Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 (27 page)

She sat up. There was only one thing to do: move out of the house. There was a tiny two-room apartment directly over the shop that had become vacant only a few days before. The starving young artist who had lived there had moved out to journey to the South of France in hopes of nurturing his creativity there. No matter that he departed owing rent and leaving a mess. It could easily be cleaned, and she would enjoy decorating it to her own taste. Poppa wasn’t going to like it, but there was nothing he could do. Maybe, she reflected sadly, he was trying to treat her like a little girl in subconscious hope of going back in time to those tender years when she was a little girl…and he had not been with her to enjoy them as a father should. It was sad, but it was too late, and Dani knew he would have to bear the regrets of the past along with her. Nothing could undo what was done, and it was time to get on with both their lives.

She got up and began to walk about the room, looking at the furnishings and deciding she would take nothing except her clothes. It would be no problem to find furniture for the small apartment.

She passed the window, glanced out, and angrily saw that Lily was running down the sidewalk after Drake.

Drake reached to open the gate just as Lily caught up with him. Lost in his own misery, he had not heard her call out as she ran after him down the walk. Now he looked at her in annoyance and impatiently demanded, “What do you want?” He didn’t feel like talking to anyone.

Lily made her voice thickly sympathetic. “I couldn’t help hearing Mr. Coltrane shouting. I’m so sorry, Drakar. I don’t think you were treated fairly at all. It’s an unfortunate situation, but—”

He raised an eyebrow, brusquely informed her, “It isn’t your problem, Miss Deauneve.”

He moved to open the gate, but she reached out to boldly clutch his arm. “Wait, please…”

“I appreciate your concern, but I think it’s best I be on my way. If you overheard Mr. Coltrane, you undoubtedly heard him order me to leave.”

“He’s a snob. Just like his wife. They think nobody is good enough for their precious son and daughter.”

Drake raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? And what makes you say that? I don’t think their anger with me has anything to do with snobbery.”

Lily turned to glance back toward the house, as though fearful they would be seen together. Then she gave him a warm look and whispered, “Perhaps we could go somewhere for tea and I could tell you all about it. I think we both need to share our thoughts about this miserable family.”

Drake felt his lips twitching with the impulse to laugh. It was going to be easier than he thought, but right now he had other things on his mind. “I’d like that, Miss Deauneve, but I’m afraid I have plans for the moment. I’ll be in touch with you, I promise.” He caressed her fingertips in a suggestive gesture that she understood quite clearly.

She stepped back, smiled triumphantly. “Of course. I’ll be waiting.”

She watched him get in his carriage and move on down the street, then turned back to the house and frowned. Damn snobs. How dare they treat her like they did last night when Colt raised his champagne glass after dinner and asked that they toast their betrothal? They had just looked at each other like they’d had water thrown in their faces. Kitty had made a little choking sound and Colt had looked like a shameful little boy. Then Mr. Coltrane, that imperious bastard, had said it was a shock, and they needed time to think about it.

Lily stopped in the middle of the walkway to stamp her feet in exasperation. Colt hadn’t said a word, had not spoken up to his father and told him it didn’t matter whether it was a shock or not. Oh, no, he just nodded his head and said he understood. Understood what, by God? That his parents had every right to act so rude? Just who in the hell did they think they were, treating her like that?

She turned her head to stare down the street pensively in the direction Drakar had gone. How she wished she had seen him before Colt. The way he’d just looked at her let her know all she needed to know—that he found her desirable. True, he had a reputation with women, but so what? She was different from the others, would know how to manipulate him into marriage like a black widow spider coaxing a new lover into her web.

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. Maybe it wasn’t too late, after all. It had been sheer luck that she’d even found out what was going on this morning. She had been sneaking around, hoping to learn what the Coltranes planned to do to try and stop her marriage from taking place. Instead, she’d learned that Dani had not come home last night.

She had heard everything, knew that Drakar had been banned from the Coltrane household forever.

Lily also acknowledged the possibility that her own scheme might be in jeopardy. Colt had yielded to his parents last night, said he should have known they would be surprised by such a sudden announcement and they could celebrate later. Then when she’d gotten him alone and told him how humiliated she felt, he defended his parents. Obviously he was just a mamma’s boy, and now she feared that if Kitty Coltrane tried hard enough, she could talk her son out of getting married.

It was one thing, Lily fretted, to make Colt feel obligated to marry her after waking to find her in his bed…and another to expect those feelings of guilt to carry over into the harsh reality of an actual wedding.

Especially, she bitterly realized, when it looked as though Dani could spend the night with a man and not feel she had to marry him in order to preserve her honor. Dammit, Colt just might look at his sister and have second thoughts about his own predicament.

Lily knew she had to have a backup plan…and the answer just might be Drakar.

Maybe Drakar was even richer than Colt.

Maybe, she thought as a warmth spread through her loins, he would be as good a lover as Colt.

She intended to find out…on both counts.

Chapter Twenty

Dani took one last look around the room. She had taken only a few of her personal belongings, and most of her clothes. Space was going to be limited in her new home. Two large trunks stood by the door. She only hoped there would be room for what she had packed in those. She took a deep breath, smiled bravely to herself. It was going to be
her
home, no matter how tiny and cramped. The feeling of impending freedom and independence was exhilarating. She couldn’t wait to start really living for what she felt was truly the first time in her life.

