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would be at least three more hours before they arrived in Baltimore.
    Daniel sat with his assistant, Joe Manzetti, and his personal attorney going over his affairs. Who would have thought back when he worked a second shift shoveling coal into a furnace that someday he would have a corporate attorney, an estate attorney, a patent attorney, and a personal attorney? But they were all necessary. A man did not rise to the heights he had without relying on attorneys to look after his various endeavors. Along with his attorneys, Daniel had Manzetti, who served as his bodyguard, business assistant, and an extra set of eyes. Daniel had never regained sight in the eye that had been blinded in the boiler explosion, and the dim light cast by the lanterns made it a strain to read once the sun had set.
    “The bills for your sister’s wedding have been paid in full, but the balance has yet to be paid on the house you purchased for Miss Lorna as a bridal gift,” his attorney said. “Did you wish to pay that outright, or shall I prepare installments?”
    Daniel hated being indebted to anyone, but most of his fortune was locked up in the company. It was the reason everyone was so anxious to sell shares to the public. Ready cash had not been available when he purchased a house for his sister last summer, but it would be as soon as Ian could list their company on the New York Stock Exchange and begin selling shares. “I want it paid outright, but we’ll have to wait until the funds from the public offering become available. Hopefully in September.”
    “Very well.”
    Certainly the biggest fringe benefit of taking his company public in the autumn would be the ability to ensure he could always provide for his sisters.
    “And Miss Kate has requested that you renew your membership at the Colchester Sporting Club. Either that, or she suggests that perhaps you would consider constructing a tennis court on your own property.”
    “She thinks I’m going to build her a tennis court?”
    “She has hopes,” Manzetti said. “She doesn’t know you as well as I do.” Daniel and Manzetti had worked together back when they were both employed by Forsythe Industries. It had been Manzetti who had run to get him out of the scholarship exam after the boiler explosion. Although Manzetti had profited nicely from working alongside Daniel, neither one of them would ever forget the squalor and anxiety that accompanied a life of relentless poverty.
    “Renew the club membership,” Daniel said. “I’m not going to spoil Kate any more than I already have.” If Kate had her way, his backyard would be consumed by a private golf course, a croquet green, and tennis courts. Spoiling his sisters was one of the few pleasures he afforded himself. For the past ten years, his life had been consumed by a voracious need to grind forward in developing his inventions. That left little time for raising his sisters, and he assuaged his guilt by bestowing little luxuries on them. He still remembered the time he had hoarded enough money to purchase the girls their first little beaded reticules. Those minor luxuries were soon followed by private schools, music lessons, trips to Washington. It was as though showering them with such opportunities somehow compensated for the death of their parents, and, essentially, the loss of their brother, as well, since he was generally closeted with business associates and attorneys most nights.
    “Miss Kate assumed that would be your response,” Manzetti said. “She would therefore like access to the carriage to take her to the club to practice her tennis on days you are at the office.”
    Daniel rubbed his forehead. “Truly, Manzetti, I can run my company, or I can control Kate. I can’t do both. Tell her she can’t use the carriage when I’m not there. She’ll bicker, but that’s what sixteen-year-old girls do. What’s next?”
    His lawyer removed a file from the stack. “The bill for Miss Endicott’s defense last month.