Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle (233 page)

68

The Viscount Claims His Bride

husband and yet envious that

affections had

been given to another. 'You cared for the then?'

he asked curiously, wanting to know the nature of the relationship she'd shared with Cambourne.

'I grew fond of him. He was a good mentor to me and he denied me nothing. He let me use his wealth and his name to build a model school for miners'

children in the village. It's the one the vicar is mod-elling his own school after. He was a good and tolerant man. I sincerely missed him when he was gone.'

'But Lucien was there,' Valerian prodded.

'Yes. He helped with all the details of transferring the estates to me and to John's heir. That can be tedious work and Beldon was so busy settling the Pendennys estate in those days it was a relief not to burden him with my worries as well.'

sighed.

The bastard knows how much she's worth to the
farthing. He's had an intimate

at her holdings.

The thought was unworthy, but it was the first one that came to mind. How convenient everything was for the man. That raised an alarm for Valerian. He no more believed in 'conveniences' than he believed in Beldon's blasted 'serendipity'.

man made his

own luck. Lucien Canton appeared to have manufac-tured quite a lot of it.

Valerian's talk with

in the garden did not

go unremarked. Mandeville

let the length

of curtain drop in front of the library windows. 'Look at them, close as courters. He's holding her hand,

Scott

damn it. Canton, how could you let him upset things so quickly and so thoroughly? He's turning her head.'

Lucien pierced the man with a cold stare. 'I didn't know he was coming. He and her brother arrived unannounced, much like yourself,' he said pointedly.

'How was I to know that he was more than her brother's best friend?'

'You could tell the minute he saw her,' Danforth groused.

'We all could tell. It's amazing the house didn't spontaneously combust. But by then it was too late.

I could hardly expel him from the house. We have to be careful with Pendennys. We need his blunt.

Where he invests, others will follow. Giving his friend the cold shoulder won't help our cause, especially with Pendennys still sitting on the proverbial fence where the bank is concerned.'

Danforth huffed in concession to Lucien's wisdom.

the Dowager Duchess of Cambourne's affections would be enough to bring her brother into the fold. It's a bad time for a

in the works. Did you

read your father's letter? I hope it was important enough for me to hare down here from London.'

Lucien felt some inward satisfaction that Danforth didn't know the contents of the letter. The man was getting above himself to think he could scold a viscount's son. He had not missed Danforth's barb about the need to win Philippa's affections. But Danforth was wrong to assume his only role in this scheme was to play the suitor and woo Lady Cambourne.

70

The Viscount Claims His Bride

While the thought of finally having

in his

bed after all this time was pleasant enough, he'd invested the last three years of his life for a far more lucrative gambit than a roll in the ducal bed. He had an empire at stake.

Lucien gave Danforth a cold smile. 'My father writes that the London investors are in place. We may go ahead and officially announce that the Provincial Bank of Truro is open for business, with you, of course, as the nominal head.' It went unspoken between them the reasons for that choice. viscount or his son might sit on
an
executive oversight board of a bank, particularly if the bank was in his own area of the country, but he would never overtly sully himself with such work as the daily running of the bank.

Danforth rubbed his hands together in delight. 'I am glad to hear it.'

'As am I. The sooner we can begin loaning funds to the smelting companies and the mining corporations, the sooner we can have our cartel.'

'And the sooner we have our cartel, the sooner we control the market. Everyone will be in our pockets,'

Danforth remarked shrewdly.

'Not just the market, but the world,' Lucien said meaningfully. He didn't expect Danforth to understand. The man's financial acumen was daunting on a domestic scale, but he had yet to grasp the implications of the new British mining colonies springing up in the Bolivian and Argentine territories. That was Lucien's gift to the venture-fu-turis tic foresight.

Scott

His eyes strayed to the window. His foresight and exquisite planning would come to naught if he couldn't control the Cambourne interests. The strength of his cartel and its ability to regulate tin and copper prices would be minimal if the Cambourne mines and other associated industries remained outside the cartel's umbrella to compete against it with prices.

St Just was an unfortunate distraction, but not insurmountable. He would have to send to London for news about the returning viscount. With nine years in the diplomatic corps, there must be dirt on the man somewhere-real scandal beyond his rakish reputation with women.

Lucien had yet to meet a diplomat who couldn't be bribed to shape foreign policy. Not that there was anything wrong with greasing palms. Lucien was man enough of the world to know it took a bit of well-placed oil to keep that world running smoothly.

But

was another sort altogether. She

believed in ideals, like the miners' school the late duke had let her open.

Lucien rather thought she'd take badly to the news that the dashing St Just was not only a womaniser-a fact openly known in certain London circles-but a man who'd been involved with darker dealings, selling 'opportunities', as it were, to become involved in the great British Empire for a price-things like rights to waterways or trade commodities.

Those were things that quietly went to the highest bidders and not necessarily those who deserved them most. Such injustice would not sit well with Philippa.