Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 (17 page)

Dani stiffened. She couldn’t undo what happened when she was a child, by God, and it wasn’t fair for him to blame her for his mistakes. “I resent that,” she snapped.

“I don’t give a damn what you resent, Dani. It’s true.”

She had then walked out of the room, lest the tears stinging her eyes start flowing. This wasn’t the way she wanted things between them. Given time, she hoped they could talk out the tension, become close, but bickering was not the way to peace.

A frown creased her forehead as she thought of another obstacle in their path to a new relationship.

Lillian Deauneve…or “Lily” as she said she preferred to be called.

A few days after his arrival in Paris, Colt had gone out and returned with her.

Dani shook her head to think how deceiving looks could be. God, Lily Deauneve was an unpleasant creature. How Colt could stand her was beyond comprehension. True, she was beautiful—but also a conceited, arrogant little snob, and when she wasn’t hanging on to Colt’s arm and gazing up at him adoringly, she was bragging about her wealthy uncle in England who had sent her to Paris to find his sister. Now she said she dreaded returning to tell him his beloved sister was dead. A few days after his arrival, Colt said he’d taken her to the address where her aunt had lived, was with her when she heard the crushing news. That was also the day her purse, containing all her money, had been stolen and it was then Colt had insisted on bringing her to the mansion where she had been ensconced in a guest suite and displayed no inclination to leave any time soon.

At first, Dani had felt sorry for her, but not for long. All too soon, when Colt was not around, it became obvious that her grief was not as devastating as she pretended in his presence.

Kitty, with her characteristic candor, didn’t wait very long before bluntly asking Colt why Lily didn’t just send a message to her uncle about her financial loss and have him post the money to return to England.

Colt was quick to confide he liked Lily and didn’t want her to leave so soon. Further, he pointed out, Lily was dreading having to break the news to her uncle about his sister’s death since he had a weak heart and she did not want to upset him.

When Kitty had relayed this information to Dani, she had also confided her suspicions that Colt’s past experiences with women left much to be desired. He had been taken in by beauty and charm too many times to suit her, and she wanted him to be more cautious with his latest interest. There was just something about Lily Deauneve, she said, that made her leery.

Dani truly was not looking forward to the evening ahead when Drake would be meeting their houseguest, yet she was interested in hearing his reaction since he was supposed to be so “experienced” with women.

Cyril had met Lily and seemed to adore her, but then he was oozing with charm these days. Dani frowned once more. He was nice, and she liked him, but more and more he found an excuse to come by the shop, or by the mansion, and she suspected he was terribly jealous of her friendship with Drake.

Forcing herself from her wool-gathering, Dani finished dressing and was just giving herself a final inspection in the minor when Lily suddenly walked in without bothering to knock.

“I’m bored!” she announced petulantly, dropping to the chair nearest the door. “I’m ready for dinner, and I’m dying to go downstairs and have a drink, but I can’t find Colt. I suppose he’s out making arrangements for our holiday in Spain, but I wish he’d come back. It’s lonesome without him. Nobody around here seems to want my company,” she added tartly.

Dani, ignoring her barb, casually remarked, “I didn’t know Colt was planning a holiday.”

Lily was quick to excitedly inform her, “Oh, yes! Didn’t he tell you? We’re going to Madrid and Barcelona. It’s beautiful there. Haven’t you ever been?” she asked with feigned surprise.

Dani disregarded the question in favor of one of her own. “Who will be your chaperone?”

Lily responded with a mocking laugh. “Oh, really, Dani! I took you for a sophisticate. Surely you’ll agree that financially independent women like us don’t have to answer to hypocritical rules of decorum.”

Dani shrugged. She agreed but wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of assent. Besides, traveling alone was one thing; traveling with a man, another. “I thought it might show some respect for the family,” she said, biting back a reminder that, for the moment, Lily was anything but financially independent.

Again, Lily snickered. “I must’ve been wrong about you, my dear. It seems you’ve got a lot of growing up to do.” She got up and began to prowl aimlessly around the room, picking up little decorator pieces to scrutinize, then setting them back down and moving on.

