Clearly, with her next words, Nicola read Cash’s face as well.
“She will too,” Nicola said softly, her eyes tender on Cash even as her words scored his soul. Nicola carried on. “But since she now has you, it’ll be like she misses her parents. People she loves but who’re now lost. She’ll never stop loving him but she’s a sweet girl with a lot of love to give and a lot of life in front of her.” Nicola moved forward, her hand caught Cash’s and squeezed. “Cash, my dearest, she’ll always love him but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have plenty of love to give to you.”
For some reason unknown to him, Cash confided, “I don’t like to share.”
Nicola laughed softly while giving his hand another squeeze before dropping it.
“Well, that doesn’t surprise me,” she commented then said sagely, “however I figure you’ll decide you can, even if you don’t like it.”
He hated to admit it but he knew she was not wrong.
He grinned down at her as he lifted his hand to her face, his thumb sliding across her still smooth cheek. It was a gesture twenty-four hours ago he would never have made and likely she would not have accepted.
Now, however, she turned her face into his hand and smiled.
Witnessing her unguarded beauty Cash thought not for the first time that his uncle was the greatest of fools.
He dropped his hand and muttered, “Do you want me to go down and order you some coffee?”
She shook her head. “I’ll do it in a minute.”
Cash nodded and moved away, glancing back at the door to see her resume her seat. She pulled her feet back up on its edge, a position he instinctively knew she’d taken thousands of times in the past and she would have the opportunity to assume thousands more times in the future.
Yes, he thought, justice.
He continued down the hall and was passing Suzanne’s door when it was yanked open, Cash’s hand was caught and he was pulled roughly into the room.
Cash’s body froze, it turned, he gritted his teeth and his eyes sliced to Suzanne.
She’d closed the door and was standing in front of it wearing nothing but a short, revealing peach nightgown edged with beige lace and a matching short dressing gown which was hanging open widely, leaving very little to the imagination.
He was disappointed her brief demonstration of humanity last night didn’t last long. He also had every intention of removing her bodily from the door if he had to.
“Suzanne, move out of my way,” he demanded.
“Five minutes, Cash,” she requested softly and his eyes drilled into hers.
He saw with vague surprise there was no malice or spitefulness nor any deviousness. Her blue eyes were open, warm and entreating and he thought she’d never looked prettier.
“Five minutes,” she repeated on a whispered plea.
Cash planted his feet and crossed his arms on his chest.
“Five minutes,” he agreed on an unhappy growl.
She opened her mouth then closed it. She opened it again then closed it.
She looked away and lifted her hand, fingers sifting through her hair at her forehead, pulling it away from her face in an uncertain and even endearing way that reminded him of Abby.
Her eyes came back to his. “This isn’t easy for me to say.”
“Whatever it is you have four minutes and thirty seconds to say it.”
She grabbed the edges of her dressing gown and wrapped them tightly around her body.
She sucked in her lips and then spoke so quickly it was as if she didn’t get it all out as fast as she could, she would lose the ability to speak for the rest of her life.
“When I was a kid, I thought Vivianna was my friend. She liked me. She talked to me. She was always there when Alistair was mean to me. She always made me feel better.” Her arms wrapped tighter around her body as she kept going. “She’d tell me stories about the Beaumaris men, their beauty, their virility, their honour, pride, stubbornness, confidence, arrogance. Cash, she had hundreds of stories about the masters of this castle, hundreds of romantic stories about generation after generation of men she loved.”
Cash misread her meaning and stated, “Vivianna is gone, Suzanne.”
“I know and I won’t miss her,” Suzanne replied swiftly. “What I’m saying is a little girl who lost her father finds herself in a big, creepy castle with a stepdad who’s a git. To a girl like that, those stories were…” she hesitated and continued on a whisper, “those stories meant the world to me.” Cash remained silent and Suzanne carried on in a voice so soft he almost couldn’t hear her. “Then you came to visit.”
The realisation of what she was saying was so profound Cash’s body jerked with it. His tone was gentle when he murmured, “Suzanne.
She cut him off. “I’ve been in love with you since I was nine years old.”
Cash sighed. This he did not need.
“It’s okay,” Suzanne said hurriedly. “All this, all I’ve done these past months wasn’t because I loved you. Well, not entirely or at least not the way you’d think.”
“Suzanne –” Cash started again but she was back to speaking swiftly.
“It was because Vivianna told me about Alistair. It was because she knew you were the real master of this castle, that she knew he’d murdered Anthony and she knew he’d try to murder you. I behaved the way I behaved to you, and then Abby, to drive you away.”
Cash’s body froze at learning this knowledge but Suzanne didn’t notice and she carried on.
“I wanted to make it so unpleasant for you that you’d give up whatever it was you were doing all of a sudden reconciled with Alistair.” She started to take a step closer to Cash but thought better of it and stopped. “She was in the room, Cash. Vivianna was, when Abby walked in that first time. You weren’t there, she wasn’t allowing herself to be seen but I felt it the minute Abby walked in. I saw Abby, I felt Vivianna’s wrath and I knew, I absolutely knew Vivianna meant her harm. Before dinner I did what I could both to make you angry and Abby uncomfortable enough to go but you didn’t. After dinner I got out of there the first chance I could, went to my room and acted out a crying rage which was when she normally would visit me. I hoped she’d come to me instead of doing anything to Abby.” She paused, took in a breath, and went on. “She didn’t come. She hurt Abby instead.”
Cash watched as Suzanne closed her eyes and then opened them.
They focused on Cash and he saw the pain there before she whispered, “I know you don’t like me and I know the reason you don’t like me is because of the way I behaved but I had to do something, didn’t I?”
Her tone was so uncertain, so un-Suzanne, Cash didn’t know what to make of her. He’d known the woman in front of him for a year (twenty-four of them, if you counted when he’d visited in his teens) but he’d never met her.
“You should have said something,” Cash told her brusquely.
She shook her head and looked away. “Right,” she muttered and turned to him again talking now in a high, sarcastic voice. “Um, Cash, you know, your uncle killed your Dad and I’m guessing you’re next. Oh, and by the way, I know that because a ghost told me and she’s a nasty piece of work who wants to do harm to your girlfriend.” She paused before asking irritably, “Is that what I should have said?”
“Suzanne –” Cash began but her expression changed to one with which he was far more familiar.
She moved toward him but not to him. She began to walk right by him muttering, “I knew I shouldn’t have bothered.”
But Cash’s hand came up and grasped her arm, stopping her.
She looked up at him, eyes narrowed and cruel, and he warned, “Don’t go back to the bitch, Suzanne.”