Father’s and daughter’s eyes met in blazing fury.
“It seems I have to keep reminding you that as long as you put your feet under my table, you will do as I say, and I won’t stand for your impudence and shameful, wanton behavior bringing disgrace on this family.”
“Sir, please!” Drake dared to interrupt, not knowing exactly what to say but knowing he had to do something besides stand idly by. He decided maybe the only way out was to lie. “Nothing happened. Believe me. It happened just as Dani said. I agree that it looks bad, but no one has to know.”
“Get out! Get out of my house!” Travis shouted.
Drake was as tall as Travis, and as big, and he had yet to wither before any man, whether right or wrong. He did not flinch and stood his ground, willing to take the consequences of doing so. “Sir, I wish you’d listen to reason. There’s no need for all this.”
“I told you to get out, Drakar, before I kill you with my bare hands!”
Drake met Travis’s threatening glare. “Very well, sir. As you wish. But I want you to know I have the utmost respect for your daughter, and I am truly sorry for all of this. Neither Dani nor I intended to upset you or Mrs. Coltrane.”
Kitty interceded to plead, “Just go, Drakar. Now. Please.”
Drake backed toward the door, looked at Dani with pain and longing, murmured, “I’ll be in touch—”
“Goddammit, man!” Travis roared as Kitty and Dani struggled to hold him back. He shook his fists and yelled, “You try to see my daughter again, and so help me, I’ll have you run out of Paris on a rail…”
As soon as the door closed, Dani raced for the stairs. Travis shouted after her, demanding that she come right back.
Halfway up, she turned to look at him in abject misery, tears streaming down her cheeks. “No, Poppa, I won’t…because there’s no point in our trying to talk about this. I love you more than you’ll ever know, and I’m truly sorry that I hurt you. But it’s time you realized that I’ve got to live my own life. I can’t be concerned with other people’s opinions and judgments. I’m sorry I lied to you, but you gave me no choice.”
She turned and ran on up the stairs and disappeared, heart-wrenching sobs echoing in the stillness.
When Dani reached her room, she quickly closed the door and locked it, then threw herself across the bed. She commanded herself to stop crying as she lay with face pressed against the pillow. She was determined not to react like the child her father thought she was. She was a woman, by God, a grown woman. To hell with the moralists and busybodies so eager to judge. What she and Drake had done was not a sin so dastardly as to mark her as a wanton trollop. They had desired each other, had responded to that desire by making beautiful love, and it was no one else’s business.
She sat up. There was only one thing to do: move out of the house. There was a tiny two-room apartment directly over the shop that had become vacant only a few days before. The starving young artist who had lived there had moved out to journey to the South of France in hopes of nurturing his creativity there. No matter that he departed owing rent and leaving a mess. It could easily be cleaned, and she would enjoy decorating it to her own taste. Poppa wasn’t going to like it, but there was nothing he could do. Maybe, she reflected sadly, he was trying to treat her like a little girl in subconscious hope of going back in time to those tender years when she was a little girl…and he had not been with her to enjoy them as a father should. It was sad, but it was too late, and Dani knew he would have to bear the regrets of the past along with her. Nothing could undo what was done, and it was time to get on with both their lives.
She got up and began to walk about the room, looking at the furnishings and deciding she would take nothing except her clothes. It would be no problem to find furniture for the small apartment.
She passed the window, glanced out, and angrily saw that Lily was running down the sidewalk after Drake.
Drake reached to open the gate just as Lily caught up with him. Lost in his own misery, he had not heard her call out as she ran after him down the walk. Now he looked at her in annoyance and impatiently demanded, “What do you want?” He didn’t feel like talking to anyone.
Lily made her voice thickly sympathetic. “I couldn’t help hearing Mr. Coltrane shouting. I’m so sorry, Drakar. I don’t think you were treated fairly at all. It’s an unfortunate situation, but—”
He raised an eyebrow, brusquely informed her, “It isn’t your problem, Miss Deauneve.”
He moved to open the gate, but she reached out to boldly clutch his arm. “Wait, please…”
“I appreciate your concern, but I think it’s best I be on my way. If you overheard Mr. Coltrane, you undoubtedly heard him order me to leave.”
“He’s a snob. Just like his wife. They think nobody is good enough for their precious son and daughter.”
Drake raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? And what makes you say that? I don’t think their anger with me has anything to do with snobbery.”
Lily turned to glance back toward the house, as though fearful they would be seen together. Then she gave him a warm look and whispered, “Perhaps we could go somewhere for tea and I could tell you all about it. I think we both need to share our thoughts about this miserable family.”
