Page 16 of The Heiress Masquerade (Dollar Princess #2)

Harrison sat at the head of the table in the boardroom, with Ben on his right and Robert on his left, while Mrs. Holbrook sat next to Ben, and Evie sat on a chair over near the side table, staying silent so far, as she’d promised. And even though Harrison’s entire future hinged on this meeting, he couldn’t stop thinking about her or the kiss they’d just shared. Damn it.

He could have groaned in disgust at himself and his lack of willpower. As it was, even thinking of kissing her had aroused him to the point his cock was beginning to strain against the material of his trousers, which thankfully was hidden from everyone’s view by the large table.

He had to get control of himself and ensure the situation of kissing Evie never happened again. Ever. He couldn’t risk his future and all he’d worked so hard to achieve.

Returning his attention back to the matter at hand, he glanced over at Wilheimer and the three men who’d accompanied him. They were sitting on the opposite side of the large table, none of them seeming happy to be there. Harrison knew from past dealings that the man on Wilheimer’s right was his German accountant, Josef Bernstein, and the man on his left was his brother and business partner, Eric, who had a lesser share in Wilheimer’s business, though he was influential with the decisions made. The third man was the interpreter they’d bought with them given Wilheimer and his men spoke very little English.

Currently, Wilheimer’s brother and accountant were yelling at each other, and occasionally turning and yelling at Harrison—all in German of course, which the interpreter was having a hard time interpreting given the pace and volume they were yelling with—while waving their hands furiously toward Harrison, both talking over the other. Wilheimer sat there staring at Harrison, his face giving away nothing.

Harrison met his stare, wondering when Wilheimer was going to take charge of his men. He raised his eyebrow at him, and Wilheimer’s eyes narrowed, but he gave the briefest of nods.

“Das genügt!” Wilheimer’s voice reverberated around the room as his gnarled fist banged on the table, silencing his men in an instant.

“That’s enough,” the interpreter translated for Harrison.

“What do you want, Wilheimer?” Harrison asked the man directly, to which the interpreter translated, and then Wilheimer began answering back in German.

Though his eyes stayed locked on Wilheimer, from his peripheral he was aware of Evie and the glint of excitement in her eyes to be included in the meeting.

Her enthusiasm was at odds with the picture Thomas had painted of her, and Harrison was beginning to wonder if he’d been purposefully misled about her temperament and desire to be here. But that didn’t make sense, either. Thomas had never misled him before, so why would he now?

It was peculiar, though, because from what Harrison had observed of her, she really seemed to want to be here and learn all she could, with a passion that was obvious.

“Mr. Wilheimer says how can you ask him what he wants when you must know why he is here, given you’re trying to destroy his company,” the interpreter translated after Wilheimer finished responding to Harrison’s comment.

Harrison returned his attention to Wilheimer, who looked as stubborn as an old goat and was glaring at him with undisguised animosity.

Not that Harrison could blame him, when only yesterday, Wilheimer had thought it was business as usual, only to find out today his whole company was about to go under if he didn’t find the capital to repay his loans in full by the end of the week. An undertaking that wasn’t possible, and every one of them there knew it.

Normally, the thrill of corralling his prey into a position of weakness would satisfy the part of Harrison that longed for justice and retribution against every wealthy and entitled gentleman out there. But seeing the stress and fear at the edges of old Wilheimer’s face didn’t make Harrison feel thrilled at all. Quite the opposite.

“I’m not trying to destroy anything, and if you hadn’t backed out of our negotiations, I wouldn’t have had to instigate anything,” Harrison replied. “But you did, so you need to understand I will use everything at my disposal to ensure this deal goes through. If that means forcing your hand, then so be it.”

The interpreter turned to Wilheimer and translated what he said. In response, Wilheimer banged his hand on the desk and started speaking in rapid German, his voice booming around the room.

“He says you’re either a liar or a fool,” the interpreter began to translate back to Harrison. “And maybe both if you think calling in his loans won’t destroy his business and cause the company shares to crash. He demands you undo what you did and do so immediately.”

