Chapter Eleven
Some hours later, while sitting at his desk, Samuel tried for the fifth time to read the changes that Liddell had scribbled in the margins of the reform bill, but it was late in the evening and although he had his oil lamps lit, the pitter patter sound of rain was pulling his attention away from the matter at hand.
And it wasn’t just the rain that was distracting him.
Everything in this room had been altered since the day before and he couldn’t find anything in its rightful place.
Leaning to his left, he pulled open the drawer to see his stationery neatly stacked, with an assortment of writing tools laid out next to it by size.
He slammed the drawer shut and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, sighing as he leaned back in his chair.
Everything had changed and it was not how he liked it.
Samuel, as understanding as he could be, was a creature of habit.
He liked his workspaces messy and unorganized.
He liked to believe it was what his mind might look like if he was able to see it.
A busy desk covered in hundreds of papers, all seemingly similar, but different.
Letters from associates, blueprints from builders, proposed political bills that could make or break the future of his company.
All scattered just so, in a way only he was able to see it.
But no. Someone had entered his offices without his knowledge or permission and moved everything around. Now it was so organized and unfamiliar that he could barely concentrate.
Standing up, he opened his little silver cigarro case and took one out. But before he could light it, the door against the far wall cracked open and a flurry of pale blue fabric entered.
Jane.
She stopped immediately upon seeing him, her eyes slightly puffy, as though she had just woken up.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
He glanced around, confused.
“It’s my office.”
“It’s a quarter after five o’clock in the morning. Surely you haven’t been here all night.” When he didn’t answer right away, she took a step forward. “Have you?”
He craned his neck to see the grandfather clock that stood behind him. It was, indeed, a quarter past five in the morning. He glanced back at her.
“It would seem so.”
“Goodness… Come. Move away from the desk.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You’ve an outing with Mr. Liddell this morning.”
“Tompkins can manage it.”
She stared at him.
“Mr. Liddell is expecting you.”
“And I should jump when he says so?” He scoffed, lighting his cigarro finally. He took a long drag before exhaling. “Forgive me. I’m not terribly suitable for company when I’m tired. Believe me, he’d be in better hands if Tompkins escorted him.”
Jane’s mouth set in a flat line. She was perturbed, but she came forward and began tidying his desk. Had she been the one to mess with his things?
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Sorting out this mess of a desk.”
“Who told you to do that?”
“No one told me,” she said, her brow pinched together in confusion. “It’s just a mess and needs tending to.”
He reached out and placed his hand on top of hers. She stopped moving immediately as she glanced up at him.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I don’t mind.”
“No, I mean, it isn’t your job to take care of my mess.”
“Well, you’re not going to do it, so I might as well,” she said as she pulled her hand from his and started to make little piles all around his desk. “Someone needs to make you presentable.”
He cocked his head.
“What was that?”
Jane exhaled slowly.
“Nothing. It’s not for me to have an opinion on the matter.”
“But you do have an opinion on me. Is that correct?” She didn’t answer, and the corner of his mouth quirked up. “You may speak freely. I’m not afraid of what you have to say. Believe me, there are plenty of people in the city who would pay to be in your place.”
“My place? You mean, employed by your mother?”
“I mean alone with the richest man in Glasgow. Particularly when he’s not slept and is asking for opinions that aren’t his own.”
“Do you really wish to know what I think?”
“I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
“Very well. Here’s what I think.” She took a deep breath, almost as if she were bracing herself. “I think you behaved boorishly last night.”
He frowned.
“When?”
“There were several instances, each one worse than the last. Firstly, you keep touching Mr. Liddell. Shaking his hand or patting him on the back.” She shook her head. “It does not bode well to appear to be too familiar with anyone in public.”
Samuel shrugged.
“He’s a politician. I always shake hands with politicians.”
“He’s also the third son of an earl.”
“Is that what you’re on about? Me not bending the knee to a peer?” He laughed. “What was I supposed to do? Take off my coat and have him walk on it?”
She scowled.
“No, of course not, but if you wish to get him to serve you, you need to play at his ego.”
He gave her a skeptical gaze.
