“You’ll learn,” he said cynically as he rose to his feet. “Believe me, you have a greater instinct for the game than anyone I’ve ever known.”
She was fumbling for the pins that held her wig in place. “But I don’t want to learn. It would get in my way.”
His lips curved in a sensual smile. “Yes, it most certainly would.”
“You needn’t feel so satisfied with yourself. I didn’t really feel anything. Oh, perhaps a little, but it was all a part of the pretense.” His knowing glance lingered on her breasts, and she wished desperately they’d cease betraying her. “Like the gown and the handkerchiefs.” She jerked off the blond wig. “And this thing. None of it is me.”
“I believe it’s very much—” He stopped as his gaze rose from her breasts to her hair. “My God, what have you done to yourself?”
“I had Marie cut it all off.” She ran her hand through the short dark curls that clung to her fingers and formed riotous wisps at her brow and cheekbones. “The wig was hot and since I’m going to be wearing it all the time I shall be much more comfortable without my own hair beneath it.”
“You look no more than eight years old.”
“I was right to cut it.” She glanced in the mirror on the wall across the foyer. She did look surprisingly young. The shortness of her hair made her eyes appear enormous and her retroussé nose and bare throat enhanced the air of youthful vulnerability. “It got in my way.”
Jean Marc started to laugh, and she glanced at him warily.
“Don’t worry, our passage of arms is over.” He shrugged. “You’ve disarmed me. How can I seduce a child? I’m no Due de Gramont. I told you that you had an instinct for the game.”
She smiled uncertainly. “We’ll both be much more content if this evening is forgotten.”
“Can you forget it?”
“Of course.” Juliette turned and started up the stairs.
“Juliette.”
She glanced over her shoulder.
Jean Marc was smiling faintly. “I have no intention of forgetting. You knew very well what you were starting when you came down those stairs this evening. You’re not the child you look and, as soon as I can force myself to get beyond that barrier, the game resumes.”
She should be angry with him. He clearly had no honor where women were concerned and would think little of taking her virtue.
She wasn’t angry. Whatever she was feeling was more complicated than mere anger; elements of fear, anticipation, and finally a heady exhilaration at the prospect of the challenge to come.
She veiled her eyes with her lashes so that he wouldn’t see her reaction to the challenge he’d flung down and turned and ran up the steps.
“She’s impatient.” Nana Sarpelier began to unfasten her woolen gown. “If we don’t get her the information she needs, she’ll try herself. She’s not going to wait long.”
“What’s her name?” William Darrell’s brow knotted in a thoughtful frown as he lazily raised himself on his elbow on the bed to watch her undress. It always excited her to have him look at her as she readied herself for him, and she felt a tiny tingle of heat begin between her thighs.
“Juliette de Clement.” She turned around in front of him. “I can’t get this last hook. Will you help me, William?”
William’s deft fingers accomplished the task quickly and efficiently, and the gown slipped from her shoulders. She looked down at his hand that had fallen to the coverlet. It was square and powerful, the hand of a soldier or a man who worked with the soil. A little shiver of anticipation surged through her at the thought of what those fingers were going to do to her in a few minutes. She had never known as skilled a lover as William, or one who could read a woman’s responses with such accuracy. She had been married to a man twice her age for five long years and when widowed swore she would never marry again. Yet sometimes with William she wondered what she would do if he demanded sole ownership of her body.
Not that he would demand it. William wanted only what she wanted. To come occasionally to this small, shabby inn where no one asked questions, to exchange information, and then take from her body the same intense pleasure he gave her. If there were times when they shared an instant of warm companionship or a fleeting moment of laughter, it was only a bagatelle. “The man was Jean Marc Andreas. I think she’s his mistress.”
William kissed her shoulder blade. “Really?”
She nodded. “There’s something between them.” She stepped away from him and took off the gown. “Do you think the risk is worth the money?”
