Enticing Temptation

Chapter 17

 Bombay, India several days later

            “You look tired, I didn’t expect you to return this late,” Cat told Myles when he entered their cabin. They docked yesterday about an hour before the sunset. Myles spent the day with Val, along with about ten of his men and Doris, while they packed the items she wanted for the return to England. Qiao and Lin Mee looked after Richie and Margie while Val was away.

            They buried Bruce in Trivandrum the day after Val learned of his death and the circumstances surrounding it. Val and the children were then loaded on board the ship the next morning. When they were packing their belongings, in Trivandrum, Val came across a package containing fifty thousand pounds. It was in the bottom drawer of the desk Bruce was using at Government House, hidden in the back under other papers of his. It was now in Myles’s safe after he convinced her to put it up for the children and their education. If given to the Viceroy it would just be put into the governments coffers since she had no idea how much money was in their bank account in Bombay.

            Richie and Margie visited Cat in her cabin, Val’s avoidance of her was bothering Cat considerably. The children knew of their father’s death, or at least Richie understood it but of course, Margie was much too young to. No one told the children that Cat was the one responsible for their father’s death. Myles kept trying to convince her that Bruce was the only one responsible for his own death, since she was only defending herself. The children were simply told that their father died on a mission he was sent on. They had no idea he was sent to China with Cat.

            Myles opened the safe and put a package inside then stripping off his clothes he joined her in their bed before he spoke to her. “It has been a long day,” he finally replied.

            “What was that you put in the safe?” she asked him.

            “More money,” he answered her and Cat’s brows rose. “We went to the bank with the papers the Viceroy gave Val about Bruce’s death along with his will she found in his study at the house. He informed her where the will was located several weeks ago before they left for Trivandrum. She learned their bank account has almost eighty thousand pounds, but that isn’t all, Cat. Bruce’s will mentions trusts for each of the children along with one for Val and another bank account in England.”

            “Bloody hell,” Cat mumbled under her breath. “That’s around a hundred and thirty thousand pounds all together she’s found here in India alone.”

            “I had to convince her once more to keep the money and keep it between the three of us and to decide later about the trusts and what she will do with them. She’s decided to take only a few pieces of furniture, mostly the children’s, along with their toys and clothes, of course, back to England. She doesn’t want too many memories of her life here with Bishop.”

            “Yes, I can understand but I think you should pack everything in Bruce’s study just in case he did leave the name of who gave him the money and helped him turn traitor, or a clue to their identity,” Cat replied. “How is she? She hasn’t come by to see me since I told her about Bruce. Do you think she’ll ever forgive me?”

            “I really think it’s more of embarrassment that he tried to kill you twice,” Myles told her as he settled in next to her in bed then yawned. “I think you’re right about his study I already told my men to crate everything in the house. What she doesn’t want we can store once we are in England at one of Herrington-Maddox warehouses. I thought too, that he might have left the name of the man somewhere in case this person turned on him and killed him. I know I would have but then I would never have done what Bishop did to you or our children.”