Glittering Promises

by Lisa T. Bergren

  “We are done here,” Pierre said in disgust, rising. “You may speak to my lawyers. In France.”

  “You’re not going anywhere without me,” Nathan said, his fingertips resting over the groove.

  “You and I are not tied in any form,” Pierre protested, drawing away as if Nathan were clinging to him, though the man had not even moved. “I tell you, I never knew him outside our brief meeting in Vienna!”

  Nathan sighed and looked over at Will, Cora, and Vivian. “All I wanted was a nice ransom. A tiny sliver of the bounty in Dunnigan,” he said to Cora, his tone bitter and indignant, as if she could’ve paid him off from the beginning if she weren’t a miser. “And then I was stuck in Venice. I’d spent what money I had to get here. How was I to get home?” He lifted his hands in the air as if that were an acceptable explanation. “I was going to make another attempt in Venice—at Nell or Lil at least, when Richelieu tracked me down. Set me on the task to meet you all in Rome and make certain that you’d practically fall into his arms.”

  Pierre leaned on the table with one hand and poked it with his other, emphasizing each word. “He is a liar. He cannot prove a thing!”

  Hawke stared at him, even while he spoke to the rest of the group. “One man can tell you that I’m telling the truth, and that Richelieu lies when he says he is not involved.”

  Pierre shot him a murderous gaze.

  “Who?” Beluzzi said.

  “What do I get if I tell you?” Hawke asked.

  “What do you get if you don’t?” Beluzzi returned. “There is more than enough evidence against you, Mr. Hawke. If you want Lord de Richelieu to share some of the blame, to level the scales, you’ll need to provide more evidence.”

  “I have no physical evidence,” Nathan said plaintively. “Richelieu and I only had three conversations, nothing in writing. But we had an accomplice. Someone with his own reasons to take part.”

  “Who?” Beluzzi demanded.

  Nathan’s eyes flicked from Cora to Vivian. “Andrew Morgan.”

  CHAPTER 38

  Cora

  I stared hard at Nathan. “What did you say?”

  His eyes moved to meet mine, and for the first time, a sly smile stole across his face. “You heard me. Miss Vivian’s intended.”

  We all sat still, temporarily rendered mute. Even Detective Beluzzi stopped his ceaseless circling for a moment.

  “This is preposterous,” Pierre said, leaning forward. “This man may be in cahoots with Morgan, but I am not.”

  My mind spun. But for me, it was like the ingredients in a loaf of bread coming together and rising. More and more, I could see it. How these three men came together and conspired, all for their own purposes. For Hawke, it was money. For Andrew, it was power. For Pierre, it was for…

  “How could you?” I said, shaking my head and looking up to stare at Pierre. “Regardless of your rationale, how could you put me through what you have? How could you risk my life?”

  “Mon ange—”

  “Don’t call me that!” I cried, my voice sounding high and shrill.

  Pierre looked as if I had struck him. At first, I caught a glimpse of frustration and pain, then in quick succession, anger and…remorse. It was gone as fast as it appeared, but I’d seen it.

  He was in on it. I was certain.

  Wearily, I rose, avoiding Viv’s gaze. I didn’t know if she had regained some secret hope for her relationship with Andrew in the last weeks, or if she was still biding her time to break it off, but this would certainly prove to be a key factor. She had to know just as surely as I did.

  “Detective Beluzzi, it is as Mr. Hawke says. We will not know the truth until you question Andrew Morgan.” I straightened in my chair, striving to appear every ounce the person in charge as my father once did. “Send men to search Andrew’s belongings. Then meet us this afternoon at our rented palazzo in Rome, with these two in custody.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Pierre said.

  “If it is ridiculous, then we shall all soon know it,” I spit back. “But I think you’re afraid. Afraid of admitting the truth.”

  “Andrew could simply deny the whole thing,” Will said.

  “But he cannot deny a bottle of poison in his belongings,” Hawke said, a smug smile on his face.

  I gripped the back of my chair and stared at him. Once again, the entire room was silent. Slowly, Will rose. “Are you saying that Andrew has been poisoning Cora?”

  Hawke looked even more smug. “Not enough to kill her. Richelieu here didn’t want her dead. He only wanted her weakened, distracted from you.”

