Page 39 of The Earl That Got Away (Sirens in Silk #2)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

N aila plopped onto the sofa. “I think I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“Why?” Raya looked up from her accounts. She sat at the small round table she used as a desk. “What have you done?”

The two sisters were alone in the family sitting room at Strickland House. “I think I regret not trying harder to make a go of it with Hawk.”

“Which time?”

“Very funny.” Naila shot her sister a withering look. “At least I was an inexperienced young girl the first time I mucked everything up. But I have no excuse for my idiocy last year.”

“I’m not surprised that you have regrets.” Raya closed a ledger and put it aside. “Every time you see Hawk again, your old feelings seem to get all stirred up.”

“After he kissed me last year, I should have gone after what I wanted with the same focus and drive that I put into writing my pamphlet and getting it published.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“My pride, my own insecurities, got in the way. I needed him to declare his undying love for me before I shared my true feelings.”

“There is nothing wrong with wanting to be loved,” Raya pointed out.

“But I had already broken his heart once.” Quiet despair stirred in her chest. “I abandoned him after promising to fight to stay together. Is it any wonder that he was more circumspect when we met again after eight years apart?”

Raya nibbled the back of her pen. “Well, when you put it like that—”

“I immediately regretted my actions in Philadelphia. I tried to tell him that I’d changed my mind but I was too late. He’d already sailed for England.”

“What?” Raya threw down her pen. “You never told me that.”

“I’m telling you now.”

“Does Hawk know?”

She shook her head. “No, he doesn’t.”

“You’ve got to tell him.”

“Do you think he’ll believe me? He’d wonder why I didn’t tell him that last year.”

“You won’t know until you tell him.”

“He should hate me. I’d hate me if I were him.”

Raya’s mouth twisted. “He clearly doesn’t hate you. I think it is very clear that he still esteems you.”

“He’s courting that shipbuilding heiress. And she loves to row just like he does, which makes matters worse. He might actually fall in love with her.”

Raya studied her face. “You’re jealous of Hawk’s friendship with Miss Turner.” It wasn’t a question.

Naila blew out a breath. “That’s what Hawk said.”

Raya looked amused. “And is he right?”

“Of course,” Naila said glumly. “The thought of Hawk marrying Catherine Anne makes me want to break everything in this house.”

Raya put up a calming hand. “Well, let’s not do that. Strickland House is full of precious artifacts that go back generations.”

“What do you think I should do?”

“Tell him how you feel.”

“When he is in the middle of courting another woman? I mean, he says he isn’t courting her, but Miss Turner certainly seems to think he is.”

“You have to take action if you hope to entice Hawk to ask you to marry him again.”

“I might have to propose to him.” She sighed. “I doubt he could bring himself to ask me to marry him again. And I can’t blame him. He thinks I’m after his title and money.”

“You’ll have to show him that he’s wrong.”

“I’m not sure how to do that.” But Naila was weary of sitting on the sidelines and letting life happen to her when it came to Hawk. Her most significant achievements, the pamphlet and her salons, had come about because she’d developed a plan and worked hard to make it a reality.

Maybe that should be her approach to love as well.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she told her sister. “But I’m not going to sit by and do nothing.”

“Just be careful,” Raya advised.

“What have I got to lose at this point? What’s the worst that can happen?” she asked. “Hawk could reject me but I will lose him for sure if I do nothing.”

“You’re a businesswoman now. You have to consider how your behavior will impact your enterprise.”

Naila did not think of herself that way. But Guy had said something similar. Raya had always been the businesswoman in the family. “It’s not as though I’m going to tear off my clothes and throw myself at the man during one of my salons.”

“If you are perceived as stealing an earl away from one of your heiresses, that could impact your reputation,” Raya explained. “That is your entire business model, matching rich American women with poor English lords.”

“But Hawk isn’t poor. It would be preferable for Catherine Anne to marry a poor aristocrat who can use her money to restore his historically significant property.”

Raya chuckled. “All the same, if it looks like you’re stealing a lord away from one of your heiresses, that could create a scandal.

If I’ve learned anything since becoming a duchess, it’s that the ton abhors scandal.

If the very people you are trying to attract, aristocrats and wealthy American heiresses, start staying away from your salons, then your entire scheme to save these crumbling properties will fail in spectacular fashion. ”

Naila groaned. She couldn’t risk ruining any potential matches.

