The Many Sins Of Lord Cameron (MacKenzies & McBrides #3)(60)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

“Yes, but he can’t get the idea out of his thick head. Threatens to go to the police about it, or tries to blackmail Dad for keeping me away from him.” Daniel laughed, his bruised eye swelling almost shut. “Durand doesn’t really want a son hanging on him, he just likes to make trouble and get money out of Dad. Durand couldn’t stand the expense of me.”

Cameron made Daniel drop the subject, but he was tight- lipped for the rest of the day.

That night, at the casino, Cameron abruptly abandoned a winning hand of baccarat to stride out of the card room to a slender black-haired man whose satin-lined opera cloak hung in limp folds on his bony frame. Patrons of the casino scurried out of Cameron’s way, opening a path between him and the dark-haired man.

Cameron grabbed the man by the neck and marched him into the rotunda and out the front doors. No one stopped him—the discreet guards and even the butterflies pretended to pay attention to something else.

Cameron pushed Durand down the drive in front of the pseudoclassical building, Ainsley pattering after them in her tight evening frock and high-heeled slippers. Cameron propelled the man along until they reached a place where one of the winding streets dropped to a street below it.

Ainsley followed, heart in her throat. She didn’t blame Cameron for his anger, but who knew what Cameron would do to Durand? Or how many toughs Durand had waiting in the shadows to beat Cameron to a pulp?

She rounded the corner just as Cameron threw Durand into a wall. The man tried to guard himself, but Cameron hoisted Durand up by his cloak.

“You touch my son again,” Cameron said clearly, “and I’ll kill you.”

“Your son?” Durand spoke French to Cameron’s English, but Ainsley understood well enough. “My Elizabeth said you couldn’t make your c**k dance enough to give her a son. She said she’d fooled you well and good with my seed. The boy is mine.”

“She was a f**king liar, Durand.”

Durand took a swing at him, and Cameron easily caught his fist.

“She told me what you did to her, you filth,” Durand cried. “She should have had me there to hold you down when she took her revenge the only way she knew how. Elizabeth gave you what you deserved, but if I’d been there, I’d have driven that poker up your ass until I ripped your heart out of your backside.”

Cameron slammed the man into the wall again, and Durand’s head knocked against the bricks.

“I don’t give a damn what you say to me, but if you touch Daniel again, if you so much as look at him, I’ll break your bloody neck. Do you understand?”

Durand tried to spit at him, but Cameron smacked his head into the wall again. “I said, do you understand?”

Durand finally nodded, gasping. Cameron hauled the struggling man by his collar across the narrow street and dropped him over a low wall side to the street below. The count screamed as he went, then the scream abruptly cut off.

Chapter 23

Ainsley rushed to Cameron. “Good heavens, you didn’t kill him, did you?”

Cameron glanced over the wall. “No, he’s landed in a wagon. Full of shit.”

Ainsley pressed her hand over her mouth, stemming a hysterical laugh.

Cameron focused on her as though just seeing her. “Ainsley, what the devil are you doing out here?”

“Following you. I was afraid his thugs would waylay you.”

“And if they had, what would you have done? Beaten them off with your fan?”

“I was going to shout for the police. I can scream very loudly.”

Cameron took Ainsley’s arm and steered her back toward the casino, where a crowd pretending not to be interested had gathered. “We’re leaving.”

“That’s likely a good idea.”

Cameron was already signaling for his servant to run for his carriage. Another hurried back inside for Ainsley’s wraps, emerging with them as the carriage rolled up.

Ainsley and Cameron rode in silence as the coach bumped its way back to the hotel, Cameron staring out of the window.

She sensed his restlessness and knew that but for her presence, he’d have been striding up and down the streets of Monte Carlo to burn off his rage. Cameron was escorting Ainsley home for her protection, not because he wanted to go himself.

“I thought you were going to kill him,” she said into the darkness.

Cameron looked down at her. “Hmm?”

“Durand. You couldn’t have known that wagon would be there.”

His eyes glinted. “The drop wasn’t that high. I wanted to scare him off. I am many things, my wife, but not a murderer.”

“Not when there’s a cartload of dung handy, certainly.”

“I hope it ruined his opera cloak. I hate the damn things.”

Ainsley wormed her fingers under the crook of his arm, felt his rigidity, his knowledge that she’d heard every word Durand had said. “I dislike to ask an obvious question,” she said. “but why did you marry Lady Elizabeth in the first place?”

Cameron grunted. “She dazzled me, I suppose. I was still at university, saw a glamorous woman, and I snatched her up. I found out too late what she was like, and by then, she was carrying Daniel.”

And Cameron had wanted to keep her close to protect the unborn Daniel. “I know you don’t wish me to say this, but I’m sorry,” Ainsley said. “I’m sorry about all that’s happened to you. It shouldn’t have.”

Cameron rested his big hand over hers. “But it did. And I live with the ghosts.” He looked down at her, his eyes holding more warmth. “The ghosts haven’t plagued me as much lately.”

Now she did dare to snuggle into him, and he kept hold of her hand.

“I had some other news today,” Cameron said after a time. “From Pierson. I meant to tell you, but then Daniel . . .”

Ainsley felt a chill. “About Jasmine? Is she all right?”

“She’s fine, or at least, I think she is. I wrote to Pierson, and I got his answer today. Bloody man won’t see reason. I want that horse, Ainsley.”

“And he won’t sell?”

“No, but I’ve at least browbeaten him into letting me train her again. He now informs me I will do it for no training fee, in return for the money he lost because I couldn’t make her win at Doncaster.” Cameron made a noise of disgust. “I wager all other trainers turned him away, and he’s desperate. He wants to pretend he’s not desperate, that he still has the upper hand. Ingrate.”