CHAPTER ONE

November 1, 1845

            “We’ve lost everything.”

            Lady Noelle Sinclair could only blink and stare in disbelief at her father's confession.

            Finally, she slowly blinked her eyes, cleared her throat, and calmly folded her hands in her lap.

            “Please explain.”

            She was proud that her tone was much more even than the turmoil raging inside her. 

            She had suspected they were struggling, but this was more than she had imagined.

            “Well,” her father said, shifting his narrow figure back and forth from one side of the faded balloon-backed chair to the other, the rosewood legs creaking as he did. Noelle wasn’t sure if he was searching for physical comfort or emotional. "You know I made a few investments recently,” he said.

            “I do,” Noelle said from between tight lips. “Investments that I advised you against. How often have I told you that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is?”

            “Ah, love, you are wise beyond your years.”

            “Please do not placate me,” Noelle said, focusing on shallow, steady breaths so she wouldn’t show him how much this upset her. Her father was a good man, truly he was, but he was also one of the most gullible people she had ever met. As soon as someone told him a story that played to his emotions, he would part with any pound he could find.

            It seemed that he had finally found the bottom of his pocket. 

            “Very well,” her father said with a sigh, placing his chin in his hands. “My stock in this company was supposed to be worth a fortune. Once all of the shareholders paid in – and many people purchased shares, mind you – the company was to develop a new railway. One greatly needed, leading west to Cornwall.”

            “Father, you knew many of these companies are speculative or fraudulent.”

            “Yes, but many of my friends were involved in this one. The men at the helm had proven themselves in the past with other developments. Why would this one be any different?”

            “So what happened?”

            “Once the money was deposited, they disappeared,” he sighed, running his hand over the few hairs remaining on his nearly bald head. “They better not show their faces here again.” He leaned in toward her. “I know you think I misjudged this, Noelle, but even Cooper Hartwell invested.”

            “Cooper Hartwell?” she raised her eyebrows. She had never met the man, but he was known to be one of London's shrewdest and wealthiest businessmen. Cutthroat and willing to do anything necessary to get ahead. Most of her father’s friends spoke of him with derision, but Noelle had always guessed they feared what a man like him represented – a threat to their social status, for he came from nothing, and his wealth was newly earned. “What does he have to say about it?”

            “I haven’t spoken to the man,” her father said, rubbing his chin. “Perhaps I should.”

            “Is there any way to recover your losses?” Noelle asked as she rose from her chair, unable to sit still any longer. She crossed her arms over her chest and walked to the window of the drawing room, looking down over the empty street below. Even the trees seemed sad, having lost most of their leaves by now as the weather had cooled. 

            “No,” her father said, his tone so glum that Noelle had to turn around to assess him. “Everything’s gone. When I say everything, Noelle, I mean everything. I am over my head in debt, with only my title keeping me out of debtor’s prison. I’ve sold everything we have to sell. All I have left is this London house – for now. This investment was my last hope.”

            “And you have no son to marry off for a large dowry,” Noelle murmured. Meanwhile, she was nothing but a burden.

            “I’m afraid that I will struggle to find an advantageous match for you, Noelle,” her father said with a sigh, hanging his head. “Your mother would be so disappointed in me.”

            “I was supposed to ensure that nothing like this happened to you,” Noelle said, walking over and placing a hand on her father’s shoulder. “I failed in that. Please do not fret about such a marriage for me. I would prefer to choose my husband. If I cannot find one, so be it. I am more than capable of providing for myself.”

            Her father placed his head in his hands then and did something that shocked Noelle more than his entire confession – he sobbed. 

            She could do nothing but place an arm around him and try to comfort him, even as it felt like the house was crumbling around her, brick by brick. Her father meant well and had always done what he thought was best for her, but her mother had been the wise one in the marriage. Since her death, Noelle had vowed to take care of this little family of theirs. If only she had the opportunity to look after all the financial endeavors. 

            “Before we lose all hope, Father, we need to see if we can fight for what we lost.”

            “How?” he choked out as she gripped his shoulders.

            “You said Cooper Hartwell was involved?” 

            He nodded. “Yes. But I do not see why he would take an audience with me.”

            “You may be ruined, but you are still a viscount, and that has to mean something, even to a man like him,” she said, biting her thumbnail as she thought. “We will have to try to encounter him by accident and then see if we can discuss this with him.”

            The slightest hint of a plan providing her a modicum of hope, she nodded and patted her father’s shoulder again. 

