“This is not what I want.” He looked at her hard. She felt his own eyes probing hers.
“No?” she questioned. “No, Gerard? I think this is exactly what you wanted. You maneuvered and cornered me to where I had no other option. In that, you might not have known the extent of my connection perhaps, but don’t try to tell me you gave a thought to me. Your thought lay only with your children.”
“You are wrong, Eloise. Yes, I made no secret that I want my children and will do anything necessary to free them. But…”
Shaking her head, she reached up and placed her finger on his lips to silence him for a moment. “Now you don’t understand. I find it admirable. A father should do anything for his children, whether or not legitimate. Love should know no boundaries. In this, it is now my mission also. I will do whatever in my power to see to their release.”
He gripped her hand, pushing her back against the wall. “Damn it, Eloise! Why did you not tell me? I would never have allowed you to come back, no matter the reason! Your life is endangered. Your network has been compromised. If you go into Paris now, they may well be expecting you! I do not want a martyr for a wife.”
“I warned you, my lord. I tried to tell you that I was not the wife for you,” she retorted. A lump rose in her throat. “Andre explained to me why he told you everything. He believed it to be the best course of action at this point. But I did not tell him that this is what you wanted to know. What you asked me the night before we wed. I will not defend myself. Never will I do so.”
“I did not ask for you to defend yourself, madame.” Lenister’s voice was dangerously calm. “Did I not say it matter only if it interfered with my mission? Do you not suppose this will?”
“Non, it will serve you. Andre does not believe the one who betrayed us knows who I am. If they had, they would not have needed to raid a cottage. They would have gone to my uncle’s. I have been thinking about it. I believe it would be best if I travel with you into Paris as your wife. My name…my story would have preceded me. It should serve you well, my lord.”
“All the while they search for the White Rose.” He released her. From his tone, he implied he had heard much. “You are willing to walk into the hornet’s nest for my bastard children. Why, Eloise, why?”
“What do you know of me?” she demanded. She had to know. He had to say the words, for she could not.
“I know about your daughter. I need to know the rest.” His expression became solemn.
For a moment, Eloise had no answer. His words were as a dagger that struck the core of her heart, a never-ending ache that only dulled over time. No words could relate her grief or the guilt that weighed upon her about her baby. She studied her husband, trying to deduce whether he hated her now he knew about her child, but she could not read his eyes. She decided she had only one recourse. She answered him honestly.
“If you insist…if you know about my child, then, too, you must know about Luc. A part of me died the night Luc died and my baby was taken from me. I lost all I had clung to in my life. I had gone to Luc for protection against the Marquis de Mortiere and Calognac, both cruel men, my lord—crueler than you can even imagine. You wonder how I could hold to the belief that all men should be equal. It was in that moment when I saw the injustice that status and wealth inflicted upon those they consider beneath themselves.
“Luc did not hesitate to give me his protection to me when I was in need. In turn, he lost his life.” She paused, collecting her thoughts…struggling to find the right words. She said discernibly, “But Luc would never have wanted any of what has occurred. He was going to take me…us…away. We were going to go to America. His father died in their cause of independence. So you see, I never wanted any of this. I never wanted money or a title. I wanted only to love and be loved in return….” Her voice faded. She turned her head from her husband, and then went on. “It does not matter. It was not to be, but I could not live knowing what had happened and I was responsible for my daughter. I had to…needed to help. My life matters little to me…”
Lenister grasped hold of her and whirled her around to him, his body taut with anger. “Matters little to you! What of me? How dare you think it means nothing to me!”
Silence ensued. The thought had never occurred to her…that he would want her. Knowing what he knew about her, she thought he would hate her. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
“Since we parted, I have thought of nothing but you!” He looked at her hard. His voice took on a dangerous tone of a fierce anger underlying a brewing emotion. “I clung to the memory of you lying beside me, loving me. I had dreams that you were safe at Ashwin Manor. If I was not successful in my mission, I thought…I hoped you would be happy. That thought gave me peace! Now, I find you here!”
He gave her no time to respond. His mouth came down hard on hers, kissing her until her legs weakened.
