For Darkness Shows the Stars

watched him warily, as one might a spider in the corner. But what could Benedict do to her that her own father hadn’t already threatened? Did he even know of her father’s banishment? Perhaps he’d sympathize, having been through something similar.
    “You looked pretty shocked at the reading, cousin. I take it you didn’t know the terms of your grandfather’s will.”
    “You’d be correct.” This was not the time to chat with Benedict. Where was Jef? He’d better not be dawdling. She wasn’t leaving this property until she had all three servants with her, just in case her father decided to take her defection out on his laborers.
    “And what are your plans now?” He cocked his head at her. “Are you going to leave the North estate? Go live at the Boatwright house?”
    She hesitated. So her father hadn’t said anything. “Why do you want to know?”
    “Self-interest.” His tone was even, open. “I have good reason to suspect that if you leave, many of the people here would follow. All my land isn’t going to be much good to me unless I have a workforce to run it.”
    “I see.”
    “I don’t think they have any particular loyalty to your father, but I know they do to you. Which is why I am here.”
    “What?”
    He took a few steps closer to her. “I like the Boatwright estate. I like it more, even, than the North one. Farming is dead. The Cloud Fleet knows where the future lies. Shipbuilding. They are going to get off this island, and soon other Posts with money will want to, too. Your estate is the one with the future, Elliot.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “You’re saying you want to switch?”
    “No, I’m saying I want to join. I have every right to the North estate, and I’m going to take it.” The anger in his tone left Elliot with no doubt that his primary motivation in doing so would be to revenge himself on her father. “And the Boatwright lands, according to the terms of your grandfather’s will, should be yours. But we both know your family will fight those terms. They have to. Right now, neither your father nor your sister has anything. They are backed into a corner. That’s why Uncle Zachariah has brought me home. He’s hoping that if he makes nice now, I won’t turn him out the second the land is mine. He’s hoping to throw Tatiana at me. But I don’t want her.”
    “No?”
    Benedict took another step, until they were face to face. “I want you .”
    When she tried to move back, he caught her by the arms. “Benedict, I—”
    “I know,” he said. “You’re filled with newfangled Post sensibilities. You aren’t interested in your cousin. Perhaps you even find it creepy. That doesn’t bother me.”
    Her eyes widened.
    “You’re not the first woman in your family to marry for something other than love, Elliot. You’re not the first Boatwright heiress to marry a North for the good of both estates, either.”
    She moved back another step, but she hit the wall. He pressed even closer. “You can’t be serious,” she said.
    “I find you very . . . pleasant,” he offered halfheartedly. “I think we would do well together. And consider how it could help both of us. As Baron North, I would help you advocate for your inheritance against your father. He would have much less leverage to stop you once he’s stripped of his land, title, money . . .”
    And her father would have similarly little leverage or credibility if he tried to bring charges against her for the wheat. She hated to admit it, but Benedict was right. If she married him, he could protect her.
    But . . . marry? Benedict? Some other Elliot might have laughed at the idea, but today she just wanted to put an end to the conversation and find Ro.
    “And you could help me. You could help me bring the North estate back to what it could be. If you were my baroness, the workers would stay here. There’s less and less holding Posts to their ancestral lands every year. But they would stay, for you.”
    Would they? Dee insisted on staying even when Elliot tried to shove her out the door. But Kai had left, despite everything they shared. Benedict was wrong. It wasn’t for her. It was for the same reasons she herself had stayed four years earlier: the benefit of those on the estate who had no choice.
    “They would accept me,” he went on. “And together we could turn your grandfather’s shipyard into something truly spectacular.”
    She stared at him, mouth gaping. Ever since his return, she’d