A Midnight Dance (10 page)

Gerard glanced at Elise. “After what you and I have done to this woman tonight, our souls will be damned.”

Jules tightened his jaw. “Now you are contrite? Where was your conscience when you were trying to
sell her
? You’ve got to be the greatest of fools to linger in my presence a moment longer than necessary. Unless”—Jules raised his sword to Gerard’s throat—“you wish to appear before your Maker for your Judgment
now
.”

“No!” Elise’s hand shot out. She shoved at Gerard’s chest. “Go! Get on the cart. Leave
now
.”

“My pleasure,” Gerard said between gritted teeth. “Let’s go.”

“I am staying.”

“Pardon?”
Gerard looked aghast.

“I am staying with him.” She moved closer to Jules. “If you’ll allow me to?” Her comely face was turned upward, awaiting his answer. “Will you take me to my cousin in Maillard?”

“Your
WHAT
?” Gerard spat out. “Are you mad? You are not staying with him! Or them.” He pointed to Jules’s men around the campfire.

Jules grabbed him by the throat. “
Gerard
, is it?” Gerard’s eyes widened in horrified astonishment, as his throat was in the clench of Jules’s grip, his toes barely touching the earth. “You are leaving.
Now
.” He easily tossed him back, sending him stumbling backward, coughing.

Jules turned to his loyal servant. “Raymond, have them escorted from the camp.”

“Immediately, Commander. What about the woman?”

Jules met her gaze. She stood quietly beside him, her eyes silently beseeching him.

“She’s going with us to Maillard.” She slipped a hand in his and smiled. Her delicate hand felt warm and right in his. A perfect fit. Just as their bodies had been.

Within moments, Gerard was being dragged to his cart.

“S-Elise!” Gerard called out. “You cannot stay alone with these men! I’ll not leave you here!”

“You don’t dictate to me. I’ll be fine,” she said, her body now rigid.

Jules concurred. She was better off with him. He couldn’t bring himself to place her back in the hands of the two she’d arrived with. Boys or no, what if they became desperate enough to attempt this scheme again? He was shocked by just how abhorrent the notion was to him.

“You’ll not be fine! You’ll be carnal amusement for him and his lot!” Gerard shouted back, struggling against the man hauling him to the cart.

Jules swore. How dare he suggest Elise would be treated worse than he’d treated her. “I’m going to teach him a lesson once and for all . . .” He took a step toward Gerard.

She jumped in his path and shoved her hands against his chest. “Don’t!” He glanced down at her, not in the least bit dissuaded from his intended action.

Sabine flung her arms around his waist and buried her face in his shoulder. “Please,” was all that escaped her throat.

She clung to Jules, her bravado fragmenting. The accumulation of all she’d been through tonight was beginning to take its toll on her. She looked up into his eyes. “He’s young. They both are, and they are perhaps a tad smitten with me, as well. Don’t punish him. Please. There’s been enough misery and suffering. Let me speak to him. I’ll make them leave promptly without you needing to do a thing.” The lies flowed out of her with ease.

She’d do anything, say anything, that would keep Jules from hurting Gerard.

Jules looked at her skeptically. “I don’t know about that . . .” There was mistrust in his tone.

“I wish them gone. Not hurt. Surely you’re no longer concerned about
them
? Or me?” She wanted her cousins safe—away from the camp. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about them. They wouldn’t be at risk or suffer because of her mistakes. Sweet Robert, who always smiled and jested even when there was nothing to smile or jest about, had been drugged because of her. It didn’t escape her notice that he was conspicuously silent.

She heard one of her cousins howl in pain. She spun around. Robert was in the grips of slumber, in the cart, just as she’d suspected. Another man held Gerard’s arms securely behind his back as he dragged Gerard, kicking and thrashing, back to the cart. Fabrice approached and slammed his fist into Gerard’s jaw, his head snapping to the left.

“Stop!” she screamed. Frantically she turned to Jules. “Make them stop, please!”

He stared over her head at Gerard and his men. “Fool. None of this would be happening if he’d left quietly.”

“Allow me a brief moment. I will talk some sense into him.”

His gaze fell to hers, his scrutiny unnerving. As he pondered her request, she prayed she’d been convincing enough to allay his fears.

“Only because I want them out of my camp now, I’ll allow a
brief
moment. Say your good-byes.”

Sabine could sense Jules and his men watching them from a short distance away.

“Don’t do this, Sabine.
Please
come home,” Gerard pleaded in a hushed whisper. There was already a bruise on his jaw.

“If I don’t do this, there will be no home.”

“I forbid this.” Gerard growled. “You are
not
staying.”

“You’ll cease your arguing this instant. I have only a brief moment. Listen well. You’ll take Robert and go. Jules is going to start to wonder at your protests for a woman you have only known
one day
. Your behavior is putting us all at risk,” she chastised.

