A couple of her cousins giggled, but Oscar didn’t. His glare was fierce as he answered.

“We must present a united front. The press and labor unions hate this deal, and the government may try to block it. Still, this deal is good for business, the consumers, and the people in this country. I won’t stand for your bleeding-heart liberal sympathies, Gwendolyn.”

“I haven’t uttered a word against the deal,” she defended. Her knowledge of high finance couldn’t fill a thimble, but her opinion didn’t matter. Only the men had a vote in the bank. Most of her male cousins and uncles spent their days in idle leisure, but each of them had one or two percent of the bank vote. All together they controlled twenty-five percent of the voting shares, although it was an academic issue. They always followed Oscar’s lead.

“I want all the men on board to sign a statement turning over their voting authority to me,” Oscar said. “My secretary will acquire the signatures.”

All of her cousins agreed, and Oscar’s secretary brought a tray with the legally binding proxy forms for each man in the family to sign. It meant that Oscar now controlled a strong majority of the votes in Blackstone Bank.

Not everyone who held shares in the bank was a Blackstone. John D. Rockefeller owned a five-percent stake, and a group of French investors owned another six. Smaller shares were owned by rich people scattered all over Europe and America, but the Blackstones controlled the rest.

Once the proxies were signed, Oscar had a final announcement. “Our family has been blessed with wealth and prestige. In the coming months, it is going to be tested as this steel merger gathers momentum, but when it is accomplished, we will be wealthier than any Medici prince.”

He gave a curt nod to the waiters, who began distributing the champagne glasses. Corks popped, people cheered, and they raised toasts. Gwen celebrated alongside them. She was in love, and the college had another year of funding.

All was right in her world.

19

The trip to Pittsburgh in a sweltering third-class train compartment was a miserable experience, but Patrick was eager to prove himself to Gwen. He could never drape her in jewels or be a world-famous researcher like her first husband, but he could give her what she wanted deepest in her heart. He would climb whatever mountain was necessary to make that happen, and for today, that meant going to Pittsburgh to unravel a mystery.

By late afternoon he and Liam were drawing near the outskirts of Pittsburgh, where sooty clouds hovered over the horizon. The train approached from the north, moving through the wealthier neighborhoods where rich industrialists built their homes to escape the ever-present smoke.