His Heart's Revenge (The Marshall Brothers Series, Book 2) (40 page)

Scott pursed his lips consideringly. "Well, that makes sense, I suppose. Victor was very happy about the baby. I have wondered off and on if his wife delivered safely. Since you seem to know so much, you wouldn't know about that, would you?"

Logan shook his head. "No," he lied again, "I don't know anything about the baby. But tell me more about Victor being impotent."

"Really," Susan interjected. "Do we have to discuss this here?"

"I think Susan's right," said Scott. "This really is not—"

"All I want to know," Logan said, "is how Victor's wife could be pregnant if Victor was impotent."

"And I want to know," Scott said pointedly, "why it is so important to you. Your friendship with the Donovans does not give you special rights to their private affairs."

Logan swore under his breath and did not apologize for it. "I don't care about the Donovans' private affairs. I care about Katy's."

Scott glanced meaningfully at his wife. Susan instantly began gathering plates and silverware and made her excuses.

"That was not necessary," Logan said.

"I thought you might speak more frankly if she wasn't here. More frankly... and more truthfully. Now, exactly how well do you know Miss Dakota?"

"That hardly—"

"Logan, do not make this so hard for me. I cannot share confidences with you. But perhaps if you tell me what's going on, you will get the information you seem to need."

Pushing back from the table, Logan stretched his legs. His elbows rested on the arms of his chair and his hands were folded in front of him. He stared down at his tapping thumbs. "There was a time not so long ago that I considered making Katy Dakota my mistress," he said at last. "I... I pressed her too hard and she... well, she ran straight to Victor Donovan. They were friends, you see, although I think he loved her and she... that is, Katy came to love him."

"When you say you pressed her... what exactly does that mean?"

Logan returned Scott's direct gaze. "I decided she was going to be my mistress regardless of what she wanted."

"Marriage—"

"Was out of the question. I hated her."

Clearly there was much more to the story than Logan was willing to share with him. Scott did not press for the past. "But you made love to her," said Scott.

Logan nodded. "I would not have called it that. She hated me as well. It happened only one time. The next day she went to Victor." Logan's eyes drifted toward the bay window as a carriage rattled past the house. Even when it was quiet again he continued to stare out. "She told him everything about her relationship with me, what I wanted from her, why I despised her. Victor did not hesitate to marry her."

"Victor did love her," Scott said. "And he was very protective of her. If he knew that you and Katy had a past he would not have told you about her pregnancy. That was a lie you told earlier. How did you know she was pregnant?"

This time Logan told his friend the truth.

"I see." It was all Scott could think to say. With some effort he reined in his anger. "You saw her file only?"

"Only Katy's. I did not glance at the others." Logan leaned forward in his chair. "I can't explain everything that's between Katy and me, Scott. Sometimes I don't understand it myself. I was trying to punish her for something she did to me a long time ago. Years later, when I saw her in Wallack's, it never occurred to me that she was not as worldly as the character she played. I thought she was Victor's mistress then. Or Michael's."

"And she wasn't?"

"No." Logan squeezed the corded muscles at the back of his neck. "God, no. I was the first man she knew."

"And she married Victor the next day?"

"Yes. I told you that before."

Scott mulled that over. With seeming indifference he asked, "By any chance did you buy the portrait of Katy that Christian sent?"

Logan's head jerked up. His hand fell away from his neck. "I don't see what—"

"Humor me."

"Yes," he admitted reluctantly. "But I don't see—"

Scott reached across the table and touched his friend's forearm. His eyes and his voice were grave. "I think you should go to Washington, Logan, and have a conversation with Katy Dakota."

Chapter 11

Katy pressed her forehead against her bedroom window and peered down the length of her nose into the garden below. Donna Mae was sitting on a blanket, her legs splayed as wide as her skirt would permit. The unladylike pose was to accommodate Victoria, who was content to lie on the soft fabric of Donna Mae's gown and have her toes tickled.

Tapping the window lightly, Katy got her friend's attention. Donna Mae dutifully raised Victoria and lifted the baby's hand to wave at her mother. Smiling, Katy waved back. After a moment she left the window and reluctantly returned to the script that was lying on her bed. There was just no avoiding learning her lines, she thought, picking up the first page. She was envious that Donna had played her role once before and could recall most of her part. Seven Deadly Sins was new to Katy, but she thought the little morality drama was likely to be popular in Washington. President Grant's administration seemed to have a passing familiarity with most of the sins. Katy was playing Pride. Donna Mae was Lust. Everyone was going to have a fine time pointing fingers at everyone else.

Amused by the thought, Katy began reading her lines.

In the garden., Donna Mae opened her parasol and set it on the blanket so it protected Victoria from the early morning sun. "I know, sweetings, you want to play with your mother," she cooed, "but you will have to settle for Donna Mae. What would you like to do? Have the ball?" She held up a cloth ball just out of Victoria's reach. The baby's arms worked like windmills to reach it. "Oh, here it is. Do not make that face with me, young lady. I am a godmother, and I do not have to put up with it."

Victoria blabbered happily and passed her ball from one hand to the other. She found this trick very impressive.

"You like that, don't you? I'll wager you think you're just wonderful." Donna Mae smoothed the baby's hair at the nape of her neck. "Everyone says you're—" She stopped because a shadow had fallen across the blanket that was not made by the parasol. The shape of the shadow was definitely a man. Donna Mae leaned back on her hands and looked up, lifting her face with a saucy tilt. Her smile faltered a little when she saw the hard cast of the man's features.