“The only way out of this for you, Wilheimer, is to sell the majority of your shares and voting rights in your company to the Thornton-Jones Conglomerate. Once you do, I will ensure your company debts are paid off and that you personally receive five hundred thousand pounds. It’s a fair deal, and one you must accept if you don’t want to see all you’ve worked for disintegrate into ashes.”

He waited while Wilheimer’s interpreter translated what he’d said and wasn’t surprised when Wilheimer stood up and pointed his finger at Harrison and began to curse vehemently; at least that’s what he assumed he was doing, given the tone of his voice and the fury on his face.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Evie waving her hand in the air, trying to gain his attention.

Dammit, the last thing he needed while negotiating was to be distracted again by her. With more effort than it should have taken, he ignored her and kept his attention on Wilheimer, who finished off his rant and then sat back into his chair with a grunt.

“Mr. Wilheimer declines your offer, and I think it best not to relay the specifics he said, given there are ladies present,” the interpreter translated, a note of apology in the man’s voice as he glanced toward Mrs. Holbrook and back over his shoulder to Evie, who hastily stopped flapping her hands about. “They were rather ungentlemanly comments.”

Evie scoffed and he got the sense she was desperate to say something, but with a quick eyebrow raise from him, she stayed silent, though from the corner of his eye he saw her press her lips together tightly. The woman was not happy.

“If you can’t pay back your loan to the bank by Friday,” Harrison turned back to address Wilheimer, trying his best to ignore Evie, “and we both know you can’t, then the bank will foreclose on your company, and all your years of hard work will be for naught. You must accept my deal. The repercussions of not doing so would be catastrophic for you and your employees.”

While the interpreter was again translating his words, Evie once again impatiently waved her hands in Harrison’s direction. He sighed; at least she was keeping her word not to say anything, he supposed. He motioned for her to come to him, to which she wasted no time jumping up from her chair and rushing over.

“The interpreter’s lying,” she whispered in his ear, and a small shiver ran through him as her breath brushed across his skin.

He turned to her and scowled. “Explain yourself.”

She leaned down and put her hand in front of her mouth before whispering in his ear once again. “He’s leaving out important details you’re telling Wilheimer, and he’s doing the same for Wilheimer’s replies to you. Not to mention he omitted the full terms of the deal you outlined. He told Wilheimer you were offering to give him fifty thousand pounds, not five hundred thousand.”

“And you truly speak fluent German?”

“I do. I speak five languages other than English, all of them fluently.”

He couldn’t help but be impressed, and if what she said was true, he and Wilheimer were being played for fools. He glanced over to the interpreter whose attention was on Wilheimer and the two other men, as all three of them were talking in a muddle of German words. Was the interpreter purposefully trying to ruin the deal, or was he simply incompetent? It wouldn’t be the first time Harrison had encountered corporate espionage in the way of sabotage.

Swiveling his head back to Evie, his eyes narrowed upon her. “Are you certain he’s not translating what’s being said properly?”

“One thousand percent.” She nodded, her eyes wide in earnestness. “Whether it’s ineptitude or deliberate, he’s sabotaging the dealing and making it seem like you’re trying to steal Wilheimer’s business for a pittance.”

Ben cleared his throat. “Is everything all right?” he asked, disguising his words behind his hand as Evie was doing.

“Miss Jenkins, who speaks fluent German, tells me the interpreter is not interpreting properly,” Harrison replied, his voice deliberately loud enough for everyone to hear, including the interpreter, who gasped at the accusation.

“That’s not true,” the interpreter replied, his voice cracking on the last word.

Wilheimer and his men stopped talking, clearly aware something was going on, even if they didn’t understand what.

“It’s true,” Evie countered. “And you know it!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man exclaimed, his eyes beginning to blink rapidly as they pivoted between Harrison and Evie. “I’m interpreting properly.” He glared at Evie. “Perhaps you need to learn German better.”

Harrison glanced to Evie. “Tell Wilheimer and his men what you told me.”

She nodded and began speaking in rapid and what sounded to be flawless German to the three men, each of them turning to glare at the interpreter.

“Ist das wahr, was sie sagt?” Wilheimer asked.

