Belle - Lesley Pearse [188]
Etienne half smiled in understanding. ‘So why did you let her stay?’
‘Because she was a lady; quiet, polite, clean and charming. She had a warm personality, always with a ready smile, and she was appreciative. But I am quite sure you will know all this?’
‘I do indeed. But did you say anything to her about what she was doing?’
‘No, I think I was afraid I would frighten her away.’
Gabrielle went on then to tell him about how a boy would come with a note for Belle, then a fiacre would arrive later to take her to her appointment. She said that the girl was often out all night, coming back in the early morning. Then she moved on to tell Etienne what happened on the last evening she saw Belle leave.
‘I felt she already knew the man she was meeting. That was the only time I warned her, and advised her to give it up and go home to England.’ She looked right into Etienne’s eyes, her lower lip quivering with emotion. ‘You see, I know at first hand about the bad things that can happen to young girls like her. They may be fine for quite some time, but sooner or later they will come up against a man who is dangerous. And that is what has happened, I fear.’
Gabrielle showed him the note she’d found in Belle’s room. Etienne studied it carefully. ‘Monsieur Le Brun, a common enough name! What made you think she’d met this man before?’
‘She looked especially beautiful, she’d gone to a lot of trouble and she was excited, as if she expected to be going somewhere smart with a man she really liked.’
‘So you think he was a wealthy man?’
‘She wasn’t dressed for a night out with a poor man.’
‘Could I look in her room?’ Etienne asked.
‘Of course. I was going to suggest you stayed in it.’
‘I don’t think I’ll be doing much sleeping tonight.’ Etienne smiled with his mouth but his eyes remained cold. ‘I need to get started on investigating. But I must see around her room before I go out. Women’s possessions often tell a great deal about them.’
Gabrielle went up to the next floor with him, unlocked the door and handed him the key. ‘I’ll give you another one for the front door before you go out,’ she said.
After Gabrielle had gone downstairs Etienne stood still for several minutes, just looking around the room. He could smell a musky and heady perfume. He noted the row of shoes beneath the wardrobe, the hairbrush, face powder and hairpins on the dressing table, and the three hats on the chest of drawers. It reminded him of coming into the cabin they shared on the way to America for he’d been touched then by her neatness and femininity.
He had a mental picture of the way she used to curl up on her bunk reading a book, absentmindedly twiddling with a lock of hair, and the way she’d look up at him and smile.
He shook himself and turned to the job in hand, opening drawers, examining the clothes in the wardrobe. He was impressed by them – although second-hand, they were good quality and stylish. Belle had clearly acquired a great deal of sophistication in the last two years.
Then he moved across the room to look at the sketchpad by the bed. When he saw it was all hats he felt curiously emotional, for he remembered she’d told him her dream was to have a hat shop. He read some of the notes beneath the sketches and it appeared she had also learned how to go about making her designs; he didn’t think she had that knowledge two years ago.
He began to search then, for logic told him that if she’d been making money to get back to England, she would never have risked taking it out with her at night.
First he removed all the drawers and looked for anything stuck to the bottoms. When that revealed nothing he lifted up the mattress and felt beneath it. He slid his hand down the back of the headboard, turned the dressing-table stool upside down. He was running out of ideas, and stopped to look around him again. He put his hand up the chimney and found nothing but soot. Then he noticed the drawer at the bottom of the wardrobe. There was nothing in it. He pulled it right out, looked underneath it, then put his hand