Wicked Proposition (63 page)

“Would you like to meet her now?”

“Right now, you say?” Caspian asked in
confusion.

“Come, she would enjoy meeting the man who has
protected her from the moment she arrived,” Nicholas offered.
Caspian got out of the coach and followed him.

Catherine was holding Brionne in the salon and
taking tea when Nicholas entered with a very dangerous-looking
fellow.

The man had such an air of menace about him that
she stiffened slightly in awareness. If not for her husband’s
presence, she would have worried of his intentions.

The visitor was handsome and quite riveting upon
closer inspection. He had a confident worldliness about him, and a
charismatic manner she found unnerving to say the least.

When he bent over her hand, his amazing crystal
green gaze mesmerized her. Catherine was bemused as Nicholas
introduced her to Caspian Roth.

She was intrigued to learn he was the assassin’s
assassin, who had diverted three attempts upon her life without her
even knowing of it.

“You might have given me some sign you were the
one watching me, Mr. Roth,” she chided him sweetly as she invited
him to take tea with her. “I did know someone was there the whole
time.”

Caspian grinned. “If I had waved at you from the
street, dear lady, it would have defeated my entire purpose
there.”

Catherine giggled, enjoying the man’s flirting
with her. Nicholas gave her a warning look.

Caspian had Brionne and his wife enraptured
within minutes. The child sat upon the man’s knee and his wife
seemed to hang upon his every word. Nicholas gnashed his teeth at
the jealousy he felt when Caspian offered to play his new concerto
for her.

She squealed with pleasure and they departed to
the ballroom where the pianoforte sat, unused for years.

Nicholas rolled his eyes as he held his daughter
while Catherine sat with Caspian on the bench. He played
beautifully and Catherine looked enchanted once he finished.

“You must promise to come back and play for me
again, Mr. Roth,” she said sweetly.

Nicholas gritted his teeth as he watched Caspian
work his charm upon his wife. Nicholas had to grudgingly admit the
man had some quality about him all women seemed tuned into. Even
his daughter could not take her baby eyes off of him.

“It would be my pleasure if you called me
Caspian, dear Catherine,” he said with a toothy smile Nicholas
longed to smack, as he bent over his wife’s hand again.

Caspian left shortly thereafter and Nicholas
walked him out. The man gazed at him with a grin of pure
devilry.

“You are a lucky man, Nicholas,” he said with a
purring quality to his voice. “What a delightful little minx she
is. Makes you just want to pull her up onto your lap and pet
her.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes at that. “I would
appreciate it if you would pretend to not lust after my wife,
Caspian.”

“I could also pretend to not get a rise in my
breeches having her sit so close to me, but that wouldn’t be very
honest, Nicky.” Caspian chuckled at his dark look and crossed the
street to his waiting coach.

Catherine was flushed and her eyes sparkled
slightly when he returned to her side. He noted her excitable
demeanor with a raised eyebrow.

“Can you just pretend to not find him so
attractive and interesting, Catherine?” Nicholas complained.

“I would have said he was rivetingly gorgeous
and highly stimulating, my love,” she teased him unmercifully. “But
for you, I will pretend.”

Nicholas saw Brionne was dozing on the settee
and raised a dark brow. “Let us put the child down for a nap and
see how stimulated you are right now, wife. I would not have
Caspian’s visit go to waste.”

Gabriel was up and about within the week, even
with his mother and Maggie’s clucking over him like distressed
hens.

He was furious to find he was a virtual prisoner
in his own home, told by Teighan he could not go out until
Lillianne was arrested.

He fumed to know he was thought to be on his
deathbed while Nicholas got to have all the danger and excitement.
He glared at his mother over his morning paper.

He wondered how long she planned to stay. He
found her hovering annoying, as much as he had missed her.

“We need to have a conversation, my son,” she
said as she stirred her tea and dosed it with sugar. “I will not go
through what I went through these last week’s again without knowing
your wishes.”

“My wishes?” he asked testily. “You mean a will,
don’t you?”

