Jonas licked his lips. “What do you propose?”
Luc had won. “What you paid for the venture, plus a ten percent profit. And my sister’s freedom.”
“Forty percent.”
Luc laughed. “Fifteen.”
“Thirty-five.” Luc shook his head. “Twenty is my final offer and the name of decent cigar dealer.” Luc glanced at the humidor knowing his superiority was showing.
Jonas didn’t answer for several minutes. He stared hard at Luc, his mouth working as though he wanted to say something, but couldn’t get the words out. Finally, he said in a strangled voice, “When would the cash be ready?”
“I have an appointment with Mr. Tigler at the bank set for tomorrow morning at 10 am. Be there.” Luc stood and left.
As Luc walked toward the front door and opened it, he felt deeply proud of himself. He was sorry Esme couldn’t be here to share the moment of triumph. Simone was safe, and as soon as the papers were signed and he could make arrangements, she would be on her way to Paris.
He turned back toward the hotel and Callie, his steps quickening at the thought of her creamy flesh and bright eyes filled with passion just for him.
Chapter Seventeen
Callie sat in the courtyard trying to figure out a way to be comfortable despite the confines of her corset. No matter what Luc said, she’d never wear a dress again no matter what other people thought of her. She’d never been anyplace so pretty as this small garden. A fountain dominated the center. A gold fish lazily swam through the clear water between strands of a water plant with a bright white flower as big as her hand. Overhead, a fragrant tree with huge creamy blossoms showered petals on her. A squirrel scolded her from the bottom branch. Lauren Delacroix, Luc’s youngest sister sat on the edge of the fountain staring down at the fish. She glanced up and gave Callie a innocent look.
“You really get to shoot guns and ride horses and stuff like a boy. That must be so much fun.”
Callie had never thought chasing outlaws was fun. “I was working.”
“Doing what?” Lauren trailed her fingers through the water and then playfully splashed Callie.
Callie grinned. “I was a bounty hunter.”
“What’s a bounty hunter?”
“I chased bad guys who stole cattle or robbed people.”
“Didn’t anyone care that you were a girl?”
Callie shook her head. How could she explain desert life to this delicate city-bred girl? “Everyone works in my village. We have to or we don’t eat.”
“Don’t you have servants to cook for you? Mama says we used to have servants, but we can’t afford it any more. But when Esme came, we had servants again. Do you know Esme? Esme is pretty. She looks like my brother Luc, but men aren’t pretty. I don’t know, I don’t understand.”
Callie smiled. Luc was more than pretty. The memory of his body pressed against her made her skin tingle. “You’re right, men can’t be pretty.”
Lauren shrugged. “But I like Luc anyway. He’s a good big brother.”
Callie felt a wave of loneliness. “I have a brother.”
“You do.”
“His name is Rafe.” How she missed him? Not knowing what had happened to him gnawed at her. “He used to be a soldier, but I don’t know what happened to him.”
“I’m sorry.” Lauren slipped her soft hand around Callie’s rough one. “Maybe you’ll find him some day.”
“I don’t think so. He’s been gone a long time. My mama thinks he’s dead.”
“My daddy’s going to die.” Tears formed in Lauren’s eyes.
“My daddy died when I was a little girl about your age.” Callie distantly remembered the pain of his death, but life was too hard to grieve forever. “Many people believe that when we die, we go on to a better place.”
“To go see Jesus?”
“Maybe. And nobody hurts any more, or has to worry about putting food on the table, or cleaning the barn.”
Lauren shifted closer to Callie. “I’m afraid to die.”
Callie put her arm around the young girl. “You’re young, you have plenty of time to grow up, get married, have lots of children.”
“I don’t want to marry a boy. Simone doesn’t have to get married either. She’s happy she doesn’t have to marry that old man. She’s excited about going to Paris. I’d like to go to Paris, but Esme promised me she’d send for me once she got to San Francisco. I think I’m going to like San Francisco. Mama doesn’t want me to go, but I want to go. I want to be with Esme. Esme says she’ll teach me how to paint and play poker. Do you play poker?”
Callie shook her head. “I don’t play.”
“You should get Esme to teach you. Esme knows how to do everything. She’s going to teach me to fence.”
“Fencing?” Lauren’s artless chatter completely mystified Callie.
“What’s fencing?” Callie had an image of a long fence in her mind.
Lauren bounced to her feet and took up a position with one hand back and hooked up from the elbow, and her other arm pointed forward, fingers cupped as though holding a stick. “En garde.” She bounced back and forth on the balls of her feet, her skirt swishing around her thin legs.
Callie was surprised at Lauren’s pose. She had no idea what the child was doing. She glanced up at the window where she could see Luc standing. He watched her and that made her self-conscious.
Suddenly there was a scream from inside the house. Luc whirled from the window, and Callie jumped to her feet. Lauren ran toward the house, her skirts flying. In the hallway on the second floor, Callie found Lauren and her two sisters standing in front of an open doorway, crying. She looked inside and saw Luc holding onto his father. Beside him stood Natalie Delacroix, her face stony and her eyes misted. She gripped the folds of her skirt in tight-fisted hands.
