Chapter Twenty-Three #2
Leaving the bed, Cassandra lit an oil lamp and rummaged through her luggage. She unearthed her diary, ripped out a clean page, and wrote one simple sentence. She walked the five steps to Seth’s bedchamber and slipped the page under his door.
Come to my bedchamber. - C
***
For a man of few words, Ezekiel Sanderson would not stop talking.
Needing to make an appearance at his own festivities, Lord Bolderwood had left the study as soon as Mr. Sanderson arrived, leaving the three men with another towering stack of documents. Seth and Cooper scanned the pages while Mr. Sanderson explained.
“I’m offering to purchase the rights to your rifle and the telescope.
My name will sit on the patents—next to yours, of course—and on all going forward.
I’m also proposing partnership.” Mr. Sanderson laid two contracts upright in front of them.
“Preliminary. I’m sure you’ll wish for your solicitor to look over the information before any permanent contracts can be signed. My offer.”
Cooper’s brows rose at the number on the page.
“Isn’t this too much?” His eyes traveled to Seth. “For a third rate rifle and a homemade telescope?”
“I don’t see it as third rate. I see potential,” Mr. Sanderson said. “I believe that your style of weaponry will set a new standard, becoming common place throughout the world. Imagine what the next five years will bring, or ten!”
“I thought you were a scout, but it’s your company?” Cooper asked, flipping through the pages.
“It’s my contest!” Mr. Sanderson burst forth. Cooper’s jaw dropped.
“Wait.” Seth held up a hand. “It’s your contest?”
“More appropriately, a collaboration with my company and the War Department.”
“What about Duke Kendall?” Seth asked.
“His Grace was all too happy to play the leading role, as long as he received a one of a kind rifle and some entertainment. He was… less than enthused about your rifle, but it’s exactly what I was searching for. I want one in every soldier’s hands as soon as possible.”
So Cooper was right.
“We have a factory in London at the ready. Staffed with trustworthy individuals, all vetted. Talented. The contest certainly drew them out. It didn’t require much convincing to hire them on, not when they all suddenly found themselves without employment.”
“Sound’s a bit predatory,” Cooper mumbled.
“Is it? When everyone gets what they want?” Mr. Sanderson asked. “Isn’t that a motto of yours, Lord Lincolnshire? Results over means?”
“You planned this from the outset,” Seth accused. “We were never going to win.”
“No, I truly hoped that you would win,” Mr. Sanderson said earnestly. “I wished to offer both of you the grand prize on the morrow. The mystery prize is an exclusive contract with the War Department, which I’m now offering to you.”
“Isn’t that cheating?” Seth’s brow arched.
Mr. Sanderson shrugged. “It’s my contest.”
“What will the mystery prize be now?” Cooper asked.
“A favor from Duke Kendall,” Mr. Sanderson shrugged. “Whatever that means.”
“You could have overlooked last night,” Cooper said. “If you’re bending the rules now, why not negate the rule that disqualified us?”
“To my regret, those were iron-clad rules for the contest.” He motioned to the paperwork. “This is a matter for the Crown.”
“Still, you’ve lied to us this entire time,” Cooper accused. “You could have brought this up before and saved us all this trouble.”
“My apologies for the deception,” Mr. Sanderson said. “When people hear the words ‘sizable fortune’ their opinions of you tend to change, as does their actions. I wished to know you personally before signing onto anything long-term. Isn’t it better to work with friends who you trust?”
Cooper met Seth’s eyes for a second before trailing back to Mr. Sanderson.
“Why go through all of this? Why not offer the commission to Mr. Nott?”
“I almost did, but then I saw your rifle at Cooper House! And the telescope! Ha!” Mr. Sanderson’s fingertips drummed the table and his voice hurried.
“You see, this is the very reason I wanted to have a contest in the first place! The old way never brings about true innovation. How better to lure out the country’s finest smiths and the finest minds?
Viscount Lincolnshire would still be hidden away in the country, and who knows where you would be, Mr. Reeves.
And now, you stand in front of me, ready to make history. ”
“This partnership you’re proposing… how long term are we talking?” Cooper asked.
“An initial contract of ten years,” came Mr. Sanderson’s succinct reply.
“Ten years?” Cooper’s eyebrows disappeared under his hair.
