Wicked Deception (50 page)

“
Mrs. Van Ryker, a gentleman
arrived earlier with a letter for you,” the maid told her as she
remade the bed. “It is down on the table by the front
door.”

“
Thank you, Jenny,” she said
and wondered who left her a letter.

Her maid helped her bathe and change
then. Catherine deplored putting on the black gowns now, longing
for the bright vivid hues she used to favor. A guilty feeling made
her avoid her own gaze as Jenny did her hair.

She was in mourning for Nicholas and
carrying on a torrid affair with the man who guarded her. She
fought the feelings of shame, knowing Nicholas would not deprive
her of either the clothes she loved or passion in death.

When Jenny left, she questioned her
intentions to leave, biting her lip. She refused to become
Caspian’s mistress. They didn’t speak of her leaving and for that
she was relieved. He didn’t try to talk her out of it.

A pang of sorrow reminded her of the
reasons she did this. Nicholas had never asked anything of her,
always seeing to her needs first. He made her promise if anything
happened to him she would take the children and leave.

That promise was easy to make then when
she didn’t see her future without him. Now she found reasons to
question her intention, blinded by her passion for her dangerous
lover. Caspian would laugh at her thoughts. He had promised her
nothing but passion and music, had he not?

Catherine stared back at herself in
denial, wishing for once just wanting something made it possible.
The sneaking desire to stay with Caspian now overwhelmed her. She
knew it was wrong from the moment those feelings began, telling
herself she latched onto him because of her loneliness. The truth
was unnerving and disturbing. She was developing feelings for him,
as unwelcome as they were.

He appealed to her in every way outside
of her bed, made her laugh and kept her guessing with his actions
and intentions. A well-read man, he often brought a book with him,
reading to her sometimes. His beginnings aside, he could converse
on a level she would have never thought him capable of.

Caspian was an enigma, a frustrating
puzzle she longed to figure out. Something told her she would never
put all the pieces together and gather a true picture of the man,
divine his many facets and secrets. Tears brightened her gaze to
know there was no future for them even though she knew all from the
start. Little comfort now, when the feel of his lips still lingered
upon hers.

No bitterness filled her to know the
affair would end when she boarded Nicholas’s ship next month. She
could not stay here. Too many ghosts moved about this house now as
it was. No, she would leave and treasure this moment, for that was
all it was. She got up from her dressing table and left to see her
children, reminded at once of her priorities now.

Later she sat and smiled as she read
the letter Caspian wrote, his words making her blush as he went
into great detail of what he wished to do to her later, making her
so uncomfortable she fanned her heated face with the letter, a
smile of anticipation curving her lips.

~ ~ ~

Caspian sat at his pianoforte and
smiled as he heard his guard approach with a tray. Ty wasn’t happy
with him these days, reminding him he acted irresponsibly now
getting involved with Catherine Van Ryker.

Thoughts of his sweet muse made his
light green gaze brighten. Each night in her arms made him spiral
closer to heaven, a place a man like him would never have seen
otherwise. He didn’t want reality to intrude upon the intoxicating
music she created inside his mind, giving him such inspiration he
had written dozens of concertos in her dedication.

She fed his soul with every kiss, every
caress of her small smooth hands, reminding him he was flesh and
blood and needed the touch of another. Soft things filled his heart
and mind while with her; dangerous things a man of his caliber had
no right to. Death could come to him at any time, any place, even
in her lovely arms.

“
Tieghan is here,” was his
clipped reply as he set down the try laden with his employer’s
breakfast. “Shall I send the Nordic dog away?”

Caspian’s smile faded. Tieghan’s
presence signaled trouble. “No, show him in.”

Tieghan entered the music room and bit
back a curse, seeing Elise’s former protector nibbling from a tray
on the top of his pianoforte, grinning at him in his maddening
way.

“
What brings you here,
Tieghan?” he quipped. “Do you wish for advice on how to please the
fair Elise?”

A low growl escaped Tieghan but the
giant’s implacable stare didn’t waver. Caspian chuckled and rose
from his bench, tossing down his cloth napkin on the tray. He came
forward and could see the man was in his usual charming mood.
Whatever did Elise see in this man? He would never know the bend of
a woman’s taste. He reminded him of a Viking barbarian.

“
The countess escaped us,”
he bit out harshly, his pale grey eyes narrowed. “She is alerted to
us hunting her now. She has disappeared.”

“
Ah, yes well the delightful
Lilly will indeed run to ground now,” Caspian mused without
reaction, despite the coldness entering his gaze. “Don’t tell me
you lost her?”

Another growl escaped Tieghan’s lips.
Caspian could see the man would like nothing more than to tear him
limb from limb and ceased to provoke him. Elise had questionable
taste, but she did love the man.

For that he would cease to want to show
the Norseman what he was capable of. Those desires no longer
mattered now. Elise made her choice. Still, should the man think
because he was smaller, he was any less powerful; he would get a
thrashing he long deserved.

“
I require your services,”
the giant bit out with an effort. “Name your price, just find her
and kill her.”

“
I don’t kill women,
Tieghan,” Caspian replied pleasantly and shrugged, “even ones as
dangerous as our dear countess. Call it a quirk of mine or just say
I haven’t found many who could not be handled to avoid such
extremes.”

“
She means to kill
Catherine,” Tieghan snapped, bristling. “She will not stop. There
is no other way.”

Caspian flicked him a look of disdain
though his heart picked up a beat to know his lovely muse was again
threatened by Lilly. “I know of a man in my employ that would kill
his own mother for coin. Let me work on it. In the meantime; do not
come here again. You’re a sore thumb at my door and you alert my
enemies of where I’m.”