His cool gray eyes were on Victoria, and he was studying her with an intensity that made Donna Mae nervous. When he dropped to his haunches beside the blanket, she sat up quickly and started to reach for the baby. He stopped her, placing one of his hands on her wrist.

"I am not going to hurt her," he said quietly. "I only want to see her."

Donna Mae heard something in his voice that stopped her from calling for Katy. Tenderness, she thought. Tenderness. How odd it was to hear those things when his expression suggested pain that went right to his soul. "She's a lovely little thing, isn't she?" asked Donna.

He nodded. "What color would you call her eyes?"

"Gray. Blue as blue when she was born but they soon changed."

"I thought they looked gray. And her hair?" Very gently he touched the baby's cap of dark hair. His arm bumped the parasol and it rolled just enough to allow sunshine to highlight the threads of copper in Victoria's hair.

Donna adjusted the parasol again. "Auburn." Her eyes drifted to the stranger's hair. "Perhaps I should get the baby's—"

"No. Not yet. May I hold her?"

Before Donna could answer he was picking Victoria up. The cloth ball dropped in Donna Mae's lap but the baby did not seem to notice. She was used to being handled by people. At the theatre she was constantly coddled by anyone who was not on stage. Still, Donna Mae could not recall Victoria ever taking to a stranger the way she took to this man.

She babbled happily and loudly, showing off a bottom tooth that had only made its appearance two days earlier. Her hands flailed the air in front of her and sometimes connected, making a small clapping sound that delighted her. Her wide gray eyes darted over the stranger's face, and when he smiled, Victoria responded with a short burst of laughter. After that the stranger seemed helpless to do anything but smile.

Katy stood protectively behind the kitchen door screen. The script page she held in her hand soon slipped to the floor. She made no attempt to pick it up. She stared mutely at the man holding her daughter in his large, beautifully shaped hands. Hunkered down as he was, accepting what passed for a kiss from Victoria, Katy was reminded of another time, another garden, and the frog prince she had loved with all the desperate, innocent passion of youth.

Her hand trembled slightly as she pushed open the screen door and stepped out onto the porch. The door swung closed behind her and the jarring noise made three heads turn in her direction.

"Logan," she said. Could he tell her heart was in her mouth?

"Katy." He shifted the baby in his arms and stood slowly. "She is a beautiful little girl." His eyes wandered over Katy, taking in the slender, fluid line of her body as she walked to the edge of the porch. A breeze ruffled her honey-colored hair. She raised a hand to smooth a strand behind her ear. The gesture was self-conscious, and Logan realized she was as nervous as he.

"Why have you come?" she asked.

Logan took a step forward, paused, and glanced back at Donna Mae, a question in his eyes. That look was not one the actress was about to ignore. She got to her feet, gathered the blanket and ball, and gave them to Katy.

Raising her parasol over her shoulder, she whispered conspiratorially, "You can tell me everything later." Donna Mae turned then, gave Logan a thorough raking with her eyes, and sighed a trace longingly. "God, but you make me wish I could see twenty-five again." Twirling her parasol, she sashayed through the garden to the street.

"That was a very pretty compliment Donna Mae gave you," Katy told him. "As a rule she doesn't flatter gentlemen. She likes them to flatter her." Katy was unable to stop her nervous chatter. "Would you like to come in? Victoria's had quite enough sun."

Logan tried not to seem overly curious as Katy led him through the house to the front parlor. The rooms were small, well-kept, and furnished with items that could have only come from the theatre. Nothing quite matched, much of it was dated without being antique, and many of the scarred pieces showed several coats of paint. He realized she had spent whatever money she had on the house itself.

Katy noticed his interest. "I have inherited the prop room's overflow," she explained. "It is rather like living on stage round the clock." She pointed to a settee and Logan sat down. Victoria's small head rested comfortably in the crook of his arm. Katy gave her daughter the ball and then folded the blanket, dropping it over the back of a chair. "Can I get you something? Tea? Lemonade? I think there is some coffee that Donna—"

"Nothing for me, Katy. Won't you sit down?"

"Oh." She dropped like a lead weight into the chair behind her and sat perched on the edge. "Shall I take Victoria?"

"She's fine where she is."

"This is Mrs. Castle's day off. Usually she is here to help, but I don't have a performance tonight so I told her to—"

"No need to explain. I know about Mrs. Castle. I know you don't have to go to the theatre today. That's why I chose today to visit. And in answer to your next question, I owe my knowledge to the services of Liam O'Shea."

All this time she had been blaming Michael, and it had been Logan. Almost imperceptibly her back straightened and her chin thrust forward. "That was a horrible thing to do," she said. "I thought he was hired by—" Katy stopped herself and her hands tightened in her lap. "If your purpose was to scare me, then you succeeded very well indeed."

Logan wondered whom Katy was afraid of. "The purpose was simply assurance that you were safe. You left New York so suddenly—"

"You told me once before that you were done interfering in my life. Haven't you had your fill of revenge yet? Do you find some perverse pleasure in spying on me?"

She did not let him answer. Victoria had fallen asleep in Logan's arms. Katy got up and took her baby from him. Victoria stirred but didn't wake. "Let me put her to bed. She will sleep for an hour or so."