“I wish to start immediately. News of this will have traveled. We all can be exceedingly wealthy men, but we have to act now. With your minds and my company, we’ll be the largest arms manufacturers in the world.”
“An arm’s manufacturer.” Cooper frowned. “You want me to decide tonight?”
“I understand that time is of the essence.” Mr. Sanderson pushed the paperwork forward. “What do you say? Partners?”
Cooper ran his fingers through his hair and let out a low groan. “Ten years, creating weapons of war.” He turned to Seth. “You’ll sign a contract with Lord Bolderwood and me for ten years, Reeves?”
Mr. Sanderson raised his hand. “And me!”
Seth didn’t have the heart to tell Cooper that by the end of the week it would be one of many contracts that he would sign, one of many sentences he would serve, for him, for Caroline. For Cassandra.
“Whatever it takes,” Seth said.
“Compensation for the rifle and telescope effective immediately?” Cooper asked Mr. Sanderson.
“Immediately,” Mr. Sanderson affirmed. “Then, salary.”
“This is all preliminary?” Cooper reached for his quill.
“The fine details will be hammered out in London.”
Cooper took a deep breath and met Seth’s gaze squarely, tipping the quill to him as if he were toasting him with a glass of brandy. “Partners?”
Seth nodded. “Partners.”
By the time they finished sorting through details, it was past midnight. With his fingers braided together over his head, Cooper stretched and yawned loudly.
“It’s been some time since I’ve gone two days with no sleep. I forgot how much it drains you.” He sighed. “I suppose I’ll get used to it again. I have a feeling Zeke will be a demanding taskmaster.”
No more than Lord Bolderwood, who used that moment to return to his study.
“Thank you for this opportunity, Lord Bolderwood,” Cooper said. “I won’t let you down.”
“I have every confidence in you, Lord Lincolnshire. Get some rest.” He turned to Seth. “Stay behind, Mr. Reeves.”
My first summons.
Cooper’s eyes shifted between the two men. Frowning, he left them alone. Once the door closed, Lord Bolderwood opened the top drawer of his desk, pulled the three sheets from it, and placed them on the desk in front of him.
“Yours to do with as you wish.”
Seth snatched them from the desk. “What else?”
“Nothing for now. I’ll be in touch.”
Seth left the study with the weight of what he had agreed to heavy on his shoulders.
An indefinite, open-ended contract with Lord Bolderwood.
Ten years with Mr. Sanderson and Cooper.
He bought Cassandra time, and it cost all of his.
At the end of this, how could he work with Cooper for the next ten years, see her, and not hold her in his arms?
Hear her laugh and not kiss her? How could he go from proposing to her to being a bystander in her life?
Seth slid his fingertip along Cassandra’s page, frayed at the edges, holes forming at the folded corners. Not able to suffer a moment longer, he made another permanent decision and opened the page. Words smudged from his body heat, but still legible, he read:
I can’t get my thoughts off of Mr. Reeves.
I thought it would get better over time, but it hasn’t.
Each day that I spend with him only makes it worse.
How can one know if what they’re feeling is love or attraction?
Closeness, or just being close? What do you call it when your soul meets another at the turn of a page and a smile across the room, and your heart soars for the briefest of moments before it all comes crashing down?
Is that why it’s called falling in love?
What do you call it when you cannot sleep while longing for someone you can never have, when he’s just down the hall?
Is it important to name it at all, if it’s unrequited?
How is it possible for a man to break a woman’s heart without ever having properly held it in his hands?
But what can you call it, if not love? If so, how have I loved Mr. Reeves for my entire life, and never
There were no other words.
Seth re-read the page, over and over. His heart beat wilder with each word.
She had loved him for her entire life.
He had to go to her. There wasn’t any time to waste, not when they both wanted the same thing.
Please still be awake.
With steady strides, he went straight to Cassandra’s bedchamber. Her door opened before his knuckle fully made contact, as if she had been on the other side waiting for him all the while. And she had been, she had been waiting this whole time for him, and he was too foolish to see it.
Cassandra flung herself into his arms with a sob. “I’m sorry.”
Seth held her, inhaling the scent of lavender, watching candlelight dance through her hair and all he wanted was to lose himself in her.
But first, answers. He stepped away and held the page aloft.
Her eyes widened. She was worn and worried, fraying at the edges like her diary page, but still as devastatingly beautiful as the words within.
“Is this true?”