Lillian Holmes and the Leaping Man Read Online Free Page B

change her mind, would you then help me?”
    “Change her mind? Not a chance of it.”
    “If I were to become like the man she loves, how could she not love me? If I were to haunt the docks and alleys, feasting only on criminals or their victims? What would she think then?”
    “You could not do it, would not even try. This is a trick, and not so clever a one that she won’t see through it as well.”
    “I can, and I will. If you swear you will help should Marie track me down, to help me gather allies in this godforsaken region of this godforsaken country, I will swear to be an upstanding citizen of this fair city.”
    “Ridiculous.”
    “Give me one week, Phillip. You will see.” But his plea came with a dose of command, and he saw his brother grimace with pain.
    “How will I convince her? God, you are so frustrating!”
    “Splendid!” George nodded at his sibling’s acquiescence. “You won’t need to convince her, she’ll see for herself. Do tell her I’m about, though, darling. Don’t want to scare her to death.”
    “If you make one false move, George, one hint of a false move, I will not hesitate to help Madam Lucifer take you down. Am I clear?”
    “Nonsense. You wouldn’t know how to begin.”
    “But Marie de Bourbon would.”
    “Touché. So, when will you get me out of this damned hotel? I would have my old rooms back.”
    “You are truly delusional.”
    “By Saturday?”
    “Let me talk to Kitty first. She still lives with the Langhan sisters. We are to be married at Christmas, so you must be out by then. Unless of course I kill you first.”
    “But you won’t. Do you know why, brother?”
    When Phillip shook his head, George just waved him on his way. It was too painful to speak aloud.
    He feels sorry for me. I used to rule the world, and now I have to use my control to gain his assistance. It was his brother’s weakness, this sympathy for him.
    “So, there is something worse than being loathed,” he whispered to the last wink of fireplace embers.

CHAPTER THREE
    Shallow men and handsome rakes.
    Lillian fussed with her mother’s amethyst ring, the lone piece of jewelry she wore, struggling not to appear annoyed. The earnest and handsome suitor currently wasting her precious time made her skin crawl.
    Part of her unwritten contract with Addie was that she would accept visitors, one a month. When she was younger, Lillian refused to be paraded like livestock at the balls the other girls lived for, and Addie had reluctantly agreed. But no amount of pleas could set her free from this duty.
    No doubt it was the doing of the Jackal, as she called the solicitor Francis Pemberton. She’d heard Addie more than once arguing with him behind closed doors. The conversation never varied, though the last time had been the worst.
    “Keep her behavior in check, find her a husband, or I will find one for her. If that doesn’t stop her delusions, I assure you I won’t hesitate to have her committed. You and your brother will then be out on the street, the house and the fortune reverting to the estate.”
    “She is coming around, sir. And if there were an heir? Would the estate—”
    “As we know, there are no heirs . I tire of this battle and these visits. Fix it, or I will.”
    When the door slammed, Lillian had gone into the study to find Addie sobbing gently. She’d bent next to her and held her hand. “I will do better, I promise. You shall see. The Jackal will not be victorious.”
    “Oh, Lil, I worry for you.”
    Lillian shook off the memory of those difficult exchanges and tried hard to attend to the man droning on before her. Jonathan Aloysius Hoyt.
    His finely cut features reminded Lillian of one of many dull portraits that graced the other homes in her fine neighborhood. Indeed, he would no doubt one day look down from a two-dimensional oil realm at his descendants carrying on their mundane existences in some well-equipped mansion. She would have nothing to do with the creation of that