Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(127)

“You do?” she breathed.

“Yes,” he said shortly, “I do.”

“How… when…” she stammered, “how?”

Cash shifted, twisting her so her back was against the arm of the chair, he pulled her body further across his lap, her legs were hanging over the other arm and his torso was partially resting on hers. It was a far more comfortable and intimate position and Abby’s brain registered just how much she liked it when he continued.

“When my father died, the police suspected Alistair but couldn’t pin anything on him. Even though the trail was cold, there was enough to explore so I took up the threads of their investigations. I found out the man who tampered with the brakes of my father’s car got nicked for another job. He told his cellmate what he’d done. With a little persuasion, his cellmate told me.”

Abby felt her heart start to beat faster.

“You should go to the police,” she encouraged.

Cash shook his head. “The person who Alistair paid to do it is now dead. Died in prison, diabetes. His cellmate is still alive but it’s hearsay. There’s no point.”

Abby put her hands to his neck and asked, “If you know, then how can you be here? How can you sit at his table? How can you –”

Cash interrupted her. “It’s my table, Abby.”

“You know that now,” she returned, “but you just found out Alistair isn’t a Beaumaris.”

“It’s been my table for two months,” Cash replied and Abby’s breath stuck in her throat. “Alistair is in debt up to his teeth. I bought the notes. If he paid the loans he’s taken against the castle, which he doesn’t, he’d be paying me.”

Abby felt her eyes grow round and Cash got closer.

“That’s why you’re here, darling. I’ve been playing with him for a year, making him think I might be interested in one of his stepdaughters in order to keep his attention off the fact I was stealing his house from under his nose. This weekend you’re here to rub his face in one failure, his not securing a Beaumaris to marry one of his stepdaughters, while I rub his nose in the ultimate failure for any Beaumaris, true or not, by informing him he needs to pack his bags and get… the f**k… out.”

Abby stared at him then whispered, “You’ve owned it all along?”

Cash nodded then went on. “I took it and then you gave me proof that it was mine in the first place. Either way, he’s out.”

Abby was stunned. Abby was also worried.

“But, what about Nicola?” Abby asked.

Cash muttered dryly, “She can stay.”

“Fenella? Honor?” Abby pressed.

His head descended and his mouth touched her collarbone. “I’m beginning to like them. You bring out the best in people. They can stay too,” he replied generously, Abby opened her mouth again but Cash beat her to it when his head came up and he stated flatly, “Suzanne goes.”

Abby stared at him a moment then her voice went soft. “So all this time, you knew your Dad wanted to marry your Mom?”

He shook his head, his jaw went hard as did his eyes and he muttered, “That was news.”

“Did you know he wanted you to inherit?” Abby asked.

“I knew he was scrutinising the covenant. I guessed why,” Cash replied.

“You need to talk to Angus,” Abby told him.

“I’ll talk to Angus, after you’re safe,” Cash agreed. “All of this will happen after we know you’re safe.”

“Cash –” Abby started to argue, thinking it was Priority One that Alistair get his due.

“Abby,” he broke in, “after you’re safe.”

Abby didn’t let it go. “You can’t wait! He killed your father, Cash. You’ve been working on this for –”

He cut her off. “After you’re safe.”

“Cash!” she snapped and his face came close to hers.

“After… you’re… f*cking… safe,” he enunciated clearly, slowly and more than a little inflexibly.

All right then, after she was safe it was.

All of a sudden, all he said, what he’d done, dawned on her.

And she felt something odd steal over her, odd and thrilling.

She was, she realised, proud of him. It wasn’t her place to be proud but she couldn’t help it, she was.

And, she thought, the man who held her in his lap, in a turret, in his ancestral home, a home he’d been born to but denied and then cheated but he’d won it all the same, that man, Abby concluded, should celebrate.

And she knew exactly how he should do it.

Even though it scared the daylights out of her (for a variety of reasons), since she was living on limited time, she didn’t waste any of it.

Abruptly she asked, “Will you do something for me?”

His eyes moved over her face and she knew he was trying to read her mind.

Clearly failing, cautiously he replied, “That depends.”

She smiled.

When she did, his eyes dropped to her mouth but she pushed him back, slid off his lap, grabbed his hand and pulled him up from the chair. Then she tugged him to the door which she threw open and stepped out of the room.

With a sharp yank at her hand he hauled her back and she looked up at him.