Tieghan glared at him and turned on his
heel, leaving Caspian staring after him thoughtfully.

“
She likes strawberries;
only the freshest ones. Dipped in chocolate and fed to her. She
despises liver pate and will retch if she even smells it. She also
adores small animals; cats I believe. She likes to lie abed when it
rains and listen to it.”

Tieghan stiffened at the door, hearing
him and making no reply.

“
You might try reading to
her from the book The Iliad when she can’t sleep. It is her
favorite.”

Tieghan went out and slammed the door.
Caspian grinned, knowing it was all the giant could take to know he
knew well what his lady liked and didn’t. No help from him would be
appreciated. If he detected the intelligence in those pale eyes,
his former mistress would find her hulking dog a doted pup at first
opportunity.

“
Ty,” he called to the door
and his guard entered, grinning despite himself at overhearing his
employer’s words. “We have a bit of a dilemma. I need you to find
Jacques for me. You know where the Frenchman hangs his head. Tell
him to meet me at the back of The Proud Lion in an hour;
alone.”

Ty looked alarmed. “I don’t like it,”
Ty fumed. “Why him and not some other?”

Caspian shrugged. “For what I need
done, only the likes of Dumas will touch this. It is a lady who
needs killing. A lady thought already dead, to be precise. Jacques
might be the scum of the earth and as untrustworthy as they come,
but he is also discreet when coin is involved. We can trust he will
track the countess and bring her down.”

“
Do not think he would not
see more coin in it to take you down instead.”

Caspian shrugged. “Knowing ahead of
time always helps, Ty. Just find the Frenchman and be quick about
it. I have plans this night.”

“
With her?” it was said as
an accusation.

“
There you go with your
disapproval again, Ty. Catherine is one of the most beautiful and
gracious of ladies I have ever met. Why do you insist on disliking
her?” Caspian asked in irritation, getting angry his most trusted
guard still nipped at him over the affair.

“
She will get you killed,”
Ty whispered and his dark eyes filled with pain. “You see nothing
but her and ignore all around you. It will cost you.”

“
I will take care,” Caspian
argued, knowing he was right.

“
She will be the death of
you, Caspian,” Ty predicted sourly and turned on his heels to seek
out the French assassin for him.

“
To die for love would be
preferable than to live without it,” Caspian mused to himself,
hearing his guard’s words over and over in his head. He knew the
risks, knew one day this would come for him. He faced it with
little fear. Cherishing each moment with Catherine made his future
destiny pale with the thought of her sailing away weeks from now,
never to see her again.

Holding onto his jaded, blackened heart
seemed futile. He had lost it to her, forever in her eyes the
moment he saw her seated with her child in her salon when Nicholas
introduced them. The feelings were not allowed him and alien, but
he gave himself up to them for once in his life.

A smile curved his lips. The desire to
have what little bit of heaven he was allowed made him question
what he would do now to keep her safe. The bumbling idiots who
guarded her were not enough. He knew a place where she would be
safe, a place where they could be together.

~ ~ ~

Catherine was taking tea when Hennessey
informed her she had a visitor. She was rising from the settee when
a lovely redheaded woman sailed into the room, dressed at the
height of fashion, none other than the new Lady
Iverleigh.

She was taken aback by the frosty look
in the woman’s eyes. A greeting died on her lips as the woman
stalked into the room. Confusion filled her gaze to feel the
woman’s anger, rippling in the room.

“
I will be brief, Mrs. Van
Ryker, so you need not ring for more tea,” Gillian St. Armand told
her coolly, her sea-green eyes flicking over her without
expression. “I’m here to let you know you’re free to have my
husband if that is your wish.”

Catherine gaped at the woman. “There
must be some misunderstanding, Lady Iverleigh. Whatever thoughts
you might have are no longer an issue. What we had is over and is
very much in the past.”

Gillian snorted rudely, glaring at her.
“You would deny you’re still going to my husband’s bed, even
now?”

Catherine was getting angry now too.
The woman was past believing her. “I deny everything you suggest
and ask you to leave!”

“
Do not lie!” Gillian raged
and bore down on her. “He goes to you, even now while he demands I
give him his precious heir! Admit it!”

“
I have nothing to say to
you, Lady Iverleigh,” Catherine snapped and lost her temper. “You
would do well to leave and speak with your husband for a change! It
is obvious you’re unaware I leave the country in a matter of weeks!
I’m no threat to you at all!”

Gillian looked stunned, all the air
going out of her anger at her words. “You’re leaving?”

Catherine glared at her. “Yes, I’m
returning to my home in the islands. It was my husband’s final
wish. The reason I have been seen at the manor of late was to
receive documents allowing me time with my son in the future.
Whatever you have thought; you’re wrong. I haven’t been your
husband’s mistress in years!”

Gillian appeared to evaporate before
her eyes, tears filling her gaze. “Then it is not you he sees each
night?”

“
No, it is not me,”
Catherine supplied gently and rang for tea anyway. She sat and
gestured to the settee opposite her. Gillian slid down and sat,
looking contrite for her behavior.

“
Then it appears I owe you
an apology, madam.”

“
I need no apology,”
Catherine returned quietly after the maid left a full pot on the
tray and left. “I know how this all must seem to you. Knowing
Gabriel as I do, he has not seen fit to explain
anything.”

Gillian grimaced. “I feel the fool. I
should not have come here.”

“
You’re his wife; you have
every right.”

Gillian glared into her china cup. “He
does not want a wife, but an arrangement. He said it from the
start. It is me who causes the problem by fighting over
it.”

Catherine laughed, a tinkling sound
that alleviated any doubt she was a threat, past or present. “Is
that what he said?”

“
That and more, I’m
afraid.”