Growing up, Vivianna had imagined her father to be a kind and generous man. The sort of father a young girl would adore and an older girl would look up to. Somehow, despite what Aphrodite had told her, she could not rid herself of that image.
Fraser was dying, and she was the only part of him left.
Surely that would make a difference to him? Surely he would love her and she would love him, simply because of that?
The room was lit by a lamp, but it was still dark. The curtains were drawn and the colors were muted. An enormous tabby cat sat upon a chair and watched her with calm yellow eyes. Vivianna edged closer to the figure beneath the bedcovers in the ornate four-poster bed.
Fraser had been a big man. His length still made an impression, but now he was so thin his body barely lifted the bedding. His face, upon the pillows, was gaunt, and his hair red as fire. His eyes, hazel like Vivianna’s, were open and watching her approach.
“Mr. Fraser?”
He crooked a finger impatiently. “Come here, lass! Ah, that’s better. I can see ye now. Plain, aren’t ye? Pity. Not that it matters. Not for what I have in mind.”
Vivianna crept closer, knowing she was a coward but unable to help herself. Plain. The dismissive manner in which he had said it hurt. Oliver had called her beautiful, but then she could no longer believe anything Oliver said to her. Perhaps it was better to believe herself plain than to be lied to.
“What is your name, lass?”
Vivianna met those hazel eyes, so like her own. “Vivianna.”
Fraser’s lip curled. “That’s no’ a name for my daughter. I’ll call ye Annie. I suppose she told ye I was a rich man.”
He sounded gruff, but at the same time rather proud of the fact that he was rich.
“If you mean Aphrodite, then yes, she did.”
“And is that why ye’re here? To get yer hands on it?”
Vivianna glared, forgetting to be nervous. “No, it is not! I have money of my own, Mr. Fraser. I am content as I am.”
“Oh, are ye!” He beckoned her again. “Come closer, lass. I canna see ye. That’s better. Now sit yoursel’ down. I have a proposal to put to ye.”
She sat down on a stool beside the bed. Aphrodite had warned her that Fraser was blunt and rude. He’s dying, I am his daughter. She must remember those two things. Perhaps they may yet find common ground….
“I want to name ye as my heir. I want ye to have it all.”
“I had not intended to—”
“Yes, yes, but if ye don’t have it, it’ll go into the government coffers, and I dinna want that.”
Vivianna did not want his money, but Fraser did not seem able to accept that. Maybe because it was the only thing he had left to leave, he did not want to believe she was not as attached to his fortune as he was.
“I know there will be a scandal,” he said now with relish, and his ravaged face twisted into a chuckle. “It’ll give them something to talk about, won’t it? Fraser’s last faux pas. They’ll be whispering about Old Fraser’s bastard daughter for years to come. They mocked me in life; I was ne’er good enough for them. I’d like to give them a wee shock before I go, aye.
“I made my money from the breweries,” he went on, his eyes on her. He blinked slowly, and moved his head as if his neck hurt.
Vivianna rose and leaned over him, adjusting the pillows. He did not thank her, but the creases in his face smoothed out, and he sighed.
“And there are the lodging houses. People will live in anything, aye they will, ye look surprised, lass! A house with only four small rooms in it will fit at least twenty people, each paying rent. Thirty, at a pinch. Such folk are used to dirt and the like, and they dinna complain too much ’cause they know they’re lucky to have a roof over their heads at all.”
Vivianna said nothing. She had seen the places he spoke of. Those who made money from such suffering without seeking in some way to alleviate it were beyond her understanding. There were good landlords and masters, of course there were, but Fraser was not among them.
Her own father was not among them.
“I cannot take your money,” she said coldly.
“What, what?” He peered at her. “Canna take it? Oh yes, ye can, girlie! My fortune will buy ye more bonny gowns and baubles than ye’ll know what to do with. Ye’re my heir. This is why I bought that woman out there to breed with. For this very day. Now I have ye, and I want my money’s worth.”