“Maillard is three days away. I refuse to leave you alone with him for three days!” Gerard raised his voice to an earnest whisper. “Especially after what he’s done—”

“Enough.” What she and Jules had done wasn’t something she’d discuss with her cousins. Or anyone. She pierced Gerard with a fierce look. “We have no choice.”

She knew she couldn’t show any weakness or he might not leave.

“The town of Delatour is about a day’s ride,” she said. “If you travel through the night, you will arrive there by midday tomorrow. I should reach there by late afternoon. The innkeeper, Joseph, and his wife, Anne, are indebted to our Agnes. Her tonic healed Anne’s stomach ailments. You know what Agnes put in the wine. Gather the ingredients. I will get Jules and his men to stop at the inn for the evening meal. Their
tainted
meal. Tell Joseph we’ll share the wealth. He’ll have enough to purchase a hundred inns.”

From the corner of her eye she saw Jules approaching. He stopped behind her. “That is sufficient time to say farewell,” he announced. Though he wasn’t actually touching her body, she was strongly aware of his closeness. Of his beautiful muscled form. It caused her heart to quicken and a warmth to unfurl in her belly. To Gerard he said, “Go. Now. You won’t be asked again.”

Gerard looked at her. She stood firm, despite the frenzy building inside her. Reluctantly, he turned and walked toward their cart. She swallowed down her panic as the reality of the moment hit her hard. They were actually
leaving
. Soon she was going to be alone with these men. With Jules de Moutier.

The man she’d asked to be her lover.

She watched Gerard climb up onto the cart. With a last look, he drove the cart away with Robert sprawled out unconscious in the back, moving farther and farther from her.

She clenched her teeth to keep from calling out, “Don’t go!” She hated it that she was alone. That without Isabelle, she did everything alone.

How she hated it that her father had taken Isabelle from her and sent her to work at one of the Moutiers’ châteaus for Charles de Moutier, Jules’s father.

Even if she could interrogate Jules about what had happened to her sister, it would be a waste of time. He was never at the country estate while her sister was employed there.

He’d never care what happened to a servant anyway.

Jules slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her back against his solid form. “Elise,” he murmured in her ear. She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. Her insides fluttered. Her traitorous body was bent on siding with the enemy.

“Now that we have settled the matter of your request to be escorted to Maillard, I look forward to moving on to your other request.”

The night air had cooled.

Sabine sat on fresh blankets near a small crackling fire. Back in the very spot where she’d given herself to Jules, awaiting his return. Tall oaks surrounding the clearing loomed over her, the rustling of leaves as the wind brushed past abrading her taut nerves, keeping her on edge.

She wrapped her arms around her legs and gazed up at the stars twinkling in the blackened sky. Though it was a serene sight to behold, she didn’t derive any tranquility from it. How could she? He’d be back at any moment, and the man had the devil’s touch. He’d made her scream in ecstasy. Scream.
Her
. She was practical. Levelheaded.

She could quash any emotion, control every reaction—except when he neared. Or when he touched her.

Enough.

She wasn’t going to torture herself about it. She did what had to be done. It hadn’t meant a thing. The only memory she’d allow herself to retain was how she’d bested him and how she’d made him pay—in a small way—for all the misery he and his family had inflicted. He, like his father, was a traitor to the Crown. The ruin of the realm. They’d put their ambitions above all else.

She’d do the same in turn.

She rested her forehead on her knees and looked up the moment she heard footsteps.

Jules approached her, all muscle and sinew. With the slightest touch of arrogance to his stride that bespoke his exalted bloodlines. The light breeze that whispered through the forest pressed his shirt against his chest, allowing her to make out the sculpted lines of his chest.

It was unjust that this man should be this physically appealing.

He was fashioned into such mouth-watering perfection.

Jules lowered himself onto his haunches before her, the firelight giving his handsome face a warm hue. “Are you all right?”

His question took her by surprise. It was the very same question he’d asked her long ago, when she believed him to be a different kind of man. Why would he care if someone of her social class was all right when he’d proven to be indifferent to the suffering of those beneath his elevated birth?

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

“We need to talk.” He slipped his hand under her chin. “What you attempted tonight was bold. There aren’t many men, much less women, who would have tried what you tried.”

She kept silent, unsure where he was going with this.

“I do admire your courage, Elise. But I’ll not tolerate any more deceit. Or any trouble. You’ll do as you’re told. Always. Is that understood?”

“Yes.” She disliked his authority over her. She’d had enough of the Moutier authority to last several lifetimes.

“Good. Now lie back.”

She stiffened. Just like that? No kisses or caresses as he’d done before? As if she needed it. Just having him near caused a quickening low in her belly.