Belle - Lesley Pearse [136]
She lifted her head and smiled, and to his surprise he saw she was a very pretty woman, with soft, dark eyes, creamy skin and a wide, full mouth. ‘I am, sir,’ she replied in English. ‘And why is an Englishman asking for me?’
Noah thought she had the sexiest of French accents; she was making him grin like a schoolboy too. ‘I want to talk to you,’ he said.
She tossed her head almost dismissively. ‘I have shopping to do,’ she said.
‘Then I’ll come with you and carry your basket,’ he said. ‘Maybe I can persuade you to have some coffee with me too?’
She looked at him appraisingly for a second, then laughed lightly. ‘If Monsieur Deverall has sent you, then you will be wasting your time. The answer is no.’
She began to walk towards the village and he fell in beside her. ‘I haven’t been sent by anyone,’ he said. ‘I’ve come to ask you about a young girl called Belle.’
The way she stopped dead in her tracks and her face blanched was all Noah needed. He put his hand on her elbow. ‘Keep walking,’ he said softly. ‘Don’t be alarmed, you have nothing to fear from me. I just want to ask you a few questions.’
She said something in French, a hurried volley.
‘I only know a few French words,’ he said. ‘You must speak English to me.’
‘I cannot talk to you.’ She sounded scared now. ‘I don’t know anything.’
‘You do, Lisette,’ he insisted. ‘I know you have a little boy and you are frightened for him, but believe me, you have nothing to fear from me. I am a friend of Belle’s mother – I promised her I would try to find out where Belle is, because she is grieving for her, and not knowing if she is alive or dead, or where she’s being held is slowly killing her. But anything you tell me is between ourselves. I will not tell anyone else, call the police or anyone. You are absolutely safe with me.’
‘Who sent you to me?’ she asked, her eyes as wide as saucers and full of fear.
‘Someone good and kind who believes you are too,’ he said. ‘But that is all I can say. I promised her too that she would be safe.’
‘But it isn’t safe,’ she pleaded with him. ‘You don’t know how bad these people are!’
Noah saw there were other people around them now as they came into the village. ‘Lisette, calm down, do not draw attention to us. Now, we’re going to go over to the café. If anyone asks about me later today you just say I asked you the way to the station and I bought you coffee. That is entirely believable as you are such a pretty woman.’
She gave a nervy half-smile, but Noah felt he was succeeding in making her less afraid. He could hardly believe his luck that he’d found her so easily, but he knew that luck was likely to run out if he pushed her too fast or too far. So he stopped talking about Belle and spoke about the sights he’d seen in Paris while he led her to the café.
Once they were seated outside and coffee and pastries ordered, he began again. ‘Lisette, I know Belle was brought to the place you work,’ he said. ‘And it’s my guess you are the nurse who cared for her.’
She hesitated, clearly weighing up whether to admit this or not. Then she nodded. ‘She was very sick, I fear for her at first.’
‘She’d been raped?’ Noah asked gingerly.
He sensed her distress and held his breath, fearing she would clam up. But she took a deep breath and looked him right in the eyes. ‘Yes, she had been raped. Again and again,’ she admitted, and he saw her reason for speaking out was because she felt so horrified. ‘It was terrible they would do that to such a young girl. The body will heal, but not always the mind,’ she added.
She paused then, looking at Noah as if still weighing up whether or not he could be trusted. ‘But Belle was a fighter, she have strong, how you say? Spirit?’ she said eventually. ‘She asked me to help her escape, but I couldn’t. I or my boy would be killed if I did. You understand that?’
Noah put his hand over hers comfortingly. ‘I know, I’m sure you would have helped her escape if you could. But I’m not here to blame. I just want to find her and take her home to those who love her. When