Belle - Lesley Pearse [180]
Lisette’s nursing skills were her saviour as a few years later, after she’d given birth to a little boy, she went to work in a nursing home in La Celle St-Cloud. The two women had met up only once since then, shortly after Gabrielle had returned to Paris following Samuel’s death. Lisette said little about her own circumstances that day for she was more concerned with Gabrielle’s grief at losing Samuel and whether she was doing the right thing in investing the money he had left her in a hotel.
Gabrielle was well aware of her own shortcomings. She didn’t have a gregarious nature, in fact since she was attacked she had become a solitary soul who couldn’t make small talk, and shied away from other people. Guests sometimes commented that she was sullen and uncommunicative, and had the Mirabeau not been so well placed near the station, she could have run into difficulties. Fortunately, however, there was a continual stream of people needing a small, comfortable hotel like hers and she didn’t have to rely on guests returning.
Once on the train to La Celle St-Cloud, Gabrielle began to fret that Lisette might have moved on, as she hadn’t heard from her for nearly a year. But she comforted herself that if that was the case, at least she had tried to do something to find Belle.
She found the nursing home easily enough and knocked on the door. It was opened by an old woman with a white apron over her black dress.
Gabrielle apologized for calling but said she needed to see Lisette urgently. The old woman told her to wait outside.
A few minutes passed before Lisette came to the door, looking anxious as if fearing she was going to hear bad news. When she saw her old friend, her pretty face broke into a wide smile.
‘Gabrielle!’ she exclaimed. ‘How good to see you! What brings you out here?’
Gabrielle asked if there was somewhere they could talk and Lisette said she could come out for a cup of coffee with her; she’d just have to tell someone what she was doing.
Within five minutes they were walking down to the square and Gabrielle explained as briefly as possible that she had a guest who had gone missing after going to see a man. ‘I’ve grown fond of the English girl,’ she said. ‘As you can imagine, once I knew how she was earning a living I started worrying about her safety, but she is just the way we were, confident that no one would harm her. I hoped you might know someone who could help me find her.’
‘She’s English?’ Lisette said. ‘How old?’
‘About eighteen, I don’t know for sure. Her name is Belle Cooper.’
Lisette looked startled. ‘Belle? She has dark, curly hair, blue eyes?’
‘You know her?’ Gabrielle asked incredulously.
‘Well, it sounds like the same girl,’ Lisette said, and explained how she’d nursed a girl of that age, name and description two years earlier. ‘She was taken to America,’ she finished up. ‘But I had a man come looking for her too, a friend of her family. That must be getting on for a year ago now.’
‘Was his name Etienne?’
Lisette frowned. ‘No, he was English, about thirty or so. But why did you ask if it was Etienne?’
‘It was a name she gave me, the last evening I saw her. She said she trusted him.’
They had reached the café in the square now, and sat down at a table outside well away from other people. Lisette looked stunned.
‘What is it? Do you know someone called Etienne?’ Gabrielle asked.
Lisette nodded. ‘He was the man who escorted her to America.’
Gabrielle had expected little of this meeting, and to find that Lisette knew Belle and the man she’d named was almost too much for her. Her heart began to race, and beads of perspiration formed on her forehead. ‘Can you tell me everything you know?’ she asked. ‘It seems you know far more about Belle than I do.’
Lisette hesitated. ‘I am not out of the business like you,’ she said sadly. ‘But