Belle - Lesley Pearse [198]
She tried not to think about Pascal, or to guess what he had planned for her. She couldn’t really believe anyone would intentionally leave someone to die of thirst and starvation, and mostly she told herself he must be sick or had had an accident that prevented him from coming back. She no longer had any idea of how long she’d been here for when she fell asleep she didn’t know how long it was for. But it seemed as though she’d been here for weeks, not just days.
The pin fell out of her fingers and she was too weak to pick it up so she shuffled back to the bed. She wondered what dying of starvation was like. Did you just become unconscious so you wouldn’t feel anything? She hoped that was how it was.
Etienne listened attentively to what Noah had to tell him about Philippe Le Brun. ‘Let’s go to the Ritz and have it out with Pascal,’ Noah suggested.
‘I’d like to go there and kick it out of him,’ Etienne said grimly as they walked down the street. ‘But we don’t know if he’s working alone or with others. We need to know more about him, where he lives and who with, what hours he works and if he goes anywhere after he leaves the hotel. But I agree we should go over there now and see if we can find out anything.’
Etienne was growing on Noah. He liked his tough, uncompromising attitude, and was intrigued by his obviously colourful past. He wasn’t boastful, he had a tender side too, especially about Belle, and he made Noah feel braver just by being beside him. So brave in fact that he decided to admit to his feelings for Lisette, and asked if Etienne thought he had a chance with her.
‘I’ve never met her, all I know about her is what Belle told me,’ Etienne said. ‘She sounded like a good woman. But if you want my real opinion, once we’ve got Belle back, you should return to England and find yourself a girl from a background like your own. You’ll be much happier.’
That wasn’t what Noah wanted to hear. ‘But I’m committed to exposing the trade in young girls,’ he said heatedly. ‘Finding Belle is my priority but I’m intending to write articles for the press to get all those involved stopped and punished.’
‘That’s a very laudable ambition, and I’ll be right behind you with it. Just don’t imagine you can stop it completely, there’s too much money to be made from it. The men who pay for young girls are often those in positions of power – judges, lawyers, politicians and the like. As long as they demand young flesh, someone will provide it. Write your article, campaign if you must, but leave it at that. And don’t be tempted to want a one-time whore for a wife; she’ll never be socially acceptable and in the end you’ll regret it.’
‘Harsh words!’ Noah retorted. ‘Does that mean Belle is never going to be socially acceptable either?’
Etienne grimaced. ‘Almost certainly. She may also be so damaged that she’ll never want a husband or children. No woman could go through what she has and remain untouched by it. You say Jimmy loves her, but love is not always enough.’
Etienne hailed a fiacre then, signalling that was the end of the conversation.
‘Shall I go in and engage Pascal in conversation?’ Noah suggested when the fiacre dropped them close to Place Vendôme. ‘I play the simple Englishman abroad quite well.’
Etienne smiled. He knew Noah was annoyed with him for what he’d said about Lisette earlier, but he had to admire him for not continuing to sulk. ‘That sounds like a good plan. Ask him about cancan dancing, anything to do with girls. Hint you are eager for company. I’ll stay outside; I’m going to follow him later, so I don’t want him to recognize me.’
Etienne walked across the Place Vendôme and found a bench to sit on while he waited for Noah. His mind was whirling with fragments of information that he felt he ought to be able to put together to make a whole, but a vital chunk was missing. He didn’t know anything about Pascal’s domestic life, not where he lived or if he was married. Why would an undertaker leave such a potentially lucrative