  Pierre scoffed at this and lifted a hand but said nothing. Will stepped forward, as if to dive across the table at Pierre, but Beluzzi grabbed his shoulder and arm. Will resisted a moment and then regained his composure. He wrenched away his arm, clearly seething.

  But it was nothing compared to what I was feeling. “The fainting spells…the nausea, the weariness. He was putting the poison in what? My tea? My food? Upon your direction?”

  Pierre only shook his head and looked up at me as if I were the one who was mad.

  “Send men with us now,” I said to Beluzzi, rising. “Otherwise, I might tear through every inch of Andrew’s room myself.”

  “Don’t do that,” he said with empathetic eyes. “If he’s guilty, we shall need the evidence.”

  “His father…” Vivian said, standing at last, looking sick. “It will destroy him, to find this out.”

  I wrapped my good arm around her shoulders. “Trust Mr. Morgan, Viv. It will hurt him deeply. But he is stronger than you think.”

  “Cora,” Pierre called as we turned to leave. “Mon ange!”

  I glanced back. “Do you know who recognizes angels, Pierre? The devil.”

  We were all waiting in the grand salon that afternoon when the others returned from touring the Baths of Caracalla. Even Mr. Morgan had elected to go with them. Eight officers in uniform stood about the room and straightened as they entered. Only Beluzzi was in a suit. Nathan and Pierre were in the corner, seated in two chairs, with a policeman on either side.

  “What’s going on?” Felix asked, stepping forward. Those who came through the door behind him ceased their conversation and turned to see what had so captured those in front. Andrew moved between the girls and detectives. His chin came up, and his nostrils flared at the sight of the men in custody.

  Vivian rose from the settee, holding a brown paper bag, every movement looking like it pained her. She went to Mr. Morgan, whispered a word to him, squeezed his arm, and then stood before Andrew. I could see two policemen move between Andrew and the door. No one would escape this house.

  “Andrew, Nathan Hawke has accused you of poisoning Cora.”

  He scoffed and lifted a hand. “What’s this?” He gave her a confused look. “I have a temper, but I’d never resort to murder.”

  “You weren’t trying to murder her,” Viv said quietly. “You were trying to remove her. From Montana. From Kensington & Morgan Enterprises. From Dunnigan. You wanted her married to Pierre, just as my father wanted her to marry him, because it was good for business. And moreover, it was good for you.”

  “You’ve been reading too many dime novels,” he said disdainfully. But his eyes moved to Nathan and Pierre. Clearly, he wondered what they had told us already.

  “No, Andrew,” Vivian said, her voice growing stronger. I knew his refusal to tell the truth was steeling her anger. “You have thought too much of yourself, thinking you were so above all of us, so in control, that you could even dally with my sister’s life.”

  Lillian moved over to me, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. Felix moved to stand beside Viv.

  “Where is this all coming from?” Andrew said, looking angry now. “From him? Hawke?” he said, flinging a hand toward Nathan. “You’re going to believe the word of a man who has attacked and kidnapped Cora and Lillian? Him over me?”

  “Kidnappings that you may have known about,” Beluzzi s
aid, stepping forward between Vivian and Andrew as Andrew’s agitation grew. “Or at least…silently cheered on.”

  Mr. Morgan took a faltering few steps farther into the room, looking wan. He slowly pulled off his hat. “Tell us, my boy,” he said softly. “Tell us it isn’t true.” Hugh and Nell moved to stand beside him.

  “It isn’t! They have no proof besides that lout’s word!”

  We all stilled.

  Calling for proof…was that a partial admission of guilt? If he were innocent, would he not simply insist on his innocence? And he had looked to Pierre again, as if wondering if he’d told us more.

  “Actually, we do have some proof,” Viv said, holding up the paper bag. “Or evidence, anyway. Inside this bag is a bottle. A poison that would make Cora feel nauseated, weak, even lead to fainting.” She looked back at me, and I could sense the others putting it together too, their memories of me feeling ill these last weeks, fainting in Siena. “And all over the bottle are fingerprints. Detective Beluzzi will make certain of it, but we suspect that they will match yours.”

