Forever My Love(140)

"No. You'll find some other way to get the money, but you won't get it from me. It would never stop… you would come to me over and over again, always asking for more."

"So you've become greedy, petite soeur. You have more money than you could ever spend, and you're married to a powerful man, but you won't spare a cent to save my life. I'll just have to ask your husband for help."

"What?" she whispered.

"I've heard that the Falkners take care of their own… and since I'm your brother, surely I must havesome claim… yes, I'll have to talk to Lord Falkner about everything… explain my troubles… explain about our background."

"You think you can blackmail me," Mira said, feel­ing a burst of inner panic, panic that she could not let him see. "But why do you think I haven't already told him everything? Including the part about Maman."

"You wouldn't have—I know that about you, if I know nothing else. But if you're telling the truth, then you'd have no objection to my discussing it with him, would you? You may expect me to call later on this evening. We'll laugh about it together… the biggest joke in England. With all the women he could have chosen, Alec Falkner married a French whore's daugh­ter." "No."

"Should I tell him that Maman took care of her customers right in front of you when you were a baby?

That you and she lived in the same room until you were old enough to move to the corner in the kitchen—"

"Stop it!"

"-—and then I'll tell him that if I hadn't taken you away after Maman died, you would have become a whore too—you would be in that brothel today, spread­ing your legs for anyone with a pocketful of francs."

"No!" Mira wailed, covering her face with her hands and bursting into tears. She wept uncontrollably, turn­ing away from her brother and hiding the sight of her fear and guilt from him. After the storm had subsided to gulping sobs, she staggered to a slender tree and leaned against it, unmindful that its bark was digging into the side of her face. She did not look at Guil-laume, but she knew that he was still standing there, patient, watchful, waiting. "I have some money," she whispered, "but I can't give you more than a few hundred pounds in cash." "Jewelry. Surely he's given you plenty of that." "Yes.""Then bring it out here tomorrow and show it to me. I'll only take what I need."

"He's coming back tonight. He'll probably be with me all day tomorrow."

"Then go and get it right now. I'll wait here."

She was in the middle of a nightmare. In a matter of seconds, years had dissolved into nothingness, and she was no longer Mira Falkner, she was Mireille Ger­main, helpless, frightened, afraid to stay, afraid to run. "Guillaume," she begged, "after today, you plan to come back… I know you do. And there'll never be an end, not until you've taken everything I have and destroyed my marriage… and that will kill me. Don't come back again. Please."

"Go fetch your jewelry, Mira."

Guillaume had taken a large portion of her posses­sions, and she was already frantic with worry—how could the jewelry not be missed? Perhaps she could claim that it had been stolen—but no, then the blame might be unfairly cast upon one or more of the ser­vants, and she could never allow that. She sat in the bedroom after returning from her meeting with Guil­laume, and she refused to take supper, feeling ill and forlorn. As evening fell, faint sounds from outside attracted her attention, and she went to the window. They had returned. The door of a carriage opened, and Alec's black head appeared. Running swiftly out of the keep and down a long flight of stairs, Mira reached the front entrance just as Carr and Alec walked in. She had never been so glad to see him… she had never needed his arms around her more than at this moment.

"Alec!" she cried out with gladness, and he laughed as she flew to him. He caught her in his arms and whirled her around once before letting her down to the ground and covering her mouth with his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and molded herslim body to his, and the kiss might have lasted several minutes more had it not been for Juliana's harrumphing. "Ridiculous, these public displays. Mira, it only en­courages him to neglect you when you let him go and then welcome him back without a fuss. You should chide him for leaving you, not scream and run to him as if you—"

"She doesn't need to chide me for leaving her," Alec interrupted his mother, his arms tightening around Mira as he smiled down at her. "I've been chiding myself for it every minute."

"Did you have any luck concerning Holt's—?" Mira began to ask, and he silenced her with a quick kiss.