Marriage Offered, Love Declined novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Buyer

The private room was on the top floor of a restaurant off Walnut Street, with one round table and a view of the rooftops.

There were six chairs and six place cards.

Mine said Mrs. Crewe, in a calligraphy that had been chosen to make a point.

The buyer was the silver-haired man from the gala, tall and tanned, with a watch that cost more than my father's house.

He stood when I came in, and he did not shake my hand.

"The bride," he said. "Lowell tells me you help people walk."

"Today I'm helping a few of them stand."

He smiled, and the smile stayed after the joke was gone.

His associate, the woman in the red suit, slid a leather folder in front of Sebastian before the bread arrived.

Lowell sat across from us with his lawyer at his elbow.

"A letter of intent," Lowell said. "Nothing binding. A courtesy, so my nephew can see the shape of the thing."

Sebastian didn't touch the folder.

He took my hand under the table and held it, openly, in his lap, where his uncle could see it.

Through the soup the buyer talked about synergy.

Through the fish he talked about rail corridors.

Through all of it I watched Sebastian's thumb move along my wrist, a small slow line, back and forth, as steady as a pulse.

When the plates were cleared, the buyer folded his hands.

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