She hated that she wasn’t sure. That it felt now like she’d simply convinced herself to love Jordi. Because it had been a choice she could make, a hope she could have. Was it about wantingsomething? Or was it about wantingJordi?
She hated the answer almost as much as she hated him rejecting running away with her.
“Does Alexandre love Ines?” Evelyne asked abruptly, because she assumed Gabriel would know. Maybe he wouldn’t tell her, but he would know.
Gabriel did not answer right away. He pulled her around another corner of shrubbery, under an arbor that somehow smelled of spring though winter was on its way.
“It is not something he has spoken of, one way or another,” he said at length.
Evelyne was not sure if he sounded distracted because he was or because he was trying to lie. Though a nonanswer was hardly a lie.
“I hope he does. At least a little bit. I hope she can be a bright spot.”
“I hope so too.”
She looked up at him then, surprised to find that his voice sounded…at least somewhat earnest. But she shouldn’t be surprised. If there was one thing she knew, it was that Alexandre and Gabriel cared for one another like brothers. She’d always thought that Gabriel might be the sole person in the world who knew Alexandre’s inner troubles—because he made sure their father didn’t, and he didn’t want to worry Evelyne with them.
It was dark where they were now. She couldn’t make out Gabriel’s expression at all, but his hand was still hooked in her arm. He stopped their forward progress, so they stood in the dark, the only sound the rustle of the breeze and their own breathing for a few moments.
Everything suddenly felt odd and tense, when Gabriel was usually the life of the party. Not serious and silent like her brother.
“Gabriel—”
“Shh.” His hand curled around hers so that they wereholding hands.
What on earth was going on?
“Come,” he said, his voice low and sensual in her ear. “We must hurry now.”
Hurry?
He pulled her along, and she had to all but jog in the painful heels to keep up with him, because for a moment she didn’t know what else to do but obey. Maybe she was just too used to obeying.
When he finally came to a stop, it was at a car. She blinked at it, even as he dropped her hand and opened the passenger door and gestured for her to get in. When she didn’t move, he crossed back to her and pulled her along.
“Get in the car, Evelyne.”
It felt suddenly…threatening or sinister. Why did he want to get her into a car? What was this about? She pulled at his hold, but he did not let her go.
Twin but opposite feelings fluttered low in her stomach. A seed of fear, a sparkle of interest. But since hope was dead, she figured she should listen to the fear. When had she ever been able to trust a man who wasn’t her brother anyway? Men, it seemed, were all the same. Maybe even Alexandre was underneath it all, and she only didn’t see it because she was his sister.
“Unhand me, Gabriel,” she ordered.
He did not. “Do as you’re told, Evelyne,” he said in a quiet, authoritative tone she’d never once heard from Gabriel.
She lifted her chin, stopped trying to pull her hand from his grasp, and used all her royal training to sound threatening. “My brother will kill you if you take advantage of me.”
Gabriel muttered something in Italian, though she couldn’t make it out. It reminded her that while he wasfromAlis, he had spent much of his adolescence and all of his adult life in Italy. Free from Alis and her father.
Free.
And friends with her brother, who she had no reason to doubt. No reason to distrust, male or not. Alexandre had been nothing but a protector in every sense of the word, and it was a sad state of affairs indeed if she let Father, the general andJordichange her sturdy belief in her brother.
“I am not taking advantage of you,” he ground out, though he did not loosen his grip. “If you have any sense at all, you’ll get in the car.”
He glared down at her in the dim light of the palace garage.
He was really quite handsome, particularly in a scowl, which she wasn’t sure she’d ever seen on him. It heightened his angular features, did interesting things to his mouth.
