He resisted the urge to lean forward. “What makes you think I am doing that?”
“The columns,” she said pointedly. “Today’s was the best yet.”
Of course it was. It was the one he’d written after the night in his swimming pool, when he’d hated and adored her all at once.
“It made her seem positively respectable,” Caroline added.
He blinked. “She is respectable.” He ignored the fact that he’d made love to the woman in question not an hour earlier.
She met his eyes, all seriousness. “You are aware that I am a bastard, are you not?”
Good Lord. The child was as brazen as her mother. She shouldn’t even know the damn word.
But she reminded him too much of another girl, another time.
The same word, whispered as he walked past with his mother. His sister.
“I never want to hear you say that word again.”
“Why not?” she asked. “It’s what I am. Others use it.”
“They won’t once your mother and I are through with them.”
“They will,” she replied. “They just won’t do it to my face.”
She was too wise, this girl. Knew too much about the world. And he – who had only known her for a week – hated that she had no choice but to know it. That her life had always been embroiled in scandal and muck.
All that could be done was to give her a chance at propriety. Which was why Georgiana had come to him. Together, they could give Caroline that opportunity, just as he’d given it to Cynthia all those years ago.
And it was in that moment that he understood why Georgiana hid from him.
He didn’t know how he hadn’t seen it before – how he hadn’t recognized the way she moved the pieces across the chessboard of Society. Hadn’t he done the same? Hadn’t he packed up his sister and run into the night, afraid of being caught, but even more terrified of leaving her there, in that place, with those people who judged her with every breath? Hadn’t he built this life to keep Cynthia safe?
To keep their secrets?
And now, as he stared at Georgiana’s daughter, he understood that she was doing what she could to save Caroline. This girl, with her smart mouth and her independent spirit and her winning smiles – Georgiana would do anything to save her. To give her the life Georgiana had not had. To keep her secrets.
And that meant keeping Chase’s secrets, too.
How many times had he seen Chase destroy a man? How many times had a debt been collected to the demolition of a history, a life, a family?
How many times had West aided and abetted those destructions?
Granted, they had always been men who deserved the demolition, but that only made it more tempting to partner with him. It was easy to climb into bed with Chase. But virtually impossible to climb out.
There had been resignation in Georgiana’s eyes earlier – when he’d left her – as though she had no choice but to play Chase’s guardian.
To play his fool.
And now, staring at this girl, he understood why.
Chase held too much power over her.
Chase held too much power over every one of them.
No one had ever resisted his sway.
No one had ever been strong enough to do it.
Until now.
“I am not a fool,” the child across the desk told him.
“I never said you were,” he replied.
“I know the way of the world,” she insisted, “and I see what my mother is doing. What she’s asked you to do for her. But it isn’t right.”
He could have denied the charges, but this girl, who had spent her whole life in darkness, deserved light. “She wants to marry.”
“She doesn’t want to marry. Anyone can see that.”
He changed tack. “Sometimes, you make choices to protect the ones you love. To keep them happy.”
She narrowed her gaze on him, and he was instantly uncomfortable with the knowledge there. “Have you done that?”
He had built a life on it. “Yes.”
She watched him for a long moment, as though she could see the truth in him. Finally she said, “Was it worth it?”
It had left him deep in debt to Tremley, a man who was willing to do anything to keep his power. It had built him a life of dependence on informants and scandalmongers. But it had also built his empire, established his power. Kept Cynthia safe.
And it would keep Georgiana and Caroline safe, as well.
Even if it would not make him worthy of them.
“I would do it again without question.”
She thought on that. “What about keeping my mother happy?”
He would do that, too, if only she’d let him.
He smiled at the girl. “Your mother has made her goals clear.”
“Me, in a house somewhere, preparing for Society events.”
He nodded once. “Eventually. Until then, I think she’d just like you to be happy.”
There was a long silence, until Caroline said, “Do you have children?”
“I do not,” he replied. But as he looked at this girl, all strength and smarts, like her mother, he thought perhaps he might like one or two.
“It isn’t only she who wants me happy,” she said after a long pause. “I wish her happy, as well.”
As did he. Quite desperately.
He stood, having every intention of coming around the desk to – he didn’t know what – but he hoped it would be the right thing to comfort this girl who so clearly wanted to have some control over her life.