Belle - Lesley Pearse [194]
‘I would say that is true of many women, but not Belle,’ he said staunchly. ‘She would’ve sent a message to her landlady so she wouldn’t worry.’
‘Two years as a whore would’ve changed her. She won’t be the girl you knew any longer.’
‘It is over twelve years since I met you, but I’d say you still have the same values,’ Etienne argued.
‘Where you are concerned, maybe.’ She shrugged, implying that he was a special case. ‘But a girl who works the top hotels has to be smart and hard-headed. I did it myself, remember.’
‘I know Belle is in trouble,’ he insisted. ‘I feel it, so does her landlady. She was a fille de joie too.’
That seemed to change Madeleine’s mind. ‘Fair enough. So what do you want of me?’
‘Have you ever met or do you know anything about a man called Edouard Pascal?’
‘Yes,’ she said, and sat up with a jolt as if startled. ‘He used to come to the Marais nearly every week. I went with him two or three times, but I didn’t like him, he gave me the creeps. None of the other girls liked him either. But this was eight years ago or more. I haven’t seen him since.’
‘What did he work at?’
‘He didn’t say. He was well dressed but I don’t think he had much money – an office worker maybe?’
‘He’s the concierge at the Ritz now. He was getting Belle clients.’
Madeleine’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘That makes me think you are right to be worried about her. The reason I remember him so well was because he liked it rough. He bit me very hard, and slapped me when I complained. The other girls talked about him too.’
‘Do you know where he lives?’
‘We don’t take down addresses in this line of business,’ she replied with a humourless chuckle. ‘Mostly we don’t even get real names. But he wanted us to know his, like it made him feel important.’
‘Ever met a man called Le Brun?’ Etienne asked.
‘A few dozen,’ she said dryly.
Etienne said that he thought this Le Brun must be very rich and good company as Belle’s landlady claimed she was excited at meeting him.
‘Well, that cuts out most of them,’ Madeleine said. ‘It wouldn’t be Philippe Le Brun, would it? The millionaire that owns the restaurants? I know a girl who went with him. He took her out to supper and dancing. She said he gave her such a good time she’d have done it again for free!’
Etienne knew nothing of the man she mentioned, but then his contacts in Paris tended to be at the other end of the social scale. ‘Is the girl you know around here?’
Madeleine looked amused. ‘Do you think a man like him would want a street girl? She was a dancer, and got her clients through the manager at the theatre. But she married and moved away. That doesn’t happen very often, she was one of the lucky ones.’
Etienne sensed that Madeleine couldn’t help him any further, and he was suddenly very tired. ‘I must go now, Madeleine,’ he said. ‘You’ve given me a great deal to think about. Thank you.’
‘I wish I could be more help,’ she said. ‘But you know where to find me if there’s anything else I can do.’
He paid the bill and handed her fifty francs. ‘Buy yourself something pretty,’ he said. ‘Emerald green, you always looked lovely in that colour.’ He got up and leaned down to kiss her. ‘Take care of yourself.’
Over breakfast the next morning Etienne sensed Noah didn’t trust him. He wasn’t surprised – with what the man knew about him, only a fool would trust him. But it transpired Noah had never met Belle; his connection was that he had been sweet on Millie, the whore Belle had seen murdered. When Etienne began to explain that he’d grown fond of Belle on the sea voyage, Noah bristled.
‘Did she tell you she has a sweetheart back in England?’ he asked waspishly.
‘You mean Jimmy, I presume?’ Etienne replied. ‘She told me about him, though she said he was just a friend. But whatever Jimmy was to her, there was nothing between Belle and me, if that is what you fear. She had been through a terrible ordeal at Madame Sondheim’s and I was a married man who loved his wife. We were like the uncle and niece that we pretended to be.’
‘Jimmy loves her,’ Noah said stubbornly.