“You were explaining how your first attempt at abducting me failed,” Camilla said.
Victor nodded. “Right.” He settled back against the settee. “In all honesty, I decided after that fiasco, and after you abruptly left the Hudson River Valley, although I knew where you went because my informant fired off a telegram to me practically the moment your decision was made to leave, that I would abandon my desire to hold you for ransom. The logistics of planning an attack in West Virginia were worse than even Newport, but then...” He nodded to George. “He arrived in New York, and lo and behold, he started asking around, looking for someone who could run you down. He said he’d pay handsomely, and wouldn’t you know—someone told him to contact me.”
Camilla’s attention immediately shot to George. “You contacted an underworld crime boss to track me down instead of looking around for a reputable agency such as the Pinkertons, or better yet, a local agency such as the Accounting Firm?”
“I couldn’t have used that accounting firm since yourdearfriend, Gideon Abbott, who I’ve since learned is a silent partner in that firm, sought me out in London, wanting to have a little chat with me.” George shook his head. “It wasn’t a pleasant chat. He even went so far as to tell me not to contact you again after he learned I was preparing to depart for New York with the sole intention of reconnecting with you. Since I’m not a man to be ordered about, I boarded the first steamship out of London, determined to beat Gideon back to the city.”
“Why were you so determined?”
George smiled. “I would think that’s obvious, darling. I wanted to have time to convince you, without Gideon’s interference, that I’d made a grave error all those years ago and am now determined to spend the rest of my days proving to you that you’re the love of my life.”
It was incredibly difficult to refuse the urge to bang her head against the nearest wall.
She settled for drawing in a calming breath instead. “If you ask me, I think it’s far more likely that you rushed across an entire ocean to beat Gideon here since you’re desperate to get your hands on the trust fund I gained access to when I turned twenty-five.”
“You have a trust fund?” George asked.
She couldn’t help herself, she snorted, earning a widening of the eyes from George in the process.
“You know very well I have a trust fund, as I told you about it directly after I suggested we run off together, since my father wasn’t going to settle a dowry on me.”
“Ah,thattrust fund, the one you wouldn’t have been able to access for seven or eight years after we would have gotten married.”
“That’s the one, and because I know you remember it, I’m now convinced that the real reason you want to reconnect with me is because you’ve exhausted Eleanor’s fortune, which is why you divorced her, and are now desperate to convince me you’re madly in love with me in order to avoid finding yourself in a paupers’ prison.”
“I’m not going to dignify that nonsense with a reply,” George said before he turned his head and began taking a pointed interest in a vase of flowers resting on the small table beside him.
“All this chatter I’m hearing certainly puts an interesting twist on things,” Victor proclaimed right as the door opened and another man dressed in black came into the room, pushing a coffee cart. After asking Camilla which beverage she preferred, he poured her a cup of coffee, added cream and sugar, stirred it exactly twice, which left her lips twitching, and gave it to her. He poured a cup for Victor, then quit the room, leaving George looking more than outraged.
“You should have a word with your servant,” George snapped, rising to his feet to pour out his own cup, something he’d probably never done in his life.
“I think it would be more prudent to have a word with you,” Victor countered, waiting until George retook his seat before he took a sip of coffee and set aside the cup. “Seems to me you’ve landed in a bit of a pickle because, to remind you, you owe me a handsome fee for locating Miss Pierpont. You also owe me another substantial amount of money since you suffered heavy losses at one of my gambling dens, being so foolish as to have bet the fee money you were supposed to give me for bringing Miss Pierpont back to the city. If that weren’t bad enough, you then convinced the manager of my den to provide you with credit, using your so-called affiliation with Miss Pierpont as collateral, and then losing everything but your shirt when my manager finally curtailed your credit line after you suffered obscene losses.”
“The only reason I kept my shirt was because one of your barmaids spilled wine on it and no one would take it to put toward my debt.”
“Be that as it may, you told me you’d have my money, after I had you escorted here to assure you didn’t try to skip town without paying me, once Miss Pierpont returned to the city.” Victor gavea crack of his knuckles. “I’m getting the distinct impression she’s not going to lift a finger to address your debt.”
Camilla quirked a brow George’s way. “Am I to understand that you promised Victor, a man with a formidable reputation, that I’d bail you out?”
“Of course, because, even though you’re still sore at me for not marrying you, I know you still love me and certainly won’t want to see me, as Victor has threatened, lose a finger or worse—an ear.”
“Prepare to be earless.”
As George took to gaping at her, Victor laughed. “I do believe I like you, Miss Pierpont.”
“Enough to let me go?”
“Not quite that much.”
“Pity.”
“Well, indeed, but what’s more of a pity is what I’m going to have to do to George now that I know he can’t honor his debt to me.”
It wasn’t a surprise when George rose to his feet and began pacing around the room, then stopped in his tracks and smiled. “I think there’s an easy solution to this.” He nodded to Camilla before he turned to Victor. “Even though it doesn’t seem as if she’s as enamored with me as she once was, I imagine she wouldn’t hesitate to marry me if we were found in a, well, compromising setting. All we need to do is arrange for someone to find us alone together, and then you’ll get your fee plus my gambling debts returned to you.”
Temper was swift and had Camilla rising from her chair and stalking George’s way. “That’s the most ridiculous plan I’ve ever heard, and even if we were discovered alone together, I would never marry you.”
“You will if you’re about to lose your reputation.”