  Andrew was silent for a moment. “Why are you doing this, Vivian? Why are you standing against me? You are my future wife!”

  “No. No, Andrew,” she said, shaking her head. “I am not. Regardless of what the fingerprints tell us, I will not marry you. Our courtship is over. Our promises broken—all the promises you made me over the years were nothing but empty lies. You’ve proven to be everything I feared and nothing of what I hoped.”

  The veins on Andrew’s neck bulged. “It’s her fault, Vivian!” he said loudly, looking at me. “She is the one who has poisoned you against me! We were fine until she came into our lives this summer. Everything was going as it should.”

  Viv stared hard at him. “So you felt that if you removed her, it would return to what it had been. What we had been.”

  “I’ll freely admit to wishing Cora would go away. We were all better off without her!” he said, looking to his siblings and mine. “Don’t you see? Weren’t we better off without her?”

  “No,” Felix said, shaking his head and looking back at me. “I, for one, am a better person for knowing her. I’m glad for this summer. Glad she’s entered our family.”

  “Me too,” Vivian said. Lillian just squeezed me and laid her head on my shoulder.

  “Us, too,” Hugh said, looking at his sister. “Do not tie us into your ill will.”

  Andrew looked disgusted.

  Vivian lifted the paper bag. “Isn’t it best to admit guilt before you are convicted of it? Tell us, Andrew. Tell us why you did it.”

  When he still hesitated, Mr. Morgan said one word. “Andrew.”

  Andrew tore his eyes from Vivian, then looked over to his siblings, then to the Kensingtons, and finally back to his father.

  “A month’s pain for a lifetime of good,” he muttered. “We all have to press through hard times in order to get what we want. And what I was arranging for Cora would hardly have been a trial for most women. To be the wife of the great Pierre de Richelieu. To live in a mansion in—”

  “Cease your idle chatter, Morgan,” Pierre growled. “I want an attorney present. Immediately.” He turned to Beluzzi.

  “For what?” Andrew said. “All is lost. All on account of your precious Cora. She’s brought us all down.” He stared at me with venom in his eyes. I had to remind myself to breathe. “You couldn’t simply accept what was being so freely offered to you. You had to do things your way, even if it harmed our families.”

  “She has not taken anything from our family!” Mr. Morgan cried, wrapping an arm around Nell. “It is you who has harmed us.”

  “Don’t you see? I did it for us,” Andrew said. “Even for her!”

  Pierre groaned and put his face in his hands, but Andrew ignored him, only looking to his father.

  “You can’t see it, but I can!” Andrew went on. “She wanted to do business in ways that were foolish. Giving money that was rightfully ours away to the workers. Tripling the Dunnigan landowners’ payment. What she plans might increase our future holdings, but for now, it will greatly reduce what Kensington contributes to our company in terms of cash flow. What opportunities will we have to bypass because of that? What will I be held back from conquering,” he said, tapping his chest fiercely, “because she has crippled us? It simply makes no sense, Father. And consider Viv… Cora was pulling us apart. And haven’t you always wanted us married as much as Mr. Kensington wanted it?”

  Mr. Morgan looked up at him, clearly aghast. “So you did it?” he said in barely more than a whisper. “Poisoned her. Collaborated with Pierre and Nathan.”

  “Morgan…” Pierre warned.

  Andrew ignored him, his eyes solely on his father. “I did it for us! Even for Cora. Don’t you see? It was better for all of us.”

  Mr. Morgan’s mouth parted as he stared up at him. “I have failed you, son, if you can somehow rationalize this evil deed. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t say that, Father!” Andrew cried, even as Detective Beluzzi handcuffed him.

  Pierre and Nathan were lifted to their feet, and this time, I saw that Pierre was handcuffed too. “It is as Andrew said, Cora,” he said. “I did it for us.”

  “And when you knew we weren’t going to be together, you left me to die?” I sputtered.

  “No! No. Hawke was to kidnap you and take you to Greece, then release you on ransom in a few months. Mon ange, I could never bear to see you dead. I only sought a…diversion for a while. So that I could make my exit and resume my life just as I hoped you would, in time.”

  I stared at him for a long moment of mute rage. A diversion. For a few months. “And now we know why you and I were not meant to be together,” I said, shaking my head. Such madness!

