She turned to the men beside her. “I couldn’t have done it without Liam and Patrick. I’d say it was a group effort.”

“And I’d say this is cause for celebration,” Frederick said. “Not so much for the college’s survival as for the return of my grandson. And granddaughter! I may have underestimated the pair of you. Liam, you are proving to be a true Blackstone. Well done, sir!”

“Well done?” Oscar demanded. “He’s following in Theodore’s misguided footsteps. The biggest danger on Wall Street is a powerful man with an easily manipulated heart.” He turned his ire on Patrick. “This is your doing,” he said bitterly. “That lummox with an eighth-grade education couldn’t argue his way out of a paper bag. Now the two of you have gone and stabbed us in the back.”

Liam bristled. “I don’t stab people in the back,” he retorted. “If I want to cross you, I’ll go ahead and stab you in the front.”

“Pipe down,” Patrick ordered, stepping between the two men and sending a warning look at Liam.

Gwen’s spirit plummeted, dismayed at how quickly Liam let himself be provoked by her uncle. Oscar knew exactly what he was doing when he began taunting Liam, and now Frederick had seen as well.

Frederick’s voice was calm but stern. “Liam, you need to master your temper if you’re going to play the game on Wall Street. Don’t blazon your intentions to your opponent.”

Good advice, especially since Liam was keeping silent on his real prize, the U.S. Steel agreement.

“Don’t get used to this,” Oscar said, his voice quietly seething. He turned his back on them and stalked toward the staircase leading back up to the house, kicking up sprays of sand behind him.

“Pay him no mind,” Frederick said as he sat back down in his chair. “Oscar isn’t used to having competition, and the three of you are giving it to him. That’s all to the good.”

“How is it good?” Poppy asked. “It seems like the bank just lost millions of dollars in a hopeless cause.”

“Begging your pardon, ma’am,” Patrick said. “The college has done a world of good for people all over the country by curing diseases and educating the next generation of scientists. You can’t put a price tag on that.”

Poppy smirked. “But there’s a price tag on you, isn’t there?” She turned her attention to Frederick. “Patrick dances attendance on Gwen because he owes her $15,000 for some medicine, and she’s paying him off at an allowance of $250 a week. The butler says she wires the money each week to his bank account.”

Gwen stepped forward. “That’s nonsense. Patrick is here because he believes in this cause.”