Vivianna managed not to press one of the pillows over his face and hold it there, although she was sorely tempted. She knew she could refuse to take his money, of course she could, but now her mind was beginning to work in other ways.
Why not take it? Take his money.
Not for herself, never that, but for the good she could do with it. She would be able to set up homes for the poor all over the country. The Fraser Memorial Homes. That had a nice ring to it. Homes built specifically for those who could not afford decent accommodation. And then there would be hospitals and schools.
Vivianna smiled. Why not?
“Ah, like the sound of that, do ye?” Fraser had been watching her, and evidently thought the mention of baubles had won her over. Well, let him! Vivianna would be his heir, if that was what he wanted, and then she would spend his money making recompense for the harm he had done.
Outside in the gallery, Aphrodite anxiously searched her face. “What did he say?”
“I am to be his heir. That is why he paid for you to have me all those years ago.”
Aphrodite closed her eyes. “Mon dieu.” After a moment she pulled herself together enough to remind them both, “He is dying—”
“I know.” Vivianna said it bleakly. “I’m sorry, Aphrodite, but I do not like him. I wish I could. He’s my father! But I do not. I have said I will be his heir, but when he is dead I will use his money for good works.”
A slow smile spread over Aphrodite’s face. “Did you tell him this?”
“Not yet.”
“Then don’t, Vivianna. Let him enjoy his last weeks, it cannot hurt.”
Vivianna looked at her in surprise. “You are fond of him, aren’t you?”
Aphrodite’s smile turned sad. “I had a child with him. It makes a difference.”
Oliver was still asleep late the next morning when Hodge woke him. “Lady Marsh is awaiting you in the sitting room, my lord.”
Oliver opened one blurry eye. “You let her in?”
“I could not prevent her, my lord.”
“What does she want?”
“She wants to see you, my lord.”
Oliver groaned and sat up. “I will be half an hour, Hodge. I can’t be any faster. I haven’t long retired.”
“I know, my lord. I will see her ladyship has some refreshment while she waits.”
Oliver rested his head carefully into his hands, wincing as Hodge closed the door. He had drunk far too much and slept far too little. Last night at White’s replayed in his mind. Lawson, his breath hot against Oliver’s ear, murmuring, “Where is this secret chamber, Oliver? Your grandfather’s secret chamber?”
Oliver had swayed dangerously, almost losing his balance. “Just a story,” he’d muttered drunkenly. “Nothing to it. Why? Why do you want to know?”
Lawson had smiled, but his eyes were lethal. “You need to tell me soon, Oliver,” he had said, not drunk at all. He had only been pretending. “You need to consider your future very carefully, or the fact that you may not have a future….”
“Like Anthony, you mean?” he had asked levelly.
And suddenly the game was over. They had stood facing each other, wearing their true skins.
Lawson had observed him as if he were an interesting specimen of insect. “Yes,” he had said softly. “Just like Anthony.”
“You’re finished,” Oliver retorted, and the rage in him threatened to boil over. “I’ll see to it.”
Lawson smiled. “Your brother said that, too. And look what happened to him.” And then he’d simply turned
and walked away.
In his bedroom, with the sunlight creeping through the curtained windows, Oliver contemplated the danger he was in. He wasn’t afraid. He was only the more determined to find the letters and see Lawson punished. But he was vastly relieved Vivianna was out of it—whatever happened to him now, she would be safe.
It was the only thing that kept him from going to her house and begging her forgiveness.
A pain stabbed at his chest at the thought of her, but he ignored it. Surely all he had to do was remember how she used to lecture him and argue with him to be glad he never had to spend time with her again? But somehow it just didn’t seem to be working….
Exactly thirty minutes later, immaculately dressed, Oliver made his way to the sitting room. Lady Marsh set her cup down with a clatter and gave him a stern look.
“Oliver, have you heard? I have never been more shocked.”
“Shocked?”
“You mean you haven’t heard?”
