was not surprised to find Corwin waiting in the office when he came back after rehearsal. Millie had provided the merchant with tea and he sat in front of the desk, seeming, to Eden’s resentful eye, to occupy more than his reasonable share of the space.
‘Well, my boy,’ he began. Eden showed his teeth in what might be construed as a smile and sat. ‘As you can’t come to Mrs C.’ s soirée, there’s a little chat I think we should have.’
‘Indeed?’ Eden injected polite boredom into his voice.
‘Mrs C. is that disappointed, I can’t tell you,’ Corwin remarked, stirring a heaped spoon of sugar into his cup. ‘Bessie, I said to her, it’s about time I settled matters right and tight with Mr Hurst, then we’ll all know where we are and he won’t be bashful about accepting invitations. Why, I said, he won’t need them!’
Eden raised an eyebrow. ‘I would regret causing Mrs Corwin disappointment, but I am afraid my refusal is due to the fact I will be at the Standons’ soirée that evening, not to any bashfulness.’
‘Lord Standon? Well, that just goes to show what I said to my Bessie was right—you’re just the man we need, sir.’
‘For what, exactly?’ Eden asked, knowing all too well what the answer would be.
‘Why, for our girls!’ Corwin took a swig of tea.
‘All of them? I fear that is illegal in this country.’
‘Ha! You’ll have your joke, sir.’ The merchant did not look as though he found it funny. ‘No, whichever of them you choose, although Calliope is the eldest. Once one of them’s wed to you, the others will get off soon enough, I make no doubt of it, especially with the fine friends you’ve got, my boy.’
Eden toyed with the options before him, of which physically ejecting Corwin was the most tempting. Uno, due, tre, he counted silently, then smiled. ‘You flatter me with your proposal, sir, but I must decline.’
He expected anger, but Corwin’s face merely displayed indulgent understanding. ‘I know what it is, and it does you honour, my boy, but we don’t take any account of the circumstances of your birth. Why, Mrs C. herself never knew her father, let alone him being an Italian prince.’
‘You would oblige me by ceasing to discuss my parentage, Corwin. What you think of the circumstances does not interest me. I have no intention of marrying one of your daughters and that is the end of it.’
The other man’s face darkened and he set his cup down sharply. ‘Then you’ll not get a penny piece of my money for your damned theatre.’
Eden shrugged. ‘Your decision, sir.’
‘So you do not intend doing the honourable thing, despite compromising my Calliope?’ the other man blustered.
‘Ah, so you did know about that very unwise visit, did you?’ Eden relaxed against the high-carved back of his chair, aware that when he did so the soaring eagle at the top seemed to rise from his shoulders, claws outspread, threatening. A theatrical effect, but it amused him.
‘Corwin, I may be a bastard, in all the ways that word can be defined, but I am not able to compromise one young lady while she is chaperoned by her sister and, happily, by a respectable third party who happened to be having a business meeting with me at the time.’ The merchant’s face fell, ludicrously. ‘I suggest you go home, tear up whatever draft contract you have been working on and go and seek your sons-in-law elsewhere. You’ll not find one at the Unicorn.’
‘He doesn’t believe in love,’ Maude stated baldly. With complete disregard for the skirts of her evening gown she was curled up at the end of Jessica’s bed, her back against the bedpost, her eyes meeting her friend’s in the looking glass.
Jessica swivelled round on the dressing-table stool, her diamond ear drops dangling from her fingers. ‘You told him you loved him? Maude, of all the—’
‘No, of course I did no such thing. He sacked one of the actresses for having an affair with the juvenile lead actor and I said, what if they are in love? And he said, there is no such thing. He is so bitter, Jessica, no wonder he seems like an icicle. I think it all goes back to his childhood, because he seems to regard even maternal love as something nature imposes just to make sure children don’t starve. Like birds knowing they have to build nests. Although I don’t think he got much paternal love either,’ she added with a sigh.
‘He’s a grown man,’ her friend said robustly, hooking one earring into her lobe. ‘Ouch, oh, bother this thing. Ring for Mary, will you?’
‘No, I’ll do it.’ Maude slid off the bed and went to help. ‘You’vegot your hair tangled in it. There. Yes, I know he’s a grown man,’ she said, reverting to her preoccupation with Eden. ‘But how we are brought up affects who we are when we grow up, don’t you think?’
‘Yes, although some people rise above early hardship and others fall into despair or bad ways, even though they had the happiest of childhoods. If the man is bitter and cold, Maude, are you so sure you love him? I don’t know how you can really, you hardly know him.’
Troubled, Maude perched on the edge of the bed again, absently smoothing out the creases in her skirts. ‘It isn’t logical, is it? I ask myself, I truly do, whether it is just because of the way he looks. But even when he upsets me, even when I see all that bitterness, I still feel for him. And there is something, even when I disagree with him quite violently, that makes me sense our minds are linked.’
‘Just so long as he does nothing to hurt you,’ Jessica said, rising and reaching for her reticule. ‘I was in half a mind whether to invite him this evening—Gareth won’t be best pleased when he finds out—and then I thought, he won’t accept anyway…’
‘He’s coming to the soirée? Eden?’ Jerked out of her brown study, Maude scrambled to her feet and seized the hand mirror off the dressing table. ‘I knew I should have worn the pearls. I look a fright, I—’
‘You look lovely.’ Jessica removed the mirror and took Maude by the shoulders. ‘Maude, I do think there’s some hope for the two of you if Mr Hurst becomes known in respectable society more.’ She frowned as though she was trying to convince herself. ‘If we can play down the theatre and play up his wealth… And it helps that you are now so firmly on the shelf.’ She laughed at the expression on Maude’s face. ‘Only teasing, but it does make a difference that you’ve been out for so long. People might just accept a love match that seems…eccentric. Your papa is being extremely tolerant, you know.’
‘He doesn’t know I have any feelings for Eden, he just thinks I am interesting myself in the theatre,’ Maude said, leaning forward to drop a kiss on her friend’s cheek. ‘Thank you for helping.’
‘Bel will, too, and Eva when she arrives. Eva can make anyone acceptable.’
‘Even an Italian prince’s bastard son?’ Maude asked.
Jessica slipped her arm through her friend’s. ‘Come on, time to go down. I’ll have to think about this. But I warn you, Maude, if I find he has hurt you, I’ll set Gareth on him.’ She paused at the top of the stairs. ‘After I have operated upon Eden Hurst’s manhood with my embroidery scissors.’