“I nearly gave Mrs. Van Ryker the right to take
your son and run back to the islands if you did not make it,”
Arianne said stiffly, her dark eyes flashing. “The thought of your
wife raising that beautiful little boy made me crazed.”

“Those would have been my wishes,” he replied
moodily and the paper went back up.

“Do I hope you will see Hines and see to it,
Gabriel?”

“To get you off my back, yes mother,” he replied
testily.

“You need to make peace with the woman,
Gabriel,” Arianne replied softly, “She is his mother. You cannot
punish her forever. You only punish the children.”

“I see you are on her side! Might I have had
more support from you when I wished to marry her?” Gabriel asked
tightly.

“I was wrong in that,” she concluded softly. “I
knew that the night your son was born. I saw how you cared for
her.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he reflected with a sigh.
“I have lost her, mother, well and truly. She will not come back to
me now. She loves her husband.”

“You have a child together, Gabriel,” Arianne
said with a knowing look. “She will always be a part of your life,
whether she is with you or not. You need to accept it is over.”

“How do I do that?” he snapped angrily and
tossed the paper aside. “I have only to close my eyes and I dream
of her! I cannot stop feeling the way I do about her! She might
have forgotten me, but I will never forget her!”

“Do you think alienating the woman and keeping
her from the children helps?”

Gabriel glowered at her and rose and left the
dining room without another word.

###

Lilly stretched upon the bed and smiled in
satisfaction over at Christian. She pouted to see he didn’t plan to
linger in bed with her and Lizzie. She dismissed the servant.

When the girl left, she regarded her lover
thoughtfully. “We have almost finished this, Christian.”

Christian smiled tightly as he dressed. His
expression was of annoyance. He was tired of Lilly already.

Christian was content to know his nemesis would
not recover. He no longer had any use for Lady Iverleigh and her
objectives.

“As far as I am concerned, it is finished. We
have both been avenged, my dear.”

“You do not appear happy of it,” Lilly
noticed.

“I will be happy of it when he is in the ground,
my dear,” Christian replied dryly. “He is not dead yet. You should
not begin to count your fortunes beforehand.”

Lilly got up from the bed and slid on a dressing
robe, her eyes narrowed in anger.

“Gabriel lies near death, Christian. He could
not possibly survive his wound,” she fumed, dismissing his words.
“We will have all we wish now. I will have all Gabriel’s lovely
money, and we can be together at last, as we always wanted to.”

“Do not speak for my desires, Lilly,” Christian
replied mockingly. “I have enjoyed our time together, but I have
what I wanted.”

“What do you mean?” Lilly asked in a deadly calm
voice, her eyes narrowing.

“I never wanted anything more than your husband
dead, my dear,” he said in a clipped tone. “You quite ran with this
notion of us being together on your own.”

“You used me!” she accused sharply, her face
paling.

“You quite enjoyed my use of you, Lilly. You
were only too eager to conspire against the man,” Christian soothed
without conscience. “You have what you have always wanted now. You
will have control of your husband’s estate through the child. My
work here is done. I am leaving for Paris on the next tide. You are
welcome to stay here. You can even keep Lizzie with you, if you
like.”

Lilly glared at him, bristling in anger. “You
know very well what I thought, Christian!”

Christian smiled and shrugged. “You assumed
because I took a renewed interest in you that it meant more? How
could you be so naïve of all people, dear Lil? The only thing I
wanted was your husband dead. I am satisfied he is headed in that
direction.”

She stared at Christian contemptuously, feeling
the burning of her pride. He had used her to just to hurry along
her husband’s demise and nothing more. He did not want to marry her
and combine their fortunes. He was leaving for France, abandoning
her now that he got what he wanted.

“What of my little sister? She is still alive!
You promised to help me with that, if I recall.”

Christian smirked as he tied his cravat. “I
cannot help it if the men I hired continue to miss, and then go
missing. It is most disturbing, but it leads me to the conclusion
she is very much protected, Lil. Can you not content yourself to
know you tried?”

Lilly flinched at his words. “That was not our
agreement!”

