“And what if he’s serious about this girl? What if it’s more?”

Roosevelt choked out a laugh, but there was no humor in it for me.

“Don’t be ridiculous. The boy isn’t stupid. She’s forbidden. A conquest. This fascination of his will burn itself out before you know it—unless you keep causing scenes that make him want to hold on tighter. Let the boy have his little whore for now. He’ll get it out of his system and be ready to settle down.”

“If he gets her pregnant—”

“It’ll be taken care of. Commodore would never let that happen. I’ll talk to him tomorrow. If Lincoln insists on challenging his decision, my father will make it clear that Lincoln’s status as heir apparent, after me, will disappear. He’ll fall into line. If you leave him alone.”

I could practically feel the hatred pouring off Mrs. Riscoff when she spoke next.

“And in the meantime, you just want me to let him humiliate us? Drag the family name through the dirt by flaunting that Gable girl?”

Roosevelt’s voice turned droll. “Don’t worry. He’ll learn to hide it better as he gets older.”

Mrs. Riscoff’s sharp inhale preceded a slap, and her heels clicked off even faster than they’d arrived.

I was trying not to throw up in this little alcove and wondering where the nearest exit was when Lincoln’s father’s footsteps clipped on the marble floor—and stopped right in front of me.

“Did you hear all that, girl?”

I looked up and froze. Roosevelt stared directly at me with a smirk on his face that had none of the charm of Lincoln’s. Any response I might be able to come up with was stuck behind the lump in my throat.

“Don’t get any notions of reaching above your station. It’s never worked for any of the women in your family, and it won’t work for you.” He tilted his head to the side. “But at least my son has good taste.”

His gaze raked over my body, stopping on my bare legs, and I felt filthy.

“Staff entrance is around back. Tell one of the drivers I gave orders to take you home. If you walk back into that restaurant tonight, I’ll make sure you regret it.”

With a smug smile, he walked off, and I was left reeling.

One thing I knew for sure. I wasn’t going back in.

Thirty-Five

Whitney

“You just left me there. Alone. Waiting for you to come back. For half a fucking hour. If you were worried about people talking about us before, you picked an even better way to make sure they had juicier gossip to talk about.”

My lips stayed locked together as I listened to Lincoln lecture me as he paced the cabin. I had no idea why I even came. I’d been planning on telling him everything I overheard and about the threat his dad made, but something stopped me.

Maybe Lincoln really was just with me as a rebellion. If he knew his parents were letting him “get me out of his system,” it would make him even more stubborn about staying with me. And that’s not real. I didn’t want to get caught up in a Riscoff family power struggle where I had no business being.