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fool to trust him, Katie.”
    â€œYes, I know that now. Will you help me?”
    â€œIt will take money to accomplish all this,” he said flatly, “and I don’t have it. Julien turned me down this afternoon, though I’m an heir to the diamond enterprise the same as he. He controls everything, thanks to old Ebenezer.”
    Ebenezer Bley. Katie knew he was the first in the extended family to come to Capetown. He’d been at Kimberly when the first diamond was found there, as well as on the river when the first gold was discovered. His wily ability to manipulate was well known. Hadn’t he wheedled his way into the circle of just a few men who controlled these finds, thereby becoming wealthy and politically powerful both in Capetown and in London? Ebenezer died a very old man and left his son Julien the controlling interest over the family fortune. He must have felt that Julien would make the best financial patriarch.
    Circumstances had proven Ebenezer right, Katie thought bitterly. Sir Julien even administered her portion of her father’s fortune to control her future for the benefit of the diamond business as though she, a van Buren, were a relation.
    â€œYou understand what you’re up against.” Henry’s question pulled her back to matters at hand. “How do you expect to pay for the ocean passage?”
    â€œBy taking some of what is being held back from me and from my daughter. What is partly yours as well. It—It would not be the same as stealing.”
    â€œHas Julien ever suggested giving you some diamonds from the inheritance your father left you?”
    â€œHe will give me little unless I marry according to his wishes. He took my baby and gave her to the mission and has plans to send me to Europe for a year. As if that would heal my heart! He intends to arrange a marriage for me that suits
his
plans for the Kimberly mines. That is all he devotes himself to—the diamond mines.” Her voice quavered, and she cast another glance over her shoulder toward the house, where all was in shadow. The sound of the wind in the treetops and the creaking of the stables sent ripples of fear along her skin. What if Julien was watching, what if he knew? She remembered the pistol he kept. What if he was trying to trap her and Cousin Henry? He had used such a loud voice out on the front lawn—could it have been to draw her attention? To make her think he was leaving?
    No, that couldn’t be. Sir Julien would never expect her to take the Black Diamond.
    â€œThen are you are thinking of taking some diamonds from Cape House?”
    This time it was she who arched her brows. “As though you have not thought that very thing.”
    â€œI admit it. But if I help you, what do I get out of this?”
    So like Cousin Henry to ask that, yet how could she blame him? She lifted her chin and confronted his hard gaze. She pretended brashness, using a masquerade of boldness to shield her precariousness. “You will get the same as what I intend to have—something of great value, Cousin Henry—the Black Diamond.”
    His breath stopped short. “The Black Diamond!” he repeated in a soft murmur. “Are you out of your mind? Julien keeps it well hidden—he worships that stone. It would be next to impossible to get your hands on it.”
    â€œYou think so? It is because he worships it that he keeps his little idol where he can admire it anytime he desires without having to be seen going back and forth, to and from the safe. I know where he hides it.”
    â€œAh!” He seemed taken aback, and she could well believe he wondered how she had managed to discover such a thing. “The Black Diamond. If I could just get my hands on it—”
    â€œYou say it belongs to the Chantrys?”
    â€œIt does,” he stated firmly. “My father was there when it was found. Though Julien denies this, there is even some evidence that my