“Perhaps. She didn’t tell you what the object was?”
“No. Should I have pursued it?”
“No, you did well. We can find out anything we need to know once we have the information to bargain with.”
“You’re going to send a message to the queen?”
“For two million livres? Of course. We always need money. Monsieur is not as generous as he should be—and with so much at stake.”
“You could always send a message to London to the prime minister.” Nana’s eyes were twinkling as she glanced over her shoulder at him. She finished undressing. “I should think a fine English gentleman like yourself would have many avenues to explore.”
“If you’ll come to bed, I’ll show you an avenue or two we can explore together, minx.”
She giggled as she moved naked toward the bed. “I’m not sure you know the way of it. You know how fond I am of bedding Frenchmen. Now, they know how to please a woman. You English are too—” She shrieked with laughter as he pulled her down on the bed, parted her thighs, and entered her with one bold stroke. No teasing anticipation tonight, just a hard, hot stroking until she was whimpering for release. She hadn’t known she had wanted it this way tonight, but William had known. William always knew. She bit her lips to keep from screaming as the rapture climaxed, leaving her weak and mindless with contentment.
It was several minutes before her breathing became steady enough to speak. “A very interesting ‘avenue.’ ” She nestled her cheek in the hollow of his shoulder. “Will you stay with me for a while?”
“Yes.” His fingers touched her cheek. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
She lifted her head and looked down into his face. It was a peculiar thing for William to say. Except for carnal pleasures, he had never appeared to need anyone. He did the tasks given him by Monsieur with a keen intelligence that caused all the group to lean upon him for leadership, but she had never seen him show emotion regarding those duties. Now that she thought about it, there had been a restlessness about William ever since the last message had come from Monsieur.
“Why do you …” She trailed off as she saw his expression become shuttered. He didn’t want either her curiosity or her help. They worked well together and they gave each other pleasure. It was enough. She kissed his shoulder and made her tone deliberately light. “It’s just as well you’re staying. You can’t leave me in this state.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You weren’t satisfied?”
“Oh, you did very well.” She winked at him. “For an Englishman.” She rolled over and held out her arms to him. “But come here and let me show you how much better this Parisian can be.”
The front door was opening.
Jean Marc frowned as he looked up from his ledger to the clock on the mantel of the study. It was the middle of the night. Who could be about at this hour? The sound had been very faint through the closed door of the study. Perhaps he had been mistaken. He had locked the front door himself after Juliette had run up the stairs and left him in a state of frustration so intense he’d known he’d not sleep.
No, dammit, he wasn’t mistaken. It had been a door opening.
He pushed the ledger away, rose to his feet, and strode across the study, out the door, and into the dark foyer.
“Robert?”
No answer.
The front door was open wide and a bitterly cold rain was driving into the foyer, form
ing puddles on the marble floor.
A thief? No, he was sure he had locked that door. He crossed the foyer and stood in the doorway, the wind whipping his shirt against his body, his gaze searching the empty street.
No, it was not quite empty.
A glimmer of white shone in the darkness a few yards away.
Juliette!
Dressed only in a billowing white nightgown, Juliette was trudging determinedly down the street.
“Christ!” He ran down the steps and tore down the street after her. She had reached the corner by the time he caught up with her. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him. “What idiocy are you committing now? Mother of God, you don’t even have shoes on! Where do you think you’re going?”
“The abbey.”
“What? I can’t hear you.” His hand slid from her shoulder to her wrist and tightened around it. “Do you wish to become ill? I’ve never seen such a stupid—”
“The abbey. I have to go to the abbey.”
“There is no abbey, dammit.” He turned and began pulling her back toward the house.
“No, I have to go. It’s not finished … I can do better this time.”
He dragged her stumbling up the steps and into the foyer.
“Let me go. I have to go to the abbey.”
