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opportunity—”
    Across the room, a hand flicked up, catching Edwina’s attention, who stopped mid-sentence in bewilderment. The young woman in the black boots looked pointedly at Eli, then back to Edwina, to whom she directed her question. “If this is a women’s business group, how is it that the only person we’ve found to give us advice is a man?”
    Eli also hadn’t expected a hostile audience. When he’d rehearsed this speech last night, he had hoped they would be kind, not argumentative. At Edwina’s “startled deer” expression, he knew he should help. “I’ll answer this, Edwina.” He turned his attention to the woman in the black boots. “That’s a very good question, Miss…”
    â€œâ€¦Bailey,” she supplied. “Astrid Bailey. And you don’t need to patronize me.”
    â€œOf course not, Miss Bailey.” Her eyes were dark and intense, framed by long, thick lashes, and even with her skeptical expression, he found himself getting lost in them. Flustered, he focused on the spot between her eyebrows instead and tried to sound calmer than he felt. “Edwina is my cousin, and she invited me here as a representative of the London Business Council to share an opportunity with all of you. It would probably be more appropriate to invite a woman, since I do respect your women’s group here, but unfortunately there are no women in the LBC.” When she raised an eyebrow, he added, “A dilemma I hope to see someday remedied.”
    Mollified, Astrid nodded, giving him tacit permission to continue. He still felt nonplussed, disarmed by the intensity of her stare and her hostility. He was sure he’d never met her before. Why was his presence so upsetting to her?
    â€œThank you, Astrid.” Edwina jumped back into the conversation, her face red. “I promise you, you’ll find Mr. Rutledge’s news quite interesting.”
    Astrid’s expression seemed to say that she doubted it, but at least she had shut up. Eli looked away from her and back to the group as a whole, most of whom looked interested and alert. Edwina nodded for him to continue. “Why don’t you tell them all how you got started?”
    Eli settled back in his seat, avoiding Astrid’s gaze, directing his speech at the other women in the room. “My father has always been a watchmaker, and I learned my trade from him. He’s owned the shop since before I was born, and I’ve worked there since I needed a stool to see over the counter.” Most of the women smiled at this, and he relaxed somewhat. “We had a difficult time during the Revolution, like many businesses, but managed to persevere. After the Revolution ended, I slowly took more and more responsibility for the business itself, eventually becoming sole proprietor about ten years ago. Shortly thereafter, I took my father’s seat on the LBC.”
    A young woman with ebony skin and a pretty pink dress raised her hand to ask a question. She was lovely, delicate; it was hard to believe she could run a business. “What have been your most significant challenges as a business owner?”
    Eli rubbed his neatly trimmed beard in thought. He had prepared for a question like this. “The challenges have varied by the times. After the Revolution, in many ways it was like starting a whole new business. We had a very small customer base and had to build up our clientele almost from scratch. I’d say in that time period, branding our business was the biggest challenge. We needed to get our name out there any way we could. Now, we’re established, but we face different challenges. Keeping up with current events, remaining cutting-edge with new technologies, that’s what we’re dealing with now. Even as an established business, it’s easy to be swept aside by innovation.”
    The young woman’s question started a cascade of other