Chapter Twenty
Samuel drew in a long, considering breath. “What do you think?”
He wasn’t looking at the building. He should have been, he knew; that was the entire reason why they had traveled to this part of London, after all. It had been difficult enough to tear themselves apart and get dressed long enough to step into the carriage.
A smile teased at the corners of Samuel’s lips as he thought about that carriage ride. One hand on her breast, another under her skirts—
Rose frowned. “I am not sure.”
“You’re not?”
“It’s… Well, it’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?” his wife said slowly, her gaze moving from left to right as she took in the building before her. “I suppose one has to rather imagine it like a stage. It’s not been properly dressed yet?”
Tearing his eyes away, much to his disinclination, Samuel looked back at the building for which they had traveled to see.
It was large, very large. It took up most of this side of the street, the grand and wide windows reflecting the afternoon sun. There were pillars on the ground floor and copious room inside for what they wanted.
But was it the right location?
“You’re not too far from Soho,” Samuel pointed out, walking up the steps and letting himself in with the key with which Mr. Todd had entrusted him. “Walking distance to Hyde Park.”
“That is good,” Rose said as she followed him into the cavernous space. “Goodness.”
Goodness was about right. Samuel had visited a number of cathedrals in his time, and a few theaters. Now that he was married to one of the best actresses in the world, by his estimation, he presumed he would be spending a great deal more time in such places.
Theaters, that was. Not cathedrals.
This particular building had similarities, but it was at the same time completely different. Cavernous, yes, but cold. Heartless. It conveyed a sense that great pain had been experienced here, and great loneliness. Somehow that clung to every brick.
“An abandoned building,” Rose said with a shiver. “It seems strange. As though ghosts are walking among us.”
“After the blaze that gutted the place, it appeared no one wanted the expense of restoring it,” Samuel said vaguely, stepping forward with footsteps that echoed unpleasantly around the space.
“I suppose it would take a great deal of money to make the place habitable, let alone pleasant. But it is big enough for our plans.”
His wife nodded as she looked about her, stepping through a door and starting to explore. “And you think this could be the place?”
“It’s hard to think of better,” he replied as he followed her into what had once perhaps been a dining hall of sorts.
“There are few properties in London this large that ever come up for sale. And it would enable us to get the place ready swiftly. So much of the layout would work for us, don’t you think? ”
Us. Samuel tried not to puff out his chest as he said the word, the movement surely ridiculous.
Us. Himself and Rose.
It was hard to believe he had considered, even for a moment, not remaining her husband. Letting go of the most beautiful and kindest woman he had ever met? Abandoning the opportunity to build something that truly mattered with this woman who had overcome so much?
He’d been a fool, indeed, to walk out on her. He was fortunate that she had accepted him back.
Accepted him, and loved him.
“You’ve got that idiot grin on your face again.”
Rose’s words reached Samuel’s ears through a foggy haze, but he managed to concentrate on them.
“I was just thinking about—”
“Me,” said his wife with a similarly wide grin. “I know. I know that look.”
He did not think, he just acted. Pulling Rose into his arms, Samuel kissed her deeply and passionately, his tongue darting into her mouth at first but then languidly layering on carnality after carnality—
“Ahem.”
The pair broke apart, heat blossoming through Samuel.
Mr. Todd looked even more embarrassed than Samuel felt. “So sorry to intrude, my lord, my lady…”
“Please, don’t apologize,” said Rose smoothly, slipping her hand through Samuel’s arm and beaming at the solicitor, as though he were the second-most important person in the world.
Samuel’s soul softened. There was a particular smile that she kept just for him.
The solicitor was still flushing. “I thought I would—well, stop by and see what you thought. Whether you wish to purchase.”
“‘Purchase’?” Samuel repeated, his mind still kissing Rose.
She nudged him hard with her elbow. “The purchase, my dear, of the place to transform it into a retirement home for actors and actresses. The purchase of the place we are standing in right now. As you suggested.”
Samuel blinked. “Oh. Oh, yes. So I did.”
Rose’s giggles are not helpful, he could not help but think ruefully. She knew what happened to his brain whenever he kissed her.
Mr. Todd appeared to know, too. “If you wish, I can return another time.”
“We’ll stop by your office later,” Rose said swiftly, much to Samuel’s relief. “I suppose there hasn’t been a great deal of interest in the property?”
