“Please, let me speak to him.” Her accent grew thicker with dismay. “There’s no time to delay. The message is confidential—”
“Gabriel keeps no secrets from me.” Liar. “Kindly get to the point of your visit, or leave.” Daisy held her chin up, retaining her composure, but inwardly, she was an utter mess. Her heart pounded through her ears, her hands trembled, and her blood ran cold with fear. She was no match for this exquisite beauty. How could she ever compete with Desiree for Gabriel’s affections? Desiree was the exquisite mistress who indulged his every pleasure.
“A woman in my position must live on the generosity of men,” Desiree said, regarding her curiously, no doubt because of her comment about Gabriel keeping no secrets from her. It was a lie and Desiree obviously knew it. “Some are kinder, more generous than others.”
Oh, don’t tell me! I don’t want to know!
“Lord Gabriel is one of those men. That’s why I had to come here despite the risk. I think he’s in danger.”
A chill ran up Daisy’s spine. “What sort of danger?”
Desiree hesitated.
“Miss St. Claire, it isn’t possible to see his cousin tonight. You see, he’s injured his leg and is quite incapacitated.”
“Oh, my!” She put a hand to her mouth, appearing sincerely distressed.
“So you’ll just have to tell me what this is about.”
She withdrew a parchment from her reticule. “I wrote the words exactly as he’d mumbled them. You see, I was with a certain gentleman of high position who visited me earlier this evening. Oh, he was quite drunk and unpleasantly persistent. I fear my coming here will have consequences, especially if he finds out that I was the one to warn Lord Dayne.”
Daisy took it without comment.
She cast Daisy a weak smile. “I’ll protect myself if the need arises,” she said, a sudden cloud of sadness shrouding her gray eyes. “I’ve had to all of my life.”
“I see.” Though she didn’t really. Women such as Desiree were much sought after and understood the power they wielded over men. They traded their bodies for protection, their sexual favors for lavish gifts. They lived charmed lives, or so Daisy had thought until this very moment. Desiree looked scared and lonely.
“Please go on,” she said politely, no longer willing to judge the beauty for entering into one of civilization’s oldest professions. “Tell me what this man said.”
She took a deep breath. “He was drunk and making threats against Lord Gabriel that frightened me.” She stared at the parchment Daisy held in her hand. “Lord Graelem must read it at once. But before he does, please tell him that this gentleman offered to become my benefactor.”
Daisy shook her head in confusion. “I don’t understand the significance. You must receive many such offers.”
“There is a strict protocol to such arrangements, a gentlemen’s code of honor.” Her cheeks were flaming as she spoke, for it was obviously an uncomfortable topic and Desiree couldn’t have imagined she’d be explaining it to Gabriel’s wife. Not that she realized she was speaking to Gabriel’s wife. “Since Lord Gabriel has paid a six-month advance, I’m obligated to him until the time expires. For another gentleman to engage my services is a grave insult to Lord Gabriel.”
“You make it sound rather like a contract,” Daisy muttered with disgust, “and this gentleman was interfering with the terms and conditions.”
“It’s more serious than that. Men die over such disputes of honor.”
Daisy only saw the sordidness of the arrangement, women treated as concubines and routinely abandoned as they aged, their protectors moving on to more youthful amusements.
“This gentleman would not have risked approaching me unless he thought Lord Gabriel was not coming back.”
Daisy’s hands began to shake, so she tightened her grasp on the parchment. “You mean, not coming back to you.”
“No, I fear he believes that Lord Gabriel will not come back at all. That’s why you must take what I’ve written to his cousin at once. He’ll make better sense of the words.”
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Daisy read the note as she hurried upstairs, her mind awhirl with questions, especially since the note contained only one line:
Confirm N. will have welcome party for guest arriving at Boulogne.
The words could have been said by a friend, confirming that ‘N’—didn’t have to stand for Napoleon—had made arrangements for the arrival of a certain guest. But Gabriel was on his way to France and she feared the welcome party was a French regiment prepared to shoot him on sight.