Oliver knew his head was fuzzy, but surely his aunt couldn’t mean the Anchor Inn? No, she couldn’t. If she’d heard of that she would be tearing strips off him.
“Oliver! Are you asleep?”
“No, Aunt, I’m not asleep. You put a stop to that.” He settled himself on the chair opposite and she proceeded to pour him some tea.
“Miss Greentree is not the daughter of Lady Greentree after all,” she began with relish. “Angus Fraser, the brewery millionaire, has named her as his heir! She is his daughter by some drab or other, and she became lost when she was a child. Baby farmers or some such thing. Now they are reunited, Fraser is on his deathbed, and she is his heir.”
Oliver tried to take it in. “I thought you always rather liked Fraser,” he heard himself say.
“I did. He says what he thinks, and that is rare enough in our world. But that’s not the point! The point is, I rather thought you liked Miss Greentree.”
“I did.” He blinked at her, rubbed a hand across his freshly shaven face. “I do.”
“And you did not know?”
“I knew she was abandoned as a child, but I did not know her parentage.”
Vivianna, the daughter of Fraser, the brewery millionaire? It hardly seemed credible, except his aunt was a sharp old bird. If she believed it, then it must be true.
“Oliver! Are you listening? I just said that you cannot possibly marry her now. Your wife must have an unsullied reputation, the mother of your heir must be beyond reproach. No, I am afraid you must choose one of the girls on my list. You must find a girl who is more acceptable.”
Oliver stood up. The tea table rocked dangerously. “I’ll be damned if I will!”
“Oliver, really—”
“I will marry whom I like. Who am I to quibble about Vivianna’s reputation anyway? She’s worth a hundred of me. A million!”
“Oliver, calm yourself—”
“No, I won’t.” But he did. He drew a long, slow breath and sat down again. “I’m sorry,” he said formally, “but I won’t have Vivianna slandered.”
Lady Marsh fixed him with a stare. She looked as if she were trying not to smile. After a moment she said, “Well, Fraser is very rich.”
“I don’t want her money.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” she retorted, raising her brows, and making Oliver wonder whether she had heard of the Anchor Inn after all. “Well, are you going to ask her to marry you or not?”
Oliver blinked. “Of course not!”
“Why not? Ask her.”
“She won’t see me.”
Lady Marsh shook her head at him. “Why not?”
“I told her about Lawson. Now she hates me for pretending to be a rake.”
Lady Marsh’s eyes widened. “Good gad, is she so partial to rakes? Well”—with a heavy sigh—“pretend to be one for her. I like that girl, Oliver, and I want her as your wife. Be the best rake in London and win her over!” Lady Marsh rose to her feet with difficulty, using her cane. “I intend to see a new Montegomery born before I die, Oliver,” she said testily. “Get busy.”
Lady Greentree and Aphrodite stood awkwardly, facing each other across Helen’s sitting room. Lady Greentree had asked that she see the other woman alone, without Vivianna present, and now she didn’t know what to say.
Earlier, she had explained to Vivianna, “It will be difficult enough for your mother and I, my dear, without you being there biting your nails. I have sent Marietta off with Mr. Jardine and Lil—I think it best if she is kept out of this as much as possible. Let me speak to Aphrodite alone, and then if you wish you can join us.”
Vivianna had agreed, although Amy Greentree could see she was not happy. Amy knew that Vivianna could see very well how her being named as the heir to Mr. Fraser’s fortune, and now the truth about her birth, was making everything very difficult for the family. There was talk and gossip everywhere they went.
Several of Helen’s acquaintances had cut her in the street, and as for William…! Amy sighed. William, when he had finally come to call upon them, had been furious. She had not seen him so furious since Helen eloped with Tony. He had told Amy that she had no right to keep such news from him, and that if he had known he would have nipped it in the bud, although how he could have done so she did not know. “Bringing disrepute to our family,” he had blustered, his face puce, his pale blue eyes, so like Amy’s, bulging. “What would Thomas have said? It is not to be borne!”
