When matters were urgent, he kept in contact with his offices via homing pigeon. The speed of communication had helped him steal a march on many a competitor. A message dispatched to his London headquarters would be there in mere hours.
“Good idea. If he really is up to his neck in River Tick, we need to expose him before he gains ground with Marianne.”
Jonas’s laugh was rueful. “How my rivals would sneer. I used to be the most feared businessman in Christendom. Now I’m relegated to playing Cupid.”
Richard stood and clapped him on the shoulder. “Just another victim of true love, my friend. No point fighting the inevitable.”
* * *
Marianne discovered at dinner that Elias had joined the overcrowded house party. When she came downstairs, she caught the rumble of his distinctive baritone from the drawing room. Her breath stuck in her lungs, along with a curse. Could this awful day get any worse?
Struggling to present an impervious face, she braved the crush inside the room. This influx of unexpected guests tested even Ferney’s resources. The usually efficient chambermaid had been noticeably flustered when she’d brought Marianne’s hot water.
To Marianne’s dismay, the first person to approach her was Tranter. She wasn’t sure why she developed such a distaste for his company, but the prospect of his conversation made her want to run outside into the rain and never come back.
“Lady Marianne, you brighten this gloomy evening like the sun coming out from a cloud.”
Given that the room contained two of society’s greatest beauties in Sidonie and Genevieve, that was hardly tactful. Marianne dug up a smile. “My lord, any word on the flooding?”
“The flooding?” he asked, clearly disconcerted by her practical response to his overblown compliment.
Luckily Sidonie came up to save her. Less luckily, she brought Elias. “Marianne, the village isn’t in danger, but the low-lying fields are underwater. Jonas and his steward went out this afternoon to check.”
“I’m guessing this is the end of the hunting season,” Marianne said and turned to Elias. It was a battle to sound polite, but she almost managed it. “Lord Wilmott, I hadn’t expected to see you here.”
He tilted his eyebrows at the edge in her tone, then bowed. “Lady Marianne, how could I stay away? I trust you’re enjoying your visit.”
Sidonie, unlike the rest of the world, clearly didn’t trust her to be civil when she answered and rushed to speak. “Elias has been staying in Barstowe Hall with a view to renting it once we’ve finished renovations. I asked him to join us when the deluge started. The roof there leaks, you see.”
Marianne shot her friend a disbelieving glance. “How…inconvenient.” Meaning exactly the opposite. However rundown Barstowe might be, Lord Hillbrook would make sure that any property he owned was watertight.
Color marked Sidonie’s cheeks, but she soldiered on with the pretense that she sensed no undercurrents. “Lord Tranter, I’m sure you know Lord Wilmott.”
The bows the two men exchanged chilled the air several degrees.
“Wilmott,” Tranter bit out.
“Tranter.” Elias’s smile was insincere. “Didn’t know you were in the district.”
“London was a wilderness without its shining star.” He looked meaningfully at Marianne.
This time, Sidonie heard herself dismissed as a lesser light. Laughter flickered in her large brown eyes. “Oh, ungallant, Lord Tranter. As punishment, you must escort me into dinner.”
“But the marquess—” he said with barely hidden reluctance that made Marianne want to box his ears. His hostess had taken him in with a graciousness he didn’t deserve. The least he could do in return was treat her with respect.
Sidonie made a breezy gesture. “Oh, we’re basically camping with so many uninvited guests. We won’t stand on ceremony.”
The jab at uninvited guests repaid Tranter’s rudeness. Marianne met Elias’s black eyes and found an answering glimmer of humor. Fleetingly, she basked in the precious feeling of having a friend, before she reminded herself what an adept actor he was. She looked away and told her heart it had no right to ache.
Clearly expecting Tranter’s cooperation, Sidonie extended her arm. With a tightening of his heroic jaw, he complied, but not before shooting Elias a poisonous glance.
Sidonie turned to Elias and Marianne, her lovely face alight with triumph. “If you’d accompany Lady Marianne, Elias?”
The smile Elias gave Sidonie set Marianne’s secret, wayward heart cartwheeling again. He really was a gorgeous man. His physical appeal made it difficult to remember his self-serving agenda.
“Stop scowling, my love,” he muttered, turning to her and presenting his arm.
“Better to call me your bank deposit than your love,” she hissed, although the training of years revived and she kept her expression neutral as she placed her hand on his sleeve.