Broken Legacy (Secret Lives Series) (27 page)

“Not that I had trusted him. I had told Seamus
…I told Seamus about Marc Pierre. With that, it gave me hope that you and the children would be safe. But I couldn’t take the consequences of my actions. I tried to think of another solution, but I saw no other option. The thought of him touching me was too much to bear. I loathed the man. He gave no thought to taking a life. He sickened me.

“You told me
…you told me you would not leave me, but I did not think you could… you had your children. I thought you had left.” She raised her hand to his lips as he began to protest. “No. No. No. You don’t understand. No one has ever kept their word to me. Luc promised me, too, that he wouldn’t betray me and he did…”

He was stunned. “Luc betrayed you? Why would he have done so?” Lenister
 uttered the words out loud. He hadn’t intended to do so, but once said, he didn’t let it go. He repeated it. “Eloise, I don’t understand. I thought Luc protected you from Calognac.”

Eloise broke her gaze, but he reached over and lifted her
 chin so he could see her eyes. “Eloise, tell me.”

A frown creased Eloise’s brow. “It was not his fault. You don’t know
 what it was like before the Revolution. Calognac didn’t need a reason to arrest Luc or inflict upon him any punishment he deemed fit. There is only so much anyone…”

“You misunderstand. I’m not condemning Luc, Eloise. I want
 only to understand better the world you lived before we met. There is much that doesn’t make sense.”

A single tear escaped her eye and fell down her cheek. “Luc
…Luc was acting strange. I thought it had to do with my father. I knew he planned to obtain an audience. Foolishness, perhaps, hoping my father would give us his blessing and sanctuary until we could make arrangements to leave for America. He left early that morn. We argued. I wanted to go with him. I didn’t want to be left alone.

“Luc told me I couldn’t. He insisted I
 stay behind. Told me to expect visitors. Andre had informed Uncle Orville of my whereabouts. Luc said Uncle Orville insisted upon seeing for himself that I was safe as he blamed himself for my predicament. But it was not Uncle Orville who arrived at my door. It was Calognac. I hadn’t a chance.

“As I told you, Calognac gave me no choice but to marry him…lying to me that my vows would protect those I loved. It
was only after that Calognac taunted me with the knowledge that my
love
betrayed me…The rest you know.”

Lenister
sat back in the stillness with his thoughts. Distraught, she turned her back to him to hide her tears. He leaned up and brought her back into his arms. She buried her face into his shoulders and wept.

“Eloise, you have done nothing to be ashamed. I do not
judge you or Luc. We both know circumstances dictate to us at times. Do you not suppose I should have retrieved my children long before they were arrested and put into that dreadful prison? I would have never lived with myself if harm had befallen either of them. You saved them, Eloise. You saved me. It was you."

"You are
trying to alleviate my guilt, but it cannot be undone. Too much has happened. It is all my fault. Do you not understand? Everyone...Luc, Rosabel. My husband...the one I bound myself to with my vows...his death is on my hands also...." Her voice escalated higher and higher as the weight of the years exudated from her. She surrendered to the hurt. "He haunts me. Luc. He tells me to find her. He tells me to find our daughter. I failed. My poor child never…never knew she was loved. She died without me holding her...

"When
Gairden came at me, I told myself I had only one escape. It was what I intended. I cannot deny. I thought perhaps if I finished my life, then I could hold her if only for a moment. God would not have denied me that, do you think?" She looked at him with pleading eyes. "If you had not come when you did..."

"Ssh, my love, my precious love," he said in a soothing voice.
"But, Eloise, when we burst in, Gairden was already by your side. He had hold of your hands and the knife. Marc Pierre wrestled him away and I took the knife from you. You would not have been successful in your attempt. You must have hesitated."

Confusion swept over her expression. Then her eyes widened
and words escaped her lips. "I did hesitate. I did. I remember now. I closed my eyes and I saw..."

Lenister
reached over and pushed fallen tresses of hair out of her face. Gently, he cupped her face in his hands. "You saw?"

"I saw you."

The space between them evaporated. Her heart swelled. He leaned over and breathed against her lips. He gazed into her eyes
, saying all needed without uttering a word…for there were no words for the love that passed between them…only the depths of emotions born between two souls destined to share an eternity.

His mouth moved over hers
, tenderly expressing his love with his kiss…his caress. He grasped her tightly against him and she leaned into him, feeling the extent of his desire. She threw back her head, accepting his fervored kisses. Burying his face into the sensitive spot of her neck, a bittersweet ache simmered within her, flamed by his burning touch, his scent, his kisses.

She felt his hands begin to undo the buttons on the back of her gown. Catching her breath, she whispered, “Gerard…we can’t…not here. Our escorts.”

“If you believe I can have you here to myself for hours on end and not take you, you are quite mistaken, my lovely wife,” he uttered against her skin. All the while, he busily pushed down on her bodice and pulled her hands through her sleeves, exposing her breasts for his view. “It seems I will have to be somewhat inventive.”

Her eyes caught his. He gave her a mischievous smile much
like a small boy maneuvering to get his way. She laughed…she had not laughed in such a long time.

Eloise soon discovered her husband to be a man of his word. He
was quite inventive in satisfying her smoldering desire. He took her, not hard, but with an ease and gentleness she had never known. She was nearly undone by his lovemaking.

He entered her slowly, whispering in her ear. “The moment I
looked into your eyes, something within me knew you were the one…the one I have longed to find. You have filled an emptiness within me. I love you, Eloise. Now and for always.”

There was no rational thought to his words
, only his heart crying out to hers.

