How the Scoundrel Seduces (30 page)

She eyed him skeptically. “You wanted me to marry Jeremy.”

“I’ll admit I thought it would keep you safest. And perhaps I . . . I pushed you in that direction. But not if you didn’t want him.”

“So you’re not disappointed in me for putting my own desires above those of the estate and the family?” she asked in a small voice.

“Disappointed!” He looked genuinely shocked. “I could never be disappointed in you, my girl. I may chide you and grouse about your clothes or your manners, but that’s only the fretting of an old man concerned about his daughter’s future.”

His hands gripped her shoulders. “I don’t say the words as often as I should, but I love you. Haven’t you figured it out yet? You are my whole life!” When tears stung her eyes again, he continued in a choked voice, “And I never intended to lay such a heavy burden on you, I swear. I’ll admit that your marrying Mr. Keane would have solved a number of problems, but—”

“Well, well,” came a voice from the open door, “so the truth comes out at last.”

When Zoe looked up to find her cousin standing in the door taking in the entire family tableau, she groaned. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes, coz,” Jeremy said in a cynical tone. “You didn’t think you could keep the secret from me forever, did you?”

He strode into the room. “So, which problem exactly will marrying me solve? Your family’s need for money?” His gaze flicked over her in her night rail and Tristan without a coat. “Or your need for a father to claim Bonnaud’s by-blow?”

20

T
RISTAN, ALREADY ON
edge from Lord Olivier’s accusations, was enraged at Keane’s. But before he could vault across the room and put his fist in the man’s jaw, Zoe’s father said, “By-blow?” He glared at Tristan. “You got my girl with child, you damned arse?”

“Of course not, Papa.” Zoe laid a cautioning hand on both Tristan and her father, then stared her cousin down. “As usual, Jeremy is being overly dramatic.”

“Am I?” Keane said.

“I’d be careful if I were you, Keane,” Tristan growled. “If you continue to besmirch the character of my future wife—”

“Ah.” Keane’s gaze grew calculating. “So Lord Olivier is the one trying to force Zoe to marry me. Not you.”

“Jeremy!” Zoe snapped when her father swore and looked as if
he
might vault across the room. “Would you please stop inciting these two? They’ve had enough excitement for one night as it is.”

When Keane merely lifted an eyebrow, Lord Olivier
marched toward the man. “And why would I want my daughter to wed a whoremonger like you? Yes, I know what you were about last night, you and this . . . this . . .”

He waved back at Tristan, and Tristan winced. His sins were tumbling onto his head like an avalanche. He only prayed they didn’t bury him.

“Bonnaud did not accompany me into the brothel,” Keane drawled, to Tristan’s surprise. “I expect he came here instead.”

When Lord Olivier bristled, Zoe released a decidedly unladylike oath. “Would you please stop that, Jeremy? Do you
want
to die?”

“Better than being tricked into marrying a woman who doesn’t want me,” Keane said.

“No one has been trying to trick you into anything,” Zoe said. “Papa and Aunt Floria were hopeful that we might consider marriage to each other, but I never wanted it. And I seriously doubt you ever did, either. My father and aunt are the only people who got that notion into their heads, and I have just been disabusing them of it.”

“So you’ve convinced your father that he doesn’t need my money, after all?” Keane asked snidely.

Lord Olivier stared Keane down. “I don’t need money from
you,
sir. Your pictures may earn well now, but they are nothing to the wealth provided by the land. It is the land that brings fortune; it is the land that—”

“You sound like my late father,” Keane said. “You may not realize this, sir, but even though you dislike my work, I’m not some pauper daubing paint onto canvas
in a garret. Besides, as heir to half of my father’s wealth—”

“Half?” Zoe put in.

“My sister inherits the other half,” Keane said coldly. “We Americans divide our spoils equally, unlike you hidebound English. But as your father knows perfectly well, my half is substantial enough to support a wife and more.”

With a flush rising in his cheeks, Keane bore down on Papa. “I assumed that a need for money was the impetus for his inviting me to London several times. You don’t mean to tell me that this show of wealth hasn’t all been an elaborate scheme to hide the fact that you need my money desperately?”

Zoe let out a breath. “
That’s
why you kept asking about our funds? And how we could afford everything?”

“Of course.” For the first time, Keane looked uncertain of his position. “I thought that your father was hoping to persuade me into giving him a loan. But now that I think about it, your family
has
been throwing you at me. So a marriage makes sense, too. It would certainly plump up the family coffers.”

“You do realize that my brother-in-law is quite wealthy, don’t you?” Zoe’s aunt chimed in.

Keane crossed his arms over his chest. “Lord Olivier was just saying that marriage to Zoe would solve a number of problems. If not money problems, then what?”

That laid a pall over the room. If they told Keane the circumstances, they might as well hand the title and the estate over to him themselves.

Tristan sighed. Then again, it would be impossible to hide it much longer, now that Milosh meant to go after Hucker.

Of course, the earl didn’t know that yet.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lord Olivier said loftily. “The point is moot, now that she’s marrying Bonnaud.”

Zoe let out a breath, then flashed Tristan a smile that took him off guard. She truly wanted to marry him, even given the difficulties it meant for her future. And her father was willing to let her, too. It boggled his mind.

Bonnaud thinks he knows everything about our “kind.” But he doesn’t know a damned thing about people.

He winced. Having lived with his biases so long, he was dismayed to realize how firmly they’d been based on his own experience with George and Father . . . and not on anything—or anyone—beyond that.

“But,” Zoe said, “the point is not moot, Papa. We have to tell Jeremy what’s going on.”

Alarm lit his lordship’s face. “The hell we do! It’s a private matter. It doesn’t concern him.” To Tristan’s shock, the earl turned to
him.
“You must explain this to my daughter, Bonnaud.”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Tristan said. “She’s right.”

