Glittering Promises by Lisa T. Bergren

And we were as yet at odds as how to resolve a few key issues.
    “I wish I could remain here with you,” Will said when we paused in a corner of the grand foyer together.
    “No, you don’t,” I said with a smile. “You wish I was going with you, just as I wish.”
    “Well, yes, that would be preferable. I hate it that you are missing this.”
    “Perhaps we can find some time tomorrow evening together, and you can tell me the region’s tales.”
    “They’re good ones,” he said, arching a brow and brushing my bare hand with his. “Of pirates and fortresses and navies…”
    “Please do remember the best ones for me, all right?” I said, wishing I could stand up on tiptoe and kiss him. But I knew that more than one set of eyes lingered over us.
    “I will. Hold your own in there, Miss Diehl Kensington.” He nodded to the two open doors that led to a small office. Already, Andrew Morgan stood in a corner, reading a document, the sun spilling over his shoulder. I stifled a sigh. Apparently he was staying behind too.
    “I shall, Mr. McCabe,” I returned. “Lead them onward.”
    “Only if it circles back to you,” he whispered in my ear. And then he was gone, the happy chatter and laughter seeping out the house with the group. I pushed thoughts of grand views and remote villages and swimming from my mind and focused on the task at hand, squaring my shoulders and marching back into the office. Our fathers had not yet come down, but Andrew watched me enter. I ignored him and turned the blueprints on the large desk to the page that had kept me up late last night, thinking, thinking…
    “It must be a trial for you, not being able to go with them,” Andrew said from over my shoulder.
    “No more so than it is for you,” I said, my fingers running across the page, along the meandering line of the small river that split the vast area of rock.
    “Come now. Admit it. This is a man’s place. You belong out there. Frolicking.”
    “Frolicking,” I repeated stonily. “Honestly, Andrew, you treat me as if I don’t have a sound mind. Must I remind you that I was training to be a teacher before my father reentered my life?”
    “Exactly,” Andrew said, his voice uncommonly soft. “So why not go and pursue education? Become a teacher of teachers if you wish for something of more… stature .” He shrugged. “But leave the family business to those who’ve been training all their lives to do this .”
    I felt the sting of his words even if his tone was carefully neutral.
    I turned to face him. “This, in particular the Kensington-Diehl Mine, is none of your concern. Perhaps you can rejoin us later, after my business with Father is concluded?”
    It was then that our fathers arrived, each carrying a stoneware mug steaming with what smelled like coffee. Behind them was Mr. Grunthall.
    “No, no,” my father said. “I want Andrew to be with us for this final meeting. He will be a support to you, Cora, in time. Won’t you, Andrew?” he said pointedly.
    “Why, I aim to be nothing but a support,” Andrew returned, his smile catlike. I stifled a shiver. I really could not see any bit of what my sister saw in him. At least he hadn’t been violent of late. But what sort of faint praise was that?
    “The precious days of summer are slipping away,” my father said, sitting down heavily in a chair and setting his mug beside him. He reached for a notebook and opened it. “Shall we get through what we must, without further ado?”
    “Indeed,” I said, leaning against the table and resting a hand on the blueprint. “We need to begin with this,” I said, tapping the paper. “Your architect depicts the Gandy River flowing into the mine.”
    “Of course,” he said. “We shall need to redirect the river and use the water to generate electricity.”
    So I had read it right. I’d asked Will to look it over with me too, and he’d confirmed my suspicions. But neither of us had quite believed it was true. “But we