Dani said nothing, watching her frostily.

“I understand that your guest for this evening is Drakar,” Lily suddenly declared.

Dani raised an eyebrow. “You know Drake?”

“Drake?” Lily repeated. “So, the two of you are already into pet names. How divine.” She pretended to become suddenly very grave. “But you must remember the man’s reputation. Surely you’re aware of his history with women and won’t be so stupid as to join all the other fools in his past.”

She paused to sigh dramatically, then flashed a taunting grin. “But then again, you still believe in chaperones!”

Dani’s expression did not change. Cool, unmoved, she challenged, “You seem to know a lot about him, Lily. Tell me, could you be one of the fools you’re talking about?”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, darkened with indignation. When she became Mrs. John Travis Coltrane, everyone in this haughty family would have to treat her with respect. No longer would she be subjected to such hostility. With a defiant lift of her chin, she snapped, “Everyone knows about that man, the way he makes women fall at his feet, then kicks them aside so callously when he sees another he likes better. I’ve never met him, but I certainly know his reputation.”

Dani sighed in a display of boredom with the conversation. “Well, thanks for your concern, but I can handle my own affairs…and prefer to do so.” She turned toward the window. The girl was insufferable. Colt could not be so stupid as to become seriously involved with her or fall in love, God forbid.

Then she spotted Drake coming up the walk and, moving quickly, went to the door. With feigned regret, she said, “Sorry I can’t entertain you any longer, Lily, but my guest has arrived. I suppose you and Colt will be joining us for drinks later?”

“Of course,” Lily said, and, with a swish, moved past her and down the hall to her own suite. She did not stay there. She waited until Dani had had time to start down the stairs, then scurried to stand in the shadows of the second-floor landing and watch.

Dani waved Cletus away to admit Drake herself. Lily observed their warm embrace, saw him give her a bouquet of roses, watched her kiss him in gratitude.

Lily decided she had yet another reason to hate Dani Coltrane. She was pretty, rich, had everything in the world she wanted, and now it seemed from the way she and Drakar were looking at each other that she had him as well.

She bristled at the sight, knew that if she weren’t in such dire financial straits, she could change all that. Colt was extremely handsome in his own right, and she found him charming, enjoyable, but Drakar, the strikingly good-looking, enigmatic Russian, was legend. The woman who became his wife would be envied by all.

She watched them go into the parlor, and she opened and closed her fists in frustration. Returning to her room, she tossed aside the sweet blue dress she’d chosen earlier with a desire to look demure and innocent. Instead she put on a seductive gown of black velvet. It dipped low, displaying the creamy whiteness of her perfectly sculptured breasts. Clinging tightly to her small waist, it dropped straight to the floor. She adored the daring slit she’d had fashioned on the side, which gave a glimpse of her long, shapely legs. Lily would fly to win over Drakar tonight. Maybe he would be so captivated he would just whisk her away from Colt and want her for himself on a permanent basis. A fantasy, perhaps, but she could afford to indulge herself for one evening, at least. A prize like Drakar was certainly worth entering the contest.

She generously applied the expensive perfume she’d wheedled the old Duke into buying for her. If something didn’t happen soon, such luxuries would be a thing of the past.

She took one last look in the mirror, then, with a complacent smile, decided she was her usual ravishingly beautiful self.

It was going to be a very interesting evening.

And this thought made her happy.

Everyone was gathered in what Travis proudly referred to as “his” parlor. He much preferred it to the delicate pink-and-white “tea” room that Kitty used for her lady friends.

A cozy fire crackled in the grate of the marble-tiled fireplace. A Russian mahogany and ormolu sofa table dominated the room, around which a suite of Adamesque sofas and chairs were situated, each upholstered in the finest of imported Italian leathers. A Chinese scroll painting on silk complemented a pair of seventeenth-century Chinese lacquered sweetmeat boxes with mother-of-pearl inlay. A reproduction of Girardon’s bronze sculpture of Louis XIV perched on a glass pedestal, and a pair of bronze figures flanked the arched doors leading to a terrace beyond.