            “I’ll figure this out,” she said. “Just leave it to me.”

~~~~~

            Cooper Hartwell drummed his fingertips on the desk before him, silently seething.

            No one got the better of him. 

            No one.
            Fortunately, he had been more reserved than usual in his investment with Albert Sanderson’s railway company, but a loss was a loss.

            However, he had to set that aside momentarily, for he had a far greater opportunity sitting in front of him. 

            But one that was just out of his reach.

            Cooper was on the cusp of taking a great leap forward to achieve all he had set out to accomplish, but one thing was holding him back.

            His birth.

            Or, that was, the utter lack of status he had been born into. On the foundation of pure grit, quick thinking, and wise investments, he had built a company with everything in place to build his railroad – to hell with putting his faith into anyone else’s vision.

            But no one would completely trust a man without any social connections besides those he had bought.

            “Why’re you so ornery this afternoon?” his brother asked, standing in the doorway and studying him.

            Cooper reminded himself to store his brandy exports some where his brother could not find them. It had taken Cooper far longer than it should have to realize that Trenton only cared for his imports because he felt they were his personal supply. 

            Not anymore.

            “I am not ornery,” Cooper snapped back before stopping and chuckling at himself. “Fine. I’m a bit ornery today. But I have good reason.”

            “Because that bastard Sanderson stole your money?”

            “Very well. I have multiple good reasons. One is Sanderson and his foolish investments. I only parted with that small sum because the railroad seemed a sound idea. I was known for my wise judgment in such matters. I’ve likely ruined much of my chances with these gentlemen. They will never trust me again.”

            “You don’t have the answers to everything,” Trenton said before hiccupping loudly. “You just think you do.”

            Cooper rolled his eyes as he stood and began pacing. “I need an in.”

            “An in where?”

            “To a seat at the table.”

            At Trenton’s confused look, Cooper shook his head and tried again with patience for his brother. Cooper might have spent years studying to become the man he was now, but Trenton had been occupied with other, less savory, tasks. “Not an actual table. Some men receive far more lucrative contracts because they are at events and in clubs with the men who invest, sell land, make up the government, and make these kinds of decisions. To them, I am no one but a symbol of those threatening their way of life.”

            Trenton pulled a hunk of bread out of his pocket and bit into it, causing crumbs to drop onto the floor. Cooper didn’t want to know when and where it had come from.

            “How’d they get there?” he asked lazily, but Cooper’s head turned sharply toward his brother as the question was a rather decent one.

            “They are part of the noble set themselves.”

            “Born into it?” Trenton said before strolling into the room and throwing himself into one of the chairs. “Never stopped you before.”

            “No,” Cooper said, tapping his chin with his index finger. “It hasn’t. And now that you say that – most of them were born into it. But not all.”

            “So…”

            “Some married into it.”

            “Married?” Trenton launched out of the chair, one boot flying off his foot as he did. “You’d take a wife?”

            Cooper shook his head, not affected by Trenton’s outburst, for his brother was always easily shocked.

            “No, I have no interest in marrying,” he said as Trenton sat again. Marriage would tie him down, and Cooper’s ambitions were far too high to have to worry about a wife at home. A housekeeper could look after his house, and other women could satisfy his more carnal needs. A wife might expect emotion – love, even, which Cooper didn’t have within him. “But perhaps if I found the right connection – for a time – I can still achieve my aim.” 

He pushed away from his chair and began to pace around the room, rubbing his chin as he thought of it. “What I need, Trenton, is an invitation to a few elite social events. Once I am there, it should be easy to find my way back. I seem able to intricate myself to any set, do I not?”

            “I suppose,” Trenton grumbled. “The ladies do seem to enjoy your company.”

            “They do,” Cooper said with a grin. “All I need to do is charm a few hostesses, and there I will be at every social event or gathering where I might become part of the conversations with their husbands. Eventually, my riches will speak for me when a title doesn’t. All I need is some credibility to start.”
            “How will you go about building that?” Trenton asked. “You cannot walk up to a lady and demand that she introduce you to her people.”

            “Of course not,” he said. “You’re right about that. I need to attend an event where I might meet someone. I can casually entertain the idea of searching for a wife, as there’s no other way to attract interest in a noble lady. A charity event, perhaps. They always allow us entrance when they need our money.”

            “So you’ll pretend you are interested in marriage and then be done with this woman once you achieve your aim?” Trenton asked, now swinging one leg back and forth over the arm of his chair.

            “You don’t need to put it quite like that.”

            “But that’s the way of it.”

            “I suppose. But I will not be so callous about it.”

            “Doubt she’ll see it that way.”

            “Did I ask for your help?” Cooper said, his patience with his brother once again failing.

            “No,” Trenton said with a grin, finding joy in Cooper’s annoyance with him. “But you need it, whether you like it or not. You never would have come up with this diabolical idea without me.”

            “Stop making me out to be such an ass.”

            “I only speak the truth,” Trenton said with a shrug as he drunkenly pushed himself to his feet and walked out of the room. “You can always count on me for that.”

            Cooper sighed and pushed his hands into his pockets as he watched him go. 

            His brother wasn’t wrong about that.

            Cooper hoped he wasn’t right about the rest of it.