“Perhaps not, but the seller is rather eager. I don’t think you’re the only ones interested in the property.”
“Tomorrow, then,” said Samuel’s wife with a squeeze of his arm. “Thank you, Mr. Todd. Good day.”
It was masterful. Only someone as talented as Rose could have done it, Samuel thought with a grin. The solicitor drifted out of the building as though on a cloud, just happy to have been noticed by her.
“You have a way with men,” he teased under his breath.
Only when the door to the outside world had closed, and with Mr. Todd on the other side of it, did Rose nudge him again in the ribs. “Cheek.”
“I’m just saying, you are able to—”
“This place, then,” Rose interrupted, forestalling Samuel’s monologue on her remarkable powers. “You truly think we can make it into a home?”
His stomach lurched.
A home. He had become so focused on the idea that he should be doing something for the good of those around him, Samuel had almost completely lost sight of the fact that for those who would come to live here, it would be their home.
He glanced about them. The empty space, the slightly stale air, the sense of misery and loneliness that permeated every floorboard…could this place be transformed sufficiently?
“A great deal of money could do it,” Samuel said with a nod.
Rose slipped her hand from his arm. “And you have a great deal of money.”
He did not miss the slight catch in her voice. It was not censure, not exactly. Rose was too worldly to truly condemn him for being of means.
But there was something in there. Something he had to address.
“I am rich, it is true,” Samuel said, taking her hand in his as they walked slowly along what had once been a long dining hall back to the central hallway. “I have you.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “Now that was worthy of the stage.”
“You liked it?” He was almost pleased. “I promise you, I made no preparations.”
“That, I can well believe,” his wife said dryly as they looked about them in the hallway. “Such nonsense you speak.”
“It’s not nonsense if it’s true,” said Samuel, more seriously now. “I thought… I believed completely that money would make me happy. And it’s true, I can transform it into happiness—but only when I spend it, and preferably on others.”
Rose’s smile became a little less sardonic and a little more loving.
“It isn’t money that makes me happy,” Samuel admitted, almost glad he could rectify this stain on his own character. “It’s you.”
Her embrace was swift, but warm, and even if it had lasted all day, it would not have been enough.
“So, I suppose we should make a decision,” Samuel said with a shiver as they stepped outside. “We could wait for something better to come on the market, but—”
“Rose—Rose? It… It can’t be.”
Samuel did not need the sudden grasp of his arm to know this was going to be a most tricky situation, indeed.
Standing on the other side of the street, wrapped up against the seasonal cold but most definitely identifiable…were the Marquess and Marchioness of Dalton.
“Oh, hell,” muttered Samuel’s wife.
“We do not have to speak to them.” He turned, standing between the sight of her parents and the woman he loved. “This should be on your terms, if at all. We can turn around and go back inside.”
“No.” Rose’s cheeks were flushed, to be sure, but there was that look of determination in her expression again. Samuel knew it well. “No, it has to happen. It may as well be here, in public, where… Where they cannot…”
Samuel placed an arm around her shoulders and wished to goodness the dratted man had just walked away—but no, he was pulling his wife across the road with him and there was a look of red-faced shock in Lord Dalton’s expression he had never seen before.
“Rose,” repeated the diminutive Lady Dalton, for it had been she who had called out most indecorously. “It… It is you, isn’t it?”
Samuel glanced at his wife. Her gaze was defiant, as he should have known it would be.
“Yes,” Rose said in a clipped voice. “Good afternoon, Lady Dalton.”
Lady Dalton flinched as though she had been shot. “I—You disappeared—”
“I left home,” Rose said firmly, and she stood up straighter as she did so.
Samuel could have crowed to hear her speak so powerfully. Honestly, was there anything this woman could not do?
Perhaps there was one thing: avoid her father forever.
Lord Dalton cleared his throat. “You look well.”
Samuel tried not to look at Rose’s face as she said, “Yes.”
The last thing she needed was to feel as though she had an even greater audience. Thankfully, their little scene was being soundly ignored by the people of London, who evidently had far more important things to do than witness a reconciliation, or whatever this was.
The trouble was, the silence between the trio was growing and there appeared to be no sign that it was about to end.
Samuel cleared his throat, intending to say something, but before he could do so, Lord Dalton’s attention snapped to him.