“But to abuse you like that!”protested Peter.
She turned on him sharply.“It was probably that or see me mistreated or killed.I doubt Madame would be charitable to her rival if he refused.I am concerned about what she will do if she realizes she is being tricked.”
“What can she do?”said Lord Middlethorpe.“By then the die will be cast and her only desire will be to be out of the country.”He glanced at his fob watch.“It is gone eleven o’clock.There should be news soon.But Eleanor, you should go to bed and rest.”
“Do you think I could sleep?”she asked.“In fact, I’m hungry.Can I order something for you?”
So they sat and ate sandwiches, watching the clock and waiting for news.There was another arrival and they all turned expectantly to the door, but it was only the marquess.
“Luce, what’s happening?”asked Lord Middlethorpe.
“I’m not sure.Eleanor, are you all right?”
“Yes,” she answered impatiently.“Where is Nicholas?”
“At Madame Bellaire’s still.He could only get a brief word to me.Said to come here and give you his apologies.He didn’t say what for.”
“That’s not important.Why is he still there?”
“I can’t say.We were all settled in for another jolly evening, pretending to enjoy ourselves.I’ll be honest with you,” he admitted with a grin, “it’s not hard, except … Well, Nicholas comes down and gives me an envelope and says we’re all to go.He told me to come here to you and the others to take the package to Melcham.He got the lists after all,” he said jubilantly, “and I thought that goose was cooked.Did you escape?”
“No,” said Eleanor, thinking over this news.“They released us.Madame Bellaire appears to have abducted me because she didn’t trust Nicholas.I suppose he is now getting her out of the country as planned.When can I expect him home?”
“Tomorrow, if everything goes as planned,” said Lucien.“But if I were him I wouldn’t stay in that woman’s company a moment longer than I had to.”
“I suppose it is a matter of honor,” said Eleanor.
“Some situations…” he said, but then abandoned that argument.“What I don’t understand, though—”
“Francis will tell you,” said Eleanor, feeling as if a weight had fallen from her shoulders.It was all going to work out after all.“Now I am tired.As everything seems to be in order, I think I will seek my bed.Good night, gentlemen, and thank you.”
Tomorrow Nicholas would be home, free of entanglements.They could go to Somerset.She would grow huge with child as he regained his gilded beauty.They would be happy at last.As soon as she laid her head upon her pillow, she fell into an exhausted but contented sleep.
Nicholas was sittingin an elegant chair in Therese’s boudoir sipping an excellent port.The Frenchwoman sat a small distance away, a picture of seductive beauty.Three men watched him, pistols aimed steadily at his head.
Nicholas spoke, with difficulty, in a tone of light amusement.He was not feeling amused, even though he had seen Amy and Eleanor leave and was reasonably sure of their safety.“Therese, do you seriously expect me to believe this is all an elaborate plot to get even with me?‘Hell hath no fury,’ but this is ridiculous.”
Therese’s lips curved in a sensual smile.“Just one of theaims, mon ami.”
“Doing it too brown,” he said calmly.“I know the plot is real.It has at least four governments in a stew.”
“Of course it is real,” she purred.“Like all men, you underestimate a woman.I really did expect better of you.I am capable of driving more than one horse.But yet,” she mused mischievously, “it is not quite accurate to say the plot is real.It exists, yes, but it is a … how you say?… a fraud.”
He showed no reaction as he sipped at the wine again.“Are you going to explain that statement?”
“But of course!I am vain enough to hope that you, at least, will appreciate my genius.The fall of our friend Napoleon Bonaparte inconvenienced me.I had a select clientele of his closest officers and advisers and a lucrative trade in … let us call it ‘influencing’ them.I expected him to accept the agreement at Chatillon.Who did not?The power of France would have been reduced, but”—she shrugged—“instead he pursued war to destruction.”A click of her tongue dismissed theci-devantemperor.“I saw there would be problems in establishing my power again under the Bourbons and looked to the New World for scope for my talents.But I required funding.”
She played the good hostess and refilled his glass from the decanter, eyes holding his.He nodded a brief acknowledgement.The damnable thing was he still wasn’t sure how she felt about him.There was no longer any need to play the devoted lover, but some acting might be necessary to preserve his life.And life, with the thought of Eleanor waiting, was very sweet.
“Now,” she continued, “one of the gentlemen I knew so well in Paris was working for the emperor’s restoration even before the ink was dry on Napoleon’s abdication.He believed, my poor Gaston, that the people would soon tire of the feeble Bourbons and demand the emperor back.It does not cost to encourage dreams, no matter how foolish.When I saw how many there were of this view, however—either patriots or those who feared to lose through the return of the monarchy—I saw my way.”
She rose and walked the room, stirring gentle waves of sultry perfume from her gown.“Greed is a wonderful thing, Nicky!Men can be led through the nose by greed.In Italy, Germany, Spain, and even England there are men who fear to lose by the end of Napoleon, or by the end of war.Oh so cleverly, so secretly, I have formed them into a secret society.”She looked back at him with a catlike smile.“Men love to be in a secret society, don’t they, Nicky?Love to play at the spy.”
Nicholas could feel that hit home.God, when he finally had leisure to think about the fool he’d been…
Therese laughed and stopped to touch his cheek in commiseration.He flinched away.
“Suffice to say,” she murmured, “they have all paid into the fund, and in return they have received their money’s worth of ciphers and secrets, passwords and symbols.I always give people their money’s worth.”