Drake felt his lips twitching with the impulse to laugh. It was going to be easier than he thought, but right now he had other things on his mind. “I’d like that, Miss Deauneve, but I’m afraid I have plans for the moment. I’ll be in touch with you, I promise.” He caressed her fingertips in a suggestive gesture that she understood quite clearly.
She stepped back, smiled triumphantly. “Of course. I’ll be waiting.”
She watched him get in his carriage and move on down the street, then turned back to the house and frowned. Damn snobs. How dare they treat her like they did last night when Colt raised his champagne glass after dinner and asked that they toast their betrothal? They had just looked at each other like they’d had water thrown in their faces. Kitty had made a little choking sound and Colt had looked like a shameful little boy. Then Mr. Coltrane, that imperious bastard, had said it was a shock, and they needed time to think about it.
Lily stopped in the middle of the walkway to stamp her feet in exasperation. Colt hadn’t said a word, had not spoken up to his father and told him it didn’t matter whether it was a shock or not. Oh, no, he just nodded his head and said he understood. Understood what, by God? That his parents had every right to act so rude? Just who in the hell did they think they were, treating her like that?
She turned her head to stare down the street pensively in the direction Drakar had gone. How she wished she had seen him before Colt. The way he’d just looked at her let her know all she needed to know—that he found her desirable. True, he had a reputation with women, but so what? She was different from the others, would know how to manipulate him into marriage like a black widow spider coaxing a new lover into her web.
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. Maybe it wasn’t too late, after all. It had been sheer luck that she’d even found out what was going on this morning. She had been sneaking around, hoping to learn what the Coltranes planned to do to try and stop her marriage from taking place. Instead, she’d learned that Dani had not come home last night.
She had heard everything, knew that Drakar had been banned from the Coltrane household forever.
Lily also acknowledged the possibility that her own scheme might be in jeopardy. Colt had yielded to his parents last night, said he should have known they would be surprised by such a sudden announcement and they could celebrate later. Then when she’d gotten him alone and told him how humiliated she felt, he defended his parents. Obviously he was just a mamma’s boy, and now she feared that if Kitty Coltrane tried hard enough, she could talk her son out of getting married.
It was one thing, Lily fretted, to make Colt feel obligated to marry her after waking to find her in his bed…and another to expect those feelings of guilt to carry over into the harsh real
ity of an actual wedding.
Especially, she bitterly realized, when it looked as though Dani could spend the night with a man and not feel she had to marry him in order to preserve her honor. Dammit, Colt just might look at his sister and have second thoughts about his own predicament.
Lily knew she had to have a backup plan…and the answer just might be Drakar.
Maybe Drakar was even richer than Colt.
Maybe, she thought as a warmth spread through her loins, he would be as good a lover as Colt.
She intended to find out…on both counts.
Chapter Twenty
Dani took one last look around the room. She had taken only a few of her personal belongings, and most of her clothes. Space was going to be limited in her new home. Two large trunks stood by the door. She only hoped there would be room for what she had packed in those. She took a deep breath, smiled bravely to herself. It was going to be her home, no matter how tiny and cramped. The feeling of impending freedom and independence was exhilarating. She couldn’t wait to start really living for what she felt was truly the first time in her life.
Lurline had brought her tea and soup at noon, relating what was going on in the rest of the household. Monsieur Coltrane, she confided, had only just left for his office at the embassy after spending most of the morning behind the closed doors of his study talking with Madame Coltrane. Lurline did not know what they had been talking about, but, with her usual candor, said it had to have something to do with either Dani staying out all night or Colt announcing his engagement to Mademoiselle Lily. Either way, Lurline said tension was spread over the entire house like a giant umbrella, and she, for one, would be glad when it passed. Colt, she reported, had left the house sometime before daylight, one of the coachmen had told her, and had only just returned. Her eyes glittered excitedly as she told how he had passed right by Mademoiselle Lily, not stopping to talk to her.
“She’s fit to be tied, she is, stamping her feet and cursing like a hooligan. She’s been a little hellcat all day, anyway, storming about and complaining because he wasn’t home and that it looked to her like everyone else was avoiding her.”
Listening to Lurline had only served to make Dani all the more anxious to leave. A glance at the mantel clock told her she had to be leaving if she wanted to be even a little bit settled in her new home by bedtime.
She rang for Lurline, then asked that one of the coachmen bring a carriage around to the front and to send someone up for her trunks.
Lurline nodded but hung back to express her feelings once more about Dani’s decision to move out. “I’m going to worry about you, mademoiselle, living off by yourself, and you know your father isn’t going to like it one little bit.”
