CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“DARE I ASK what you think you are doing?” Dante’s curt tone shattered the relative stillness of the night.
The couple on the stone bench in the casino gardens sprang apart, the man immediately rising to his feet. “I beg your pardon.”
The light from a distant lamppost was dim but bright enough for Dante to see his mistake immediately.
“My apologies.” He grimaced. “I mistook you for someone else.” He paused. “But perhaps this is not the best place for whatever it is you are doing.” He nodded, turned on his heel and continued down the walk.
Damnation—where was his blasted niece? Dante had left Roz in the capable hands of the other ladies near the ballroom entry with instructions to wait for him there. The last thing he needed was to lose his sister as well as her daughter. Certainly a possibility if Harriet had been abducted by unknown persons either for financial gain or other nefarious reasons. They were on a coast after all and it would be remarkably easy to spirit a lovely young woman away to God knows where.
The ballroom was every bit as crowded as it had been earlier. Understandable as it wasn’t much past midnight. Even so, a great deal had happened since he had left earlier in the evening. A great deal had changed. His life would never be the same.
It would be nothing more than sheer luck if he found Harriet. Of course, luck did seem to be with him tonight. In spite of his childish behavior in recent days, the most remarkable woman in the world would soon be his wife. After a proper proposal, accompanied by the perfect ring—Roz would help him select one—and an extremely short engagement, Willie would be his. He ignored the absurd desire to grin like an idiot. That was entirely inappropriate given the circumstances. Nothing was more important than finding his niece at the moment.
If indeed luck was with him, then Harriet had neither been kidnapped nor was she running off with her determined suitor but was simply engaged in a clandestine meeting. He hoped his niece was far too clever to elope with the young man but he wouldn’t want to gamble on the intelligence of a girl in love. Still, he would wager that Harriet was the kind of young woman who would want a grand wedding with everyone who was anyone in attendance rather than the scandal that would accompany an unexpected union.
Fortunately, Dante had walked the garden paths frequently since their arrival in an effort to remove himself from the constant specter of Willie with Brookings. What an idiot Dante had been. Worse, he had wasted a great deal of time. Why, he could have been enjoying the fresh air and ocean breezes with Willie on his arm rather than stalking these paths alone.
“Well, that was embarrassing, Uncle Dante.” Harriet’s voice sounded behind him. He turned to find her perched on a bench, a handsome young man standing by her side. “I fully expected the man to punch you at any moment.”
Relief washed through Dante. “And whose fault is that?”
“Mother’s,” Harriet said with a shrug.
“Your mother is beside herself.” Dante’s gaze shifted between Harriet and her companion. “And you are?”
“I am sorry, sir.” The young man stepped forward. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bertram Goodwin.”
“Ah yes, Mr. Goodwin.” Dante narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been following us, haven’t you?”
“I’m not sure following is the right word, sir.” He shook his head. “That would be rather unnerving.”
“For those being followed you mean,” Dante said.
“Well, yes.” Goodwin nodded. “I can’t imagine the follower would be the least bit uncomfortable whereas the person being followed might be somewhat uneasy. Unless, of course, they were unaware of being followed, which would make the question moot, don’t you think? One can’t be concerned about something one doesn’t know.”
Dante stared. He was not about to start a philosophical debate with anyone at this hour. Either this young man was exceptionally brilliant or completely scattered. Regardless, he did seem to have turned the direction of the conversation.
“Accompanying is more accurate,” Harriet cut in, “albeit at a distance. At my invitation.”
“Your invitation?”
“Well, yes. I had no desire to leave him behind.” Harriet cast the young man a brilliant smile. “I should have been more circumspect tonight but I did think Mother wouldn’t notice my absence for a while.” She sighed. “We’d scarcely exchanged more than a few words when you appeared and it was obvious Mother had sent you to find me. We saw you come into the gardens and thought it would be fun to follow you for a bit.”
Goodwin shifted from foot to foot.
“Well, I thought it would be fun. But we weren’t the least bit good at it although you never noticed us.” Harriet smiled in a smug manner.
“Sorry, sir,” Goodwin said under his breath but he didn’t look at all sorry.
His sister had this all wrong. Goodwin wasn’t the bad influence here. If anything Harriet and Goodwin were two of a kind. Dante’s gaze shifted between the young people. “And why, Mr. Goodwin, did you think it wise to follow Harriet—”
“Accompany,” Harriet interjected.
Dante ignored her. “Well?”
