Forever My Love(139)
"I knew that you would come to help me," he said, his eyes devouring the sight of her. "Mira… c'est impossible, Mira… I couldn't believe it when I found out what had become of you. Look at you! You're a woman—and you were a only little girl when you left me."
"When you drove me away." She wondered if she were more afraid of him than sorry for him. Guil-laume had been handsome five years ago, fierce with a hunger for life, his face alert with ambition and desire… desire for women, for luxury, for money… yes, above all, for money. Now he was too thin, and he seemed far older than in his late twenties. She knew just by looking at him that he had gone far down the path he had begun to travel five years ago. It hasn't been entirely his fault, she thought heavily. Circumstances had played a part in making him what he was, just as they had made her what she was. Feeling a softening in her heart toward him, Mira hardened herself against it. Five years ago Rand and Rosalie had offered both of the Germains a new life in England, a life in which they would no longer have to steal what they needed and prey on those who were unable to defend themselves. Mira had wanted that chance desperately. Guillaume had destroyed it for both of them.
"What is it, Guillaume?" she asked quietly. "You're here because you want something from me."
"I… I don't know how to start."
Somehow they had switched roles. It seemed as if she were the older one and he was the younger, dependent one. "Start by telling me what happened after we parted," Mira prompted. "You had become involved with a gang—""An organization—Stop Hole Abbey. I've been with them ever since you left me. Over the past five years I have become an important man. I started out by doing little things—"
"Ah, little things," she repeated coldly, "like trying to kidnap Rosalie five years ago? And using me to betray her and Lord Berkeley?" Guillaume seemed surprised by her hardness. What had he expected of her? Mira wondered angrily. That she would run to him with outflung arms and tears of gladness? Had he expected that kind of reunion after what he had done to her? He reminded her of a child who knew that he had misbehaved but felt no real remorse.
"I had to do that," he said. "Dieu, they promised me so much, Mira. I had to do it. They said I would . be rich someday, and I was going to share it all with you."
"You don't seem to be very rich," she observed, looking up and down his lean, ill-clad form, and suddenly his dark brown eyes flashed with resentment.
"But you are. Married to a Falkner. How did you do it? What trick did you use, or was it luck? You were always very lucky… you were my charm. When you left me—"
"I didn't leave you because I wanted to. I was forced to make a choice between going and staying and sinking down with you."
"I didn't sink," he said indignantly. "Far from it. I'm an important man in Stop Hole Abbey now. I have special responsibilities—"
"What kind of responsibilities? Things as bad as what you and I did—tricking people, taking their f money, hurting—"
"What we did were merely children's games," he said scornfully.
She nodded slowly. Children's games—that was a; good way to put it. While other children had been playing jackstraws or looking at picture cards, she hadbeen picking pockets. But she and Guillaume had always stopped at certain unspoken limits. How far would he have gone, she wondered despairingly, after crossing the threshold of those limits? She looked away from him, trying to swallow the ache in her throat. "Do you want to know what I do?" he asked, his expression taunting. "I'm in charge of a whole group of men. I became friends with the leader of Stop Hole. He makes all the decisions and knows everything that goes on. He can have anything he wants, and he put me in charge of his special project. My men and I collect girls, right off the streets… sometimes from their homes, sometimes we even whisk them right out of the shops they work in. Only pretty ones. And we sell them and send them away to—"
"Don't tell me!" she cried, shuddering. "Why are you here? Why are you telling me this—to frighten me? What do you wantV
"I have a problem. Only you can help me. I had a few debts… I skimmed off a little money from Stop Hole's profits to pay them off. But now a few men in the organization are suspicious, and it's only a matter of time before they find out that I took the money… and when they do, I won't have a chance. If you don't give me the money to replace what I took from Stop Hole, my death will be on your conscience."