THE DARE (G!P Freenbecky)

Chapter 23

Danielle Tallant did look like a big, pamered cat, with her rounded, voluptuous body, her thick, silver hair in its soft, upswept style, and her bright blue eyes that tilted slightly up at the corners.

When Freen rang the bell to her luxurious mansion in Nob Hill, her butler answered and escorted her into her front parlor, where she lay reclined on a red velvet chaise lounge. The rest of the place had been decorated in a style that Freen would have assumed was called Early Bordello, circa London during its wild, Barbary Coast days.

This woman would have been right at home in the salons of eighteenth-century London and France, and for one wild moment Freen wondered what her friend Heng had gotten her into.

"So," she practically purred, "You're interested in Becky Armstrong?"

Nothing like a woman who got straight to the point.

She decided her had nothing to gain by hedging the question. "Yes."

"Well," she said, and she fell silent. Freen felt the strangest sensation as she studied her, as if she were wondering if she were worthy of Becky and if she were up to the challenge.

She held her gaze calmly, refusing to back down or appear intimidated.

"Good," she murmured softly. "Would you care for a glass of wine?"

For one wild moment Freen thought she might be testing her to see if she was a drinker; then she threw caution to the wind and said, "Sure."

She rang for her butler, who returned shortly with two glasses of excellent Merlot.

"I do so love a good romantic intrigue," Danielle said, indicating that she should take a seat on the couch across from her. "And I have a rather proprietorial interest in Becky, as she and her grandfather are my next-door neighbors."

Freen almost choked on her mouthful of wine.

"You didn't know?" Danielle took a small sip of her wine. "Better and better. So you honestly had no idea she comes from money?"

Freen shook her head.

"Her relatives made their money during the gold rush, then increased it through very canny investments. The Armstrongs are one of the oldest and wealthiest families in London. So you can see how Phillip— her grandfather— would be concerned."

Freen nodded her head, feeling totally out of her league. She and Heng made a ton of money with their computer company, but new money wasn't the same as old money, and both she and Danielle knew it.

"Her grandfather is concerned she'll never marry."

"And why is that?" New money or not, Freen wasn't giving up.

Briefly, Danielle told her the Armstrong family story, all about Elizabeth Armstrong and her disastrous marriage, and the long decline that had followed.

"It affected her only child. How could it not? When Becky and her grandfather argue about it, she's told him she will never marry, and she seems to find flaws with every young man he brings to the house. Both of them are as stubborn as can be. And Phillip is worried about her, I know that. She's twenty-four—"

"That's young in this day and age, with people getting married for the first time in their forties."

"I know, Freen, but you have to consider Phillip's point of view. He wants her to marry, and marry well. A man who will protect her and all that money," Danielle didn't impact these facts as a gossip might, or maliciously. She had a matter-of-fact manner that Freen found extremely refreshing and very French..

The slight accent gave away Danielle's country of origin.

"I don't care about the money," Freen said softly.