“Because...” Sheer panic shone in Goodwin’s eyes. He glanced at Harriet. She nodded and the young man squared his shoulders. “Because she’s beautiful and delightful and magnificent and I don’t want to live a moment without her.”
Harriet smirked in satisfaction. Good Lord. The girl was leading this poor boy around by his nose. And Goodwin was too smitten to notice or care.
“And your intentions?”
“I intend to marry her, sir,” Goodwin said staunchly.
“But not yet,” Harriet added quickly. “If I marry without permission before the age of twenty-five, I won’t get my dowry. It’s a nasty threat and Mother is holding it over my head. Can you imagine such a thing, Uncle Dante?”
“It makes perfect sense to me.” Apparently, Roz knew her daughter well.
“You didn’t think we were going to run off tonight, did you? I would never be silly enough to elope and become the subject of gossip and scandal.” She sniffed. “I have no intention of becoming another Lady Bascombe.”
“Oh?”
There must have been something in the tone of his voice.
“Not that she isn’t rather respectable now, of course,” Harriet said quickly. “And Mother does like her. One couldn’t get a better recommendation than Mother’s approval.”
“You would be wise to remember that, Harriett.” Dante turned his attention to Goodwin. “Do you intend to continue accompanying us?”
“Of course he does,” Harriet said firmly.
Goodwin straightened. “Yes, sir.”
“I see.” He thought for a moment. “And where are you staying?”
“I had friends in Paris so I stayed with them.” Goodwin chose his words carefully. “Here, I, um, well—”
“Bertie really doesn’t have any money for hotels,” Harriet blurted. “Poor dear.”
“I’ve been sleeping on the beach, sir,” Goodwin said reluctantly. “And using the facilities at the casino. But I do have enough for train fare.”
“Don’t you think it might be wiser to use that money to fund your way home?”
“Absolutely not, sir.” Bertie shot an adoring look at Harriet. “I would follow Harriet anywhere and I would do so forever.”
Harriet beamed.
“Forever is a very long time, Mr. Goodwin.” Dante studied him closely. “How old are you?”
“I passed twenty-one on my last birthday, sir.”
Dante considered the couple for a moment. There were only two ways to resolve this. Dante could insist Bertie return home or at least stop accompanying them and threaten to have him arrested if he didn’t. Roz would like that but it could, as well, provoke Harriet and, in spite of her claims, she might decide to elope with him after all. There was nothing more appealing than forbidden love. Or Dante could accept Bertie at his word.
“Very well then, Mr. Goodwin,” Dante said firmly. “If you are determined to continue your accompaniment, you shall do it where I can keep an eye on you.” He glanced at Harriet. “On both of you.”
Harriet’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean—” Roz wasn’t going to like this one bit “—Mr. Goodwin is now an official member of our party. Bertie.” Dante adopted his most pleasant expression. “From now on, you will share my rooms. And I am going to be right by your side every minute. Unless you have some objection?”
Poor, dear Bertie swallowed hard. “Not at all, sir.”
“Thank you, Uncle Dante.” Harriet beamed. “I think it’s a brilliant idea.” A wicked light shone in the girl’s eyes. “I can’t wait to tell Mother.”
* * *
“YOU DID WHAT?” Roz stared at him as if he had lost his mind.
“Consider it for a moment, Roz. You’ll see it makes perfect sense.”
Dante had left Bertie in his new accommodations, sent a bellboy to find Roz as well as deliver a note to Willie telling her Harriet was safe, and then escorted Harriet to her rooms. She and her mother had a suite similar to Dante’s and he had waited for his sister in the parlor.
“It makes no sense whatsoever. It’s like saying to the fox ‘Here is the henhouse. Please come in. Do you see anything you like?’”
“Excellent analogy but you’re wrong. People always want what they aren’t supposed to have. If we welcome this young man, he will become far less attractive. Besides, if he travels with us, we’ll be better able to keep watch on them both.”
“You do have a point.” Roz glanced at the bedroom door. No doubt Harriet had her ear pressed against it on the other side.
“Unless you have a better idea.”
“I have a number of better ideas.” She huffed. “Unfortunately, they are all either legally or morally unacceptable.”
“Then we shall definitely avoid them.”
“But they would be most satisfying.” She sighed then eyed him skeptically. “You do realize having Mr. Goodwin in your keeping might make your quest for forgiveness a bit more difficult.”
“Oh, Willie has already forgiven me,” he said smugly.
