Fitzgilbert rubbed his chin, pondering her request. “I have my doubts your bitch of a sister would agree to those terms.”
Celia fisted her hands at her sides and swallowed back her defense of Rosalinde. “It isn’t a deal between you and my sister. It’s a deal between you and me.”
He laughed. “How wonderful, so you will lie to her?”
“I will omit,” Celia whispered, blinking back the tears that stung her eyes at the thought of such a betrayal. “It won’t be entirely the same.”
“As you wish, if it helps you sleep at night,” Fitzgilbert chuckled. “And what of yourduke? Would he be willing to offer me anything in the realm of influence, access?”
Celia held her breath. Clairemont had been out of Society so long, she wasn’t certain he would hold as much sway as someone like Stenfax had, even if he was more elevated by his title. But she nodded regardless.
“I am sure I could soften him to you and your desires,” she said.
Fitzgilbert returned to his seat across from her and set his drink aside, crossing his legs and steepling his fingers over his knee before he smiled at her. “And tell me, my dear, does he know you are a bastard?”
Heat flooded her cheeks both at his cruel question and at the answer she would be forced to give. An answer that burned within her the closer she got to Aiden.
“No,” she admitted, her voice cracking.
Fitzgilbert’s grin grew wider. Uglier. “And you and Rosalinde callmethe mercenary. Good, Celia. Very good. You must keep him in the dark, for no duke would want you if he knew the truth. And it is only a duke that will do now that you have struck this bargain. If you fail in landing this one, don’t think to come back to me with another earl or a marquess and expect that I will ever tell you a damn thing about your father. Am I making myself perfectly clear?”
She sucked in a broken breath. “Yes. Then do you accept the bargain? A duke for the truth?”
“Yes.” He held out a hand. “Shall we shake on it?”
She stared at his offering and instead stood and moved away from him. “No need. I know how your bargains work, Grandfather.”
He stood with her. “Of course you do. Now run along. I tire of your presence andyouhave much work to do. Don’t fail me this time.”
He pointed toward the door and she held her shoulders back as she trudged before it, trying to maintain as much dignity as she could. But in truth there was almost none to be had.
She had made a bargain with a demon. She had offered to trade Aiden for what her grandfather possessed.
She moved to the door and walked out into the sunshine, but there was no pleasure to be found in the warmth of the spring day. She took in big gulps of breath to clear her lungs of her grandfather’s presence, but there was little use. He was in her mind now, and no amount of fresh air or clean water or distance could get him out.
She walked out onto the street and staggered blindly toward her home. He’d said she was like him. And wasn’t it true? If she was willing to lie to Rosalinde and to use Aiden to get what she wanted, wasn’t sheexactlylike him?
She was about to turn down the next street when a carriage suddenly pulled up next to her. The door opened and she turned toward it. To her surprise, Aiden sat there, his eyes wide with astonishment.
“Celia?” he asked. “Are you…are youalone?”
She shifted, still reeling from her encounter with her grandfather. “I—yes,” she admitted.
His lips pursed and he held out a hand. “Get in, please.”
He said please, but there was no doubt he was ordering her to do so, not asking. She was too numb to argue and took his hand. He helped her into the carriage and a footman hopped down from the back to shut the door.
“Where to, Your Grace?” the young man asked.
Aiden stared at her, his gray gaze even and unwavering. “Drive around the block a dozen times, then ask me again,” he ordered.
The servant nodded at the order, then shut the door. After a moment, they began to move. Only then did Aiden reach out to take both her hands.
He frowned. “You are cold as ice, Celia. What in the world were you doing?”
She swallowed. Her encounter with her grandfather was difficult enough, but now to sit face to face with the man she’d offered to betray for her own purposes? That was impossible.
“I needed air,” she lied. “Just a walk.”
