The Sherbrooke Bride - Catherine Coulter [131]
“Oh no, Douglas would never do that. He is a gentleman, a man of honor. You are wrong. This Janine lied to you. I wish I knew why she lied, but I don’t speak French so I couldn’t understand what she was saying to Douglas. I did ask him but he told me it was none of my business.”
Georges Cadoudal had planned to ravish this little pullet, then send her back pregnant to Douglas. He didn’t doubt his own virility for a moment. It would not take long. It would be an eye for an eye and then he would continue with his plan to kidnap Napoleon. But she wasn’t at all what he expected. He shook his head, remembering how she’d reacted in that damned bookshop, screeching like a banshee in her absurd French. She’d even struck him in the nose with that book of hers. His nose hadn’t been broken, but he hadn’t liked the humiliation of it nor the pain. He looked at her now, brooding. Why wasn’t she crying? Why wasn’t she pleading with him to spare her, begging him not to hurt her?
“Just what do you mean you heard her speaking to Douglas?”
“It was at the Ranleaghs’ ball. I saw her clutching at Douglas’s sleeve. She looked as if she were trying to seduce him. I tried to listen, to eavesdrop if you will, but as I told you, I don’t speak French. It was so provoking. I tried to get Douglas to tell me, but he wouldn’t. He has too much honor to break a promise. I am very thirsty. May I have some water?”
He did as she wished, simply because she took him so utterly off guard. After he’d unbound her hands, watched her rub feeling back into them, he handed her the mug. He realized what he had done, but it was too late to jerk the mug of water from her hands. It was proof that he’d temporarily lost his control and his dignity and hadn’t even realized it until it was too late. She finished it quickly, taking great gulps, so thirsty that water dribbled down her chin. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, then closed her eyes in bliss.
He stared at her and heard himself say, “Do you want more?”
“Yes, please. You are kind.”
“Damn you, I’m not kind!” He stomped out of the door, slammed it behind him, and she heard the key grate in the lock. Alexandra would swear that she heard him cursing under his breath. She’d swear she heard at least one merde. At least Douglas had evidently taught her one of the most useful of French curses.
The moment she was alone again, the fear, stark and ugly, struck her full force. Lord, what had she done? She’d spoken to him as she would to a vicar, all trusting and confiding. She was a fool. He was probably now plotting how to torture her, to make her pay for what he believed Douglas had done to this Janine woman, the wretched lying hussy. Why had Janine lied like that about Douglas to her lover? After all, he had rescued her. To make him jealous? Surely that was going too far.
Alexandra lay back, closing her eyes, wishing that Douglas had spoken frankly to her so she could use the truth now with Georges Cadoudal. It was another minute before she realized that he had left her hands unbound. She couldn’t believe it. She raised her hands and just looked at them.
New energy pounded through her. Alexandra untied the rope about her ankles. She stood and promptly fell back onto the bed. Several minutes of rubbing her ankles, of trying to stand and falling and trying yet again.
And when she could finally walk, she ran on light feet to the door. She knew it was locked but she tried it nonetheless. She turned back to the single window. It was narrow, maybe too narrow for her shoulders and her hips.
She could but try.
* * *
Douglas and Tony rode from Calais toward Etaples. The day was warm, the sun bright overhead. It was market day and the roads were filled with open wagons and