The Earl of Heresford was still in the middle of delicate marriage settlement negotiations with Herbert Work, father of the department store heiress.

And who knew how many other potential matches were in the works?

She could not risk losing both Hawk and her passion for saving historic homes.

“What am I supposed to do?” Frustration riled her words. “Just sit back and watch Hawk marry another woman?”

“That, I don’t know.” Raya picked up her pen. “But I’m confident you’ll find a way to win the man and keep your business intact.”

Several days later, Charles’s family held a gathering at their Richmond house outside London.

The house was situated along the Thames and provided extraordinary views of the water.

Since the river was placid, several guests took advantage of the rowboats provided by their hosts and went out on the water.

Naila was standing with Hind and Kareem when the Earl of Heresford wandered over with Miss Work on his arm. “I must thank you, Miss Darwish, for introducing me to this delightful young woman.”

Naila smiled at him. “It was my pleasure. I thought you two might suit.” She’d decided to try matching the two because both had a love for horses and horse racing.

Alberta’s father ran a prime specimen that had recently won the Belmont Stakes and Heresford owned a gelding he was training to run at Ascot someday.

Alberta Work colored prettily. “I am rather horse crazy but his lordship doesn’t seem to mind.”

“Far from it,” Heresford proclaimed. “It is a pleasure to speak with a young lady who knows so much about horses.”

They were distracted by shouting and laughter down near the riverbank.

“Speaking of racing, come, let us go down to the boats,” Heresford said. “There’s talk of having a rowing competition.”

Curious, Naila followed the crowd down to the boats. If there was a rowing race, the chances were high that Hawk would participate.

“Women should row as well,” Hawk called out when Naila reached the river’s edge.

“Splendid,” Charles said. “A man and a lady in each boat. A mixed-pairs rowing competition.”

Catherine Anne stepped to Hawk’s side. “I shall row with the earl.”

Heresford surveyed the crowd. “Which lady will row with me? Miss Work?”

Alberta Work shook her head. “I am a horsewoman not an oarswoman.”

The crowd laughed. Heresford turned to Naila. “Miss Darwish, what do you say? Will you partner with me?”

Naila stepped back. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Hawk called out. “Has no one ever taught you how to row?”

“Once.” She met his challenging gaze. “But my instructor wasn’t very good.”

“The lady is surely being modest,” he returned. “Your pamphlet is proof that you are an exacting woman who would not settle for anything less than the best.”

“Do compete, Naila,” Hind encouraged her cousin. “You’ve rowed us at the park before.”

“Yes, come and join us,” said Phoebe, who’d partnered with Charles. “I’m game to try and I don’t know the first thing about rowing.”

Naila wanted to argue that it was hardly fair for Catherine Anne to team up with Hawk since both were excellent rowers. But she just said, “Very well,” and went to stand beside Heresford.

In all, six pairs joined the competition. As Heresford helped Naila into the boat, she cautioned him about expecting too much from her.

“Not to worry,” he said. “I rowed at university. I even managed to beat Hawksworth a time or two.”

“I had no idea.” The idea that they might actually be worthy adversaries to Hawk and Catherine Anne lifted her spirits.

“And it sounds as if you have rowed at least a little.”

“Here and there,” she said. She had learned from one of the best. Maybe that would help.

“We’ll make it a short race,” Hawk said as everyone climbed into the boats. “Fifty yards.”

“You can do it,” Heresford said encouragingly to Naila as they settled in their places. “Stay in rhythm and keep your stroke as smooth as possible.”

Naila wiped her hands on her skirts before grabbing hold of the oars.

Heresford rowed them into place with the other boats at the starting line.

Hawk and Catherine Anne were in the boat beside them.

When she briefly met Hawk’s eye, he inclined his chin in her direction.

She looked away and tightened her grip on the blades.

“I will do most of the work,” Heresford assured her. “I can provide most of the power. If you can keep up with the pace, we should be fine.”

“I wish I were as optimistic as you,” she said. “Miss Turner rows regularly.”

“Yes, but I have observed her technique. Her finish is faulty.”

“Her finish?”

“When the oar leaves the water. She allows it to drag, which slows down the momentum. Her technique runs in opposition to Hawksworth’s.”