Page 50 of London Dynasty

“She’s an adult, Tod,” Iris interjected.

“I’ll ask Giles to stick around. He’ll be disappointed, of course. He loves Surrey.”

Suddenly, I understood why Giles had been eager to get me to stay behind. He’d known Tod wouldn’t leave me here alone. I suspected Giles didn’t like Surrey nearly as much as Tod Belmond believed.

“You can’t do that to him,” I said as dramatically as possible. I might as well really sell it.

“If it’s important for you to stay here with Spencer, then you should have a chaperone.”

“I didn’t take you to be such a prude,” Iris said, poking her arm through her husband’s. “Don’t stand in the way of true love.”

“I don’t care if he sleeps here,” Tod said with exasperation. “I just want to be sure that someone who has Kerrigan’s best interest at heart remains.”

The gauntlet had been thrown. The question he must have been asking himself had finally been spoken. Did I really have Kerrigan’s best interests at heart? It was then I realized that not only did Tod Belmond not trust me. He never would. I couldn’t blame him. I was a mercenary — a woman who’d agreed to take millions of pounds to perform what amounted to con artistry. If that’s how he saw me, I couldn’t change that.

“I’m sure Giles will understand.”

“What will Giles understand?” he asked, joining us. Giles looked expectantly between Iris and Tod then to me. “Is this about the country?”

“I’m afraid I have to stay behind, and father feels that I should have a chaperone.”

Giles took his glasses off his face and began wiping them down, heaving a heavy sigh. “You know how I love the countryside.”

“I know, can you forgive me?” I did my best to sound sincere, but it was hard given I was holding back laughter over the scene I was performing. Everyone in this house had their own intentions. Iris might be the only innocent one of the lot.

“It’s fine. I’ll get theater tickets,” Giles said glumly and stomped off.

Tod looked pleased with himself as though he had just maneuvered the situation exactly as he wanted. If he saw how he had been played, he showed no sign of it. “It’s settled then. You’ll stay here, so you can be there for Spencer—and we’ll have some time alone.”

He patted Iris’s bottom, and I cringed.

“Now, now,” Iris said with a wink. “You’re not the only one who’s in love.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Giles and I fell into an easy rhythm after their departure. He did not seem concerned that I would make off with the family silver, and he kept mostly to himself. There were no morning itineraries or forced social encounters. He didn’t come in to approve what I was wearing. In fact, he treated me exactly like I assumed he wanted to be treated—like I was an adult fully capable of making my own decisions.

I barely saw him.

Spencer, on the other hand, had not given up. It was clear from his messages that he suspected things had gone too far that night in his flat with Holden. I knew I couldn’t avoid him forever. But I needed to take advantage of the Belmond absence. There was no way that a man with the money and resources that Tod Belmond had wouldn’t know where his daughter was. I hadn’t believed him when he showed up on my doorstep acting like I might be her. I’d been a convenient out.

But someone had to be funding her lifestyle. It wasn’t as if she had disappeared without a trace. She needed money. I’m sure she hadn’t been going without all this time. That meant that somewhere there had to be a clue. A bank account. A credit card. Tod had told me he was actively tracking her down and attempting to get her to return home. Had he hired a private investigator? There had to be some clues in the house. And if he hadn’t found them. Maybe it was time I started digging around in Kerrigan’s room. On the surface, it felt strangely devoid of personality. She had her shoes and her clothes, but there was little else to give me insight into who Kerrigan Belmond really was. It felt more like I was staying in someone’s guest room than someone’s bedroom. There had to be a diary or a computer or something. She had to have left some part of herself behind when she took off.

But the more I searched, the less I found. Despite the wide berth Giles had given me, he’d been around the house most of the week. That meant I didn’t feel comfortable trying to get into Tod’s office or bedroom to look for clues. When Giles finally announced that he was taking in a matinee of a new West End production, I finally found my opportunity. After he left for the theater, I made my way downstairs and discovered Tod’s locked office door.

So, he wanted to keep me out of his office.

The problem was—like most men of his status—Tod Belmond was dependent on other people to do everything for him. It only took me half an hour to find the spare set of keys someone on the staff had stashed in the kitchen.

I let myself in and began to look around. It was a pretty typical office, full of expensive furniture and leather-bound books he probably hadn’t read, no doubt meant to impress those he deemed important enough to enter. I searched the shelves for a moment before deciding they were a dead end. The desk was much more likely. Every drawer but one opened easily. I paused, trying to decide if jimmying it open would leave marks. I couldn’t risk it. But there was no way that a locked desk drawer in a locked office didn’t have anything hiding in it.

Sitting back in his chair I grasped the arms of it and blew out a deep breath. I had to find Kerrigan Belmond, but I had no idea where to start. No friends had called. I only had a collection of pictures she’d posted on her social media accounts.

I sat there, studying the pictures on Tod’s desk. Like a good, newly married man, he was smart enough not to have pictures of his late wife there. He did have pictures of his daughter, though. There was a picture of him and Iris at a party that must have been to celebrate their engagement. Kerrigan stood glumly behind them. It was strange to see my face there, looking sour, as though I disapproved. I loved Iris. She was one of the most genuine and warm people I’d ever met. I wondered what Kerrigan had against her.

I closed my eyes, picturing myself in the blue dress Kerrigan had worn for the event and tried to imagine what it must’ve been like for her to accept a woman closer to her age than her mother’s marry her father. I suppose I could understand why she was biased against her. It wasn’t as if Tod Belmond was a huge catch, though. In fact, I couldn’t see what Iris saw in him—other than his billions. I couldn’t fault her for that, since it’s what had drawn me to him as well.

Was that why Kerrigan disliked her? Did she see Iris as another gold digger? It was strange how women always judged other women for taking advantage of male nature. In my opinion, Kerrigan should be upset with her father for marrying someone as young as Iris—not Iris herself.