The Prize by Brenda Joyce Read Free Book Online

bearing. But she had
to convince Charles that she was a fine and capable lady now.
    "Yes, I suppose.
I thought you were at school in Richmond. Do come in—have you come to see
me?" he asked, leading her back to his desk and the high chairs facing it.
    "Yes, frankly, I
have," Virginia said, gripping her mother's elegant black velvet reticule
tightly.
    Charles smiled,
offering her a chair and some tea. Virginia declined. "So how have you
found the big city, Virginia?" he asked, taking his seat behind his desk.
His gaze held hers, with some concern. Virginia knew he was finally noticing
how peaked she was, due to the terrible strain of her grief and now her worry
over the state of her father's finances.
    Virginia shrugged.
"I suppose it is fine enough. But you know I adore Sweet Briar—there is no
place I would rather be."
    For one moment
Charles stared and then he was grim. "I know you are a clever young lady,
so may I assume you realize your uncle is selling the plantation?"
    She wanted to lean
forward and shout that the earl had no right. She didn't move—she didn't even dare
to breathe—not until her temper had passed. But even then she said, "He
has no right."
    "I am afraid he
has every right. After all, he is your guardian."
    Virginia sat
impossibly stiff and straight. "Mr. King, I have come here to secure a
loan, so that I may pay off my father's debts and save Sweet Briar from sale
and even possible dissolution."
    He blinked.
    She smiled bleakly at
him." I have helped Father manage the plantation since I was a child. No
one knows how to plant and harvest, ship and sell tobacco better than 1.1
assure you, sir, that I would repay your loan in full, with any necessary
interest, as soon as was possible. I—"
    "Virginia,"
Charles King began, too kindly.
    Panic began. She
leapt to her feet. "I may be a woman and I may be eighteen but I do know
how to run Sweet Briar! No one except my father knows how better than I do! I
swear to you, sir, I would repay every penny! How much do I need to pay off
Father's debts?" she cried desperately.
    Charles regarded her
with pity. "My dear child, his debts amount to a staggering twenty-two
thousand dollars."
    The shock was so
great that her heart stopped and her knees gave way and somehow, she was
sitting down. "No."
    "I have spoken
with your uncle's agent at great length. His name is Roger Blount and I do
believe he is on his way back to Britain in the next few days after seeing to
your affairs here. Sweet Briar is not a lucrative plantation, Virginia,"
he continued gently. "Your father had loss after loss, year after
    year. Even if I were
foolish enough to lend a young and untried girl such a sum of money, there is
simply no way you could ever repay me—not from the plantation. I am sorry.
Selling Sweet Briar is the only intelligent and viable option."
    She stood, sick in
her heart, in her soul. "No. I can't let it be sold. It's mine."
    He also stood.
"I know how upsetting this is for you. Virginia, I'm not sure why you are
not in school, but that is where you should be—although if you wish, I could
try to arrange a match for you, a good one, and speak with your uncle about it.
That would certainly solve your problems—"
    "Unless you
think to marry me to a very wealthy man, then that solves nothing,"
Virginia cried. "I cannot allow Sweet Briar to be sold! Why won't you help
me? I would pay you back, somehow, one day! I have never broken my word, sir!
Why can't you see that this is all I have left in the entire world?"
    He stared. "You
have a glorious future, my dear. I promise you that."
    She closed her eyes
and trembled violently. Then she looked him in the eye. "Please lend me
the funds. If you loved my father, my mother, at all, then please, help me
now."
    "I'm sorry. I
cannot. I simply cannot lend an impossible sum to a young girl who will never
in an entire lifetime pay the bank back."
    She could not give
up. "Then lend me the funds personally," she cried.
    He