“He’s asking me if what I’m saying is true,” Evie informed Harrison and Ben, before turning back and addressing Wilheimer. “Es ist wahr—” she began, speaking at such a fast pace that Harrison could barely make out the words she was saying, but whatever she was telling Wilheimer, clearly the man understood it, as he began nodding and narrowing his eyes toward his interpreter.

“I told Mr. Wilheimer and his colleagues their interpreter is either deliberately misleading them or entirely incompetent.”

Harrison felt his lips twitch at the expression of outrage on the interpreter’s face from Evie’s blunt assessment of the situation.

“Es ist nicht wahr!” the interpreter insisted, getting to his feet, a flicker of panic in his eyes.

“He’s saying it is not true, but it is true, and you know it.” She pointed at the man. “Are you merely incompetent or being purposefully untruthful?”

“You’re mistaken,” the man said, tugging on his collar as beads of sweat broke out on his brow and his eyes desperately sought out Wilheimer. “Du kannst ihr nicht vertrauen.”

“How dare you say that!” Evie said, leaning forward and slamming her hands on the table between Harrison and Ben. The interpreter flinched, and Wilheimer and his other men were staring at her in fascination. “He just told Mr. Wilheimer he can’t trust me.”

She then recommenced speaking in rapid-fire German, wagging her finger at the interpreter much like a schoolmistress chastising an errant pupil, and all Harrison could do was marvel at her confidence. Every one of them was staring at her as she berated the man, far more confidently than what Harrison would have expected from someone who’d been a companion for years.

The interpreter responded by yelling something in German, to which Evie’s frown grew.

“Yes, you do have to listen to me,” Evie replied.

“I will not,” the man said, switching to English. “You’re disparaging me and it’s unacc—”

“Enough!” It was Wilheimer himself who yelled the word aloud.

So, the old man did speak a little English. Harrison had suspected so, but just how much was another guess, though obviously not enough to have realized the interpreter hadn’t been translating properly.

Wilheimer turned to the interpreter. “Wer hat dich dafür bezahlt, uns anzulügen?”

“He’s asking him who paid him to lie to us,” Evie informed them.

“A good question,” Harrison said, watching as the interpreter’s face blanched.

The interpreter replied in German, sounding terrified as he glanced nervously over to the door.

“He says how dare you accuse me of that,” Evie said.

Then before anyone could stop him, the interpreter bolted from his chair, yanking open the door and sprinting down the hall, leaving them all staring after him.

Wilheimer turned to Evie and stared intently at her, saying something in German.

“Danke,” she replied before turning and grinning at Harrison. “He says my German is excellent, and he’ll find out who was paying the traitor.”

Her grin lit up her entire face and made Harrison want to taste the sweetness of those full lips of hers. Goddamn it, not again… He couldn’t keep thinking of wanting to kiss her. She was Thomas’s niece and an employee. Harrison never mixed business with pleasure when it came to employees, no exceptions, ever. So why the hell did he want to make an exception for her? Badly, too.

“Ask Wilheimer how long the interpreter has been interpreting for him,” Harrison told Evie.

A moment later after speaking with Wilheimer, she turned back to Harrison. “Only for the last month after his usual interpreter had to suddenly return to Germany. Apparently, his business, Interpreters International, was recommended by a friend.”

Interesting that it was around the same time they’d started the negotiations between their companies. Harrison didn’t believe in coincidences, and it was seeming more and more likely that someone didn’t want this deal to go ahead.

“Ask Wilheimer if he wants to continue this meeting with you interpreting,” Harrison said.

Wilheimer’s brother Eric was the one to respond after Evie had translated, his eyes assessing her with a great deal of suspicion in their depths.

“He’s asking why they should trust me.” She shrugged and turned back to Wilheimer and his men, and again spoke to them in German.

For a moment, Harrison wondered if he should be trusting her, too? He barely knew her, and though she was Thomas’s niece, she’d only been living with the Thornton-Joneses for the past six years or so. Could he really trust her to translate for a deal worth millions?

“I told them they shouldn’t trust me,” she turned back to him.

“You did what?”

