Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 (28 page)

Dani wondered if the nightmare was ever going to end. “I’m moving out, Kitty. To an apartment over my shop. I think you have to agree that I’ll never be able to live my life the way I want to as long as I stay here.”

Kitty was horrified. “How can you hurt your father this way after what you did last night? You aren’t thinking of anyone but yourself!”

Dani met her icy, accusing stare. “I don’t want to intentionally hurt anyone.”

“You hurt your father last night,” Kitty repeated.

“That’s right,” Dani conceded, “I did…but I never meant to. It was an accident, as I tried to explain.”

“You’re going to hurt him worse by doing this,” Kitty warned.

“Wait a minute,” Colt suddenly interrupted, looking from one to the other in confusion. “What’s all this about? What are you two talking about?”

Dani and Kitty looked at each other, neither knowing what to say for the moment.

Colt prodded impatiently, “Well?”

Dani decided there was no point in evading the issue. Colt would hear about it sooner or later. She started to speak, then saw the servant coming after her trunks, waited until he removed them while Kitty watched reprovingly.

When he was gone, she repeated her side of the story.

When she had finished, Colt tersely asked, “And now what happens?”

Dani was puzzled. “I don’t know what you mean. It’s unfortunate, and I’m sorry everyone got upset, but what’s done is done.”

Colt spoke as though he were communicating with a child. “Little sister, you stayed out all night with a man. Now I think the decent, honorable thing for him to do is marry you and salvage what’s left of your good name, because when this gets out, as it no doubt will, no man from a decent family is going to want you for his wife.”

Dani could not help laughing at what she considered nonsense. “Oh, Colt, really! I never thought I’d hear you make such a priggish statement. Do you really think I’d marry solely in hopes people would think me less disreputable for staying out all night with a man?” She swung her head briskly from side to side. “No, big brother, I’ll not toss aside all my plans for the future just to satisfy the puritans!”

Kitty waved her arms, demanded silence. “Enough! This isn’t doing anyone any good, and I’m sure the servants have heard enough to give them fodder for gossip for the next six months.”

Colt said nothing, merely stared at Dani thoughtfully, eyes narrowed, lips pressed tightly together.

Suddenly Dani embraced him, then stood back to softly plead, “Don’t think me awful, Colt. I’m only doing what I think is best for me.”

He nodded, turned, and walked away. He had many thoughts to sort out within himself, for many questions were burning in his brain…questions about his own future, which had been provoked by Dani’s dogmatic little speech.

Dani and Kitty watched him go, and when he was far enough away so as not to hear, Kitty quietly confided, “He told us last night he wants to marry Lily.”

“I know.”

Kitty looked at her curiously.

Dani quickly related everything about Colt’s visit to her shop and then, later, the unpleasant scene with Lily…but once again she kept silent about what Lurline had divulged.

Kitty shuddered with misery and sadly predicted, “He’ll never be happy with that girl.”

Dani was quick to agree. “I’m afraid not, but, as he said, it’s his business.” She walked back into the room, picked up her handbag, and announced, “I really have to go now. The carriage is waiting.”

She started out the door, but Kitty cried, “Wait.”

Reluctantly, but respectfully, she turned, wondering if she would ever be able to get away.

Kitty’s violet eyes were like a misty sea at ebb tide, painful reflections of blighted hopes. “Remember, Dani, this is your home, and you’re welcome anytime.”

Dani bit down on her lip, then, with a surge of love, threw herself into Kitty’s arms. They embraced tightly, emotionally. “Believe me,” she repeated emphatically, “I really didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

Kitty nodded, forced what she hoped was a reassuring smile to her trembling lips. “I know you didn’t, Dani, and you probably won’t believe me, but I do know what you’re going through. You’re like me when I was your age, wanting only to be myself but condemned each time I didn’t conform to what was expected of young ladies in those days.”

“Then tell me, Kitty,” Dani dared to ask. “Do you think I’m terrible not to expect, or want, Drake to marry me just because of last night?”