“The contract on her expired, Lil,” he explained
with a negligent shrug. “I am sorry if it distresses you, but I ran
out of interest trying to kill her when your husband went down. I
am satisfied.”

“I am not! Contact your man in the government!”
Lilly demanded desperately, her eyes filled with rage. “Tell him
when I receive my husband’s estate, they will receive compensation.
She must die!”

“These men do not work for promises, Lil,”
Christian replied mockingly. “You must content yourself to wait
until you have the funds to continue your quest to kill the
woman.”

Lilly watched Christian finish dressing,
realizing all she worked for could implode at any minute if
Catherine remained alive.

She hadn’t access to the funds to pay these
men’s exorbitant fees. Christian had paid for her, if only to see
Gabriel dead. Her eyes grew frigid to see he had very much met his
own objectives, and hers were no longer important to him.

“Enjoy your time in France, Lord Lyndon,” she
said with a slight sneer. “Do not expect me to be quite so
complaisant when you return.”

Christian grinned and his blue eyes filled with
amusement. “I do not see us crossing paths again, dear Lil. You may
wish to work your wiles on Lord Farwell again, or one of your other
many admirers.”

Lilly watched him leave, damning him under her
breath. She had the use of his home in his absence, and his bevy of
adorable servants. She would not have him, it appeared.

She sat thoughtfully at the dressing table,
tapping her fingers impatiently upon the tabletop. She was anxious
to get word of Gabriel’s death. Her plans seemed to very much hinge
upon whether he lived or died now.

Catherine had defied the odds and outlived the
men sent to kill her. Lilly shook with anger to know she had no
choice but to wait until her husband’s estate was handled. She
paused when she considered she had a child to contend with, and her
little brothers. That was what nannies were for. She had no
interest in playing mother to the brat. She thought of all she
stood to gain these next telling days and smiled in
satisfaction.

###

Gabriel glared at his ledgers, not seeing the
figures. Catherine’s wounded image never failed to intrude. The
guilt of what he did to her now made him feel like an ogre. He knew
he could not hope to escape her by pushing her out of his child’s
life.

He took out a sheaf of papers, reminded he had
yet to do as his mother asked. He had to think of Giles.
Lillianne’s attempts to kill him only reminded him how important it
was for him to have his affairs in order.

She might get control of his fortune should he
die, but the welfare of his son played heavily upon him during his
recovery.

He wrote out his intentions to Thomas Hines,
feeling some measure of relief to know if anything happened to him,
Giles would go to Catherine, and not to Lillianne.

Lillianne would not care if she lost custody of
his heir. She would be content to spend his fortune, he hoped. He
had much time upon his hands these days. Since he woke from the
dream place where she guided him back to the living, he realized he
could no longer punish her.

He rang for Higgins. The butler arrived at
once.

“Have Penelope prepare the children to go to the
Van Ryker’s at once,” Gabriel said and saw the butler’s eyes widen
slightly. Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Now, Higgins, don’t just
stand there and gape at me!”

Higgins retreated to do his bidding, smiling in
relief to know his employer had at last resolved his issues. The
household had been in an uproar since the children’s visits
stopped. In truth, the servants enjoyed the reprieve from his
irrepressible wards.

###

Catherine was delighted when her son and her
brothers arrived, too surprised to do more than stare as Penelope
marched in with her son, and promptly handed him over to her.

Catherine took Giles into the salon where Devlin
dozed and Brionne played upon the floor. She put the boy down next
to his sister, her heart clenched to see them babbling in greeting
to one another, playing together quietly while her brothers wreaked
havoc upstairs, chasing one another throughout the house.

Nicholas and Tieghan had some mysterious errand
they had not allowed her to be privy to. She knew it had to do with
her sister.

She shivered to know how close Lilly had come to
killing Gabriel. Had the bullet found its mark, her son’s life
would have been in the Countess’s hands, as well as her
brothers.

Her dreams were haunted of him still. She bit
her lip, looking away from their children. She knew she loved her
husband more than her own life, but she was confused of her
continued feelings for Gabriel. His sending the children back to
her had only encouraged them to remain.