“And yet Lucheux hired you.That has to tell you something.”
“Exactly.I don’t want to screw this up.”
He wasn’t going to be the one to tell her she didn’t get the job based on her resume but based on her eerie likeness to a dead countess.
He steered her onto the entrance to the River Walk.Normally Christien barely noted the changing of the seasons.When time held no meaning, seasons were inconsequential.He’d lived through hundreds of them but today he could feel spring in the air.The breeze was warm upon his face.The sun seemed brighter.He was aware that this new appreciation had nothing to do with Mother Nature but rather Madelaine at his side.She brought new awareness to his life, an edge to a dull existence.
“I need this job more than anything.Ihaveto succeed.”
“Why do you have to succeed?”
“Well.For the same reasons everyone wants to succeed.”
“Generally people want success for money or power or to rise above bad situations.Which reason is yours?”
“Money,” she said softly.
He wondered if she would admit it.He knew everything about her.Where she grew up, what her grades were in college, how much money she owed in student loans.And he knew about her father, about the fight they’d waged against the government who wanted their land to build a highway and the loss of not only her family home, but the father who’d doted on her all her life.The worst part was that he didn’t die, but lost his sensibilities, forcing her to put him in a very expensive nursing home and increasing her debt.
No doubt Lucheux knew all of this as well and played on her vulnerabilities.What had he offered her?Enough money to cover her debts without making her suspicious?Or did he outright offer to pay everything off if she agreed to play along with his scheme?
Christien wouldn’t put either scenario past the man, but he was beginning to doubt the latter.Her debts were still there, whittled down little by little every month.
“It’s not such a horrible thing to want money,” he said.“I’ve been poor and helpless in the past because of the lack of it.I understand.”And damn his traitorous mind he could also understand why she would agree to Lucheux’s scheme.Being helpless wore a person down and trampled their pride.To save her father, she would do anything, even swallow that pride.
She breathed out a sigh.“I don’t want you to think I’m here because, well, because you’re rich.”
He laughed.“I never once thought that.”
“Oh.”She ducked her head in embarrassment.“Good.I’m glad.”
“Why are you glad?”
She blew out a breath.“You ask a lot of questions.”
“How else am I to learn about you?”
Her steps faltered.He put a hand under her elbow to steady her, the simple touch anything but simple to him.
“You want to learn about me?”
“You intrigue me.”
“I do?”
He smiled at her surprised tone.“You do.”
They walked in silence for a few moments.Slowly the tension eased out of her.Her shoulders relaxed, her steps became lighter, less hurried, as if she actually wanted to linger.
“And working for Lucheux will get you the money you need?”he asked, returning to the conversation.
“Yes.”
How much money will it get you, Madelaine?Enough to pay off all your bills?
“My father is…ill.He’s in a good nursing home but the expense is a little beyond my budget.The opportunity to work for Lucheux came at the perfect time.”
He bet it did.Rage hit him hard and unexpectedly.Another coincidence he couldn’t write off.Lucheux was definitely using her to get to him.But did she know it?