Kitty smiled. “I agree with you that you must do what you feel is right for you.”

Dani felt a wave of love and gratitude. “Will you try to make Poppa understand how it is?”

Kitty nodded reassuringly, gave her a gentle push. “You’d better run along. He’ll, be home soon, and I’ve had all the scenes I can stand for one day.”

Lily was cramped and sore from being in the same position for so long, kneeling in her favorite spying place behind the plants in the alcove. She had hurried there after Colt had stalked into his room, slamming and locking the door behind him, suspecting that he would confront Dani as soon as he collected his thoughts.

Her hunch was right, and now she knew she had to move fast or she’d never be able to manipulate Colt into marriage…not after he had time to think about how his sister was in a similar situation but felt no obligation to marry for honor’s sake. It was even more thought-provoking because the family, and probably the servants, and no doubt, soon, all of Paris’s elite, would hear about Dani’s indiscretion. So far, no one was aware of hers.

She waited until Kitty walked away, then moved from concealment and hurried to knock softly on Colt’s door.

“Go away. I don’t want to talk to anybody,” he responded irritably.

“It’s me,” she called petulantly. “The least you can do is talk to me when it seems no one else in this house wants to.”

She heard an exaggerated sigh, the sound of unspirited footsteps, then he opened the door and wearily greeted her. “Lily, quite frankly I’m sick of your nagging…”

Her lips parted to speak, but he shook his head, waved his hands in protest. “No more. I mean it. I apologize if my family has hurt your feelings, but I’m not responsible for their actions, and I don’t want to hear any more about it. Now please let me get some rest before dinner. We’ll talk later.”

Not about to be dismissed, she quickly brushed by him to go and position herself in the middle of the room. With arms folded across her bosom, she defiantly declared, “We’re going to talk now, Colt, and decide on a wedding date. I don’t intend to go on like this, not after the scandal your sister has caused.”

He was not surprised that she’d heard. How could it be avoided? He closed the door, walked over and sat down in the leather chair by the window. With no warmth or enthusiasm whatsoever, he said, “Go ahead. Talk.”

Lily could not help thinking how handsome he was—so appealing with his white silk shirt partially unbuttoned to reveal a thick, curling mass of dark hair upon his broad, rock-hard chest. When he was smiling, which she had not seen him do of late, his gray eyes sparkled with flecks of blue, crinkling at the corners to give him almost a little-boy look.

Colt was, without a doubt, every bit as good-looking as Drakar, and while she’d never had the pleasure of making love with the attractive Russian, she knew it would be difficult to surpass the pleasure she had known with Colt. Comparatively speaking, however, she would be willing to settle for either but was smart enough to know it was best to go with what she already had.

Hesitantly, she began. “I know all about how Dani stayed out with Drakar last night, ruined her good name. I won’t let that happen to me, Colt.”

He frowned, bluntly pointed out, “No one knows about you spending the night with me, Lily.”

Lily managed to retain her composure but inside she was becoming frightened that her scheme might be failing. “I realize that,” she admitted, “but what will happen to me if you don’t marry me? Am I supposed to trick a man into thinking I’m a virgin, only to find out differently on our wedding night? Do you think he’d still want me for his wife after he realized I’d deceived him?”

Colt leaned his head on the back of the chair, closed his eyes as though by so doing he could wish away all the misery that had suddenly assailed his life.

With no warmth, she said almost accusingly, “I love you, Colt. I thought you loved me.”

“I never said I loved you.”

She made her lower lip tremble. “You made me think you did. You made me think you cared.”

“I did, and I do, but I sure as hell never gave you any cause to think I was of a notion to get married anytime soon.” He paused, watching the tears spill from her eyes and thinking once more how he’d caused a lot of trouble by not keeping his pants on.

“I just can’t help wondering if maybe we’re making a mistake, Lily. We don’t really know each other, and I don’t think I’m ready to settle down with one woman.”

Her heart flip-flopped with fear. “But what about me and my future?” Her voice bordered on hysteria. “What decent man will want me?”