“They shouldn’t trust me given I work for you, and you shouldn’t have been relying on their interpreter for such an important deal, either,” she said. “The stakes are too high to risk a miscommunication occurring from a poor translation. You both should have checked the interpreter you were using could speak fluent German and would interpret what you both said properly. It’s what I would have done had I overseen the negotiations.”

She turned to Wilheimer and seemed to be chastising him, too, given the expression of incredulity on the man’s face, but then respect shone in his eyes as he replied in German. “He agrees with me that it was poor form on both of your parts,” Evie said. “And he’s happy for me to continue interpreting.”

“Poor form? Remind Wilheimer he was the one who brought that interpreter with him,” Harrison said.

“That will only antagonize him further.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Translate it, Evie. That is, after all, the only reason why I’m allowing you a voice in this meeting.”

She sighed. “Fine.” Quickly, she translated what he’d said and Wilheimer’s expression grew darker.

She’d been right. Damn it. Normally, he was a tactical genius in meetings, but with this meeting everything was out of kilter. The only difference was the presence of Evie, and though he never blamed others for his mistakes, he was certain having this woman in here was the cause of his sense of imbalance.

Granted, she’d also discovered the deception the interpreter had been perpetrating, and if that had been allowed to continue unchecked, then the deal really would have had no chance of survival. In that respect, she’d been invaluable, but in every other aspect she’d been a liability.

Wilheimer stood up and said something else in German to Evie, to which she seemed surprised.

“Bist du sicher?” she replied to Wilheimer, who nodded in response.

“Evie?” Harrison said. “A translation might be nice, if you wouldn’t mind.”

She glared back at him. “Mr. Wilheimer says he’s decided he’s not prepared to discuss the matter any further today—”

“But we need to discuss—”

“Did you want me to translate or not? Because if you want me to, you need to listen to the full translation first.” She glanced back to Wilheimer and quickly spoke in German to him, Harrison guessed translating what she’d just said.

Wilheimer grinned and said something else to her, to which she grinned back and replied in German, too.

Now Harrison was starting to get annoyed with being left out of their little conversation, and he certainly didn’t like how the old lecher was smiling at Evie. Didn’t the man have enough mistresses already? He couldn’t bloody well have Evie, too. Not that she was Harrison’s for him to have any say in the matter, but he owed it to Thomas to protect her. He probably should also start protecting her from himself, too, but that was another story.

“Now, as I was saying,” Evie continued, “Mr. Wilheimer doesn’t want to continue discussing the matter today. However, he’ll consider your proposal if you agree to get the bank to delay the foreclosure for a fortnight so you can attend his house party the weekend after this, where you can both further discuss the matter.”

“He wants me to attend his house party to discuss the matter?” Harrison was incredulous. “Is he joking?”

“Not at all.” She shook her head. “He says if you want him to seriously consider your business proposal, then he wants to find out what sort of man he would be entrusting his company to.”

“And he thinks a house party is the best way of discovering that?” Did the man really expect him to believe such nonsense? The request for the delay would only be to see if he could pull together the funds, not to measure him as a man at a damn house party.

Wilheimer said something else in German to Evie.

“He says there will be sports and hunting competitions over the weekend that reveal a great deal about a man’s character,” Evie relayed. “And he says if you want him to consider selling his shares to a man proposing to destroy everything he’s built, then you will attend.”

“I’m not going to destroy anything,” Harrison said through gritted teeth. “And this is a business negotiation, not a social club. Tell him that and tell him he’s not in the box seat to be dictating terms to me. He needs to agree to my proposal, or he’ll lose everything.”

Evie translated his words and the old man shrugged, before replying again in German.

“He says if it is God’s will for him to lose everything, so be it. However, if you’re willing to compromise, he’s willing to genuinely consider your offer.”

“Tell him I know he’s trying to delay to find the money somehow, but he won’t. Mr. Carter from the bank has already let the other banks know that the Thornton-Jones Conglomerate will blacklist any bank who agrees to lend him any funds.”

The man shrugged after Evie translated, then he replied.

“He says then you have nothing to worry over with the delay, do you?”

