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looked into her eyes and saw that she was burning with an earnest desire to help worthless Ronnie Staines create a useful life. Nick didn’t approve of her wish to immolate herself on the altar of the self-sacrificing wife.
    If he’d been home more often, or if he’d known Emma better, perhaps he could have turned her from her purpose. As it was, he knew she’d bitterly resent the interference of a brother who’d been absent so long.
    “How much do you need?” Nick asked, thinking of the inarguable numbers in the ledger, underlined with red ink.
    “Five hundred pounds.”
    “So much? It can’t cost that to cross the Atlantic even in a gold-plated boat.’’
    “No, but Robbie’s father is only giving him enough money to go to Boston. He wants him to go into law with his uncle but Robbie wants adventure. He has it all planned. We’ll go to a place called Kentucky. It’s a growing territory or state or whatever it is they call it there. Robbie feels that if we start some kind of manufactory there, we should do well. There are lots of rivers to run mills. But we’ll need money to do it.”
    “Robbie has your future all planned then?”
    “Yes. He’s wonderful at making plans. He can always come up with a way out of a difficulty.”
    “So it seems. So he’s going to Boston to earn enough money to bring you to America, where he will marry you and go to Kentucky.”
    “Yes. If only I could go with him now. But without the money, there’s no reason for me to go.”
    “Do you believe, in your heart,” Nick asked, his voice low, “that Robbie Staines will wait for you?”
    His sister’s face crumpled like a sheet of paper crushed in a careless hand. “No. He’ll find some other girl the moment he lands. He’ll hate himself for breaking my heart, but he won’t be able to help it.”
    “And this is the man you want me to help you marry?”
    “Oh, yes!”
    “I’d be mad to give my consent. He’ll bring you nothing but sorrow, my dear.”
    “He’s what I want,” Emma said fiercely. “He needs me so.”
    Nick looked into her reddened eyes and could not deny her. “Very well. You shall have your money if I must wring the estate dry. When does Robbie sail?”
    “Not for some weeks,” Emma said, her eyes brightening as though he’d handed her the keys to a magnificent castle made of precious stones and roses. “His sister is to be married and he has been permitted to stay for that.”
    “Matrimony does seem to be in the air,” Nick muttered.
    Then he smiled at her warmly and tapped her cheek. “Enough tears for now,” he said. “Show Mother a smiling face.”
    He left her in raptures, eager to share the kindness of her brother with her mother and sister. Nick went in search of David Mochrie. “Where did you say those girls lived?”
     

Chapter Three
     
    Rietta faced Blancheacross the breakfast table, certain that if she heard one word more about Sir Nicholas Kirwan she would empty the sugar bowl over her sister’s blond curls. For the past two days, she’d heard little but raptures over the gentleman’s appearance, manners, and probable fortune. Blanche seemed to have discovered in him infinite food for discussion, despite the brevity of their association.
    Blanche had already thought of a dozen witty remarks and answers she might have given him. It was only Rietta’s inconvenient presence that made it impossible for her to say that she had delivered all that clever repartee.
    Beside Rietta’s place at table were letters and papers which she studied attentively. A ship’s log lay beneath them and, from time to time, she checked a reference. When Mr. Ferris came in, she looked up from her work.
    “Father, there’s been a rise in the price of cochineal. When you see Captain O’Dea, ask him to sell back to us his share of the last voyage at the previous price. We’ll have Ronald take it to market in the south, then pay Captain O’Dea seventy-five percent of the