“Thank you for confirming my suspicions. While I do appreciate your effort at discretion you should know a man who is awakened in the night does not look the same as one who has not been to sleep. The—” she waved absently at his hair “—dishevelment is decidedly different. In addition, your clothes and hers were strewn about the parlor.”
He smoothed his hair. “I assumed you wouldn’t approve.”
“Why? Because it’s terribly improper, immoral and scandalous?”
“All right,” he said slowly.
“Apparently, you have not noticed but I stopped being horribly narrow-minded about that sort of thing years ago. Mind you, I do not approve of infidelity or flagrant immorality but I have come to accept that even the best of us are fallible.” She paused. “Not me, of course, but most people.”
“So you approve?”
“Of your activities tonight? Good Lord, no.” She shrugged. “But apparently I don’t entirely disapprove either as I don’t disapprove of Willie.”
“Excellent.” He grinned.
“So do you now plan to marry her?”
“I do. As soon as I propose properly.” He chuckled. “She’s insisting on that and I suspect she wants a proper wedding, as well.”
“Good. It does seem that all has worked out as it should, then. You end up with both Willie and the Portinari. Once she marries you, the painting is yours and you can return it to the museum where it belongs.”
Bloody hell! He stared at his sister.
“You have told her about the painting, haven’t you?” Roz said slowly.
“I intended to.”
Roz stared. “You can’t possibly be this obtuse.”
“Apparently, I can,” he snapped. “What am I going to do now?”
“I don’t know but you had better think of something.” She huffed. “Something brilliant. Anything less will simply not do.”
“Yes, well, brilliant is a problem, isn’t it?” Without thinking he paced the room. He’d been faced with other dilemmas before. Tricky complicated messes that required clever ideas and superb negotiation to unravel and resolve. “I could pretend to know nothing about the painting and be quite shocked when she reclaims it.”
“And assert it’s just a startling coincidence when she discovers it’s the centerpiece of a trio of paintings and the museum you oversee—your grandfather’s collection—a collection you know like the back of your hand, has the matching works? Oh yes, that is brilliant.”
“Do you have a better idea? And frankly, Roz, I don’t care if it’s immoral or illegal.”
“Good Lord, you are desperate.”
“You’ve noticed that, have you?” He blew a long breath and shook his head. “I can’t lose her, Roz.”
“I warned you, if you didn’t tell her the truth you risked losing her and the painting.”
“Apparently, you were right.”
“You should have listened to me.”
“Yes, well, I didn’t.” He heaved a frustrated sigh. “I tried to tell her, I really did. But the perfect moment never presented itself.”
“Although I daresay there were any number of imperfect moments.”
“Perhaps but something like this needs to be handled carefully.”
“Perfect is no longer a possibility.” She shook her head. “You are—”
“An idiot,” he snapped. “Yes, I know.” A tiny ray of hope, a light in the darkness flickered and he grabbed on to it. “But she’s in love with me, Roz. She’ll forgive me.”
“And once again you have made my point.”
“I’ll think of something.”
“There is only one possible way to salvage this and even that is questionable.” She met his gaze directly. “You have to tell her everything.”
“Yes, I know.”
“And you have to tell her at once.”
“I realize that.”
“I daresay, at this point, she will not take your revelations well. When we reach Venice it will be too late.” A warning sounded in her voice. “It might already be too late.”
“I know that, as well.”
“You have four days until we arrive in Venice.”
“I am aware of our itinerary.”
“It’s not enough to know everything about the mess you’ve made, now you have to step up and do something to fix it. If that is even possible.” She shook her head. “You are like a runaway carriage about to plunge over a cliff. If you do nothing to stop it...” She cast him a sympathetic look. “I would hate to see your heart truly broken, Dante, but I fear it will be unless you tread very carefully.”
“I intend to.”
“You will have no one to blame but yourself.”
“For God’s sake, Roz!” Did she have to be so bloody superior all the time? “I understand all the ramifications here. Everything that might happen, everything I stand to lose!”
Roz stared in surprise, obviously taken aback by his words. In spite of his successes in life, she still considered him her senseless little brother. “Well, as long as you know...”
“Believe me, I do!” Telling Willie everything now, after she’d shared his bed, after he’d declared his love and his intention to marry her would have to be handled carefully. He needed the right moment and the right words. Anything less would spell disaster. He shook his head. “What I don’t know is how I’m going to stop that damn carriage from plummeting over that blasted cliff.”
And taking him along with it.