He slammed the door and locked it behind them. “Be quiet. I’m cold and wet and not at all pleased with this ploy, Juliette.” He pulled flint from his pocket and sparked it to light the candles in the silver candelabrum on the table beside the door. “You’re a woman who behaves impulsively but not irrationally. You meant me to hear you leave and did this for a purpose. Now, where were you—” He broke off as he saw her face for the first time.
Juliette’s expression was totally blank, her gaze fixed unseeingly before her. Her drenched white nightgown clung to her thin body, and raindrops were running down her cheeks, but she acted as if she didn’t feel them.
She turned and moved back toward the door, fumbling at the lock. “The abbey. I can do it right this time. I have to go …”
Jean Marc stepped in front of her and leaned against the door, blocking her way while his gaze raked her face. A chill ran through him that had nothing to do with the clamminess of his rain-soaked clothing.
Good God, she was asleep! He had heard tales of people walking and talking while asleep, but he had never believed them. Or perhaps it wasn’t sleep but some disorder of the mind.
“Blood.” She had the lock undone and was tugging frantically at the door. “I have to stop the blood.” She was becoming agitated, her eyes glinting with tears. “Why can’t I stop the blood?”
“Juliette, don’t.” He grasped her shoulders. “Let me—”
She screamed.
He went rigid as the raw, tormented sound tore through him.
He couldn’t stand it. He shook her, hard. Harder. “Sacre bleu, wake up! I’ll not have this, Wake—”
“Will you please stop shaking me?” Juliette asked haughtily. “I knew you wanted to hurt me, but this is uncalled for.”
“You’re awake.” Relief surged through him. Her eyes were not only clear but snapping with anger at him. His hands dropped from her shoulders as he stepped back. “Mother of God, you frightened me.”
“You should be frightened. I’m very angry. Why did you carry me down here?”
He gazed at her in astonishment. “I didn’t. You were asleep and walked downstairs and out—”
“Poppycock. No one walks while sleeping, and I certainly wouldn’t.”
“Have it your way.” His gaze narrowed on her face. “You remember nothing?”
“What is there to remember? You obviously came to my chamber and carried me here for some purpose of your own.” She frowned down at the wet gown clinging to her body. “And why did you open the door and let the rain come in? I’m all wet.”
“My apologies.” He studied her face. Clearly, she not only had no memory of what had transpired but was fabricating excuses to keep from remembering. “Perhaps you’d better go up and change your gown. I’ll wake Marie and have her prepare tea.”
“That won’t be necessary. I shall have no trouble going to sleep, if you’re finished with your little jest.”
“Oh, I’ve quite finished.”
She turned away, the cotton nightgown undulating with her body as she moved toward the staircase.
“Do you ever dream of the abbey, Juliette?”
She stopped but didn’t turn around. “No, of course not. Don’t you remember? It’s Catherine who has the bad dreams. I’ve put all thoughts of those canailles behind me.”
“I see.” He stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched her as she climbed the stairs and disappeared down the corridor.
It’s not finished.
I have to go back to the abbey.
Let me do it right this time.
Strange words for a woman who had put those memories behind her.
He blew out the candles and moved toward the stairs. He would change his wet clothes and then go back to the study and try to work. He doubted if he would succeed, but he knew he was even less likely to rest now than he had been before, when it was only his body that was frustrated.
All his life he’d had a passion for unraveling riddles, and now it was his mind that was intrigued by the puzzle Juliette had flung at him to solve.
Anne Dupree sat down gracefully on the satin couch, spreading her wide brocade skirts primly. “You appear in good health, Raoul. You haven’t been to see me in over two months and if I hadn’t heard how busy you’ve been, I’d accuse you of neglecting me.”
