As the Devil Dares (Capturing the Carlisles #3)(6)
If Papa would ever let her.
“If you keep behaving like some wild creature without any understanding of her position,” Papa continued, exasperation heavy in his voice, “how do you ever expect to find a respectable husband?”
She bit back the urge to answer that she hoped to find a disrespectable husband, knowing a comment like that would certainly get her sent back to Miss Pettigrew’s, right beside Evie.
“How do you expect to receive any invitations for this upcoming season if you behave like this?” he demanded in a tone clearly implying that he did not want an answer. “A lady of quality would never invite someone who cannot control herself to her soiree.”
Oh, the devil take society invitations! The very last place Mariah wanted to be was at some stuffy, boring ball. If society cut her completely, what would she care…or notice? After all, it wasn’t as if the quality was flooding the front foyer with calling cards and invitations in the first place. Not when they regarded the Winslows as nothing but upstart cits infringing on their hallowed aristocratic ranks. While they couldn’t ignore the importance of the company or her family’s wealth, they could certainly ignore her. And did.
Yet this was the part of Papa’s speech that Mariah knew by heart, the same one it seemed lately he’d delivered at least once per sennight and more frequently as the new season approached. Another season in which he hoped she would finally venture into the uncharted waters of society and make her mark, ideally snatching up a fine husband in the process. Mariah couldn’t have cared less. But this division between them seemed to be growing wider as the season drew nearer.
This hadn’t been an issue before she was sent to Miss Pettigrew’s, where she’d received a fine education…if all she wanted to know was how to host dinner parties, paint watercolors, and play the pianoforte. So she’d taken it upon herself to carve out a real education through tutors secretly paid to ignore whatever frivolous lesson had been planned that day and teach her useful skills instead. The result was an education that more than prepared her for success in business. And a decided lack of talent at the pianoforte.
But Papa refused to entertain the idea of her working with him. All he wanted to know was how she planned to spend her season, when she would marry and give him grandchildren. Every time she arrived at the office to surprise him, to throw herself into work and show him how capable she was, he promptly told her that the docks were no place for a lady and sent her home.
So last fall, she’d set out to prove to her father that she was far more than just some mindless miss. To finally gain his attention as something other than someone to be molded into a perfect society lady. To show him how important the business was to her.
And so far…
“Mariah, you are embarrassing yourself and this family.”
It wasn’t going well. At this rate, he might never offer her the partnership she dreamt of.
Yet he hadn’t offered one to anyone outside the family, either. She took hope in that. Because perhaps that meant he understood that the best person to guide Winslow Shipping and Trade was a Winslow. To Mariah, the company was so much more than a business. It was her heart and soul, and one of the few connections she had left to that happy time before her mother’s death. Surely, Papa was coming around to realizing that.
If not…well, then she’d simply wear him down until he surrendered. Siege warfare worked with medieval castles, after all. And she couldn’t imagine a more medieval relic than Henry Winslow.
“So I have decided to make some changes.”
Mariah’s gaze snapped to his. That was different.
Usually this was the part of the speech where he threatened to revoke her allowance, to force her to remain room-ridden for the next fortnight, to send her to a convent even though they were devoutly Church of England—
But this time, there were no empty threats. This time, he stared at her across his desk with the same glint in his eyes that shined whenever he faced down business adversaries.
“I’ve been listening to you during the past few months,” he told her, “to your concerns about how the company needs new blood. How we need a new generation to keep us moving into the future.”
“You have?” Hope fluttered low in her belly. She could scarcely believe it!
“And I’ve decided that you are right. Changes need to be made, ones which will benefit the company while also staying true to what your mother wanted.” He started for the door. “Come with me.”
He stalked from the room in long strides. She fell into step beside him, yet she felt as if she were flying! Her feet barely touched the Persian rug beneath her in her joy to finally—finally!—have this opportunity.
“I have so many wonderful ideas we can discuss,” she rushed out, barely able to keep her breath beneath the overwhelming excitement pulsing through her. The same breathless joy as racing the phaeton—oh no, so much better!
“Of course.” He dismissed her comment with a wave of his hand as they ascended the marble stairs. “First, however, there is a business associate I want you to meet.”
“Oh?” She puzzled as she followed him down the hall to the drawing room. “Who?”
But heavens, she didn’t care! At that moment, she didn’t want to meet anyone. Not when her chest was bursting with happiness. Instead, she wanted to skip and dance all the way to the company’s offices on Wapping High Street and—