“Father gave us half the loan money he received to use for the monthly payments and our own expenses, and took the other half to finance his mining venture.” Daniel grimaced. “But the payments on the loan escalated after four months, and the entire loan has to be paid off in one year. Father assured us he’d be back in three to five months, so he told us not to worry about it. But with these higher payments, we had to start selling things.”
“And we still haven’t had another letter from Father. But he seemed optimistic in the last one he wrote.”
“More like excited,” Daniel corrected his twin. “He tried his luck in two towns out west, but they turned out to be a pure waste of time. But in that last letter, he mentioned he’d just staked a claim in Butte, Montana, near a known silver mine.”
“That sounds promising,” she remarked. “He’s no doubt too busy mining to write.”
“For more than two months? It’s been about that long since we got his last letter.” Evan sounded somber.
Her shoulders slumped again. Either their father was dead—no, she refused to believe that when there were too many other possibilities to account for his silence, including his hating to write letters. She knew firsthand what a terrible correspondent he was.
And then she realized how dire the situation was. “Then you’ve already lost the house? Should you even be here? Why did you tell me to come here? How am I supposed to fix this?”
Daniel held up his hand to halt her questions. “The banker—Mr. Perry—did come pounding at the door. And he appeared to relish the fact that most of the furniture had been sold off, as if that meant the house would soon become the bank’s property. The only painting we hadn’t sold was your portrait. We couldn’t bear to part with it. He saw it hanging above the mantel in here and seemed mesmerized by it.”
Her eyes went to the fireplace, but the portrait wasn’t there. “Where is it?”
“He took it as last month’s payment and—and—” Daniel couldn’t finish.
Evan snorted and insisted, “Tell her.”
“You tell her.”
“One of you better tell me, and quickly,” she snapped.
Evan looked down at her feet before saying, “He wants to marry you. He said he’d cancel the loan if you agree. We told him you weren’t even in the country, that it would take time to get you here. He said he would extend the loan until you arrived.”
It was too much to take in. In fact, she was having a hard time believing any of it. No money? Good God, were they actually paupers now? “I don’t suppose he’s reasonably young and personable?”
Daniel’s eyes widened. “You’d consider it?!”
“No, but I do want to know my options.”
Evan quickly said, “Not young, not nice, even fat, if you must know.”
And Daniel added, “But many women in our social circle make arranged marriages. And at least Perry is rich, lives here in Philadelphia, and is already willing. If you married him, we’d have you back with us, Violet. Our family would be together again, and the house problem would be solved!”
“So this is why you summoned me home, to toss me to a fat wolf? Now I know why your letter was so bloody vague!”
Daniel winced. “It’s not like that. We missed you! And we always assumed you’d make an arranged marriage—here in America. So you can’t imagine how distressing it was when you wrote in the spring that you hoped to marry over in England. It meant we’d never see you again! If Father had been here to read that letter, we would have convinced him to forbid it.”
Her eyes narrowed on Daniel. “Oh, you would, would you?”
Evan elbowed his brother. “I told you she wouldn’t agree to it.” Then he smiled at Violet. “But I’m happy that you came back, Vi, even if it is to such a desperate mess.”
“Thank you, but the Perry option is crossed off the list.”
“We have others?”
“Of course,” she said, though a bit prematurely. “Give me a moment to gather my thoughts.”
She started pacing in front of them. Obviously, they could return to England with her, even if they didn’t like it there, but that would mean they would lose this house, the house they’d all spent their childhoods in, the house the boys had lived in all their lives. Maybe her uncle would pay off the loan for them, but sending a letter to London and waiting for a reply would take time.
She stared at the ceiling in exasperation. “You do realize that if you had mentioned any of this in your letter to me, I could have come here with enough money to pay off that loan so you could at least stop worrying about losing the house?”
“We did discuss it,” Daniel said, “and agreed that Father would be furious if we asked the Faulkners for money. That’s why I wrote to you in the hope you’d be interested in Mr. Perry’s . . .” At Violet’s glare, his voice trailed off. Then he added, “But there’s a glimmer of hope now that Father’s got a mine. We just don’t know exactly where it—or he—is.”
A mine that wasn’t paying off yet, but still could, though it might not happen in time. Maybe she could make the next loan payment with the money her father had given her when she first sailed off with Aunt Elizabeth. She’d never needed to spend any of it. But if she used that to make the payment, she wouldn’t have enough to solve their other problem: finding their father.
Chapter Three
THEY MOVED TO THE kitchen to continue their talk because the dinner hour was approaching. They, or rather she, had come up with a reasonable plan of action. At least, it struck Violet as the most reasonable option she could think of. It was amazing she could think at all, considering how unsettled she felt after learning she was no longer an heiress but a pauper. But then Jane put a dent in her plan when she stopped in the hall to explain to the maid where they were going tomorrow. And was met with a flat refusal.
“I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t have money to return to London, and a good thing I insisted on that,” Jane said, her expression quite bullish. “So I’m returning. You’ll be needing to hire a new maid, miss.”
There wasn’t time for that! “Jane, it will take just a few days traveling by train to reach Montana. It will be interesting! Don’t you want to see—”
“I’ve read me a few dime novels about that wild place west of here. There’s Indians and bears and duels on every corner. No, miss, I most certainly am not going anywhere except back home.”
The woman grabbed her bag and marched out of the house. Violet gave her brothers an exasperated look, which warned them not to laugh. But she had a brief respite from their dilemma when they reached the kitchen and her brothers paused, looking at her expectantly. They were hoping she’d cook for them, she realized.
She laughed. “D’you really think Aunt Elizabeth would let me near her kitchen? I can’t cook, but if you’ve been on your own all these months, surely you’ve learned how to by now.”
“Not really,” Evan said. “But at least the meal will be filling.”
“If very bland,” Daniel warned. “And eating standing up doesn’t make the food taste any better.”
They really had sold everything, even the kitchen table, which was why she suggested, “I could take us to dinner at a restaurant.”
“You can’t, not if we’re keeping your arrival a secret,” Daniel pointed out. “What if we ran into Mr. Perry?”
That wasn’t likely, but if it did happen, then her plan would be over before it started. So she just nodded and said, “My maid’s defection doesn’t alter my plan—well, it does, it just means one of you will have to accompany me to find Father, while the other stays here to stall Mr. Perry for another month’s extension. D’you need to draw straws?”
They’d already discussed this part. Perry was to be told that she’d sent them a letter explaining that she needed time to think about marriage to him. She was even going to write that letter tonight, in case he demanded to see it. But she was confident she would be back from Montana in less than a month, either with enough money from their father to save the house, or with their father himself, who would talk the banker into modifying the loan.
Daniel spoke up first. “Evan has to stay. He’s courting a rich heiress and can’t lose momentum on that. His marrying her would solve our dilemma—but he has to hurry it up.”