Colt dreaded her reaction but dared to speak his mind. “Dani doesn’t seem too worried about that situation. Maybe times are changing, Lily. Maybe it no longer matters to a man what the woman he loves did in her past.” Gently, he added, “I know if I truly loved you the way I hope one day to love the woman I want to marry, it wouldn’t make a difference whether you were a virgin or not.”

Lily knew in that instant that it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, to maneuver Colt to the altar purely out of a sense of duty. Crossing to where he sat, Lily leaned close enough for him to feel her furious breath upon his face.

“Well, let me tell you something, Mr. High-and-Mighty, I’m not about to have my future ruined because of you. You seduced me and you’ll marry me!”

Colt laughed, gently pushed her back as he stood. “That’s a lie, and you know it. You wanted it as much as I did.”

“That’s not what your mommy and daddy will believe when I get through talking to them.”

He blinked in disbelief, as he saw the evil, sneering look on her face. “What did you say?” he hoarsely demanded.

She stood, hands on hips, as she eyed him haughtily. “You heard me. I’ll go to your parents and tell them how you brought me in here and seduced me in your own bed, practically right under their noses. How do you think they’ll like hearing that about their baby boy?”

Colt promptly snarled, “Not a goddamn bit, and you know it.”

“Well, maybe they won’t have to know about it. I should think they’d be happier having a wedding than a lawsuit—which will happen when my uncle hears about this.”

Colt had never wanted to hit anyone so damn bad in his whole life, man or woman. “That’s blackmail, Lily.”

Flippantly, she cooed, “So? You leave me no choice. I’m not a wanton little whore like your sister. I have pride. She’s probably moving out to start her own bordello, anyway,” she added with a nasty giggle.

Colt took a menacing step forward. “Don’t push me, Lily. I won’t listen to you talk about my sister that way.”

She decided it was time to change her approach and ran to fling her arms about his neck and press close. “Please don’t hate me, Colt,” she said tearfully. “I just love you and want to be your wife. We’re going to be so happy. I promise. You’ll see that this was all for the best…” She lifted her lips for an expected kiss.

Colt roughly unfastened her arms, disgust mingling with fury as he flung her away from him. “Dani was right when she said you were the most unpleasant person she’d ever met. I wish I’d seen through you long ago.”

Lily stumbled, fell backward to sprawl into a chair. She began to cry—genuine tears. “I’ll go to your parents. I swear I will.”

“No you won’t.” He struggled to keep his voice down, because, by God, he felt like screaming out at her for all the heavens to hear. “I won’t hurt them any more. I’ll marry you, goddammit, but we’ll do it quickly, with no fanfare, no frills. Then we’re moving back to America and live on the ranch where you’ll try to learn how to be a decent wife.”

Lily suppressed a triumphant cry. Instead, she made herself sound quite plaintive and sincere.
“Colt, you might be angry with me now, darling, but you know it’s not fair for you to insinuate I’d ever be anything but a decent wife for you.”

Colt sucked in his breath, cursed himself for nearly losing control. After all, up to this point, he had been crazy about her. They’d enjoyed some good times together, in bed and out, and he had to admit he’d been toying with the idea of a future with her somewhere down the road. “All right, I’m sorry,” he said contritely.

She lowered her face to hands, which she made quiver, murmured brokenly, “Maybe I should just leave and go back home.” She paused to sniff, choke a bit on a sob. “I love you, but if you don’t love me, and you don’t want to marry me, then I’ll just get out of your life.”

When he did not immediately respond, she dared to peer fearfully up at him between her fingers, and by then the quivering was not false. Was he going to take her up on her mock-offer? Had she sounded
that
convincing?

Colt was staring out the window, shoulders slumped in defeat, eyes miserable and downcast. With all the finality of a coffin lid closing, he whispered, “I’ll marry you, Lily. And we’ll make the best of it. I don’t love you,” he bluntly said, turning to stare at her to hopefully make her somehow see that he truly meant every word, “but I’ll try to do everything I can to make you happy.”