“I couldn’t get away. Marat found me irreplaceable.” His mother looked as grand as a duchess in the gown of pink brocade, and the slight stoutness of her tall form made her appear all the more majestic, Raoul Dupree thought adoringly. Anne Dupree’s gray-streaked hair had been dressed in the latest fashion by the maid Raoul had provided her the year before, her lips painted into a vermilion pout and a small beauty patch in the shape of a heart resting just to the left of her lips. Beauty patches enchanted her, and she often bemoaned their passing from fashion. She was gazing at him expectantly, her gray eyes bright with eagerness. Her eyes were not always kind, but they were kind that day.
“But you would have left Marat and come to me if I’d sent for you?”
He nodded, feeling the happiness flood him as he looked at her. “I’ve brought you a present,” he said tentatively. “It belonged to a princess.” He wasn’t sure of the ownership of the necklace, but he knew his mother would value it more if she thought it had been worn by a royal.
His mother’s gaze went eagerly to the silk-wrapped object he had handed her. “The Princess de Lambelle? I heard you got rid of that piece of goods.”
“No, another one.” He watched eagerly as she unwrapped the necklace. It wasn’t as easy to please his mother now as it had been before he’d showered her with this fine house and servants, but surely this trinket would earn him her pleasure. “From the Abbaye de la Reine.”
“Impious whores.” His mother smiled. “You did well there, Raoul.”
He felt an exquisite rush of pleasure. “Marat praised me highly and Danton speaks of wishing to commandeer my services. Should I accept him?”
“I’ll think about it while you’re away in Spain.” His mother held up the necklace. “Very nice.”
Dupree was disappointed. “You don’t like it?”
She smiled. “I was teasing you. It’s a splendid gift.” She held out her arms. “Come here.”
He rushed across the room and sat down beside her. She enfolded him in a close embrace and rocked him gently back and forth. Raoul closed his eyes and let the sweet relief pour through him. She was pleased with him. This was what he had been waiting for through the long months away from her. It was unbearable not to be sure he was doing what she wished him to do. Sometimes the uncertainty had grown into a terrible fever and he had wanted to rush back to her and beg
her to give him assurance.
Her hands stroked his hair and her voice was soft as she placed her pouty lips close to his ear. “Have you missed me?”
His arms tightened about her stout body. She knew he was never complete without her but she always made him say the words. “Yes.”
“And you haven’t been doing naughty things with any of those wicked women?”
“No,” he lied. Mother must never know about Camille. She did not mind the anonymous rapine of the women of the abbey but would instantly condemn his relationship with Camille. “You know I always obey you, Mother.”
“And hasn’t it served you well? You’re in the company of great men and soon it will be time for you to take their place.”
He nodded contentedly, knowing he need not respond. She had been saying those words as long as he could remember. She was sure even when he was a small child he was going to be a great man and had carefully taught him what he must do. The lessons had been harsh and sometimes he hadn’t understood, but she had alternated punishment and reward until he had finally come to the realization of what was required of him. He must become a rich and powerful man and make his mother the queen she deserved to be. She did not belong in this small village, married to the ignorant merchant who had fathered him. It was his duty to free her from this bourgeois prison. His father was dead now but Raoul’s duty was still not done.
She pushed him away and looked down at the necklace again. “Is there a picture in the locket?”
“Locket?”
She gave him an impatient glance. “Of course it’s a locket.” Her nails pried at the golden circlet. “Don’t be stupid.”
The locket opened with a snap and his mother regarded the picture critically. “Quite lovely. Was this the princess?”
Raoul took the locket and looked down at the miniature of the girl he had seen for a fleeting moment in the bell tower. He slowly straightened. “Yes, that’s her.” It was an excellent likeness and could be useful. He could ride back to Paris and give it to an artist to reproduce a sketch to hang outside the Hotel de Ville. He absently stroked the jagged scar that had formed on his throat from that black-haired bitch’s teeth. The two girls had been together, and if he found the girl in the locket, there was every chance he could force her to tell him where to find Citizeness Justice. “Could I have it back for—” He had said it clumsily and could feel her stiffen with displeasure. He hurried on desperately. “Only for a little while. I’ll give you—”