He had done so, outlining just what being a partner in the Imperial would mean. But a month later, though Lola had full knowledge of her position, she sat in Denys’s London office and wondered if her knowledge did her any good.
The outer door opened, breaking into her reflections as Mr.Dawson reentered the suite.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, MissValentine,” he said as he appeared in the doorway. “Lord Somerton has instructed me to give you the names of his solicitors and their address. Give me a moment, and I shall write it out for you.”
Lola already had the information, but it hardly mattered. Auditions for the upcoming season began in less than a week, and settling this with Denys through his solicitors could take months. Besides, she was pretty sure successful partnerships didn’t work through lawyers, and she was determined that this partnership would be a success.
Nonetheless, she didn’t deter the secretary. Instead, she drank her tea and considered what her next step should be. After a moment, she set aside her cup, rose to her feet, and exited Denys’s office. She crossed to the secretary’s desk and halted there, waiting, as he set aside his pen and blotted the inked lines he’d just written.
“I appreciate this so very much,” she said, as he stood up and handed her the sheet of paper. “Thank you.”
“Is there anything else I can do for you, MissValentine?”
“Hmm...” Lola paused, pretending to consider the question. “There is one thing. If it’s not too much trouble?”
His expression told her there was very little he would find too troublesome to manage for her. “I’d like to contact someone, and I’m sure you’re just the person to tell me how to go about it. I wish to locate Mr.Jacob Roth. You know him, I’m sure?”
“Of course. He is the managing director of the Imperial. Are you acquainted with him?”
She knew the name, of course—everyone in theater did, for he’d been a prestigious actor in his day and a famed director, too, before ever taking over management of the Imperial’s acting company. But as for the man himself, Lola didn’t know him from Adam. She waved a hand vaguely in the air. “Old days in Paris.”
“Indeed? I didn’t realize Mr.Roth had ever directed anything in Paris. His offices are at the Imperial,” he added before Lola was forced to invent a story of how she’d met the famous director, “though I doubt he would be there now, for the season hasn’t begun yet. But you could call there and have his secretary request an appointment for you.”
That might give Denys time to get wind of it and circumvent her. “Oh, dear,” she said with a sigh, “I do so want to see him, but I’m not sure I want to call at his offices. That seems so formal.” She leaned a little closer. “You’re such a clever man, Mr.Dawson. I’m sure you can help me think of a better way.”
The young man responded to this show of faith in his abilities at once. “You might find him at the Savoy in a few hours. He has lunch there nearly every day, so often that they keep a table reserved just for him.”
“Thank you so much,” she purred, straightening away from the desk. “You’ve been so very kind to me.”
The young man flushed to the roots of his hair. “Not—not at all. My pleasure, I’m sure. If there is anything else you need...”
“If so, I’ll come running straight to you.” She put the folded sheet with the solicitors’ names into her handbag, then pressed one gloved hand to her bosom with a sound of relief. “It’s so reassuring for a girl on her own to know she has at least one man on whom she can truly rely.”
With that, she left the office, giving the secretary one last grateful smile. She needed all the allies she could get.
As for Denys, if he wanted to ignore her, that was all right for now, since her next course of action was likely to gain his attention more quickly than any wrangling through lawyers could do. It was also sure to make him mad as a hornet, but she couldn’t afford to care about that. Thanks to Henry, she had a second chance to realize her most cherished dream.
Becoming a real actress meant she could give up strutting around a stage in provocative clothing, showing off her legs and shimmying her bosom. She’d never have to sing another suggestive song, or kick off another hat, or bend over and wiggle her hips at another man in the crowd. She had the chance to earn the respect of her peers, the respect granted to serious actors, respect that performers like Lola Valentine never got.
And she owned half the theater, a position that gave her a measure of artistic and financial control. After years of answering to investors who chose what she wore and how she performed, she would finally have a say. Never again would she have to dine with men who did nothing but ogle her breasts, dismiss her ideas, and tell Henry he was a lucky man. Her ideas would finally be heard if she could get Denys to listen to them. Some could come to fruition if Denys could be persuaded to go along.
Somehow, she had to get him on her side, persuade him to teach her everything there was to learn about theater management, and work with her instead of against her. How she was going to manage that particular miracle, she wasn’t quite sure, and as she went down the stairs, Lola could only cross her fingers that she’d figure out a way.
Chapter3
Denys’s meeting with Calvin and Bosch about forming an Argentine railway company proved a success, and the contracts were signed within an hour, but afterward, he could remember nothing about the meeting. He’d been in a daze the entire time, stunned by the return of a woman he’d never expected to see again.
The images of Lola that he’d thought safely buried in the past now refused to leave his mind, and against those images, her words of this morning seemed not only ludicrous but impossible.
I’m your new partner.
What the hell had Henry been thinking?
Denys paused on the sidewalk. There were moments like this, he realized as he glanced up and down the crowded street looking for a cab, when he found Henry Latham absolutely baffling, despite having known the man most of his life.
The American impresario had taken London by storm from the moment of his arrival. Due to Lord and Lady Conyers’s adoration of the theater, Henry had been a fixture of Denys’s youth. A driving force within the artistic coterie that had been so much a part of Denys’s childhood, Henry had been a familiar face at dinner, a mandatory addition to any party his parents gave, and a highly valued acquaintance. Denys had been the one to introduce Henry to Lola, never dreaming what would result.
Henry’s taking Lola away from him hadn’t affected the partnership between Henry and his father. On the contrary, the earl had regarded Henry’s act of spiriting Lola off to New York as a great favor and a blessed relief. And by the time Denys had taken over all the family business ventures, he had put the whole ghastly business behind him. With Henry in New York, content to work with Denys via the impersonal method of written correspondence, managing the Imperial hadn’t been any more difficult than managing any of the other family holdings.
