Page 21 of Fortune’s Final Folly

“Which allows you to work from your office in Cheapside?”

“Very good, Miss Kate.” He nodded and drew up short before a door at the rear of the large building. “My income from Stuart and Lords enables me to help those with fewer means in Cheapside.”

She longed to ask why he would choose to work in Cheapside when he could just as easily help people from this grand office in the safer part of London. If her father had been offered a more prestigious congregation, would he have forsaken his parish in Cheapside? What of her mother? She’d been intelligent enough to seek a position as a proper tutor for an English family; however, she’d remained at her husband’s side and taught children who might have otherwise not been afforded an education.

More to the point, what would Kate have chosen if she’d had the means to seek out a better future than her parents had given her?

She’d like to believe she would still be exactly where she was—not in Joshua’s upmarket office, but in Cheapside, living and working in the building her mother and father had worked hard to obtain and leave to their only daughter.

“When I began taking on other solicitors, it was necessary for my assistant to consolidate my uncle’s records. However, nothing of import was discarded. If a record of your benefactor exists, it will be in here.” He pushed open the door, and a clerk followed them into the room, lighting several wall sconces and pulling back the drapes that covered the small window in the back wall. “The files are arranged by year for past clients. And within each year, by name.”

“Do you know how long the parcels have been coming?” she asked, taking in the large room with row after row of shelves that reached the ceiling. The room was larger and held more paper than Albert’s Bookshop. She’d been visiting the bookseller since she’d learned to read and still had yet to explore every section. A room this size could easily take decades to scour.

When Joshua didn’t respond, she glanced up at him as he nodded to the clerk, who departed the room, leaving the door ajar in his wake.

“As long as I can remember,” he replied once they were alone. “Four years, at least. Which is when I began working for my uncle.”

“I know my parents moved to London shortly after I was born”—she’d nearly said after I came to live with them, but that was information she’d only recently been able to speak with Joshua about, and she wasn’t certain if she was prepared to speak further on the matter—“and my father took over the vicarage. Originally, I thought the funds came from his congregation.”

“That is a good enough place to begin,” he mused, rubbing his chin as he scanned the room. “Sometime between five and nineteen years ago. I suppose my idea to arrange the files in such a manner was not my brightest notion.”

She laughed, the task ahead of them daunting. “There must be shelf after shelf of files.”

“On the contrary.” He started through the room, headed toward the shelving unit closest to the back wall and the light streaming in from the window. “During that time, it was only my uncle and his two assistants. Every once in a while, he brought me in to help with menial tasks. Now, if it had been in the past four years, we’d need to enlist the help of every Stuart and Lords clerk.”

Joshua began removing boxes from shelves and stacking them on a desk in the corner. It took Kate a few minutes to realize he was pulling all the boxes labeled with an E.

For Elliott.

The man had taken an insurmountable task—at least, in Kate’s opinion—and reduced it to under twenty boxes. He narrowed it down even further when he opened the lids of a few, retrieved a folder to review, then shook his head and slid the boxes back on the shelf. She could not take her eyes off him as he moved swiftly through the room, the muscles under his coat and along his back straining as he worked. His movements required more strength and agility than she suspected your average solicitor possessed. The shelves were stacked to the ceiling, and he often needed to climb onto the wooden racks to retrieve a box. And all of it was accomplished without breaking a sweat nor removing his jacket. She could certainly see why he’d felt qualified to offer his assistance with the schoolroom.

“You are very accomplished with the way the files are stored.” It was as close to a compliment as she could come without mentioning the accomplished way he pulled himself up onto the shelves and then jumped down, all without spilling the contents of a single box or wrinkling the fabric of his shirt and jacket where it pulled tightly across his shoulders. And she would not dare allow herself to ponder the fit of his trousers that were at eye level during his many climbs. They were at his office to discover the secrets of her past, yet Kate found it rather difficult to suppress her need to explore Joshua’s secrets.

His brow rose as if he’d read her musings. “You cannot think my uncle made it so easy for me to earn my place in his office, Miss Kate.”

She very nearly sighed with relief. They’d been speaking of his uncle.

She gave him an overzealous smile, thinking back to what she knew of Michael Stuart. He’d been friendly, jovial, and had arrived at the parish or the schoolroom regularly as if he offered her father friendship, as well as serving in a more official capacity. To Kate, he had only been known as her father’s friend, Michael, not as a solicitor, and certainly not as my lord.

“When I was seven, I was charged with sweeping the office. By twelve, I’d gained enough knowledge from my uncle that he allowed me to transport missives and documents to and from the courts. Before I departed for Oxford to obtain my proper law education, he gave me the task of researching different laws for him.” Joshua pulled out the desk chair and gestured for her to sit. “There is no task at Stuart and Lords I have not been assigned to at some point in time. Finding my way around a storage room is one of my best skills.”

Kate wanted to share how similar she and Joshua were. They’d both worked tirelessly and gained the skills needed for their chosen professions.

There were still many boxes to search with no guarantee they’d find any useful information that would help them. “Do you truly believe we will find anything?”

“Do not be so glum,” he chided with a smile. “If there is a record, with any luck, it will be in one of these boxes.”

“Luck,” she scoffed, sitting in the chair. “I haven’t had much of that of late.”

“True,” he mused, removing the lids from two boxes. “Then let us put our trust in fate. What fortune does fate gain by allowing a fire to ravish your schoolroom and leave you homeless?”

Kate laughed if only to suppress the sorrow that coursed through her. Since awakening at Joshua’s townhouse, she hadn’t allowed herself to wallow in self-pity or dwell on everything she’d lost in the fire. “You forgot, penniless.”

“If we find what we are looking for, my hope is that you won’t be penniless for long.”

“You have more optimism than I can muster, at least in my situation.” She focused on the files he’d stacked in front of her, thumbing through the folders. Easton. Edgewood. Edmonds. Elmer. Eskins. Ewing.

No Elliott.