Callie found herself herding the girls away from the door and into a nearby bedroom. She could do nothing to help their grief, but she could comfort them. She held Lauren while Luc summoned the doctor who then pronounced Etienne Delacroix dead.
* * *
Natalie sat on the sofa, her head high and her eyes glittering. The black silk of her mourning dress made her look pretty with her white skin and her dark curls surrounding her face. “Well, I suppose you think you’re the head of the family now. Just because you won this little triumph over Jonas doesn’t give you rights over me and my daughters.”
Simone shrank back against the chair she was sitting in. Like Callie she was trying to making herself invisible. Callie knew that Simone desperately wanted to go to Paris.
Luc’s face tightened. “Natalie, things have never been good between us. You forced my father to send me and my sister to Paris, but my childhood resentment of you is long over. I care about my sisters and naturally that would extend to you as the mother of my sisters.”
Natalie started to cry. The tears left blotches on her pale face. “Your father never loved me. He loved your mother. I was just a convenient way to sire a legitimate family.”
“I appreciate how well you took care of my father,” Luc responded. “I can never repay you.”
“Yes, you can. Allow Simone to marry Jonas Ramsaye.”
“Why are you so insistent on Jonas marrying Simone? He’s poor. Everyone thinks he’s a rich man, but I will tell you he’s living on borrowed time.”
“But he told me he was rich. Everyone says he’s rich, and he promised he would take care of me.” A plaintive note sounded in her voice.
In a moment of clarity, Luc understood that Natalie simply didn’t want her children to be poor. She had endured poverty for so long, that she now feared it above all else. How sad that she understood so little.
Luc leaned forward. “You’re being taken care of.”
“Do you think I want to be beholden to my husband’s black bastards.” Natalie glared at Luc.
“Do you think I care,” Luc said. “If you must rationalize the origins of my money, it originally came from my father’s p
re-war fortune. I just happen to have a sister who is financially astute.”
“Jonas’ money is honestly earned.”
Luc started laughing. “Natalie, Jonas’ money came from a munitions factory in Pennsylvania that supplied the northern army with weapons and ammunition.”
Natalie looked crushed. “I don’t believe you.”
Luc’s voice softened. “You must believe me. You forget I fought for the North. And I know that Jonas’ money isn’t as pure as you would like to believe.” And that one decision caused such a rift between him and his father that only death had healed it. “I will care for you and your children for as long you need me. All I ask is that you mourn my father properly. Once the mourning is over, if you wish, I will help you find a new husband. You are still young and pretty.”
Natalie smiled at the compliment. Then she glanced at her daughters. Even Luc could see the thought in her mind that three daughters was a liability to husband-hunting. “And what type of husband can you find for my daughters? I will not allow them to have poor husbands who cannot safely support them.”
“Esme has already arranged for them to have their own trust funds. They won’t need husbands if they don’t want them. They will all be free to make their own choices.”
“But they are just girls. How can girls make a choice?”
“Contrary to popular belief, women are able to handle their own lives when given a chance.” Luc’s mother had handled her own life and so did Esme. Callie handed her own life, too. Why should Natalie think her daughters should rely on some man to make the decisions about their futures. Luc understood that Natalie came from a society where women were treated as affable pets, but the war had changed things and more women were taking charge of their futures. “I know you have intelligent daughters.”
“What about me?”
“With letters of introduction, I can present you to the nobility of Europe.”
“That’s not what I mean. If you can make my daughters independent, then you can make me independent, too. I’m not sure I want to marry again.”
“Then I will make it so that you have a choice as well. I have homes in London, Paris and Monte Carlo. You can live in any of them.”
Callie sat in a corner huddled with Simone, Josette, and Lauren. She held Lauren’s hand and Simone leaned against her. In the last few days, Callie had proved to be a rock of strength. Death was a very different experience for her, and she had accepted Etienne’s death with a stoic equanimity that had made her the one person in the house the others could depend on.
“But what about you. What happens if you chose to marry and bring your bride to one of those homes. I will be homeless again.”
“You will never be homeless.” Luc found himself smiling at Callie. Callie looked up and returned his smile. Her face was transformed. “I’m not ready for marriage, yet.”
“I think maybe you are.” Natalie followed the direction of his glance. “She’s very pretty, if you like that type of woman.”
Luc glanced at Natalie. “What’s wrong with Callie?”
“She’s very Indian looking and dark. What do you see in her?”
What did he see in Callie? “She’s a woman who understands my world. She has spirit and is independent.” Just like Esme. A light seemed to go off in his head. “She doesn’t need me. She simply wants me.”
“Those are great qualities in a woman,” Natalie said in a scornful tone. “She’s can’t sew, or do needlework or cook. I don’t understand what her mama was doing, not to teach her these things.”
Luc smiled. “She can track an outlaw, shoot a gun, and ride the wildest horse.” The other skills she’d learned in the last few days were not the type a man talked about. He was impressed with how much she embraced the new direction of their relationship. She was insatiable and she had none of the coy qualities that seemed to permeate European women in their intimate relationships. Luc’s mistress in Paris had constantly needed to be maintained as the price for her favors. Callie asked for nothing. She wanted him, not the objects he could give her.