“I am afraid it will have to be,” Amy had replied calmly, refusing to join her brother in hysteria, and wishing their elder sibling were here now. “Angus Fraser has stipulated that to be named as his heir Vivianna must proclaim herself his illegitimate daughter. Vivianna has decided that this is what she wants. And she means to use the money for her good works; the dear girl says that any amount of scandal and humiliation will be worth it in the end.”
Though privately Amy had wondered if Vivianna realized just how unpleasant matters might become for her.
“Good works!” William had shouted. “She wants to waste her money on those blasted orphans!”
That was probably the part that had upset her brother most of all, Amy thought now. That all that money was to be squandered on homeless children and the poor, instead of going to the further aggrandizement of the Tremaine family. But William was William, and in time he would come around.
It was Vivianna who concerned her right now.
The dear girl had recently had several offers of donations to charitable institutions returned, simply because of the scandal. It was very unfair, and Amy was still fuming over it. And now she had the task of facing Aphrodite, the courtesan, and making some sort of bridge between them.
“You are not as I imagined,” Aphrodite spoke at last. She was beautiful, in a ravaged sort of way, and Vivianna was right, she did resemble Francesca.
Amy gestured to a chair. “Please, be seated, Aphrodite. May I call you that?”
“Please do, Lady Greentree.”
“Then you must call me Amy.” She raised a curious eyebrow as she sat down opposite. “Why am I not as you imagined?”
“I thought you would be…I don’t know. You are so tranquil, so restful. I think your household must be very peaceful.”
“I am not like Vivianna, you mean?” she asked wryly. “My daughters are all very much their own persons, Aphrodite, and I love them for that. I have cared for them and loved them since the day I found them and I hope I can continue to do that.”
Aphrodite blinked. “Of course,” she said. “I would not want to take any of them from you. I know they will never be my daughters now. It is too late. If I may…if I can look upon them, as if from a distance, like a doting godmother…I think I will be happy with that.”
“You are very courageous,” Amy said gently.
Aphrodite shrugged as if she were indifferent. “They are happy, that is all that matters.”
Amy let it pass, although she knew Aphrodite could not be as unconcerned as she pretended. It was the other wo
man’s way of dealing with her pain.
“I wanted to see you alone to ask if you will tell me the story of their disappearance. Vivianna says there is some mystery…?”
Aphrodite gazed at her a moment, as if turning the matter over in her mind, and then shook her head. “No, I cannot. I am not being mysterious, Amy, it is just something I cannot speak of. Not yet. I have given Vivianna her father, although I do not think she is very happy with him,” she added with a grimace, “but as for the others, they must wait until they are older and I am certain it is safe. They were taken away once, I am sure you would not wish such a thing to happen again.”
Amy leaned forward. “I promise you,” she said, “I swear to you, if you tell me, it will go no further. And perhaps I can help.”
Aphrodite smiled coolly, suddenly aloof. “You are very kind. I thank you, but no. This is my problem, and I will solve it without involving you or the girls.”
Resigned, Amy said, “Very well. I have sent Marietta out, as you requested, but will I call for Vivianna now? She is probably working herself into a state waiting for my summons.”
The tension seemed to go from Aphrodite. “Yes, please. I fear Vivianna does not realize how cruel society can be,” she added when the bell had been rung. “I wish I could shelter her in some way, but I would probably just make it worse.”
“I think she does know.” Amy grimaced. “People have been perfectly horrid, and not just to her. At least the family is standing by her, apart from my brother William, but I had expected nothing else from him. He is a great stickler for the proprieties.”
Aphrodite smiled politely. “It will be an ordeal for Vivianna, but still she insists she does not mind.”
“She has never cared much for those rules society values. Vivianna is very much her own person.”
“Yes,” said Aphrodite, and the words went unspoken between them that mother and daughter were very much alike.
Chapter 19
Sara Bennett Page 27
