Maggie tried her best to blend into the ballroom wall. Her parents planned to announce the annual competition any second now. She planned something far more nefarious.
The Mathematical Baron stood just across the room, and he would soon experience the results of last night’s epiphany.
Not the one about her body needing Tobias Blake as it needed water. No. The one she’d happened upon much later that evening as she tore page after page from her notebook. A letter wasn’t going to work. She needed another approach to blackmail. Forget incognito attempts. The direct approach was much better. She’d start up conversation with her mark in the ballroom. Surrounded by so many people, he’d know she had no qualms about spilling his secrets. And she’d have the protection a crowd offered.
The price of her silence would be the sum of her lost dowry. Though she would not put it to those ends, not when others needed it more. She’d pay the servants and merchants first, then fix the manor if anything was leftover.
And she had to do it now. It had occurred to her after ripping the eighth page from her notebook last night that Sir Scott might have to send to London for funds. And she couldn’t let him leave the house party before he’d delivered. What if he left the country and never returned?
Time had run out, and she had to make her move or lose all hope. She fixed her eyes on his balding pate and marched across the room. “Good afternoon, Sir Scott.”
He turned and blinked at her, his eyes impossibly large behind his spectacles. “Lady Magnificent.” His blinking eyes dipped below her chin, and when he raised his gaze once more, a leer twisted on his lips. “I’ve been trying to catch you, my dear. But you never seem to sit down or stay in one place for very long.”
“Is that so?” It was so, and by design, too. She had no intentions of giving him the opportunity to propose. “Well, here I am now!” And she had business to do. Sweat pricked her palms. “Sir Scott.” She moved close to a nearby pillar, seeking what little privacy it afforded, and he followed like a pup. “I have something of great import to discuss with you.”
“Of course, of course! It was always rolling to this, wasn’t it?” He grinned, a greedy gleam in his eye. “Rolling towardme. Andyou.”
He spoke of matrimony and stood on the edge of a proposal. If Maggie didn’t hurry up with her own proposition, his would be the first into the air, and she didn’t know if she could reject a proposal and blackmail a man in the same conversation.
Maggie rubbed her hands on her skirt, drying her palms. “Do you remember last winter’s house party, Sir Scott?”
“Of course.” He chortled. “It was not the first time I’d noticed your beauty, but it was the first time I thought we—”
“I saw you. In the stables.”
His head cocked to one side. He placed beefy hands on his waist and closed his eyes. His eyeballs flicked back and forth behind his eyelids. Was that how he thought? His eyes popped open. “I’m afraid I don’t follow, Lady Magnificent.”
She thought she’d been clear. She tapped her foot and blew a hair out of her face. “I mean I saw what you did to the boy. And his dog.”
He frowned. “Boy? Hm. Boy. Boy. No. I don’t remember a boy. You must have the wrong fellow. But I can be right in other ways, my dear. We—”
“You kicked the dog.”
He startled, the shrugged. “Dogs often need kicking.”
“The dog died.”
“They often do. You do have a tender heart, don’t you. That’s not necessarily bad. I—”
“You hit the boy!”
“Had he done something necessitating a beating?”
“No child deserves a beating, no matter what they—”
He patted her arm. “Soft hearts often need hardening, my dear. But don’t you worry. Marriage helped my first wife in this matter.”
Maggie jerked away from his touch. Why wasn’t he showing the least bit of fear? Wasn’t she being direct enough? She reviewed their conversation. No. Perhaps she had not been quite as direct as she needed to be. He was a man of numbers, after all, not of words. Tobias would have her meaning before she’d finished her sentence. But few were as quick as he. “Sir Scott, I propose an arrangement between us. I know things, and you have what I need.”
Sir Scott beamed. “I’m so glad we’re on the same page, my dear!” His smile fell just a bit. “But it’s traditional for the man to propose, of course, not the woman.”
Maggie’s knees almost gave out. What had she just done? She was likely the worst blackmailer in the history of the practice. She’d tried to wrangle money from him and instead somehow proposed to him. She’d laugh if she didn’t feel like crying.
* * *
Tobias searched across the crowded ballroom but couldn’t find Maggie. Either she had not congregated when her parents had called the entire house down to the ballroom for some sort of diversion, or she was just so bloody short, he’d never be able to locate her in large crowds. Their entire lives, he’d be searching for her unless he kept her glued to his side. The idea had merit. He knew of many enjoyable activities they could do in such close proximity. He shook his head. There would be no gluing her to his side. They would not share lunch together let alone their entire lives. His stubborn brainbox did not seem capable of accepting it.
“Are you looking for Lady Maggie?”
