‘You’re not married?’ was the first one to pop out.
‘Never have been.’
‘But your cousin—Kit—is married?’
‘Has been this last ten years.’
‘You’re not engaged or living with anyone?’ she questioned, more or less in the same way he had asked her on Tuesday.
He shook his head. ‘No, nor likely to be.’
‘Nor do you want to marry?’
‘Definitely not. And, much though I’m fond of the old chap, I resent him, just because he has this sublime respect for the institution of marriage, attempting to force me to take a wife.’
‘But unless you do you stand to be disinherited,’ she reasoned. ‘Join the club.’
‘It’s not going to happen.’
‘Your father thinks he’ll change his mind?’
‘Very doubtful. My father’s anxiety stems from the certainty that it will happen, and that all that he and I have worked for over the years will be as nothing if Kit gets a controlling interest in the firm. Which, with those shares, he most definitely will.’
‘He’s—er—not up to the job?’
‘Don’t get me wrong. Kit and I had a lot to do with each other during our growing years. I’m fond of him, despite his faults. But, as well as being no powerhouse when it comes to work—and that’s being kind—he is far too easily swayed by others. Although he’s already parted with some of the shares his mother gave him, he, like me, already has enough shares to guarantee him a seat on the board. But while we have a duty to our shareholders we also have a duty to our workforce. And I’m afraid Kit feels a duty for neither. It’s a foregone conclusion that the ship will sink if he has any hand in guiding it.’
Colly did not know much about big business, but if Silas Livingstone thought it was so, she was quite willing to believe him. ‘So…’ she brought out the best her brain could come up with ‘…either you marry and inherit a sufficient number of shares to deny your cousin control, or you ultimately have to stand by and watch him ruin all that three generations of Livingstones have worked for?’
‘Exactly,’ Silas agreed. ‘And while God forbid that anything untoward happens to my grandfather for years and years yet, I have to face the reality that he’s currently aged eighty-four. Which is why I have determined that when that awful day comes, and he’s no longer with us, I am not left hearing that unless I have been married for a year and a day the shares that should be mine have been inherited by my cousin Kit.’
By then Colly had forgotten entirely that she had only dined with Silas Livingstone to hear about a job he was now offering her. She recalled how wounded she herself had felt at the way her father had left his will. By the look of it, the shares Silas Livingstone had always been led to believe were half his would be willed elsewhere.
On thinking over all he had just said, though, she could only see one way out for him—if he was dead set on keeping the company safe. ‘I’m sorry, Silas,’ she said quietly, ‘but it seems to me that unless you’re prepared to let the company fail you’re going to have to get over your aversion to marriage and take yourself a wife.’
For ageless moments after she had spoken Silas said not a word. Then, drawing a long breath, ‘That is the only conclusion I was able to reach too,’ he said. And then, looking at no one but her, ‘Which,’ he added, ‘is where you come in.’
She stared at him. ‘Me?’ she questioned, startled.
‘You,’ he agreed.
Her brain wasn’t taking this in. ‘No,’ she said on a strangled kind of note as what he might possibly be meaning started to filter through. Then, as common sense swiftly followed, ‘I’m sorry,’ she apologised. ‘For one totally absurd moment I had this weird notion that you were asking me to marry you.’
She laughed awkwardly, feeling that she had made a fool of herself. She was on the brink of repeating her apology, only, daring to take a glance at him, certain that he must be laughing his head off, she could see not one glimmer of being highly amused about him!
Colly swallowed hard. ‘You weren’t doing that, were you?’ she asked, her voice gone all husky in shock.
‘I cannot fault the idea,’ he answered, his look steady, his expression unsmiling.
Did that mean that he was suggesting that he marry her? No, don’t be ridiculous. Good heavens, she…Colly got herself more together. Whether he was suggesting what it very much sounded as if he was suggesting or not, she thought it was time she let him know her feelings.
‘I don’t want a husband!’ she told him bluntly.
‘Good!’ was his answer, doing nothing for her feeling that she had just made one enormous fool of herself. ‘I don’t want a wife.’ She wondered if she should get up and leave right now. ‘But…’ he added—and she stayed to hear the rest of it, ‘…you and I both have a problem, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘I know what your problem is,’ she agreed.
‘And your problem is that you need somewhere to live and the wherewithal to finance your training.’
‘I hope you’re not thinking in terms of giving me money!’ she erupted proudly—and, oddly, saw a hint of a smile cross his features. ‘I shall work for any money I—’
‘Look on this as work,’ he cut in quickly.
‘This is the job you’re offering me?’ This wasn’t happening; she’d got something wrong somewhere.
He took a long breath, as if finding her uphill work. She did not care. The whole notion was absurd—that was if she had got all this right. ‘Try and see this logically,’ Silas said after some moments.
Colly looked at him levelly, took a deep breath of her own, and supposed her reaction had been more instinctive than logical. ‘So?’ she invited, as calmly as she could.
‘So in my line of business I have to work not for today but for tomorrow. Use forward planning techniques to the full.’
‘As in marrying someone before your grandfather’s will gets read?’
‘Which hopefully won’t be for years yet. But, yes. Had anyone but my level-headed father told me what the stubborn old devil intends to do I’d have paid scant attention.’
‘But your father isn’t one to panic unnecessarily?’
Silas nodded. ‘I’d twenty-four hours to take on board what he said when the daughter of a much-respected man in the engineering world was there in my office—telling me she had been disinherited…’
‘And that rang a bell?’
‘Too true it rang a bell. You then went on to say how you needed a job that paid well, and how you were going to have to find some place to live, and I find I’m suddenly going into forward planning mode.’
‘You—um…’
