Page 101 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
“You have no say in the matter, Augustine.”
“The same way I had no say in your departure from Paris? Your extended absence? Your failure to perform your duties?”
“My duties,” Amber blurted, “did not suffer.”
Gus scoffed. “I beg to differ.”
“No catastrophe has befallen anyone in my group in the time I have been gone. While I take no credit for it, I take no offense either. Neither should you.”
“Oh, yes,” Gus offered with sarcasm. “The only catastrophe is that the man in Varennes is dead…after he tried to kill Kane and me.”
“Exactly,” Amber said with vehemence. “And now nothing like that will happen again.”
“You will stop such things from occurring?” Gus taunted her.
Amber gave them a secretive smile. “I will.”
Gus fumed. “Even you cannot have the audacity to expect a dinner party and a ball will set any of us free from Vaillancourt’s determination to have you as his own.”
At that, Ramsey, who had sat throughout this spat like a marble statue, closed his eyes.
“No. It is the beginning.”
Gus feared the next. “Of what?”
Amber had always had a clear understanding of her own nature. More than Gus ever had, and at an early age, too. Gus had seen it, emulated her dear friend’s courage, and followed Amber’s unerring ability to make decisions based more on fact than on any other element, except emotion. Even Amber’s decision to marry Maurice St. Antoine had been a quick study for Amber. Her logic was sound: she loved the man. What was age but a number? She could as easily die before Maurice as he before her. She would have him, enjoy him and their love for the moment, in the ripeness of lust and love.
Amber got to her feet.
Gus noted the move was not smooth. Amber had a hitch in her knees.
Ramsey grunted at her movements.
So what Amber did caused her pain.
“I will open up my house. Receive guests. Return to the work only I can do. Examine what is left, what needs repair, what needs addition. I will invite Society to my door.”
She blanched all of a sudden, as if she were drained of any valor.
Ramsey cursed, then shot to his feet and took her arm. “Tell them. Do it quickly and we will leave.”
Disaster lay before Gus at whatever Amber would say next.
“I will become Vaillancourt’s mistress.”
Gus was out of her chair. “No.”
Kane was beside her. “Why that, of all things?”
“Because it is the only way the man leaves everyone alone. Because it is what he has wanted for years, even before Maurice and I met. I have refused Vaillancourt time and time again. He grows more ruthless as he grows more powerful. He will not be denied.”
“Amber,” Gus pleaded, “do not do this!”
Kane looked at Ramsey. “What say you to this?”
“Whit, whatever can be said, I have argued. To no avail. Amber refuses. In this matter, I am without power. Though I wish to God I had it all.”
Amber looked each one of them in the eye, then turned and walked away.