“Like how you were doing? Last night, with the rolled ankle?” Though the room was dark as the early morning sun had yet to rise, Samuel could see a faint blush color Jane’s cheek. “You think I’m too rough around the edges to charm a man like Liddell.”
“Charm has nothing to do with it. Liddell is from one of the oldest families in the country. If there was ever a man more against reform, it’s him.
Yet you invited him here because you need his support for the reform bill.
” She let out a small, humorless laugh. “I admit, when I learned it was him who was coming here, I thought you were clever.”
Samuel tilted his head.
“Did you?”
“Yes. It’s widely known that Liddell is a bit of a loose cannon.
He’s jealous of his brothers, and is always seeking to…
undermine them, shall we say, when it comes to their investments?
It’s at the heart of his vindictiveness, to jab at his siblings whenever he can, but he’s a traditionalist underneath it all.
He may seem like a brilliant get, but he’s going to be a bull when it comes to changing his mind.
You need to act properly around him to get what you want. ”
Samuel watched her, curiously.
“You’re observant,” he said quietly as he came around the desk, before leaning against it. He folded his arms across his chest. “Is that why you were so charming with him last night?”
A cool mask came over Jane’s face as she squared her shoulders.
“I behaved perfectly last night.”
“I’ll say. You almost had him eating out of the palm of your hand.”
She squinted at him.
“Are you accusing me of something?”
“No.”
“Then why am I being judged by my behavior last night?”
Samuel didn’t answer right away, not because he didn’t have the right words, but because he had too many.
He had been jealous last night of all the attention Jane was showering Liddell with, and it had irritated him on several levels.
The way they spoke to one another so easily, the air of aristocracy was about them.
Usually, Samuel would be amused by the arrogance of peers, but having seen Jane standing next to Liddell last night, he noticed something he didn’t like.
They were perfectly suited for one another.
Liddell, with his long thin nose, his weak chin and slender form, looked elegantly matched to Jane, whose delicate features and pale blonde hair made them look like some sort of king and queen.
Compared to Liddell, Samuel looked like some sort of country beggar.
He was too brawny in his shoulders, too heavy handed with his gestures and speech.
He spoke plainly and crudely compared to his betters and yet it had rarely ever bothered him before.
But now, he was beginning to realize just how different he was from the likes of Liddell and Jane.
He didn’t like it.
But to confess all that? No. No, he would just be better off apologizing and taking himself to his room for some much-deserved rest.
But the dog in him would not lie.
“You managed him well enough.”
Jane’s eyes widened at the comment, unsure if he meant it as a compliment or an insult.
Whether she thought herself better than him because of her former rank, or because she was too much of a fool to realize his bitter mood was born from jealousy, she did not cower.
Instead, she lifted her chin and spoke once more.
“My job here is to assist Mrs. Milton in all her endeavors. She has stated that with Liddell, it was her wish, your wish, for me to befriend Mr. Liddell and gain his support. Now, according to you, I’m to be made to feel shame for doing what I was told to do?”
Samuel knew he should leave the room and retire, but he was tired and irritated by the fact that he hadn’t been able to think of anything else all night. The feel of Jane’s cheek brushing against his had haunted him for hours, and he was not in the mood to regulate his emotions.
“That doesn’t mean you have to laugh at every little stupid thing he says,” he bit out.
“Yes, it does, actually. The man is a walking ego, and if you wish to gain his support, you must play the game.”
“What game is that? Manipulation?”
“Call it whatever you like. It’s no different than what you do every day.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it? Because your mother shared with me the most humorous story the other day about you. Now, what did she say? It had something to do with you when you were gathering plots for the arcade.”
Samuel glared at her, annoyed that he should still find her so alluring even when she was proving him wrong.
“Now wait just one minute,” he tried, but she continued.
“And the Mayor of Glasgow was vehemently opposed to it, but after a month-long campaign of bribes—”
“Bribes?” Samuel said, as he stalked toward her. “Is that what she called it?”
“Yes, bribes.”
“I was merely greasing a wheel that had long since rusted.”
“Oh. So, you didn’t enjoy the mayor’s company? It wasn’t a pleasure for you to follow him around for a month, complimenting everything he did?”