Lurline had brought her tea and soup at noon, relating what was going on in the rest of the household.
Monsieur
Coltrane, she confided, had only just left for his office at the embassy after spending most of the morning behind the closed doors of his study talking with
Madame
Coltrane. Lurline did not know what they had been talking about, but, with her usual candor, said it had to have something to do with either Dani staying out all night or Colt announcing his engagement to
Mademoiselle
Lily. Either way, Lurline said tension was spread over the entire house like a giant umbrella, and she, for one, would be glad when it passed. Colt, she reported, had left the house sometime before daylight, one of the coachmen had told her, and had only just returned. Her eyes glittered excitedly as she told how he had passed right by
Mademoiselle
Lily, not stopping to talk to her.

“She’s fit to be tied, she is, stamping her feet and cursing like a hooligan. She’s been a little hellcat all day, anyway, storming about and complaining because he wasn’t home and that it looked to her like everyone else was avoiding her.”

Listening to Lurline had only served to make Dani all the more anxious to leave. A glance at the mantel clock told her she had to be leaving if she wanted to be even a little bit settled in her new home by bedtime.

She rang for Lurline, then asked that one of the coachmen bring a carriage around to the front and to send someone up for her trunks.

Lurline nodded but hung back to express her feelings once more about Dani’s decision to move out. “I’m going to worry about you,
mademoiselle
, living off by yourself, and you know your father isn’t going to like it one little bit.”

Dani assured her once again that she would be fine, and, yes, she knew Poppa wouldn’t approve, and that was another reason she wanted to be on her way before he returned—to avoid another scene. “Now will you please hurry and do as I ask, Lurline? I really want to leave now.”

Lurline obeyed, shaking her head worriedly.

Dani went to where she’d laid out her cape, then groaned aloud at the sound of Colt’s voice calling to her through the closed door.

“Come on, Dani, open up. I know you’re in there, and we’ve got to talk.”

She realized he did not sound angry, merely impatient. She opened the door and promptly informed him, “I don’t want to argue with you, Colt. I’ve got enough problems of my own without fussing with you.” She did not invite him in.

“I don’t want to argue either, Dani. I just want to talk to you for a minute.” He ran his fingers through his hair absently, as though stalling to get his thoughts, his words, in order. Then he saw her trunks and exclaimed, “What’s all this? Where are you going?”

She told him, and his reaction was to laugh. “You know Poppa won’t allow that.”

Dani did not intend to waste time justifying herself. “He has no choice! Now please,” she urged impatiently, “tell me what you want. I want to be out of here before he comes home. I’m tired of confrontations.”

He looked at her for a few seconds in contemplative silence, then shrugged. “I don’t know, really. Things are just turned upside down all of a sudden. I guess you’ve heard by now that they didn’t exactly jump with joy when I told them about me and Lily getting married.”

“I didn’t expect them to. You hardly know her. Besides,” she dared to add, “they probably feel as I do—that you aren’t going to be happy with her, and that you’re making a mistake.”

His eyes narrowed. “I think that’s my business.”

Dani was exasperated. This was all a waste of time—for both of them. “I agree with you,” she conceded, “so please don’t involve me in it. If you came here seeking my approval, you won’t get it, Colt. I don’t see any point in our talking further.”

She moved to close the door, but he slammed his hand against, it. “Well, I do. Lily says she tried to talk to you yesterday, to ask for your blessings and help with planning a wedding and that you blew up at her and even threw water in her face. I’d like to hear your side of the story.”

“Why? You won’t believe anything I have to say.”

“You never did like her, did you?”

“I tried,” Dani replied honestly. “I really tried, but quite frankly, Colt, Lily is one of the most unpleasant people I’ve ever met.”

“Is that why you threw water in her face? That was pretty low of you, Dani. After all, she
is
a guest in this house, and she’s also going to be a member of the family soon.”

“I threw water in her face because she was standing right where you are, having a tantrum for the whole world to hear. It got her away from my door,” she pointed out, then said icily, “Is that what it’s going to take to get rid of you?”

Colt sucked in his breath, let it out slowly, waging a battle within himself to control the rage that was about to erupt at any second. “Don’t try it with me, Dani.” Then, with a contemptuous sneer, he said, “You haven’t changed a bit. You’re still a spoiled brat and don’t give a damn about anybody but yourself.”

She knew he was only taking out his own frustrations on her, but dear Lord, she was losing all patience. “It’d really be best if you’d leave, Colt. You’re making me very angry.”

“What are you going to do?” He pointed to the tiny scar at the corner of his angrily bulging eyes. “Claw my face like the last time you had one of your little fits? Grow up, Dani. Stop acting like a little bitch!”

Dani gasped, lifted her hand to slap him as fury washed over her in a tidal, wave, but her arm froze in midair as she saw the despair in his eyes, mirrored amid the rage. He was her brother, she reminded herself, and she loved him, and if inflicting his pain upon her somehow softened his own, then so be it. Nothing would be accomplished by inflicting a scar on his heart to go with the one she regretted putting on his face as a child.

“Please,” she whispered raggedly, blinking back the tears. “Let me pass, Colt. I think we’ve both said things we’ll regret later.”

He stared down at her, his own eyes becoming moist as the anger began to quickly fade in the wake of her surrender.

Colt stepped aside, head down. Goddammit, why did it have to be this way, he cursed himself. Why had he even come here to talk to her in the first place? But he knew the answer to that. Lily had insisted. She’d said it was bad enough he hadn’t stood up to his parents the night before. The least he could do, she said, was to reprimand his sister for assaulting her. He’d promised to talk to Dani, to see if he could smooth things over because he didn’t like the way so much friction was developing in the family.

“Dani! Colt! What’s going on here?”

They both looked up from their respective states of despair as Kitty rushed into the room, violet eyes steaming, cheeks red. “Everyone in the house can hear you yelling at each other.”

Her gaze fell on the trunks by the door, and she raised her eyes slowly, suspiciously, to challenge Dani. “What is all this about? Where do you think you’re going?”