In an off-hand tone, Natalie said, “I wonder how your superior officers would feel about your relationship with her?” She fanned herself with a languid gesture, smiling at him as though she had the better poker hand.
Luc’s heart went still. How nice of Natalie to hit at the crux of the matter. How smart of her to leave unsaid, the most important part. She knew more about him than was comfortable, though he knew she had already given him power over her. “Consider your threat carefully, your fortunes rise and fall with me.”
Natalie blanched. Point taken.
“Tomorrow,” Luc said, “your daughter leaves for Paris. I think you need to help her finish packing. Callie and I have some business to attend to.”
The superior look on Natalie’s face told him that she thought she knew exactly what type of business was at hand. Nothing could be further from the truth. Luc intended to take Callie to see his mother’s house.
* * *
Callie watched as a dockhand wrestled Simone’s trunk up the gangplank to the ship waiting to take her to Paris. Lauren held tightly onto Callie’s hand. She seemed a bundle of repressed excitement.
Luc directed the dock hand. He looked so handsome in his suit with a broad-brimmed white hand shading his face. She marveled at his ability to be so at ease in so many different situations.
“Luc,” Simone said, “is Paris really the most beautiful city in the world.”
“Yes, but compared to you, it’s a factory town. You’re going to set the place on its ear.” Luc hugged her. “Be good, the Countess is a dear friend and her husband is a prominent government official. She’ll adore you. She was Esme’s patroness. I would trust my sister with no one else.” He kissed her hand and Simone giggled nervously.
After a second’s hesitation, she threw her arms around him. “I love you so much. Thank you for what you’ve done for me and for my sisters.”
A loud whistle pierced the air. A ship, pulled by a tugboat, had come into view and Callie strained on tip toes to see. Why did she have to wear a gown today when she could have climbed up a pole to see what had caused so much excitement.
“The Sea Maiden,” came a shout.
Luc turned toward the commotion and at the shout, his face lit up. “The Sea Maiden.” He grabbed a passing dock worker. “Did someone say The Sea Maiden?”
“Yes, sir. The Sea Maiden. She made it back. Late, but that is one seaworthy old girl. Made it all the way back from China. I knew she wouldn’t disappoint us.” The dock worker leaped into the air and started running toward an empty dock space.
Callie grinned at Luc. She touched his sleeve. “My mama’s cat looks like you when she’s caught herself a big juicy bird.”
“Calisto, I believe my ship has come in.”
“Do you own that ship?”
Luc nodded. “As of five days ago, I own fifty-five percent of her cargo.”
“Is that a lot?”
He grinned at her. “That’s a lot.” He turned toward Simone’s ship.
“You’d best be getting on board.”
Simone hugged him again. “Thank you, Luc.” She turned and hugged Lauren.
Callie hugged her, too. “I’m sorry your mama and sister Josette couldn’t come.” Josette wasn’t feeling well and Natalie had stayed behind to care for her.
“I’m afraid, Callie,” Simone said.
“You’ll be fine. All those big people in France will love you.” Callie kissed Simone on the cheek.
In the few days since she’d been introduced to the Delacroix household, Callie had come to like Luc’s sisters very much and Luc had told how pleased he was she had made such an impact on them. She’d told them stories about her life in the desert, even as she tactfully avoided telling them she was a scout for the Army and really worked for their brother.
After Simone was installed in her cabin with the woman who would be chaperoning her to Paris, Luc insisted they che
ck out the Sea Maiden. He was filled with suppressed excitement and Callie didn’t understand why. The ship was just a ship, a little larger than the others, but still something that floated on water, even if he did own a part of the cargo.
Luc asked Callie to take Lauren home and wait for him there.
* * *
Luc stood on the docks waiting for the ship to be tied to its berth. He thought of all that cargo he owned. He had no idea of its eventual worth, but he could see Esme rubbing her hands together over it. Money equaled power and forced acceptance. Some people didn’t care where he and Esme had come from, but many people did, and having money made their background more tolerable.
“I hate you,” Jonas Ramsaye said in a dead voice. “You’ve ruined me.”
“You ruined yourself,” Luc replied.
“You knew the Sea Maiden was going to arrive. You swindled me.”
“I didn’t know anything.” Although he could smell the stench of greed coming off of Jonas. Luc clasped his hands in front of him. “If you want to threaten me with a lawsuit, go right ahead. I can see the headlines now. Black man outsmarts white one. You and your children will be humiliated for the rest of their lives. No one likes to be a laughingstock. You’re old. I can tie you up in court until all the great-great-grandchildren, you don’t even know about yet, are old enough to marry.”
Jonas’ face was as red a mulberry. “Not if I kill you first. You may look white, but I know who and what you are. I can tell the world.”
Luc stepped up to Jonas until they were almost face to face. “You can tell the world whatever you want, but the end result will be the same. I did not swindle you. You took my money of your own volition. I have witnesses who would rather have my money in their bank then yours. The courts will believe them because they have more credibility than you do. So if you want to challenge me in a court of law, you do so at the risk of your own reputation. So if you please, stand out of my way.”
After The Lies Page 22
