Benoit looked thrilled at the prospect of more champagne, and darted off to get another bottle, while Blake sat back, content to listen to Henri and his mother talk as she admired the view. One day ago, her prospects of discovering more had been bleak, but now she was starting to believe that she might just solve the mystery of her past. And have enough to write about to keep Deborah, and her readers, happy.
After a most enjoyable late afternoon and evening being entertained by the Toussaint family, as they’d spent the night talking, laughing, drinking and eating, Blake had said goodnight and let Henri lead her by the hand to their quarters. Although it was large, the chateau somehow still felt like a home, and she walked slowly down the hallway and up the stairs, with Henri patiently keeping to her slow pace.
‘You’re going to love the bedroom.’
When he pushed open the door to their room, he let Blake go first, and she had barely stepped in before she stopped.Oh mygoodness. It was like a bedroom from a movie set, complete with a four-poster bed in the middle of the room, and its own private balcony.
‘Henri,’ she whispered, as he came up behind her, so close that she swore she could feel his breath against her neck. ‘This is amazing. Is this your room?’
He laughed. ‘This isn’t officially my room anymore, because my mother moved out all my things and redecorated about the time she leftVogue. She didn’t cope well with having any time off.’
‘Well, she did a beautiful job,’ Blake said, turning and finding herself even closer to Henri than she’d realised. ‘I can’t wait to explore the rest of the grounds.’
‘Tomorrow,’ he murmured, his eyes falling to her lips, ‘we are going to walk, and have a picnic beneath the oak trees, and go horse riding.’
‘Was your mother teasing or telling the truth when she said you hadn’t brought anyone here in a long time?’
Blake felt as though her breath had caught in her throat as he lifted his hand to brush his fingertips gently down her face, before they slid to rest against the back of her neck.
‘She wasn’t lying,’ he murmured. ‘It’s been a very long time since I trusted someone enough.’
Blake didn’t have the time to wonder what he meant, because the moment he’d finished speaking he brought his lips to meet hers in a kiss so butterfly-soft it sent a shiver all the way down her spine.
Any doubts she might have had about his feelings for her disappeared the moment he kissed her.
She looped her arms around his neck as he walked her backwards until her legs touched the bed. Henri kissed her again, until she lost her balance and fell back, with him almostlanding on top of her, his hands bracing himself on either side of her body.
‘Henri?’ she whispered.
He took his lips from hers and looked down at her, tenderly brushing her hair from her face, and she couldn’t help but think that it had been a kiss worth waiting for.
‘I can see why this is your favourite place in the world.’
Because as he stared into her eyes, in the moment before he kissed her again, she was starting to think it might just be her favourite place, too.
17
PARIS, 1938
‘Evelina,’ Antoine said, his eyes wide as he looked from the dress that she’d displayed then back to her. ‘It’s…’
She glanced up at him, realising how much she’d come to rely on his opinion in the nearly eighteen months since she’d first met him.
‘Do you like it?’ she asked, as he walked around the mannequin for the third time. Antoine still managed to captivate her, her eyes rarely leaving him even as he moved, waiting for the moment that she was in his arms again. She knew she shouldn’t be so dependent on his praise, but she’d become used to him telling her what he loved about her creations, and she’d come to crave it. But this time, she could already tell from the expression on his face that he loved it.
‘It’s a masterpiece,’ he said. ‘Truly, Evelina, it is. Women are going to fight one another for the last dress in their size—I can already sense the commotion it will cause in the shop.’
‘I was afraid it might be too risqué,’ she said, although that wasn’t precisely the truth. Shewantedto be risqué, to encourage women to wear dresses that made them feel desirable. She wanted women to dress for dinner and know they were about to make themselves the sole object of theirhusband’s consideration; that other women would pause in their conversations and wish they had something that beautiful to wear.
‘I’ve made a jacket, too,’ she said, going into her bedroom and re-emerging with a cropped jacket that she placed over the shoulders of the mannequin. ‘It will come in three colours, and it can be worn over any of the dresses in this collection, or in any collection for that matter. I want them to be timeless, collector’s pieces, perhaps, at a higher price point, and once they’ve sold out, they won’t be available until the following season. I think there needs to be a sense of urgency so women know they could miss out if they don’t purchase immediately.’
Evelina was surprised to see Antoine frowning.Does he not like the jacket?She looked it over, unsure what he could possibly be unhappy about. She’d tailored it to perfection, hand-sewing every part of the sample to ensure it was up to her exacting standards.
‘You are the artist, ma chérie, but I’ll decide on how to sell the product,’ Antoine said brusquely, turning away from the mannequin to pour himself a drink. ‘Designing is your job, strategy is mine, so please don’t think I need guidance in that department.’
She held her tongue. Antoine wasn’t just her lover, he was her one and only client, and she had no intention of upsetting his fragile ego. The one thing her mother had told Evelina and her sisters growing up was to never have all their eggs in one basket, and although it hadn’t made sense to her as a girl, it certainly did now. Although she’d gone and done exactly that when she’d given Antoine exclusivity to her designs.
But it’s different with Antoine, she assured herself.They’d formed a formidable partnership together, and she couldn’t imagine her life without him in it, so she had no intention of adding any more baskets, for the sake of a better expression. Shesimply needed to be more careful; he didn’t want her to offer her unsolicited opinion about such matters, which meant she would tread with caution.
