Legendary Lover (30 page)

263

Tears welled into
Vincenzo's
eyes and Jack understood his emotion, because he felt like crying, too— for joy.

"Your generosity is overwhelming, my lord."

"I'm selfishly motivated. Don't think me magnanimous without good reason."

"I'll ask Sarah right away, when I see her this afternoon."

"I wish you luck."

"Should she refuse me, I'll still testify for you. Just so she doesn't marry you."
Vincenzo
smiled. "I'm selfish, too."

"Send or bring me word of the outcome. I can have the money for you anytime, should she agree to marry you, and my solicitor will sign over the deed to the villa immediately after you're married."

"I feel like celebrating,"
Vincenzo
said, coming to his feet with a bound and bowing to Jack. "You've given me hope."

"I understand," Jack replied, rising and offering his own polite bow. "I'm feeling as though my burdens might be lighter soon."

"I don't suppose you've ever been in love,"
Vincenzo
noted. "But it makes life worth living." Jubilant at his new prospects, he fairly glowed.

"Or makes you miserable beyond belief."

"You do know. But I won't be miserable anymore. I'm going to take my Sarah away, and my child.
God willing."

The Palmers willing, Jack thought as he watched the exuberant young man leave the room. And they were a much more formidable challenge.

264

«/
lNCENZO
   
HAD
   
NO
   
SOONER
  
FLOATED
   
OUT
  
OF

the
room on his buoyant cloud when Maurice appeared in the doorway with news of another visitor.

"Are you home, my lord?" Disapprobation was apparent in his tone and expression.

"I take it I'm not?"

"It's Lady
Tallien
, my lord.
Demanding as usual.
Shall I tell her to leave?"

"No, it will give me great pleasure to see her.
Vin-cenzo
tells me he's interested in testifying in court."

Maurice allowed himself a small smile.
"Very good, sir."

"Show Lady
Tallien
in, Maurice, but I'd suggest you clear the corridors for her wrathful departure. I doubt she'll be staying long."

SEE YOU
  
STILL HAVE
THE
 
SAME
IMPERTINENT

butler
," Bella snapped, her indignation high as she sailed into the room. "I would have dismissed him long ago." She spoke as though Maurice was invisible, although he stood only a few feet away.

"That will be all, Maurice," Jack murmured, watching for a moment until his butler shut the door.

"You're out early this morning." Jack had come to his feet when she entered the room, and he deliberately didn't invite her to sit.

"Since you haven't been home for a week, I thought I'd better take advantage of the opportunity." She surveyed his evening clothes with a jaundiced eye. "Do you keep a wardrobe at Madame
Robuchon's
?"

265

"Have you been spying on me? And yes, I do. Doesn't your husband?"

"I'm not in the mood to trade insults, Jack. I've been trying to reach you all week with some important information. My notes have gone unanswered."

"Lucy doesn't forward notes for obvious reasons."

"Can she read?" Derision echoed in her words.

"She's well read, actually. The Greek poets are her favorites."

"How fascinating," Bella sarcastically said. "A bluestocking whore."

"Unlike society belles who tend to be uneducated courtesans with little conversation."

"And you should know."

"Agreed.
Now, if you'd get to the point. I haven't slept well the past week, and I'm irritable."

"Are you missing your latest paramour?"

"I wouldn't tell you if I were. Your news, if you please, and then I'll bid you good day."

"You never used to be so ungallant, dear Jack," she softly murmured.

"But then, I find my previous entertainments no longer amusing."

"Perhaps you're ready to marry, then."

"I didn't know you had a sense of humor."

"Of course I do, which reminds me why I've come. We must discuss your marriage with Sarah."

"Why you, Bella, on this mission?
Can't the lawyers earn their keep?"

"I've come
to
exert some, shall we say, gentle pressure on behalf of my niece."

"I see," he calmly replied. "And what if I don't succumb to your pressure?"

266

"Then I'll have to make it known that you've sired a love child on Lily Darlington. That
on
dit
should dash any hopes she might have of an advantageous marriage. And after the spectacle she made with you at her coming-out ball, who wouldn't believe it?"

"That's nasty, Bella. Would you ruin her life so cavalierly?"

She tilted her head with a theatrical flair. "More pertinently, would you? Come, Jack," she coaxed, shifting to a persuasive mien, "you have to marry someday. Sarah will make you as good a wife as any of the other young chits. She's quite enamored of you."

"And not only me,
I hear
."

He gave her credit for sangfroid; her expression didn't alter. "I can't imagine what you mean."

"I mean she has a lover," he levelly said.

"Impossible!"

"Someone made her pregnant, and it wasn't me."

"She swears it was."

"You never were gullible, Bella, which means you're party to her lie." He softly exhaled. "You didn't actually think you could succeed, did you?"

Her nostrils flared; all her designs and plans were in jeopardy. "I warn you, Lord Palmer will drag you through the courts."

"I don't think so."

"Then you're wrong," she hotly maintained, "because he has every intention of doing so."

