That nightin bed Beau wrapped his arms around her. “Just let me hold you, Marianne. That’s all I want to do.”
She let him because she wanted him to hold her. She closed her eyes and pretended things were different.
“Marianne, what if we were partners?” came his voice in the darkness.
“No.”
“But why?”
She expelled her breath. He’d shared something difficult and painful with her. She supposed it was only fair that she shared something equally difficult and painful with him. “I’m afraid of getting hurt again. I told you I wasn’t innocent. The truth is that I was seduced by a man who was a member of theton.”
“What? Who? Who hurt you?” His voice was filled with anger.
“His name was Sir William Godfrey.”
“What happened?” He pushed himself up on his elbow and looked down at her in the darkness, stroking her cheek.
“He told me he loved me,” Marianne continued. “He told me he’d do anything to marry me. But it was all a lot of lies.”
“I won’t lie to you, Marianne. I may have used a false name with you at first. But I would never lie to you the way he did.”
All she could do was nod. He was right, after all. Beau had never said he loved her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
When the ship docked in Calais later the next afternoon, Beau was ready. He’d removed his pistol from the wardrobe and placed it into the back of his breeches. He and Marianne had packed their bags and had departed before the rest of the ship was allowed to, having been summoned by Captain Jones.
This put them in the perfect place to follow Winfield and Albina. Beau and Marianne were waiting outside a tavern across from the dock when the other couple disembarked.
Winfield and Albina quickly hailed a coach, and Beau and Marianne soon engaged a coach of their own.
“Follow that coach,” Beau instructed the driver in French.
Marianne watched out the coach’s window as they rattled off through the cobblestone streets of Calais. She had changed into a soft yellow gown with a high waist. It was one of only two that she had that weren’t maid gowns.
They’d traveled for less than a quarter hour when the first coach began to slow.
“Keep going,” Beau told the driver. “Turn the corner and come to a stop on the other side of that building.” He gestured to a large warehouse on the corner.
Once their coach rolled to a stop, Beau flipped the driver a coin. “Wait here.”
Beau jumped from the coach and turned to help Marianne down before they made their way quickly to the side of the warehouse. Beau pressed his back against the wall and turned his head, peering around the corner to see if Winfield and Albina had alighted from their coach.
“They’re getting out now,” he informed Marianne.
Marianne nodded and waited for Beau to motion for her to follow him before they both turned the corner and made their way to the warehouse that Winfield and Albina had entered.
Once inside, footsteps above them on the shaky staircase to their right told them that Winfield and Albina were climbing the stairs. Beau and Marianne waited until the footsteps stopped and a door opened.
“Sounds as if they went up three floors,” Beau said quietly.
He and Marianne climbed the stairs after them.
At the third floor, the staircase let out in front of a row of dark brown wooden doors. When he peeked into the corridor, Beau caught a glimpse of Albina’s skirts disappearing through one of the many doors.
Again, he motioned for Marianne to follow him, and they made their way silently to the door and pressed their ears against it in two different spots. Unlike the doors made of solid wood at Lord Copperpot’s town house in London, this door was flimsily constructed, and Beau could hear everything without crouching down to the keyhole.
After a few pleasantries were exchanged in French, Winfield said, “Do you have the money?”
