Belle - Lesley Pearse [208]
‘You can’t hurt me,’ Pascal said smugly. ‘She’s my woman. I’ve waited a long time to find the right one, and now I’ve got her, I’m going to keep her.’
Belle’s eyes were fixed on Etienne. Although she was clearly terrified, his sudden arrival must seem like a miracle to her. Etienne glanced around the bare room, noting that the window was boarded up. He winced when he saw her blood all over the blanket. ‘Keep her in here? Like a caged animal?’ he asked. ‘What pleasure can there be in that?’
‘You don’t know anything about me,’ Pascal retorted. ‘This is my house, and she’ll be mistress of it.’
Etienne realized then that the man must be completely deranged if he thought he could rape a woman, lock her up, slice her with a knife, threaten to cut her throat, yet imagine that she wouldn’t run from him at the first opportunity. He knew he must be very cautious and try to talk him round.
‘If you want a woman to stay with you then you have to show her some kindness and affection,’ he said. Belle raised her eyebrows as if trying to warn him Pascal was extremely volatile.
‘She’s a whore, she’s used to being paid for. I’ll keep her and clothe her, and she’ll stay with me. Who are you anyway?’
‘Just one of many people who have been searching for her,’ Etienne said. ‘Even now there is a group of men waiting for me to report back about whether you were here or not. When I don’t come back they’ll come looking for me. And your neighbour knows I’m here. He let me get over the garden wall. He’ll call the gendarmes soon. So let Belle go, and it won’t be so bad for you.’
‘I told you, come any closer and I’ll cut her throat.’
Etienne saw Belle’s hands moving towards her gag, but she was clearly too frightened to reach up and pull it out in case he slashed at her. ‘At least let her take that rag from her mouth, she can barely breathe,’ he said.
‘No, I don’t want to hear her voice. Every word she says is a lie. I brought her here to my house to give her a good life with me, but she wouldn’t even give me what she’ll give any other man who pays her.’
‘I see,’ Etienne said, and leaned back against the wall to create a less threatening image. ‘So you love her, is that it?’
‘You think a man like me can’t love?’ Pascal said angrily.
Belle looked straight at Etienne and winked, then blinked in an exaggerated manner while moving her hands slightly up and down. He felt she was trying to tell him that she could lift her hands to knock the knife away, if he would be ready to pounce on Pascal.
‘I think love can lift any man up,’ he said, hoping that she would understand that was his coded answer. ‘But sometimes we think women have given us a signal that they want us, and we are mistaken.’
Belle blinked very quickly again, and he was sure then that he’d read her message right.
‘What about your wife?’ Etienne asked, and shuffled a few inches nearer to Pascal along the wall. ‘How can you hope to keep Belle here when you already have a wife?’
‘Frenchmen have always had mistresses,’ he said.
‘But a mistress has to be willing,’ Etienne said, moving again. He was close enough to spring at the man now but he wanted to wait until he was off guard or growing weary of standing in one position. ‘Belle isn’t willing, is she? And the gendarmes have gone to your home to look for you. They’ll go to see Garrow too. He’ll tell them about this house, just as he told one of my friends today.’
Pascal’s face seemed to sag a little. Etienne hoped by continuing to overload him with worrying thoughts he might lose his self-control for a second or two. ‘This is all a terrible mess for you, isn’t it? Your neighbour is suspicious of you, he saw Belle arrive here in a fiacre. He’ll be contacting the gendarmes now as I didn’t come straight out. And what about your job at the Ritz? If this gets out they’ll