"Have you ever heard of a young man named
Vin-cenzo
Dossi
?"

He saw her eyes go blank and when she spoke her voice was cool.
"No, never."

"Then Sarah's been keeping secrets from you. And I

267

doubt
that, with you here in the role of her emissary. Young
Vincenzo
tells me he's the father of Sarah's child."

"You'll have to prove that."

He almost felt guilty for the degree of pleasure he was feeling. "
Vincenzo
was just here."

Her eyes opened wide. "I don't believe you!"

"Believe me. And more to the point, he's interested in testifying in court that he's the father of Sarah's child."

"You paid him off," she accused.

"On the contrary, he offered me his services without charge. Apparently he doesn't want his darling to marry me."

"The damned, impudent cur!"

He'd never seen her face turn red; it didn't become her. "I would have fought the charges in court 'til doomsday anyway. Tell Lord Palmer he might consider looking at young
Vincenzo
for a son-in-law."

"You bastard!
You bloody, cold bastard! You knew this all along!"

"Allow me some small enjoyment." He repressed a smile. "I wish you a pleasant day. I know mine will be." Sketching
her a
bow, he walked from the room, feeling as though the world had suddenly turned roseate. Austin would be pleased to hear that a lengthy court case had been curtailed.

He was pleased to have his life back, and for the first time in a week, he didn't feel like a drink.

He'd bathed, and dined before Austin arrived, and he greeted him in the breakfast room where he was looking over a week's worth of mail. He waved out the servants. "Maurice sent you the good news?
Coffee?"

268

"Yes to both." Austin smiled as he sat down. "But fill me in on the details."

After Jack had elaborated on his conversation with
Vincenzo
, Austin leaned back in his chair. "You've just been saved a great deal of money, even if your offer to
Vincenzo
requires payment. Symington would have never settled for so little."

"Do we have to be concerned for
Vincenzo's
safety?
Just a thought, after Trevor's machinations the past few days."

"Why don't I have him moved somewhere, in the event he's needed to testify—although Symington knows better than to pursue this further. And there's always the possibility the young man may elope with the Palmer girl."

"I wouldn't bet on that one either way. But let me know what happens. I'm going home to
Castlereagh
."

"Finished drinking yourself to death?"

Jack grinned. "I wouldn't do that, with Trevor next in line."

"You need a son . . . against that eventuality."

"It's a thought."

"Why not go to Paris and ask her?"

"Because I don't know if I want to. Nor does she, I assure you."

Chapter
19
        
esse
           

v_>'he day was glorious, the duras horses
had all won at
Longchamps
that afternoon, and now friends and family were celebrating the victories in the garden of the
Duras
mansion. Venus sat alone inside the house, watching through the terrace doors, not in the mood for festivities. She knew all the guests and normally would have been in the midst of the party, as ready as anyone to discuss and dissect the day's races.

But somehow the animated scene
failed
to entice her, nor had she taken her normal pleasure in the races that day. Even her activities at the hospital the week past— having all the new equipment unpacked and readied for use—hadn't been as gratifying as she'd anticipated. In fact, one of the doctors had questioned whether she might be overly fatigued, because her melancholy was so apparent.

But fatigue didn't account for her lack of interest in the hospital or races; she'd been sleeping more than usual. In fact, she went to bed early and still found herself oversleeping in the mornings—after invariably dreaming of Jack.

Pragmatic by nature, she wouldn't admit to being lovesick. Nor would it have done her any good to be in love with him, had she allowed herself that fantasy. A

Susan
 
)
ohnson

man
like Jack discarded women with unvarying consistency, the notion of love and romance entirely foreign to him. She'd be foolish to imagine the days of their brief acquaintance had altered the habits of a lifetime.

The sight of her mother walking toward the house brought her out of her musing. Her mother had come looking for her, she knew—her withdrawal hadn't gone long unnoticed. Coming to her feet, she glanced into a gilded mirror above the sofa and forced a smile to her lips. The grimace was so constrained, it made her laugh,
so
when her mother came into the room through the terrace door a second later, she was pleasantly surprised.

"You must be feeling better,"
Trixi
observed.

"I am," Venus lied, wondering if she would be able to continue her dissembling performance until the last guest departed. "I was just coming out to join you."

o^
ATER
   
THAT
   
NIGHT,
   
AFTER
   
THE
   
PARTY
   
WAS

over
, Pasha and
Trixi
sat over a last drink on the balcony of their bedroom.

"We have to do something about Venus,"
Trixi
said, unclasping her lapis earrings and setting them on the small metalwork table.

Pasha looked back from the view of Notre Dame in the moonlight, his brandy glass arrested midway to his mouth. "She won't want us to interfere."

Trixi
wrinkled her nose, her fingers on the latch of her bracelet. "She's not been the same since she returned from England. I can't stand to see her so sad."

Setting his drink aside, Pasha said, "What do you want me to do?"

"Should you talk to him?
Redvers
, I mean."