The Sherbrooke Bride - Catherine Coulter [141]
Douglas said nothing.
“Ah, it matters not for you will die in any case. There is no reason not to kill you now, save for one small fact you must tell me. There are four guards. I cannot believe that you disabled all of them.”
“He didn’t,” said Tony, and slammed the door into Belesain’s arm. The pistol went flying. Douglas turned on his heel and smashed his fist into Belesain’s stomach.
The man was wearing only a white nightshirt and presented a perfect target in the dark room.
Georges came through the door and grabbed Douglas’s arm. “Now it is my turn,” he said and struck the general hard on the jaw. He went down on his hands and knees and remained there, panting hard, moaning softly.
“He has gotten fatter since last I saw him,” Douglas said.
“He could be skinny as a post and still be a pig,” Georges said, and spit on the general. “Attend me, old man. I am Georges Cadoudal and I am here for retribution. You abused my Janine. You not only kept her prisoner, you raped her and let other men rape her as well.”
“Cadoudal,” General Belesain said dumbly, looking up. “God, it is you.”
“Yes.”
Tony looked dispassionately down at the general whose face had turned whiter than his nightshirt in his fear of Georges. “It is your decision, Georges. What do you wish to do with him?”
Douglas frowned. He prayed Georges wouldn’t forget his promise not to kill the man. But he wasn’t going to count on it. The rage on Georges’s face bespoke pain and fury so deep it couldn’t be easily assuaged.
The general said, “Your Janine, Cadoudal? I tell you she wasn’t your woman. I had no need to ravish her. I offered her favors, jewels, money, and the like and she willingly came to me, willingly came to all the men who came to her room. They all paid her and she—”
Georges kicked him hard in the ribs, knocking him onto his side.
“That wasn’t excessively wise of you, General,” Douglas said. “I should say that it was rather stupid. Let’s get it over with, Georges.”
Tony saw that Georges was smiling in the candlelight. It was a terrifying smile.
“You know what they do to pigs, Douglas?”
The general didn’t move.
“No,” Douglas said, “but I imagine I am quickly to learn.”
The general shrieked and tried to scramble away on his hands and knees.
“Hold, old man, or I’ll put a bullet through your left calf.”
The general stopped. He was panting hard; he was afraid. He’d been stupid to insult Janine. Now he said quickly, “I know you are an ardent Royalist. I know you want Napoleon exiled or assassinated. I can help you. I have information that will aid you. I can—”
Georges interrupted him easily. “Oh no you don’t, General. You have nothing for me. I know you, you see. You are a fat bureaucrat who has no talent, but some power unfortunately. You are malignant; you are a parasite. It is true I hate Napoleon but I also hate fools like you who bleed those around them and torture them for their own enjoyment. Now enough. My friends and I don’t wish to remain here.”
Amongst the three of them, they dragged the general downstairs and out of the mayor’s charming house.
They returned to the farmhouse by five o’clock that morning to find Alexandra sitting up, wrapped in a blanket, sipping on a cup of very strong coffee. Across from her, on the floor, sat Janine, her hands and feet securely bound, looking furious. She was cursing loudly, yelling to Georges when he walked through the door. All three men stopped short and stared.
“How could you do this?” Georges asked Alexandra, who looked quite fit, given that she’d looked white as death but hours before.
“I tricked her,” Alexandra said. She took another delicate sip of her coffee. “I told her I didn’t feel well and when she came to help me—unwillingly, Douglas—I hit her and then I tied her up. She deserves it for what she did to you, Douglas. Tell me you understand.”
He couldn’t help it. He was laughing. “I understand.”
Janine was shrieking now in French.
“She’s been doing that since I got her tied up, but you see, since I don’t speak French, I cannot understand her. I have no idea what she