A butler stood by a glass-and-wrought-iron cart, ready to fulfill any drink request. Kitty and Travis had opted for champagne, and when Dani and Drake joined them, they requested the same.

Just as Lily approached the doorway leading into the parlor, Colt came rushing down the stairs behind her. Without a word, he drew her to one side, folded his arms around her, and kissed her long and deeply.

Lily responded, but only briefly. She did not want to be mussed. Pulling away, she mockingly chided, “Colt, whatever am I going to do with you? You seem to have only one thing on your mind.”

He laughed softly, continuing to hold her as he gazed down at her hungrily. “With a woman like you, what do you expect a man to do?”

She twisted away, truly agitated now as she smoothed her dress. “I expect him to behave himself when he’s about to take me in to socialize with his parents. Now come along.”

Colt caught her arm, pulled her close once more to fervently declare, “Later, we’re going to find time to be alone together.”

He was, Lily acknowledged smugly, becoming increasingly difficult to control. She would take him a little further in their lovemaking each time they were alone, only to withdraw and leave him gasping. Soon, it would be time to demurely point out that their relationship had reached a point of no return. To have what he wanted, he would have to marry her. “I want your kisses and caresses more than you know, Colt…” She allowed her voice to trail off promisingly as her fingertips danced down his arm.

Quite confident of her charm and power over men, Lily held her head high and walked into the parlor to meet the notorious swain—Drakar.

Travis and Drake rose when Lily entered, then Travis made the introductions. Lily acknowledged silently that the handsome Russian found her lovely, for his eyes held the same look every other man had for her. She accepted a glass of champagne, sat down primly next to Colt, who had followed her in.

After a few minutes of polite small talk, the topic of conversation turned to the subject all of France, and Europe as well, was talking about.

General Georges Boulanger had committed suicide.

Boulanger had once been France’s minister of war. A political figure, he had led a brief, but influential, authoritarian movement that threatened to topple the Third Republic in the 1880s.

“I knew the man well. He was quite controversial,” Travis remarked.

Drake nodded. He knew how Boulanger had headed the “
revanche
” movement against German occupation of Alsace-Lorraine, after the fall of Freycinet in December of 1886. Fearing a new war, the government of Maurice Rouvier had expelled Boulanger as war minister. However, Boulanger’s clandestine relations with leftists, monarchists, and Bonapartists won him the election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1888. He was then regarded as a threat to the government and was ousted from the army. Eventually, in April of 1829, he had left quietly for Brussels, was tried in absentia for treason, banished in August of the same year. Consequently, his popularity plummeted. Elections were catastrophic for his followers. The next year, 1890, saw him abandoned totally by the royalists and by year’s end, he had been deserted by his friends.

“I understand it was the final blow when his mistress, Marguerite, Vicomtesse de Bonnemain, died two months ago. He killed himself beside her grave,” Drake said.

Lily cooed, “Oh, how romantic. That meant he really and truly loved her. It’s a shame they never married…”

Drake pressed his tongue in his cheek to suppress the desire to burst out laughing. He would have expected such a melodramatic remark from the fortune-hunting Lily Deauneve. He had recognized her the instant she walked into the room, for she had been wearing the same provocative gown the last time he’d seen her—swishing across the ballroom of a London hotel, long, shapely legs displayed as she clung adoringly to the arm of the pompous old reprobate, the Duke of Seville. Someone had told him that night that Lily was the niece of Vinsandt Deauneve, who had recently lost almost his entire fortune. His niece, not about to be relegated to the life of the have-nots after being one of the “haves”, had promptly latched on to the rich, lecherous Duke, who did not care what it cost to have the self-exultation of being with a beautiful young woman. It had been a short while later when Drake heard some gents laughing about how the Duke’s latest
flue de joie
had walked out on him, taking some of his money with her.