  The policemen hauled Pierre, Nathan, and Andrew out of the grand salon.

  Detective Beluzzi turned to us. “I am aware that you depart tomorrow on the Olympic. I must obtain comprehensive statements from each of you before you go. Some may need to return to Italy if this leads to a trial. May I return in an hour with a secretary to obtain your statements?”

  When we only stood there, too numb to respond, Will said, “Give us two hours, Detective. All of this has been…a lot to take in.”

  The man nodded curtly, checked his pocket watch, and said, “I shall return then.”

  CHAPTER 39

  William

  His clients all gathered at the tall windows on the far side of the salon to watch as Pierre, Andrew, and Nathan were led out onto the street below them, and into two waiting police motorcars. Mr. Morgan sat down on the edge of a winged-back chair, as if he meant to spring up and run after them, if he could only figure out the right solution…

  The younger women were crying, but Cora and Viv were oddly stoic. Perhaps too traumatized to shed another tear.

  “How could we not have known?” Nell said, looking to Hugh.

  “How could he do it?” Lil asked. “And think he was in the right?”

  “Which one?” Felix said. “Andrew or Pierre?”

  “Both of them,” Lil said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe either of them wouldn’t have persuaded the other to…” She lifted her hands and paced away, then turned back, hands on her hips. “I don’t know. To do right, instead of such wrong?”

  “Do you hate me?” Nell said to Lillian, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Is our friendship over?”

  “What?” Lil asked, wrapping her arms around her best friend. “What are you talking about?” She leaned back to see her face.

  Nell cried so hard, it was hard to make out exactly what she said. But it was clear she thought her brother’s devilish choices, and an end to the courtship between Andrew and Viv, would tear the families apart.

  “Never,” Lil said. “Never ever! We are like sisters! Would you cast me aside if Felix had done something similarly dastardly?”

  Nell shook her head.

  “There, you see?”

  “Still,” said Mr. M
organ behind them, rising. He walked over and took Cora’s hand in his. “I owe you an apology on behalf of the family. Had I known…”

  “But you didn’t,” Cora said, giving him a sad smile. “I trust you, Mr. Morgan, no matter what your son tried to do. I know you as a man of principle. I know my father trusted you. And so do I. I need you more than ever, if Andrew is…indisposed.”

  Mr. Morgan nodded and patted her hand. “Thank you, child. You can count on my assistance. Don’t you worry about that.” He glanced over to Hugh. “I’ll need you to step up, son. With Wallace gone, and Andrew…” He looked Hugh in the eye and set his hand on his shoulder. “I need you.”

  For the first time all summer, Hugh looked daunted. Yet he nodded, reaching to pat his father’s hand. “I’ll try my best, Father.”

  Mr. Morgan gave Nell a squeeze. “I think I’ll go and rest for a while. I’m awfully weary after the day’s events.”

  “Most of you must feel the same,” Will said. “Detective Beluzzi will be back for those statements. Until that time, I suggest we rest and try to remember anything relevant to the case.”

  “But that feels terrible!” Nell wailed, and Lil embraced her again. “If I tell my story, isn’t that like betraying my brother?”

  “No, child,” Mr. Morgan said from the doorway. Will thought his slim shoulders looked more stooped, as if he carried the weight of Atlas. “Andrew must see through what he started, even if there are repercussions of imprisonment for his part in it. We are all family, the Kensingtons and the Morgans. And Cora is a part of that. Everyone must face the consequences of their decisions. And everyone must be honest in his statements with the detective, even if we feel it hurts Andrew’s case. We owe the truth to Cora, not lies to cover Andrew’s sins. Do you all understand me? Tell the detective nothing but God’s honest truth, or you shall answer to me.”

  Their last dinner in Rome, up on the terrace of the palazzo, was a somber affair. Every group that Will had ever been a part of had made it a celebration, often in this very place. But even Hugh and Felix were distracted, halfhearted in their attempts to keep conversation going and, for once, short on wisecracks and comments under their breath. Each was going home to a very different situation than he had left—Sam Morgan clearly expected Hugh to step into Andrew’s place, and Felix had huge responsibilities of his own.