first order of business—pack. The next… she swallowed around the lump in her throat and pushed back her tears as her heart fractured.
Say goodbye to Seth.
She left the library and walked past the yellow room, where she heard the babble of feminine voices. An altercation with Lady Samantha’s trio was the last thing she needed, so she tip-toed past the door.
“—the whole time! And—”
“—don’t forget the roses! Miss Cooper—”
Cassandra stopped. Heart hammering, she stood against the wall.
“You mean Miss Damsel in Distress,” Lady Samantha droned. “She’s shameless!”
Miss Georgiana’s high-pitched voice spoke next. “They’re saying in the kitchens that someone paid those men to attack them!”
“We’re trying to have a serious conversation, Georgie,” Lady Honora admonished.