The room was lit by a lamp, but it was still dark. The curtains were drawn and the colors were muted. An enormous tabby cat sat upon a chair and watched her with calm yellow eyes. Vivianna edged closer to the figure beneath the bedcovers in the ornate four-poster bed.
Fraser had been a big man. His length still made an impression, but now he was so thin his body barely lifted the bedding. His face, upon the pillows, was gaunt, and his hair red as fire. His eyes, hazel like Vivianna’s, were open and watching her approach.
“Mr. Fraser?”
He crooked a finger impatiently. “Come here, lass! Ah, that’s better. I can see ye now. Plain, aren’t ye? Pity. Not that it matters. Not for what I have in mind.”
Vivianna crept closer, knowing she was a coward but unable to help herself. Plain. The dismissive manner in which he had said it hurt. Oliver had called her beautiful, but then she could no longer believe anything Oliver said to her. Perhaps it was better to believe herself plain than to be lied to.
“What is your name, lass?”
Vivianna met those hazel eyes, so like her own. “Vivianna.”
Fraser’s lip curled. “That’s no’ a name for my daughter. I’ll call ye Annie. I suppose she told ye I was a rich man.”
He sounded gruff, but at the same time rather proud of the fact that he was rich.
“If you mean Aphrodite, then yes, she did.”
“And is that why ye’re here? To get yer hands on it?”
Vivianna glared, forgetting to be nervous. “No, it is not! I have money of my own, Mr. Fraser. I am content as I am.”
“Oh, are ye!” He beckoned her again. “Come closer, lass. I canna see ye. That’s better. Now sit yoursel’ down. I have a proposal to put to ye.”
She sat down on a stool beside the bed. Aphrodite had warned her that Fraser was blunt and rude. He’s dying, I am his daughter. She must remember those two things. Perhaps they may yet find common ground….
“I want to name ye as my heir. I want ye to have it all.”
“I had not intended to—”
“Yes, yes, but if ye don’t have it, it’ll go into the government coffers, and I dinna want that.”
Vivianna did not want his money, but Fraser did not seem able to accept that. Maybe because it was the only thing he had left to leave, he did not want to believe she was not as attached to his fortune as he was.
“I know there will be a scandal,” he said now with relish, and his ravaged face twisted into a chuckle. “It’ll give them something to talk about, won’t it? Fraser’s last faux pas. They’ll be whispering about Old Fraser’s bastard daughter for years to come. They mocked me in life; I was ne’er good enough for them. I’d like to give them a wee shock before I go, aye.
“I made my money from the breweries,” he went on, his eyes on her. He blinked slowly, and moved his head as if his neck hurt.
Vivianna rose and leaned over him, adjusting the pillows. He did not thank her, but the creases in his face smoothed out, and he sighed.
“And there are the lodging houses. People will live in anything, aye they will, ye look surprised, lass! A house with only four small rooms in it will fit at least twenty people, each paying rent. Thirty, at a pinch. Such folk are used to dirt and the like, and they dinna complain too much ’cause they know they’re lucky to have a roof over their heads at all.”
Vivianna said nothing. She had seen the places he spoke of. Those who made money from such suffering without seeking in some way to alleviate it were beyond her understanding. There were good landlords and masters, of course there were, but Fraser was not among them.
Her own father was not among them.
“I cannot take your money,” she said coldly.
“What, what?” He peered at her. “Canna take it? Oh yes, ye can, girlie! My fortune will buy ye more bonny gowns and baubles than ye’ll know what to do with. Ye’re my heir. This is why I bought that woman out there to breed with. For this very day. Now I have ye, and I want my money’s worth.”
Vivianna managed not to press one of the pillows over his face and hold it there, although she was sorely tempted. She knew she could refuse to take his money, of course she could, but now her mind was beginning to work in other ways.
Why not take it? Take his money.
Not for herself, never that, but for the good she could do with it. She would be able to set up homes for the poor all over the country. The Fraser Memorial Homes. That had a nice ring to it. Homes built specifically for those who could not afford decent accommodation. And then there would be hospitals and schools.
Vivianna smiled. Why not?