When they came upon the site, he found a suitable place to tie off the horses and assisted Liliana to dismount.
“What is all this?” Liliana asked, reaching a hand out to run her fingers along links of chain. She looked over at him, her violet eyes wide and inquiring, curious and intelligent, sharp and incredibly sexy.
“That,” Geoffrey said, “is the spot marking the first of three main vertical shafts of the new Fealty Lead Mine of Shropshire.”
Liliana’s brows furrowed together, but her lips curled. “You’re digging a lead mine?”
Geoffrey laughed. “Not me personally, but yes.” He pointed out several yards. “Shaft two will be there, and number three, off to the right there. This whole area is rich with lead ore. My men will use the shafts to reach mineral veins, then dig horizontal tunnels or levels between the shafts so they can cut the lead ore out and bring it to the surface for processing.”
Liliana turned in a circle, looking all around. Her nose crinkled and she cocked her head. “Why would you deface your land with industry?” she asked, but her tone held no judgment. Just that curiosity she seemed to exhibit for most things.
“To put my money where my mouth is,” he said. “To create jobs for as many ex-soldiers as I can.” He explained much of what he’d told Joss last week, but telling Liliana seemed different. For one, an uncommonly vulnerable sensation settled around his heart. He hadn’t cared what Joss thought of his intentions, yet he became aware of a keenness for Liliana’s good opinion. His chest lightened with each thoughtful nod of her head as he laid out the situation. “So you see, I must lead by example,” he said. “If I’m not willing to put my own fortune on the line, why should I expect others of my class to do any different? I hope to prove to my peers that it would be to their benefit to fund projects such as this.”
“You mean monetarily beneficial?” she asked shrewdly.
He nodded. “I believe there is more benefit to be had for the country than that, but yes…profit is often the best motivation. My hope is to persuade a few to do what I intend to—take the profits and invest in other ventures that will create employment opportunities.”
Liliana stared at him so long he thought he might actually squirm beneath her regard. He, who’d stared down armed combatants over a battlefield.
“You’re not at all what I expected,” she said finally.
Geoffrey huffed a breath, marveling at the tightness in his chest. “Is that a good or a bad thing?” he asked, because her expression wasn’t clear.
A look Geoffrey could almost classify as sadness crossed Liliana’s face, making his heart clinch. “I’m not sure,” she murmured and turned away from him.
Geoffrey stood there, as still as stone, uncertain as to what, exactly, was passing between them. Something intense, something unspoken and something he desperately wished came out in his favor. Once again, he recognized that Liliana was a woman with walls built around her heart. He knew it because he had similar walls. He knew where his had come from but wondered what comprised the mortar of her own.
Liliana cleared her throat, and when she turned back to him, whatever she’d been feeling had been wiped from her face.
“So you plan to bring soldiers here to work the mine,” she said. “Where will they live?”
Geoffrey watched her face for a moment but saw no opening to explore what had just happened. He adopted an easy tone and said, “We’ll build a sort of barracks right there.” He touched her shoulder, bidding her to turn where another area was marked out. “This will be better lodging than they ever had during the war, and many of the men are unattached, so they’ll be happy to come. But eventually, my hope is for them to have families and homes of their own, so I plan to build a village.”
She blinked up at him in surprise. “A village?”
“A small one, yes. I’d hoped to build the village before the mine opened, and then a smelting mill, but—” Geoffrey snapped his mouth shut. He’d almost just blurted out that his finances were uncertain and he couldn’t justify the expense until he knew where he stood. Liliana was so easy to talk to, he’d nearly forgotten himself. “But that hasn’t worked out,” he said instead. “So I’ve had to adjust. For the first year or two, we’ll cart the ore to the smelting mill at Ironbridge for processing. That will cut into our profit, but we’ll use what little we have to build the village first, then a mill of our own. Once that’s operating, we should quickly have enough to invest in other things.”
Liliana’s eyes softened, and the smile she gave him seemed filled with approval and admiration and something indefinable.
Geoffrey’s lips lifted in response. The look in her eyes made him feel as light as air and filled him with a piercing happiness he hadn’t felt in years.
“Where will you place your village?” she asked.
Geoffrey nearly grabbed her hand but stopped short. What had gotten into him? He offered his arm, as was proper, but a deep satisfaction filled him anyway as she laid her hand upon him. He led her to the crest of the hill, where a wide valley opened up. “There,” he said, pointing to a green area that would make the perfect spot. “It’s flat, the land is fertile and that creek that runs through it flows year round. Eventually, I hope to add a small church and a school and—”
Liliana stiffened beside him, and she gripped his forearm, drawing his full attention. “You can’t place a village there.”
Geoffrey frowned. “Whyever not? It’s the perfect place—”
“It’s the worst place possible,” she interrupted.
“I disagree. The mine supervisor I’ve hired has much experience, and he says nearly all mines are laid out in such a fashion.”
Liliana pulled her arm away from him and turned to face him, looking directly into his eyes. “That may be, but if you care for the health and well-being of your soldiers and their families, you will find a different spot.”
Geoffrey crossed his arms, unaccustomed to being challenged. Yet he knew Liliana to be extremely intelligent and so was willing to listen to what she had to say. “Why should I take your advice when it flies in the face of years of practical experience?”
She faced him squarely, challenge burning in her eyes. “My father spent his life studying the effects of contaminated air and water on the human body. I have continued his work, albeit in a different discipline, and I am telling you that placing a village in that valley will slowly but surely kill its inhabitants.”
Geoffrey sucked in a breath. Liliana’s passion and conviction rang from every part of her being. But while he appreciated her stance, he wasn’t about to change months’ worth of planning without some proof of her claims. “Nonsense. My mine supervisor and I chose the valley precisely because it would be farther from the smoke of the mill. I don’t see what else could be a problem.”
Liliana scoffed. “Yes, well, neither you nor your mine supervisor know anything about chemistry.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him over to an outcropping of rock. She ran a finger along it. “These mineral veins that make this area such a rich deposit of lead ore are precisely the problem. Lead ore, as well as other metals like copper or silver, are sulfides. Your men will be digging this out of the earth, bringing it to the surface, yes?”