“He did not wish to come himself?”
She maintained an easy smile, despite her heart’s heavy thumping. “He’s busy today.”
“And every day,” Mr. Blake grumbled. “Make him bring you to dinner soon. I know he hates me and what I do, but …” He stood tall and straightened his jacket. “Just come. And put in a good word for the mill. He won’t listen to me, but perhaps he’ll listen to you.”
Maggie smiled and stepped up into the waiting coach, her father-in-law’s request sitting uneasy in her belly. She could never do as he asked. She knew Tobias, it seemed, better than he did. Still, she smiled and waved out the window at Mr. Blake and watched him nod then turn and disappear into the belly of his factory.
She collapsed into the cushions and sighed.
“Well?”
She opened her eyes to find Tobias’s watercolor-blue eyes staring blankly at her.
She pushed herself up straight. “How many children are injured, do you think?”
“In a year?”
She nodded almost imperceptibly.
“More than I can say. More than either of us are bound to like. I saw it happen once.” His eyes shuttered. His chest expanded with a heavy breath. “The crunch of metal and bone. The scream. I do not wish to ever hear it again.”
Maggie moved into his arms. “I don’t understand. How will manufacturing silk instead of cotton improve such circumstances?”
The coach jolted forward and trundled only a short distance before Tobias reached up and knocked on the ceiling. The coach stopped and Tobias leaned out the window. When he sat back down, he turned and smiled shyly. “We’re not going home just yet.”
“Where are we going?”
He settled onto the seat beside her and winked. “It’s a secret.”
Chapter 20
Maggie raised a single brow. Everything with Tobias was a secret. And she wanted every single one of them. “How can I say no, then?” She looked out the window, hoping to guess where they were going by the sights they passed, but she’d been in London less than a week, and this was her first outing away from their townhouse. She knew nothing of the city. She knew only the Thames, smelling rotten and heavy, flowed nearby, and large, dirty factories squatted all around her. “Tobias, I think I may prefer the country to the city.”
“Really? Hm.”
She frowned. “Hm?”
“Yes. It’s a noncommittal sound.”
“I know what it is, but what does it mean?”
He shrugged. “I enjoy the city. I’ll have to show you what I like so about it.”
“Yes, you shall.”
“And you’ll show me what you love about fields and flowers?”
“I would like that, too.”
Tobias looked out the window on the opposite side. Maggie studied his profile. Was she finally to get another glimpse at Tobias Blake, meet another one of his personas? Excitement and fear twisted together in her gut. Would she like what he had to show her wherever it was they were going? She would. She must. He’d warned her about visiting his father’s cotton mill, and he’d been right. It had upset her in ways she’d never have expected. Wherever it was Tobias took her now, it must have something to do with cotton. Or silk. His father loved one and Tobias loved the other. And Maggie loved …
Irritation rose within her. Must she love one over the other. True, her father-in-law’s factories were more hellish than heaven, but the world needed to be clothed, and not everyone could afford silk. And Tobias’s call for a more humane, artistic process of textile creation resonated with her as well. But … butsomething. Maggie couldn’t quite put her finger on what snarled deep within her like a secret about herself even she did not yet see.
When the coach rolled to a stop, Maggie shook her frustration from her shoulders and smiled at Tobias. He almost bounced in his seat.
She looked out of the window. “Where are we?”
Tobias bounded down from the coach and held out his hand. “Come and see, funny girl.”
