Belle - Lesley Pearse [160]
That meant Madame Albertine must have told him what she was, and that made Belle cry, for she’d liked Albertine, really liked her, and she’d thought her secrets safe with her.
Belle stayed in the bathroom for what seemed like hours. She washed herself all over, combed her hair, and drank copious amounts of water until she felt completely sober again. Then she crept back into the dark bedroom and groped around on the floor until she found all her clothes.
A peep through the curtains revealed that it was still night, with not even a hint of dawn approaching, and along with not knowing how to get back to Madame Albertine’s, she wasn’t anxious to be seen leaving by a night porter. So, once dressed, she took an eiderdown which had fallen from the bed, and sat down on the chaise longue by the window and covered herself up to keep warm, while she thought about how she was going to deal with her predicament.
Clovis was snoring softly, a rather endearing sound in many ways, and Belle wished she could believe that he’d only brought her up here intending to let her sleep off the drink, but then lust got the better of him. Sadly, however, she knew men too well to believe that. Ironically, she might have willingly gone to bed with him at a later date, for she had really liked him.
But thinking back to how they met at the Christmas lunch, it came to her like a lightning bolt that Madame Albertine might in fact have been displaying her, both then and earlier in the day, to her other friends, preparing to offer her to the highest bidder. Belle was horrified, for it was surely the worst kind of betrayal of all. But the more she thought about it, the more she felt she was right, and what was more, Madame Albertine wouldn’t have been in this venture alone: her most obvious partner in crime was Arnaud.
Belle could see the whole picture now. Arnaud offered to get a cab and take her to a place he knew, because he’d planned ahead. It was possible Madame Albertine already ran a brothel, and she was delighted Arnaud had brought her a new recruit. Belle understood now why she felt uncomfortable at Arnaud’s house; his friends had known what she was and might even have been making him offers for her.
Tonight’s dinner party had been the bait to hook Belle.
And she’d swallowed it hook, line and sinker. All it took for her was a handsome, attentive escort, a stunning dress and too much to drink. By going willingly to Clovis’s room she couldn’t complain about whatever he did to her.
But of course Madame Albertine wasn’t expecting her to complain. She would undoubtedly commiserate with Belle when she got home later this morning, but then gently suggest she might as well do it for money in future; after all, it would be the quickest way to earn enough for the train ticket home to England.
Whether it was Madame Albertine or Arnaud who found the customers, there was no doubt they’d be sharing the money she made. Belle would be back in exactly the same position she’d been in with Martha.
She knew that all ports had whorehouses, and although there were no other girls at Madame Albertine’s, and the house didn’t look anything like a brothel, it was more than possible that the two of them planned to put her in one nearby. She supposed that it wasn’t really logical to be angry as she’d been intending to work as a whore anyway. But it was the deception that stung. Madame Albertine had paraded her around as if she just wanted Belle to have a nice time, but all the time she was seeing her simply as a piece of merchandise to be sold off to the highest bidder.
Belle sat there thinking for a moment or two,