Pleasure cascaded through her as she absorbed his being as part of her own. Pure
and unadulterated pleasure, not only from a physical release, but from the knowledge she was loved completely and thoroughly by this man. Never in her life had she known such perfect bliss as she had in that moment. To love and be loved…it was all she ever wanted.

Two days had passed since that
fateful night, the night her husband whisked her out of Paris…out of the shroud of death. Now they waited on the outskirts of Calais. The weather had not cooperated with their flight across the Channel. Rough winds and water delayed their attempt to cross. Though now the urgency had dissipated. The cloak of uncertainty that weighed heavily on her shoulders had been lifted from her.

Gone was the intense fear that their
demise waited in the shadows. Eloise returned home once more. She had been happy here once. Memories encompassed her…a time when nothing mattered but the sun in the sky, not the lack of money, the status of her birth…she had never been happier. She thought those days over until…until Gerard.

She walked along the rocky beach
and soaked in the sight before her. The familiar rhythm of the ocean waves rolling over the shoreline; the wind against her face; the invigorating smell of the sea. Her desolation vanished, replaced with an overwhelming sense of hope…hope of her life anew.

Their arrival at the safe house was
uneventful. Instead of going to Le Treport, it was thought better to continue up the coastline not far from Calais. The cottage sat back from the ocean, built into a hillside. From the outside, the cottage did not appear to be large, but hidden rooms lay within the hill. Long had the cottage served as a sanctuary. Erected to conceal smuggled goods, it had well served its purpose when it came to smuggling fugitives out of France.

The whole
of the house lay in darkness. A precaution only, but it was not without reason. Though not on flight from any authorities, one never knew how the wind blew in France from one day to the other. Complete safety would not be established until they stood on the English shore.

The moment her husband announced
their presence, the children bombarded him. It made her smile. The ease with which he allayed their fears amazed her, but much he did amazed her. Any doubts she held within her evaporated, even concerning his former mistress.

The woman seemed oddly subdued. Strange
, for Miranda seemed to have lost the haughtiness she presented at the prison. Eloise supposed questions lay heavily within the woman on her future. Of one thing Eloise understood with certainty, Lenister would not be part of any plans Miranda formulated. He informed Eloise that he would see to Miranda’s return to the Colonies. Then he was done with the woman.

The children presented a different
issue, one yet to be set. Watching her husband with his children, Eloise realized that they would always be a part of his life. She expected nothing less.

It wasn’t until late last evening when Marc Pierre arrived. The cottage was not overly large and Eloise woke immediately as Lenister rose from her side. While the children and Miranda slept in the hidden chambers, Eloise and Lenister used a cot to the far side of the open room
outside the hidden chamber. The two men conversed well into the early hours of the morning. Straining to listen, Eloise could make out little of their talk other than whispers and murmurs.

Surrendering to her growing inquisitiveness, she quietly eased upward off the small cot and edged toward their conversation. Sitting around a table that held only a lantern burning, neither men seemed to notice her growing presence
, engrossed in their thoughts.

“Do we tell her?” Marc Pierre asked with his back to her.

“Tell me what?”

At the sound of her voice, Marc Pierre pivoted around. Lenister did not move, but looked up at his wife. A brief moment of silence ensued. A knowing glance between the two men did not go unnoticed by Eloise.

Marc Pierre cleared his throat. “Citizen Jean-Antione Giarden met his fate. I left only after the deed was carried out. You have nothing more to fear from the man. He was unable to express any thoughts that might have resulted in more questions.”

Relief flooded Eloise. Although she would no longer be within the reach of the French authorities, there were others she cared for
who could have been affected by the reach of a denunciation, including the one before her.

“It is good,” she answered, looking at Marc Pierre suspiciously. “You made certain of it?”

Marc Pierre frowned. “Nothing that wasn’t necessary.”

She studied his face for a moment. “There is more. Do not hold back on me. Those days are gone. You do not need to protect me. I cannot abide another secret.”

Marc Pierre pressed his lips together tightly and looked over at Lenister. Standing, Lenister nodded and strode to her side.

“It seems the man knew more than we suspected. Fortunate that it was Marc Pierre who interrogated Giarden. Otherwise, it would not only have been Giarden who would have been executed.”

“You are confusing me.”

“He knew,” Marc Pierre said, finally. “The instant the door to his cell at Conciergerie slung open, he was ranting. Doomed himself for his political ambitions to overcome Robesp
ierre, he meant to take more alongside himself to the guillotine. The instant he saw me, he understood he had told the wrong person. By the time I left, he no longer had the ability to talk or write for that matter.”

Eloise grimaced. She could only imagine what her brother had done on her account. Then she saw something in his eyes. It was not only herself. “What did he know, Marc Pierre?”

“The White Rose.”

Eloise glanced back at her husband
, for it was he that uttered the words. Fear surged through her at the thought that all within her network were endangered. Lenister grasped her arm in a reassuring manner, calming her.

“Giarden knew only the heads of the network. He knew of you
and Marc Pierre,” Lenister said in a soothing voice. “But it is certain, Giarden would have pressed for more information and used it to his full advantage.”

Perplexed, she looked back at Marc Pierre. “How? How did he discover our network?”

“He had a visitor to Paris,” Marc Pierre replied. “I suspect it was the reason for the raid you escaped. I tore through all his papers after his confession to me. There was no written information. It would have been too dangerous. If caught with the information, Giarden himself would have been suspected because he never reported his suspicions.

“Giarden was an intelligent man. He understood if I was involved that the lines ran deep within the government. It would not be surprising given the terror that reigns within Paris that officials might have need of a method of escape for themselves or a family member. As I said before, Giarden is not a concern anymore. But there is a leak. A quite dangerous leak.”