This story was the best of the lot. I’d read a serialization of this as long as they come through with the romance. The rest of this volume was a real bummer.
I think it’s BC her dad and eldest brother have been acting like she’s dead (see: funeral flowers at her place at the dining table she was made unwelcome at before she left those clowns).
@coldb7 you’re totally right, so generic! If they’d just retreated nobody would’ve blamed them. The author just couldn’t come up with a compelling conflict there to bring MC in contact with that elite dude. Hopefully the writing improves
She wouldn’t have had the ability to extract that trade knowledge from the Dutch—it’s unlikely whoever she might’ve been able to speak to would’ve known, and even if they did, trade secrets were fiercely protected. This was still the mercantile period.