“Me? Finish the story?”
“Yes, but make it a different sort of book. A less picaresque book.”
Everything within her was afraid and aghast and exhilarated all at the same time. “I don’t know if I ought—”
“Oh, life is too short for doing only what one ought, my dear girl. Those pages are your father’s legacy to you—they are your fortune in foolscap just waiting to be redeemed.” Aunt Augusta sat back and took a long sip of tea. “Or not. However you choose.”
Elspeth thought about the fragile pages that had sifted and rustled through her fingers, as if they were whispering for her attention. As if they had an answer to a question she had not yet asked. As if they might be the antidote to the years and years of cap-wearing spinsterhood that stretched in front of her like an endlessly muddy lane.
The idea began as the flicker of a flame in the back of her mind, warming slowly, coming gradually toward the light. Gathering heat. And purpose.
“I suppose I could at least try.”
Aunt Augusta’s smile was like a cat in cream. “My darling girl, I have every confidence that you will succeed.”
Chapter 7
It had taken a Herculean effort, as well as a great deal of ready money, to make Hamish Cathcart the “company” of Prufrock & Company. But now that it was at last done and the ink dry, Hamish could turn his mind to the next phase of his plan.
“What we need, Prufrock, are steady, sure things that are guaranteed to sell, and which we can publish in regular intervals—in small but profitable batches to keep the costs down—like the Otis book. No more of your slim volumes of poetry printed in only three presentation copies.”
Prufrock objected. “But we’re living in a great age for poetry, my lad.”
“That’s all well and good for art, dear sir, but poetry is not profitable. We have to think larger if we’re to survive.” And Hamish meant to do more than survive—he meant to thrive. He meant to increase his fortune as expeditiously as possible, so come Whitsunday, he could tell his father just what he could do with his talk of fillies and heirs and unsteadiness.
But first he had to revise the Otis book. And while he had written his fair share of exceedingly bad poetry, he had never taken his hand to prose.
Hamish’s attention was diverted from his problem by the sudden jangle of the bell over the door announcing the arrival of a wide-eyed female clutching a tight-wrapped parcel to her chest.
At a glance, she was exactly the sort of country mouse of a female—all modest, well-made but out-of-fashion togs—who could be expected to offer them a slim volume of poetry to be printed in exactly three copies—one for herself, another for her grandmother, and the third for her cat. She’d be eaten up by Edinburgh’s rats if she didn’t mind herself.
But before he could shoo the female from the premises, she turned wide, lethally innocent eyes upon Prufrock, who seemed to have little natural defense against predators of such a seemingly harmless but deadly sort. “Mr. Prufrock?”
“Indeed, I am he.” Prufrock rose as swiftly as his creaking knees would allow, bowing his rosy, polished head in her direction. “How might I be of service?”
“Good afternoon, sir.” The lass made a graceful wee dip of a curtsey. “I believe you to have been the publisher of—”
“If I may?” Hamish broke in before Prufrock could commit them to another money-sinking endeavor. “I take it you’ve a slim volume of sentimental but uplifting poems you should like to see published?” He waited until she turned those dangerous, clear blue eyes upon him before he let her down gently. “Alas, Prufrock & Company are no longer in the market for poetry.”
The mousie blinked at him, as if he made no sense at all. “But I haven’t, sir. Got poetry, that is.” She gestured with the parcel held across her chest. “I’ve a novel.”
Hamish was not about to be diverted, even by the promise of a novel. Even by a novel offered with a fetchingly shy, fey smile. “A novel in three volumes, with a morally uplifting theme, and a worthy orphan for a protagonist?” The sort of tale meant to frighten young misses to keep quietly to their country mouse holes. “I’m afraid we’re still not interested. Good day.”
“Nay.” The wee mousie bit down on her soft lower lip. “Although I’m not exactly sure what a pro-tagonist is, sir, but—”
Ye gods. Hamish held up his hand to stop her from saying another word. The sooner he got her out of there, the sooner he could return to the business at hand.
“As I was saying—” He stepped toward the door so he could hold it for her—
But she whisked herself away, deeper into the space, to hold her ground. “It is a romantic novel. A very romantic novel.” She spoke quickly, in a rush to get the words out before he might stop her. “A new, very romantic novel by a man”—her voice grew firmer and more animated, lending her surety—“you have published some years ago. Mr. John Otis.”
The mention of such a name—the very name that had been on the tip of Hamish’s tongue for days—brought even arthritic Prufrock around his desk. “New? By John Otis? Why, he’s been dead these twenty years.”
“The same John Otis who was the author of A Memoir of a Game Girl?” Hamish asked. The manuscript he was counting upon to make their fortune?
“Aye.” The wee mousie tipped her chin toward her parcel. “The same. It’s a new manuscript, written some years ago, but only just come to light.”
Prufrock leaned on the large, two-sided desk for support. “Well, I’ll be.”
They’d be rich is what they’d be, if the lass’ claim were true.
“A romantic story, you said?” Hamish asked. “How romantic?” John Otis’ work had been, at best, characterized as amatory, but never romantic.
“Highly romantic,” was her interesting answer.
Hamish pushed politeness aside to come straight to the point. “Erotic?”
The lass’ boldness went up in a flush of color so hot, Hamish was afraid her tatty straw hat might catch fire. “Somewhat less than…that.” She swallowed and tried to stand tall—well, as tall as a willowy sort of lass who looked as if a stiff wind might blow her down could. “I can only assume that with this particular manuscript, Mr. Otis sought to avoid the scandal and trouble that the last book occasioned. One can’t sell a banned book, can one?”
It was so insightful an understatement, Hamish took a closer look at the wee mousie. Under a country bonnet so old Edinburgh society would judge fit only for shading a plow horse, were bright, clear blue eyes in a pointed, oval face. An intelligent face. A pretty face.
If one liked that curious country mouse sort. Which he didn’t. Because he had a business to run, a fortune to make, and a wedding to avoid.
But she brought a potential fortune in business. “Do come in.” He swept her a more credible bow. “I take it you have this manuscript with you?”
“I have the first half of the volume,” the lass confirmed. “I was leery of…letting the whole of it out of my hands without a firm contract. I thought to…gauge the level of interest before I did so.”
“Very prudent,” Prufrock assured her.
“Give it here,” was Hamish’s more mercenary demand. “And we’ll see if there is anything worth giving a contract for. Have a seat.” Hamish was already cutting open the wrapping before he thought to kick a chair in her direction.
She did not sit—her glance flitted from the chair to the door, and then back at him, as if gauging how long she could bear to stay. Clearly, he made her nervous. “How long will you need to contemplate the pages?”