It was said in such a way that Craig couldn’t be certain of the insult.
“It seems we were perhaps faulty in believing a meeting would help in building an intelligent discourse for the future,” Stephen Taite sighed regretfully. “We have many business interests that coincide. I had hoped we could work together.”
“As far as I know, we have no such business interests,” Jordan pointed out. “The only thing we have in common is your determination to acquire that which doesn’t belong to you.”
And would never belong to them.
Stephen Taite had sold the estate to Joseph Fitzhugh just before his niece was kidnapped more than thirty years before. He hadn’t cared enough to hold on to the once crumbling castle until Jordan had come along and restored it to the savage beauty it now possessed.
“And shouldn’t have been sold to you,” Stephen said with a weary sigh. “Such is business, though. It seems you are taking offense to what may be no more than friendly banter, Mr. Malone. That’s unfortunate. I admit, I do feel rather possessive of it. Fitzhugh acquired it at a time when I was young and relatively less appreciative of my own belongings.”
Jordan had acquired the estate after Fitzhugh’s death from the French authorities, months after Tehya had killed him. The property had at one time been Malone land, owned by Jordan’s grandfather before the Malone family came to America. “I assure you, I rarely misunderstand a situation, Mr. Taite,” Jordan assured him. “I’ve based my business on knowing exactly how to read others.”
Taite’s brows lifted. “And what exactly would that business be, Mr. Malone? I must admit, I’ve never fully understood it.”
“I must admit, I’ve never fully explained it,” Jordan said dismissively before turning to the senator. “If you’ll excuse me, I believe I have some business to discuss with your son-in-law, Senator. As soon as I collect Teylor.”
Tehya could be a part of this family. Their determination to acquire his land should have clued him into their personalities. Personalities that Tehya could never endure for long.
She could never fit in with the pompous arrogance that defined the two he had just met.
Their greed was only surpassed by their own sense of superiority. And it was all he could do to rein in his anger and not inform them of the very formidable enemy they had just made.
He couldn’t ignore the looks they had given her that had sent her running, their disgust for her preferred drink apparent as it sliced through her confidence.
Bastards. They’d insulted him well enough over the years; he wouldn’t allow them to insult her. He’d just never imagined her family could be all bad.
The estate they coveted had been all but given to Fitzhugh at a time when Stephen Taite and Joseph Fitzhugh had been friends during their youth. Jordan’s acquisition of it had been a stroke of luck.
The estate was run by caretakers for the most part, a couple whose own safety depended upon their cover and their ability to maintain that illusion.
Stepping into the hall, he moved to the upper end and toward the ladies’ room Travis stood outside of, leaning against a wall, his shoulders tense, his expression drawn into hard, forbidding lines.
Travis stepped up to Jordan and whispered, “I can’t believe she shares that bastard’s blood. He managed to insult her and Lilly all in the same breath. As though his blood were somehow far richer than others’.”
Jordan snorted at the thought. “It was in the dossier we had on him.” He finally shrugged. “We should have been forewarned.”
Travis shook his head. “Hell, Lilly was raised with the damned family. She warned us. For the past year, I’ve moved in his society and never even been introduced, and now I understand why. Son of a bitch. Tey is so fucking down to earth, and just kind.”
Knowing Tehya it had been hard to imagine the Taites were such as holes though.
“Because he avoided it,” Jordan murmured knowingly.
Travis’s jaw clenched. “Bloody bastard doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. I could have out-blooded him as well as out-moneyed him at one time. Hell, I still could I believe.”
Travis had been an English lord himself once, Jordan remembered. Before he’d lost it all and turned to vengeance instead.
“Do you miss it?” Jordan asked him, suddenly curious. “You gave up a lot to join us.”
Travis’s lips quirked in a slow, crooked smile as his gaze suddenly lit with a flare of humor. The door opened then, and Lilly stepped out, her gaze meeting her husband’s as a smile transformed her, lighting her face and the very air around her with warmth.
“Hell no.” Travis sighed. “Look at what I gained.”
Jordan’s attention had fractured though, the response meaning little as Tehya emerged behind Lilly. His gaze met Tehya’s and he saw the weary somberness in it.
Travis and Lilly moved toward the ballroom as Jordan pulled Tehya to him and pressed her head against his chest, feeling her take a deep, uneven breath.
“I’m fine,” she told him. “It’s like having the rug pulled out from under your feet, I imagine. It just takes a moment to get your breath.”