“Not in this, she isn’t!” Lord Olivier stared meaningfully at him. “You, of all people, should understand what is at risk. Are you really going to take the chance of losing . . . everything?”

“It was never mine in the first place,” Tristan said softly. “All I want is Zoe, and I will take her any way I can get her.”

Speaking the words made them real. And true. Perhaps they’d been true for a while. All he knew was he wanted to snatch only one thing out of all the chaos: her. As his wife. None of the rest of it mattered.

Her father’s eyes narrowed on him. “You mean that.”

“Of course.” He gave a faint smile. “Do you think I’m generally so careless as to leave my horse lying about a mews for some strange groom to find?”

“Tristan,” Zoe said, “do not try to convince me that you planned this.”

“No.” His gaze locked with hers. “But I didn’t fight very hard to keep it from happening. Did I?”

As the truth of that hit her, a brilliant smile spread over her face. It was the most beautiful sight of his life.

Then she gazed at her father, and her smile faded. “I’m sorry, Papa, but we have to tell my cousin about Drina. He’s going to find out anyway.” She slid a furtive glance at Keane. “Milosh is determined to exact vengeance from my . . . from Drina’s lover for the beating the man administered. He only agreed to wait long enough for us to tell you the situation.”

That gave Lord Olivier pause. “Drina’s
lover
? You found out who he is?”

“I’m afraid so, my lord,” Tristan put in. “We . . . er . . . haven’t had the chance yet to give you our report on that particular situation.”

Keane was watching them all now like a hawk watches the prey he’s waiting to pounce upon.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a damned thing they could do to stop that. Even if they kept everything
quiet, once Milosh got to Hucker, the tale was bound to get out. Hucker would tell George, and George would try to make Tristan’s life miserable by stripping his future wife of everything she ought to own. All George would have to do was tell Keane the truth.

So it would be best if they told him first, and all the interested parties could work together to solve the issue, because they might be able to negotiate a settlement of some sort with Keane. Surely he wouldn’t want his family mired in scandal, even his English family. And if the family closed ranks, that would take the wind out of George’s sails.

Besides, the earldom still belonged to Lord Olivier, and it might be some years before it was passed on. It was never good for the present holder of the title and property to be at odds with the heir. Even Keane must realize that.

“So,” Keane said, “does someone want to explain to me what’s going on?”

“Of course.” Zoe steadied her shoulders. “But only under one condition.”

Keane tensed. “And what is that?”

“Could we
please
continue this discussion fully clothed? Preferably somewhere else than in my bedchamber?”

♦ ♦ ♦

T
O
Z
OE
’
S IMMENSE
relief, she got her wish, and a half hour later they were all assembled in the dining room. Aunt Flo had suggested that perhaps they
needed some refreshment, and Zoe was grateful. She hadn’t eaten in hours, and even her dinner had been scant since she’d been pretending to be too sick to attend the premiere.

So despite the tension of the situation, she fell on the food with a ravenous greed that went beyond hunger. In the midst of wolfing down a slice of ham, she glanced up to find Tristan, who sat next to her but at the end of the table, staring at her in amusement.

“A bit hungry, are you, princess?” he teased.

“I daresay
you
got to eat before we went to meet with Milosh.”

“Actually, I did.” He smirked at her, but for some reason it no longer bothered her. His smirk was part of who he was. “And it’s not my fault you came racing over to Manton’s Investigations to apologize.”

“Next time I run off half-cocked, sir,” she said lightly, “I will make sure you feed me.” Deliberately, she shoved a hunk of bread in her mouth.

Tristan laughed, and she nearly choked on the bread trying not to laugh herself. But she sobered when she caught Papa watching them.

“I still can’t believe you have been sneaking about all this time with Bonnaud,” he said sullenly.

Guilt gripped her. “I’m sorry, Papa. But I had to know the truth. I knew you wanted me to marry Jeremy, and I had to be sure it was necessary before I acquiesced.”

Jeremy snorted. “It pains me how all of you assumed I would just up and marry the woman you chose for me because you wished it.”

“They didn’t realize you were a blind fool,” Tristan said dryly. “It was reasonable to assume that any man of sense would want to marry her. Aside from the fact that she’s beautiful and fascinating and—” He halted when he realized they were all staring at him. “Well, aside from all that,” he continued gruffly, “she’s an heiress. A very important heiress.”

“Is that why
you
want her?” Jeremy asked.

When Tristan bristled, Zoe sighed. “I do wish you men would stop baiting each other.” She set down her fork. “The fact is, by marrying me Tristan is making it materially difficult for me to continue as an heiress. So no, that is definitely not why he wants me.”

Jeremy said, “Perhaps it’s time you explained all that.”

For the next hour, they attempted to lay out the situation for Jeremy, an endeavor that required quite a bit of explanation about the differences between English law and American law. Fortunately, Papa knew them very well. He
had,
after all, been considering the vagaries of her future since the day he and Mama had taken her in.

Jeremy was oddly silent until they were finished, asking only a question here and there. But once everything was elucidated to his satisfaction, he rose to pace the room. “So this has all been about Winborough and the earldom.”

“Exactly,” Papa said.

“And you’re telling me that Zoe cannot legally inherit a damned thing.”

Papa gritted his teeth. “If the truth comes out, no.”

“So you hoped to coax me into marrying Zoe so she could still inherit the land and all that came with it, no matter what turned up in the future about her natural parents, since I am also your heir.”

“That about sums it up, yes,” Tristan said.

“And you kept this secret from me because . . .”

“That should be obvious,” Zoe said. “Now that you know about it, you can challenge me for the inheritance once Papa dies. And you will win.”