Belle - Lesley Pearse [215]
Noah nodded. ‘I think the fire was probably a blessing in disguise. Belle will have no reminders about what she saw in the old place, and she’ll have a real home with Mog, Garth and Jimmy.’
‘I think it’s a little unrealistic to imagine she’ll pick up the pieces with him,’ Etienne said tartly.
Noah looked at Etienne and laughed. ‘Do I detect a jealous note?’
‘Bien sûr, je ne suis pas jaloux,’ Etienne retorted.
Noah laughed again. By slipping into his native tongue Etienne had proved he had feelings for Belle.
‘No, of course you aren’t jealous! How could you be?’
Noah was rewarded by seeing Etienne blush. He was pretty sure his blushes were rarer than hen’s teeth.
‘We’d better go in and see Belle now,’ Noah said. ‘And then you ought to go and get some sleep before you keel over.’
Etienne was pleased to see Belle looking a hundred times better than she had the night before. Her eyes were brighter, the dark circles that had been around them were gone, and the bruise on her cheek was less livid.
‘This is Noah Bayliss, my Doctor Watson,’ he said with a wide smile. ‘You were hardly in the mood for introductions last time you met.’
‘I understand I have a great deal to thank you for, Mr Bayliss,’ she said. ‘Etienne told me you’ve been to Paris several times searching for me.’
‘Please call me Noah,’ he said with a smile. ‘And no thanks are necessary; to see you now looking so much better is all the thanks I need.’
‘Now, sit down and tell me all about Mog,’ she said, and there was excitement in her voice and eyes.
‘I’m going back to the Mirabeau,’ Etienne said, turning towards the door. ‘I believe you may be able to leave here later today or tomorrow, so I’ll bring you some clothes when I return.’
‘Give Gabrielle my best wishes,’ she said. ‘And tell her I am indebted to her for finding you.’
Noah pulled a chair up to her bed once Etienne had gone. ‘Did you know he has been outside your door for the last forty-eight hours?’ he said.
Belle looked surprised. ‘But why? No one was going to harm me here.’
‘He was afraid you’d have nightmares.’
‘I seem to have the ability to recover from unpleasant things rather quickly,’ she said. ‘I slept very well last night, I didn’t even dream. And I woke this morning feeling much better. But enough about me, tell me all about how you met Mog and my mother. I understand Millie was a friend of yours, so it must have been awful to hear how she died.’
‘After you disappeared, Mog found out where I lived and came to see me. I was an investigator for an insurance company at the time, and Mog thought that meant I would be able to find you. I hadn’t heard what had happened to Millie until she told me.’
‘Didn’t my mother come to you?’
Noah heard the note of hurt in her voice. ‘I think Mog acted on her own initiative, and someone had to stay home in case you returned or somebody called with news of you.’
He went on to explain that he really had no experience of finding a missing person. ‘The police didn’t take it very seriously and Mog was distraught. But Jimmy fired me up to want to find you; without him I might have just backed away.’
‘Jimmy helped?’ She looked surprised and touched. ‘But how did you get to meet him? And how is he? Is he still with his uncle at the Ram’s Head?’
‘He practically runs it now, and he’s a fine young man, one of the best. Without him I feel Mog might have fallen apart over your disappearance. And he and his Uncle Garth saved your mother’s life in the fire.’
‘Fire?’
Noah saw the horror come back in her eyes and wondered at the wisdom of telling her this so soon after her ordeal.
‘Yes, your old home was burned down. Mog raised the alarm and got all the girls out safely, but Annie was trapped in her room. Garth and Jimmy rescued her through the window. Then they took both women back to the Ram’s Head.’
‘Was the fire an accident?