“He’s really prepared to risk losing all he’s worked years for, if he doesn’t come to the table and negotiate?” The man had to be bluffing.

Evie translated his words, then listened as Wilheimer spoke. “He says, are you also prepared to see this deal fall through simply because you don’t want to attend a house party? Especially when you also have much to lose given your uncle’s recent financial issues.” There was a hint of curiosity in her gaze as she translated the last part but thankfully, she refrained from commenting.

“Ask him how he knows anything about that.”

Evie translated and Wilheimer shrugged again before replying.

“He says you’re not the only one with contacts in banks.”

For several moments Harrison and Wilheimer stared impassively at each other, both trying to get a read of the other.

“I’ll get the bank to defer until the Monday after his house party,” Harrison said. “And I’ll attend, but he will give me an answer while I’m there, or I’ll ensure all his loans are called in, and I’ll not give him another chance.”

After Evie interpreted his words, Wilheimer nodded to Harrison, then glanced to Evie and said something. Whatever the man said had Evie blinking rapidly, before she started shaking her head furiously and responding back in German.

Wilheimer said something again and Evie appeared more annoyed than Harrison had seen her so far, and in his very short acquaintance with the lady, he’d seen her annoyed too many times to count. “What’s wrong?”

She blew out a deep breath and glanced back to Harrison. “He’s insisting I interpret all your negotiations from now on.”

“I can’t see a problem with that.” Harrison gave a half shrug; it would be the most convenient way forward. “You seem to have done an adequate job thus far.”

“Adequate?” She narrowed her eyes, her annoyance at Wilheimer paling in comparison to her annoyance with Harrison.

“A very good job, then?”

“You seriously need to work on your adjectives.” She blew out a breath. “In any event, Mr. Wilheimer is insisting I attend the house party, too, so I can interpret for you both.”

“He’s what?” Harrison’s whole body went rigid, and he had to resist swearing aloud at that little revelation. A weekend house party, with this woman present? Such a scenario was a damn recipe for disaster.

“I don’t like it any more than you do.” She fisted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Which is why I was trying to convince him to find someone else.” She turned back to Wilheimer and rattled something in German to him.

The man shook his head but smiled as he replied.

“Unfortunately, he’s insisting I attend given he’s impressed by my interpreting skills.”

Harrison scoffed. It wasn’t her interpreting skills Wilheimer was impressed with; it was the woman herself.

“And now he bids us all farewell.”

The man nodded to them, then pushed back his chair and headed straight for the door, his two other men hurrying after him, both glowering at Harrison.

After they left, everyone was silent for a moment.

“I can’t go to a house party with Mr. Stone!” Evie blurted out. “It wouldn’t be proper without a chaperone.”

“My dear girl, in this day and age it’s only someone of noble birth or an heiress who ordinarily requires a chaperone,” Mrs. Holbrook replied.

“Yes, I know that…” Evie replied. “I suppose I assumed, um, that in England, you were all a bit more proper than everyone in America.”

An odd choice of words for her to use, given she was English, too, but she was an unusual woman, he couldn’t deny that.

“Oh, we are far more proper, my dear, even if some of us do forget that on occasion,” Mrs. Holbrook said, her face perfectly expressionless. “However, in this instance, I feel it’s prudent I attend, too, don’t you agree, Mr. Stone?” She turned and stared at Harrison, and he knew she suspected something had gone on between himself and Evie.

“I do, Mrs. Holbrook,” he replied, having to clear his throat slightly. “Make the arrangements and ensure Wilheimer’s informed of your attendance, too.”

The woman nodded and stood. “Of course. Now, if that’s all, Miss Jenkins and I will return to our duties.” She glanced at Evie, who followed her out of the room.

Harrison let out a deep breath, finally able to relax.

Though he didn’t like the idea of being in such proximity to Evie at the house party, given what had already occurred between them, at least with Mrs. Holbrook present there was no way he’d even consider kissing her again. Well, perhaps he’d consider it; he was only human after all, and Evie was an attractive woman.

But he wouldn’t act on it, even if every inch of him was screaming for him to.