Dani assured her once again that she would be fine, and, yes, she knew Poppa wouldn’t approve, and that was another reason she wanted to be on her way before he returned—to avoid another scene. “Now will you please hurry and do as I ask, Lurline? I really want to leave now.”
Lurline obeyed, shaking her head worriedly.
Dani went to where she’d laid out her cape, then groaned aloud at the sound of Colt’s voice calling to her through the closed door.
“Come on, Dani, open up. I know you’re in there, and we’ve got to talk.”
She realized he did not sound angry, merely impatient. She opened the door and promptly informed him, “I don’t want to argue with you, Colt. I’ve got enough problems of my own without fussing with you.” She did not invite him in.
“I don’t want to argue either, Dani. I just want to talk to you for a minute.” He ran his fingers through his hair absently, as though stalling to get his thoughts, his words, in order. Then he saw her trunks and exclaimed, “What’s all this? Where are you going?”
She told him, and his reaction was to laugh. “You know Poppa won’t allow that.”
Dani did not intend to waste time justifying herself. “He has no choice! Now please,” she urged impatiently, “tell me what you want. I want to be out of here before he comes home. I’m tired of confrontations.”
He looked at her for a few seconds in contemplative silence, then shrugged. “I don’t know, really. Things are just turned upside down all of a sudden. I guess you’ve heard by now that they didn’t exactly jump with joy when I told them about me and Lily getting married.”
“I didn’t expect them to. You hardly know her. Besides,” she dared to add, “they probably feel as I do—that you aren’t going to be happy with her, and that you’re making a mistake.”
His eyes narrowed. “I think that’s my business.”
Dani was exasperated. This was all a waste of time—for both of them. “I agree with you,” she conceded, “so please don’t involve me in it. If you came here seeking my approval, you won’t get it, Colt. I don’t see any point in our talking further.”
She moved to close the door, but he slammed his hand against, it. “Well, I do. Lily says she tried to talk to you yesterday, to ask for your blessings and help with planning a wedding and that you blew up at her and even threw water in her face. I’d like to hear your side of the story.”
“Why? You won’t believe anything I have to say.”
“You never did like her, did you?”
“I tried,” Dani replied honestly. “I really tried, but quite frankly, Colt, Lily is one of the most unpleasant people I’ve ever met.”
“Is that why you threw water in her face? That was pretty low of you, Dani. After all, she is a guest in this house, and she’s also going to be a member of the family soon.”
“I threw water in her face because she was standing right where you are, having a tantrum for the whole world to hear. It got her away from my door,” she pointed out, then said icily, “Is that what it’s going to take to get rid of you?”
Colt sucked in his breath, let it out slowly, waging a battle within himself to control the rage that was about to erupt at any second. “Don’t try it with me, Dani.” Then, with a contemptuous sneer, he said, “You haven’t changed a bit. You’re still a spoiled brat and don’t give a damn about anybody but yourself.”
She knew he was only taking out his own frustrations on her, but dear Lord, she was losing all patience. “It’d really be best if you’d leave, Colt. You’re making me very angry.”
“What are you going to do?” He pointed to the tiny scar at the corner of his angrily bulging eyes. “Claw my face like the last time you had one of your little fits? Grow up, Dani. Stop acting like a little bitch!”
Dani gasped, lifted her hand to slap him as fury washed over her in a tidal, wave, but her arm froze in midair as she saw the despair in his eyes, mirrored amid the rage. He was her brother, she reminded herself, and she loved him, and if inflicting his pain upon her somehow softened his own, then so be it. Nothing would be accomplished by inflicting a scar on his heart to go with the one she regretted putting on his face as a child.
“Please,” she whispered raggedly, blinking back the tears. “Let me pass, Colt. I think we’ve both said things we’ll regret later.”
He stared down at her, his own eyes becoming moist as the anger began to quickly fade in the wake of her surrender.
Colt stepped aside, head down. Goddammit, why did it have to be this way, he cursed himself. Why had he even come here to talk to her in the first place? But he knew the answer to that. Lily had insisted. She’d said it was bad enough he hadn’t stood up to his parents the night before. The least he could do, she said, was to reprimand his sister for assaulting her. He’d promised to talk to Dani, to see if he could smooth things over because he didn’t like the way so much friction was developing in the family.
“Dani! Colt! What’s going on here?”
They both looked up from their respective states of despair as Kitty rushed into the room, violet eyes steaming, cheeks red. “Everyone in the house can hear you yelling at each other.”
Her gaze fell on the trunks by the door, and she raised her eyes slowly, suspiciously, to challenge
Dani. “What is all this about? Where do you think you’re going?”
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!”
Love and Splendor: The Coltrane Saga, Book 5 Page 20