The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [25]
“I’m very wealthy, ladies,” Richard said. “I had no need to marry Christiana for money.”
“Then why did you marry her?” Suzette demanded.
Daniel grimaced, wondering how Richard was going to answer that one.
“I care about Christiana and her happiness,” Richard said finally. Apparently the women weren’t buying that, which Daniel supposed wasn’t surprising considering they thought Richard was Dicky and had treated his wife horribly this last year. At least that was what Daniel presumed when Richard sighed and added, “My behavior this last year is a direct result of what happened with my brother. I—”
“Oh,” Lisa interrupted. “Of course.”
“Of course what?” Suzette asked suspiciously.
“Don’t you see, Suzette? No doubt in his heart of hearts he has always felt guilty for surviving the fire that killed his brother.”
Daniel rolled his eyes at the words. Richard had absolutely nothing to feel guilty about, and he didn’t think George had possessed the capacity to feel guilt, but Lisa was not done.
“Meeting and falling in love with Chrissy must have been a balm to his wounded soul,” Lisa continued in earnest tones. “But then they married and moved here, living just up the street from the charred remains of the townhouse where his poor brother died. It must be a daily reminder of his death. His guilt would have returned and trebled, because he was no longer experiencing just the guilt of surviving while his brother didn’t, but now also for finding a love and happiness his poor dead brother would never have . . . His soul tortured, his spirit wounded, he lashed out at Chrissy, the woman he loved, destroying her love and their relationship out of the guilt consuming him.”
Daniel was so amazed at the dramatic drivel young Lisa had come up with from one simple comment that he almost laughed out loud. The girl might have just a bit too much of a romantic bent for her own good. She needed looking after, that one, and Daniel decided he would point out as much to Richard. If the man stayed married to Christiana, he would really have to look out for the girl.
“Is this true?” Suzette asked, sounding like a suspicious nanny. It was a tone Daniel had heard often as a child, though from his mother, not a nanny. They hadn’t been able to afford a nanny. Oddly enough, he suddenly found himself imagining Suzette as that nonexistent nanny, though really the gown he pictured her in as that nanny was nothing a respectable nanny would wear and covered less than it revealed as she approached him in his mind with a naughty smile and a spanking paddle in hand.
“Spank me,” he breathed on a sigh, and then muttered, “Better yet, let me spank you.” A vision immediately rose in his mind of her turning and slowly pulling up her scandalously short, ankle-revealing skirt to present him with a view of her very fine bottom.
That vision died an abrupt death when Richard’s voice intruded, soaked with melodrama as he said, “Guilt can lead a man to act like an ass and do the most foolish of things.”
Daniel almost snorted at that. He was standing there in a dark room all but dancing with a dead man while having the most ridiculous sexual fantasies about Suzette. All this while waiting to be able to slip out of the house undiscovered. Oh yes, guilt—and many other emotions—made a man do foolish things.
“Please, Suzette. Can we not at least hear him out?” Lisa pleaded.
There was a moment of silence and then Suzette answered, her voice exasperated, “Very well, but only because Christiana is stuck with him now.”
“I knew it could not have been all pretense when you were courting Christiana,” Lisa said happily, her voice fading as they apparently, finally, moved away from the door.
Daniel pressed his ear to the door to listen as the muffled voices grew fainter. Once he could no longer hear them, he waited another moment to be sure they hadn’t just fallen briefly silent, then reached for the doorknob and eased the door open. After