Belle - Lesley Pearse [210]
‘He was a friend of Millie’s, the girl who was killed at your mother’s,’ Etienne said. ‘Mog, the lady you told me about, went to him to ask for his help in finding you when you disappeared. You see, he’s a journalist. He’s been backwards and forwards to France several times trying to find you. On one of those trips he met Lisette, who nursed you before I took you to New Orleans, and she told him you’d been taken to America. But it is really Madame Herrison you have to thank for your rescue. When you didn’t come home on the night of the eleventh she was afraid for you. Lisette is an old friend of hers and she went to her for advice. She was amazed to find Lisette knew you and furthermore had Noah’s address in England, so she sent him a telegram, and she got word to me in Marseille.’
‘Gabrielle did all that?’ Belle whispered.
‘She’s been hurt by men herself and she is fond of you,’ he said. ‘But I can explain all of it more clearly when you feel better. The gendarmes have Pascal now, and Philippe Le Brun is arranging papers for you so that you can go home to England.’
‘But wasn’t Philippe in with Pascal? It was his house I was kept in.’
Etienne smoothed her hair back from her face tenderly. ‘No, it was Pascal’s house, Philippe knew nothing of it until Noah and I went to see him. He is a good man, and he’s another person who likes you very much. He and Noah have spent the day with the gendarmes explaining everything. As you must be aware, my credentials are not as good as theirs, so I opted for staying here with you.’
‘So Noah knows my mother and Mog?’
Etienne felt a surge of emotion at the hope in her eyes.
‘Very well, from what he said your Mog has almost adopted him as family. She has never given up hope of you being found.’
‘And my mother, Annie?’
Etienne had hoped Belle would wait to ask Noah about her mother. From what he gathered, she hadn’t taken any part in trying to find her daughter. ‘You’ll have to ask Noah about her,’ he said carefully. ‘We only met a few days ago and we’ve been too preoccupied with finding you to talk about anything much else.’
‘Does everyone know what I am?’ she asked in a small voice.
‘They know only what we told them, that you were abducted from England.’
‘But Pascal will tell them how I went to him for clients.’
Etienne’s heart tightened in sympathy for her. There was so much in his life that he was ashamed of, but he had chosen his path, she had been pushed on to hers. ‘I think you’ll find Philippe can tell a plausible tale or two, and no other man is going to come forward and say something different. Besides, Pascal is a madman, no one will pay much attention to anything he might say.’
She was silent for some little time, and he guessed she was mulling that over.
‘Tell me how you have been,’ she asked suddenly, as if she wanted to dispel memories of Pascal and her ordeal in that attic room. ‘I didn’t expect to ever see you again, but I’ve thought about you a great deal in the last two years.’
‘I’ve got a little cottage now, I’m clearing the land to grow crops. I’m out of the business I used to be in.’
‘I’m glad of that,’ she said. ‘It must be a great relief to your wife too.’
He nodded. He wasn’t going to tell her about his misfortunes, she’d had enough of her own. ‘Try to sleep now,’ he suggested. ‘I’ll be close by if you need me.’
‘Don’t you want to know how I ended up back in France?’ she asked.
‘Of course I do, I just didn’t think you were ready for that.’
‘It might help me lay some ghosts.’ She grimaced. ‘I did become the top girl at Martha’s, there were times I even loved it there. But Martha was a snake, she only paid me a pittance because she said she had to get back what she’d laid out for me.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that. When I told you she was a good woman I was repeating what I’d heard. But even basically decent people can turn where money is concerned. So how did you get away from there?’
‘I pretended I was just going for a walk, and went off