“I’ll have Mr. Brand get me one,” Severine answered. “It’ll be a good test.”
“A test?”
“He says he’ll let me make my own way and have my money now. Let’s see him buy me something that a more uptight man would declare I shouldn’t have.”
“You should get a pretty little speedster.”
“I need an auto with room for the dogs,” Severine said. “Can you drive?”
Lisette nodded and grinned. “A chum of mine taught me.”
“The beau kind of chum?”
Lisette’s grin was wicked and that was the only answer she gave.
“What kind of auto then?”
“Is money a factor?” Lisette demanded.
Severine shook her head.
Lisette whistled. “A red Rolls-Royce Phantom.”
“No,” Severine replied. “A black one.”
Chapter Four
Clive DuNoir was in the office when Severine arrived with Anubis at her side. She’d parted from Lisette who’d gone to find her mother and hire a locksmith. Alone with the large dog, Severine would have expected a glance, but her cousin was too busy leaning on the desk of the clerk to glance her way.
Severine sat opposite the desk and examined his stance. She couldn’t see his face, but she could imagine it. She would see her father in his jawline and in the way he was attempting to intimidate the clerk. She would see herself in matching dark eyes. She had once thought Clive quite handsome, but that faded as she watched him growl, “I have other plans this afternoon, Crosby.”
Severine glanced towards the harassed clerk behind the desk who was nodding as he said, “I have told Mr. Brand you are here, sir. But, of course, he has an appointment.”
“Something more important than me? Surely the DuNoirs are his largest client.”
“Ah.” The clerk’s gaze frantically moved to Severine and then back to Clive and then glanced over his shoulder at the closed door.
Severine nodded once and pulled the scrapbook into her lap. She flipped through the pages idly. It didn’t bother her to be kept waiting. She was, after all, early. Her gaze landed on an article about her parents’ lives before they died and she frowned. It listed their activities and clubs and suddenly a memory hit her.
Flora and Lukas dressed to the nines as they left to a special meeting. A seance, Severine suddenly recalled. A seance with the Specter Society. Father had crowed about starting a newer, better version of London’s Ghost Club.
“You didn’t create it, Lukas. Fitzgerald did.”
Father had shot Flora a dark look. “It wasn’t great until I joined, Flora. Idiots gathering around candles and burning sage and jumping at gris-gris.”
Severine let her fingers trace over the words on the page and then glanced up as the door behind the desk opened. Mr. Brand met her gaze before approaching Clive DuNoir.
“Ah, Clive,” Mr. Brand said.
“I’ve been waiting,” he snapped and then she saw his shoulders relax. He wanted something, Severine thought, as the intimidating form adjusted to what was probably intended to be charming.
“Yes, well,” Mr. Brand said, “you didn’t have an appointment, and I was on an important telephone call.”
“I need to speak with you.”
“I have another client, Mr. DuNoir. I’d be happy to see you afterwards.”
The shoulders tensed again. She still couldn’t see Clive’s face, but she could imagine it. Imagine those cold black eyes flashing with an icy fury.
Severine flinched and Anubis leaned into her. The dog made a low sound that could have been taken for a growl and Clive jerked around, eyeing her. She realized as his dark gaze raked over her that he hadn’t realized she had arrived.
“Mr. DuNoir,” Mr. Brand started.
“Yes, for a lady, I’ll wait,” Clive said, trying and failing for charming. She shivered, but she was sure only she knew her reaction. It wasn’t Clive. It was her father in Clive that unsettled her.
“For your cousin,” Mr. Brand said. “Severine has returned, as you can see.”
Clive’s jaw dropped as Severine rose. “Sevie?”
“Severine, please.”
His gaze adjusted and she could see him move from weak charm masking fury to avarice. Young, single cousin Severine DuNoir. Whoever married her, Severine said in her mind for him, would have control of it all. The big house, the New Orleans mansion, the mountains of gold her father had acquired.
She smiled a fake smile. “So good to see you again, Clive.”
“I didn’t know you were coming back.”
“I didn’t know I could until Mr. Brand came to visit me at the convent.”
Clive’s gaze narrowed for just a moment and then moved to Mr. Brand. Severine dug her fingers into Anubis, letting him anchor her as Mr. Brand took in the combination of excitement and greed. No doubt her cousin was thinking he would have first crack at her.
“After this,” Clive said, giving her his unwanted attention, “we shall have to have lunch together.”
“Thank you,” Severine said with an ease she did not feel, “but I am afraid I have another obligation.”
Her cousin didn’t hide his frustration well. “Dinner then?”
“She’s agreed to have dinner with me,” Mr. Brand lied, saving her. “We have much to discuss regarding her father’s will.”
The barely disguised frustration increased to levels that would have had herself, as a child, slipping from the room before Father exploded. Instead she caressed Anubis’s ear and said, “We’ll have time to catch up soon, Clive. Do you live at the big house, still?”
He nodded and his anger broke free for a moment. “Your grandmother does not allow dogs.”
Severine glanced down at Anubis and then at Mr. Brand, who cleared his throat. “Yes, well. The house is Severine’s, not Therese’s.”
“That has never mattered to Therese before. Perhaps for you,” Clive said, but it was delivered in a way to tell Severine she should get rid of her dog before the battle started.
“I’m sure Grandmère and I will come to an agreement.” Severine kept her voice even and mild as she had when she was a child and her father was on the edge of exploding.
“I hope so,” Clive said. She could tell he
