Chloe nodded amenably, her mouth full.

Mr. Childe of Childe's Bank welcomed Hugo with a low bow, gesturing toward his inner sanctum. "If Miss Gresham would like to wait in the anteroom, I'll have the clerk bring her some tea," he said with an avuncular smile at the girl in her hideous schoolgirl's serge.

"Oh, no," Chloe said. "I wish to understand about my fortune. And I don't need tea… thank you," she added in belated afterthought.

Mr. Childe looked astounded. "But… but you can have no interest in funds and percentages, my dear. Young ladies find such things most boring. I'm sure we can find a periodical for you to look at while you're waiting…" He nodded encouragingly. "The latest fashions, I'm sure, will hold your attention much more than our tedious discussion."

"No, I don't think so," Chloe replied with a sweet smile. "I'm not in the least interested in fashion, but I am most interested in understanding about my fortune. You see," she explained kindly, "I intend to have the management of it myself when I'm married, so I must learn all about it."

Mr. Childe's jaw dropped. He turned in appeal to Sir Hugo, who was looking out of the window, apparently unconcerned by his ward's heretical statement. "Surely not, Sir Hugo?"

"That would rather depend on the husband in question," Hugo responded. "It seems a little premature to speculate, since there's no gentleman on the horizon. However, if the lass wants to sit in, then I see no objection. If she's bored, she'll have only herself to blame, and if she learns something, then that's no bad thing." With a hand between her shoulder blades, he ushered her ahead of him into the banker's sanctum.

It occurred to Chloe that she was becoming accustomed to being moved along in this fashion. She wondered why it didn't irritate her.

She listened intently while the two men discussed financial intricacies. Hugo was patient with her interruptions, but Mr. Childe grew increasingly testy and finally Hugo waved her into silence when she broke into a particularly convoluted explanation of the banker's.

"Save your questions until later, lass. Otherwise we'll be here all afternoon."

"But will you be able to answer them?"

"I'll try."

"But-"

"That'll do, Chloe."

The sharpness took her aback and she subsided, knotting her fingers in her lap, closing her lips firmly.

Hugo cast her a sideways glance. She was looking distinctly aggrieved, but he had no intention of offering encouragement for further interruption.

"One last matter, Sir Hugo. Will you be continuing the yearly payment to Sir Jasper Gresham?" the banker asked, resting his clasped hands on the pile of documents on the desk.

"What?" This ejaculation of Chloe's went unadmon-ished.

"For the past ten years Lady Gresham had instructed us to pay Sir Jasper three thousand pounds a year." The banker pointedly addressed her guardian. "Her will contained no instructions to us to continue the payments."

So that was how Elizabeth had protected herself and her daughter from the Greshams. Hugo tapped the tips of his fingers together as the pieces fell into place. Three thousand pounds a year was a tidy sum; Jasper wouldn't take kindly to its cessation.

"What was Mama paying Jasper for?"

"How should I know?" Hugo lied. He couldn't say your safety, although he was certain that had been uppermost in Elizabeth's mind.

Jasper would have tried to take control of the heiress to his stepmother's fortune. With Elizabeth drifting through life in a laudanum haze, he could have taken Chloe under his own roof and exerted his own inimitable influence over the child. She would have been married to Crispin at sixteen whether she wanted to or not. Elizabeth had managed to protect her daughter into adulthood by removing her completely from Shipton, and by bribing Jasper. She would have hoped that if Chloe reached adulthood untouched by her half-brother's authority and therefore unafraid of him, she would have the strength to resist the pressure he would bring to bear on her once her mother was no longer around.

And to give her an extra advantage, Elizabeth had called upon the memory and obligation of an old love and aligned Jasper's greatest enemy on her daughter's side.

"No," he said. "If Lady Gresham left no instruction, then the payments should lapse."

"Good," Chloe declared. "I fail to see why Jasper should have my money."

"That's a most unnecessary statement," Hugo said re-pressively, seeing the banker clearly scandalized by this unladylike young lady.

Elizabeth really would have helped him in the task she'd set him if she'd managed to instill some conventional manners into her daughter.

He stood up. "Well, that seems to be everything, Mr. Childe. We'll take up no more of your time."

"What about my allowance?" Chloe reminded him. Hugo frowned and said off the top of his head. "A hundred pounds a quarter should be ample."

"Four hundred pounds a year!" Chloe exclaimed. "When Jasper was getting three thousand, and it wasn't even his money."

Mr. Childe's little eyes seemed to pop in his red face. Hugo, who felt that Chloe had a point for all its reprehensible presentation, said quickly, "We'll discuss it later. Come." He extended a hand in farewell to the banker and drew Chloe forward with the other. To his relief, she made her farewells very prettily, thanking the banker for his time and apologizing for having been a nuisance.

It was hard to withstand her smile and Mr. Childe was somewhat mollified. He patted her hand, then accompanied them to the door. "Will you be informing Sir Jasper about the change in payment, Sir Hugo?"

Hugo shook his head. He intended to have no dealings whatsoever with Stephen's son. "No, I'll have Lawyer Scranton notify him."

Outside, Chloe said again, "Whyever would Mama have paid Jasper all that money? She detested him."

"It doesn't matter," her companion said shortly, beginning to walk down the narrow cobbled street.

"Are you vexed?" Chloe looked up at him, a hint of anxiety darkening her blue eyes. "I know I shouldn't have said that about Jasper and I suppose I shouldn't have objected about my allowance, but it all took me by surprise."

"I must endeavor to keep you from surprises in future," he said dryly. "Childe was scandalized, and I don't blame him."

"I was only expressing an opinion."

"There are some opinions that should not be expressed before strangers, however legitimate they might be."

"Ah, so you do agree with me," she said with a little skip of triumph.

He stifled a grin, stepping over a pile of ordure in the kennel. "That's beside the point. However, you're not getting an allowance of three thousand pounds a year, so don't think it."

"But in London I'll need enough to maintain my horses as well as my wardrobe."

Hugo stopped as they emerged from the narrow alley into a broader thoroughfare. "I told you I didn't want to hear any more of that," he stated. "Are we going to continue this errand to the milliner's or not?"

Nothing would be gained by depriving herself of new clothes. Chloe shrugged and said with an accepting smile, "Continuing, please."

Hugo cast her a suspicious glance to which she returned a dazzling smile of such innocence, he knew his suspicions were justified. He shook his head in resignation and resumed walking.

The city's milliners and drapers were gathered together on one street. Hugo was not a frequent customer of such shops, but from a lifetime's acquaintance with Manchester, he knew the names of the most reputable and had a particular establishment in mind. Chloe, however, was utterly and indiscriminately entranced by every display in every bow-fronted window. She pranced from one side of the lane to the other, drawing his attention to gowns and hats as they caught her eye.