Tall, Dark and Disreputable. Deb Marlowe

was quite likely that all of this would be ploughed under if ever he got his hands on Stenbrooke!’

      Mateo narrowed his focus, and watched Portia intensely.

      ‘I want you to help me,’ she said simply.

      He exhaled sharply. ‘And how do you expect me to do that? Portia, you must know why I’ve come. I want to make arrangements to buy back your interest in Cardea Shipping.’

      She shook her head. ‘I won’t sell it to you.’

      He closed his eyes and tried to ignore the twisting of his stomach. ‘Perhaps just the Baltimore office, then. I started that branch myself, in the face of my father’s opposition. I confess, I don’t have enough ready capital of my own to buy you out completely, but I could likely manage just the one office.’

      She shook her head again.

      Now there was anger churning inside of him along with everything else. ‘Portia—’

      ‘No.’ She interrupted him yet again. ‘There will be no sale.’ Tension shone apparent in the thin line of her mouth and in every stiff angle of her body. ‘Instead I propose a simple trade. Stenbrooke for Cardea Shipping.’ Her hands gripped the end of the table until her knuckles whitened. ‘Buy Stenbrooke, Mateo, and sign it back over to me. Give me my life back, and I’ll give you yours.’

      Portia clenched her teeth, her fists, and every muscle at her command as she waited for Mateo’s answer. He would agree. Of course he would. He had to.

      His gaze, staring so boldly into hers, broke away. He exhaled sharply and pushed back from the table, crossing over to the stone balustrade. Leaning heavily, he stared out over the garden and beyond for several silent minutes. Portia’s head began to ache with the strain.

      ‘Why do you not go to your brother for assistance?’ he asked at last.

      ‘I have,’ she said, helpless against the bitterness that coloured her tone again. ‘Nothing there has changed since we were children. I am still the youngest, the baby of the family, and a woman besides. What need have I to live alone on my own estate?’ She rose to her feet and crossed over to the potted rosa rugosa. With quick, sharp movements she began to pick fading leaves off it, keeping an eye on his bent, still form all the while.

      ‘Anthony cannot spare the expense, and if he had that sort of ready income, he’d be honour bound to put it into his own estate. He sees no reason why I should not be happy to pack my things and move back to Hempshaw. His countess is overrun, you see, exhausted from birthing four boys in six years, and could use a bit of help with keeping them in hand.’

      Mateo let loose a sharp bark of laughter, although there was little humour in it. ‘That is Anthony all over.’

      ‘Yes,’ she said flatly. ‘But I won’t have it. I am tired of being let down by the men who are supposed to have my best interests at heart. I want my home, Mateo. I want my independence.’

      ‘At the very least she should be allowed to use the London house,’ Dorrie complained. That had been her favourite plan for their future. ‘But her brother is adamant about saving expenses and has leased it out.’

      Finally Mateo turned and looked at her.

      ‘The rest of the world would no doubt agree with my brother,’ she said. ‘But I had hoped that once you were here, and saw what we’ve done, you would understand. We’ve both had everything we wanted in our grasp, only to have it snatched away.’

      His expression was carefully blank, but she could see the tension in the stiff line of his jaw. ‘I don’t have enough to purchase an estate like this.’ He gestured about him.

      ‘Perhaps not, but between the two of us, together in possession of a company like Cardea Shipping, surely we could, ah, liquidate some assets?’ Her spine had gone as rigid as stone, but she would not plead, even now. ‘I realise that the prospect is not pleasant, but it must be better than the alternative.’She let the unspoken threat hover.

      But Mateo’s head had come up. ‘I suppose it could be done. We’ve the Lily Fair just in at Portsmouth with a cargo of flax-seed and fine walnut. And the agent there is as good as any we have in the company. The cargo itself will fetch a fair price, but once she’s unloaded, we could put it about that we’d like to sell her.’ His hands clenched on the balustrade behind him. ‘Dio, but I hate to give her up. She once made the run from Philadelphia to Liverpool in sixteen days, just two off the record.’

      He stared unseeing at the terrace. ‘Her captain will be fair disappointed. I’ll have to reshuffle, offer him something special to keep him and his crew content. I’ll have to see her refitted, renegotiate with the insurers.’ He sighed then, and met her gaze. ‘But there’s no doubt she’ll fetch a fine price—perhaps enough so that with what I have set back, we won’t need to sacrifice any others. I’ll start the process.’ He grimaced. ‘And with both of our signatures upon the papers, there can be no questioning the order.’

      He abandoned the balustrade and began to pace, his expression lighter than she’d yet seen. ‘There’ll be no need for me to linger, though. With her reputation, she’ll sell quickly. Our agents can handle the rest. And all you really need is funds. My own ship is waiting. A few days to draft up the exchange, leave instructions for proceeds from the sale to be sent to you, and I can be on my way.’

      ‘No,’ Portia said yet again.

      Mateo stopped. He pivoted on his heel and turned to face her.

      ‘You must stay,’ she explained. ‘My brother is seriously annoyed that I will not let Stenbrooke go. He tells me there is nothing to be done and has forbidden his solicitors to aid me in this. After all the strife following his death, my husband’s solicitor will not even admit me any longer.’

      Now she was on her feet and moving. ‘I have serious questions about the validity of this conveyance, but no one will give me any answers. I broached the subject of buying the estate back with the new owner’s solicitor, but he would not even agree to present the idea to his employer. This whole transaction seems cloaked in mystery, and no one will see it.’ She turned away, allowing sour frustration to leak into her words. ‘I am shushed like a child, patted on the head and ordered to pack my things.’ She spun back. ‘I am sick to death of it.’

      She watched Mateo draw a deep breath. The excitement drained from his face even as it began to settle into an expression of exaggerated patience.

      ‘I’m afraid you don’t understand,’ he began. ‘There are business matters—’

      She fought back a gasp. ‘Don’t you dare!’ She could not believe it. How did he dare to patronise her after all she’d told him? ‘Do not even think to speak to me in that reasonable tone! I’ve reached my limit, Mateo. I tell you now that I do not care what pressing business awaits you in Philadelphia. It has become painfully obvious that no one will take me seriously in this matter. Well, I am done being bullied, silenced and ignored. Clearly I need a man to aid me in this—and you are the only viable candidate.’

      Anger flashed in his dark eyes and his jaw clenched. He moved away from the balustrade and began to pace from one end of the veranda to the other.

      ‘You will stay and help me with this matter until Stenbrooke’s deed is in my possession. Only then will I give you Cardea Shipping.’ Though she suffered a pang of guilt at his resentment, on that she must stand firm. ‘I am sorry to have to insist, but every other avenue is blocked.’ She tossed him a bitter glance. ‘I suppose I should not have hoped for sympathy. I doubt you have any notion how it might feel to be left without choices.’

      ‘Until now?’ he ground out.

      She raised her chin.

      ‘And you would be wrong in any case,’ he continued bitterly. ‘You knew my father.’ He heaved a sigh of resignation. ‘He was a good man, as I know you will agree, but a hard one, as well, and one absolutely committed to his own path. You cannot imagine the frustration I