Sanditon Season 2: The River and the Man

Chapter 134

In the large drawing-room that evening after their quiet dinner Sidney watched Charlotte shuffle the papers and frown here and there. His eyes begging her to look up to his own. To give him any sign of reciprocation of the burning need to talk inside of him.

He had trouble focusing on the task at hand which was to make sense of the numbers before them. He had tried before they dined but his mind was too full of another.

These papers were of great import however and what it all meant for the financial situation. If he was not so overwhelmed with the changes and allowances he now had to her with his engagement dissolved. A growing part of him wanted to burst and break like a dam before her. But now was not the time, he marveled looking at a dark clump of curls that escaped her half tied hair.

It had been left teasingly down but a little hair was gathered at the side and pinned up in a little rosebud bun that he wanted to untangle desperately.

The leaded pencil she nibbled tightened him in ways considered indecent and he stifled what probably sounded like an impatient groan.

Lady Susan cleared her throat and he looked up as she smiled at him with a single brow raised. The wooden clock ticked over the mantle as the silence engulfed them where only the crackling of the fire, ticking of the clock and the shuffling of papers sounded beside him in such a distracting chorus that he stood just as Lady Susan turned a page in her book while acting as chaperone to their meeting.

"Have you not looked these over yet?" Charlotte suddenly asked as she fluffed the pages together to make them stack neater.

Sidney shook his head. "I have looked, but I can't make sense of it right now," he said touching his gut thinking of how often it pained him the last year, but now seemed to have eased since he had laid off the over drinking since returning to Sanditon and Charlotte's sobering presence.

Charlotte looked up at him disbelieving. "You are good at business Mr. Parker. I am sure paperwork is a skill of yours," she said with a smirk.

He smiled at her softly and chuckled. "You don't know that I am any good at business dear Charlotte," he replied his voice achingly low.

She smirked and flipped a paper overlooking down. "That is not what these papers say." she glanced back up curiously at his response.

Sidney shook his head and craved a smoke. "Whatever success I have is mostly due to you and the connections you have made in London. Before you, I had only a hope that people would come. I sank so much in the building of more apartments since I rationalized the need to recoup the earlier loss to both Tom's and my fortune." He shook his head and went to the fireplace to light a smoke near the flew. He knew both women did not mind the habit.

Looking over the papers Charlotte shook her head. "Well, the gamble on that second pavilion looks to be a healthy return upon the passing of but only a little time. Even with the loss of the first." she smiled. "To think so many more families and visitors to Sanditon. More will likely be expected every year driving up the value of available housing." she smiled. "Sidney, you and your brother will be fine so long as your debts are not called." she slipped them back in the pouch and slid them off to the side. "The numbers are in your favor. I am sure anyone besides Sir Edward would see the merits of continuing on with agreed interest and the full measure of debt paid in a matter of two years leaving both your and Lady Denham's estate far richer as well as Sanditon in a position to thrive in this new bustling world." she chewed the pen deep in thought.

"What is it?" Sidney asked coming closer. "You have that look that I know to be only your spark of genius," he whispered low as he leaned on the desk almost level with her own, his face eager.