Read Online Iron Lace by Emilie Richards - Free Book Online Page B

not his wife, but he has a wife and a duty to her. Now, let’s say that he must leave this woman because, if he doesn’t, he will lose everything he has worked his entire life to achieve.”
    Despite the fire, Lucien shuddered with a sudden chill.
    “I see you begin to understand,” Antoine said. “Let me proceed, then. So the woman, who was once a pleasure, is now a burden. Sadly, the woman is not the only burden. There are children, too. They, of course, are the reason he must leave the woman. The sanctity of his legitimate family cannot be breached. No chance can be taken that his bastards will inherit anything that belongs to the man, or his wife’s family.”
    Lucien moved closer to the flames. There was no longer a point in denying anything, or in pretending that he didn’t understand. He could save himself only with a promise, but as he made it, his voice sounded shaken, even to himself. “Marcelite Cantrelle’s children will never inherit anything that belongs to the Friloux. You have my word on it.”
    “Your word? Of what worth is the word of a man who consorts with the whore of a slave?”
    Lucien could feel color draining from his cheeks. He faced Antoine. “What?”
    “You profess not to understand?”
    “I don’t know what you mean!”
    “You’ve seen the whore’s child, yet you’ve never seen the obvious?”
    “Raphael?”
    “Close your eyes and search his face in your mind. What do you find there?”
    “Marcelite would have told me!”
    “Not unless she’s a fool.” Antoine’s lip curled in disgust. “Would she tell you that the boy’s father was born into slavery, the son of a plantation owner and his house servant?”
    He raised his hand to keep Lucien from interrupting. “Or would she tell you that when she became his lover, her own family drove her away to live alone and bear his child? And if you asked about her nigger, would she admit that he disappeared one night, never to be seen on the chénière again? Or that some say he was murdered by her brother?”
    “No!”
    “Yes,” Antoine answered. He swished what was left of his second drink, but he didn’t take his gaze from Lucien’s face. “When a pleasure becomes a burden, there should be much thought about how a man rids himself of it.”
    Lucien stared at him, but his eyes were focused somewhere beyond Grand Isle.
    “Neither your family nor mine has ever been touched by tainted blood. They can’t be touched now,” Antoine added, when Lucien didn’t respond.
    “Even if what you say about Raphael is true, my daughter’s blood has no taint.”
    “Can you trust a woman who gives her body so easily? What blood runs through her own veins, do you suppose? The people on the chénière are pirates, smugglers, fishermen. Do they care if a tinge of color darkens their skin? No, they care if the next breeze blows, the next ship comes by, the next fish bites. Can you say for certain that your Angelle’s blood is pure?”
    Lucien turned paler still.
    Shaking his head, Antoine set his drink down and moved toward the fire and Lucien. “I have watched my daughter fail to give you a healthy child. I am an old man. I may not live to see a grandchild who will grow to adulthood, but I have a brother, and he has children. I will not allow you to give everything I am, everything I have, to your bastards.”
    “They could not inherit, they—”
    “They could inherit if you chose to make it so! And if Claire died, and you married this Marcelite, then they could inherit it all.”
    “That would never happen!”
    “That will not happen.” Antoine faced him. Their eyes were level. “I don’t know how, Lucien, but you will end your relationship with this woman, and you will end it now. If you do not, I will destroy you. I will ruin your life in ways you have never dreamed of, but I will start by blackening your name in society and destroying you financially. When I am finished, you’ll have nothing left to pass on to your bastard