“No, no, no,” she pleaded, pushing back against his chest. “Do not do this to me.”
“Do what, my lady? Love you as I desire?” He stared at her with his thoughts deepening in the depths of her eyes.
“Tell me that you want me,” she breathed against his lips, but she did have a need for him. As much as she wanted to deny the feelings he invoked within her, she wanted him. How could she? Yet her body cried for him. “I’m afraid…”
“I told you I do not want you to be afraid of me,” he whispered.
“Oh, but I am afraid, my lord…I’m afraid of you,” she confessed in a small voice, surprising herself. “I can’t do this…”
“You can,” he said huskily, leaning down against her lips, and then he kissed her. “You are a strange one, Eloise, but if you think for one moment I’m releasing you…that I’m letting you go…you are sadly mistaken.”
“But…” She was so confused! Despite everything, she was drawn to this man and had been from the moment their eyes met. “You are telling me after all you have learned about me…that I’m not who you thought…yes, yes, I can try to help you save your children, but I’m a fraud. I was never Lady Eloise Granville. I’m nothing more than a common bastard…”
Lenister moved her chin upward gently, coaxing her to look at him. “There is nothing common about you, Lady Lenister. You are my lady….” He kissed her again. “Always my lady.”
Lenister feathered kisses over her lips, cheek and down her neck. He broke away only long enough to dispense with his boots. His eyes never left hers, eyes kindled in desire. Dazed, she watched him make short work of his clothing. Her eyes roamed over his chest, his arms, down his waist and hips. When he took her back in his arms, she touched his arms and chest where his muscles were lean and hard everywhere. She did not know when or how her gown melted away, but she was acutely aware of his touch upon her, his hands upon her bare skin.
Eloise tilted back her head as he once more kissed her a dozen different ways, creating a craving in her that surged throughout the whole of her body. His hands swept up her sides, over her breasts, kneading her flesh, rolling her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, taunting her. She wrapped her arms around him.
"Gerard," she gasped. "Don't let me go."
"Never, my sweet," he murmured. In one swift motion, he swept her up in his arms and gently laid her on the bed beside him. “I have no intention of ever letting you go.”
Eloise moaned as his mouth fastened on one rosy-peaked breast, his tongue doing what his fingers had done before. He slid his hand between her thighs and felt into her warmth. He stroked her until she burst with an intensity, sending a hundred tiny sensations cascading through her, making her catch her breath. She pressed upward to him, begging him to take her. He maddened her with his refusal to move any quicker. Again and again, provoking her with one intimate touch after another.
Then he moved over her and settled between her thighs. She couldn’t contain a cry when he entered her as the first waves of impending climax tightened her belly. He thrust into her again and again until she came with a shattering sense of her
being. She exploded with a trembling ecstasy that pulsed through her.
She barely noticed when he kissed her lips gently as he rolled off her. Only that he pulled her into his shoulders. She curled up beside him and slept.
Dawn broke with Eloise still in his arms. Lenister had not closed his eyes, although she had slept soundly against him. He couldn’t explain his enjoyment of her doing so. It was something quite beyond his experience. The whole world had warned him against her. He had ignored their warnings and had become completely and utterly enthralled with the woman in his arms. He had need of her, not just a physical need. She aroused more than his body.
Never had he reacted to a woman as he had Eloise. She provoked emotions long dormant. He had been a crazed man with the thought of her in danger. He had demanded Andre take him immediately to Eloise after Andre confessed their deception. Lenister refused to consider what would have happened to her if they had not arrived when they had. Never had he ever reacted impulsively, but he would have gone charging into the midst of the French National Guard if Seamus hadn’t grabbed his arm and motioned to the shadow that moved in the dark haze.
Anger burned within him, but not at her. No…not at her. Anger raged in his body at all who used his wife as a pawn…her father, her uncle, Marquis de Mortiere, but none more than himself. He had told himself he held to noble intentions in his attempt to save his children, but what right had he to ask Eloise to risk her life for him? Her actions told him more than any words she had uttered. She had taken his children’s cause as her own.
When he entered into the bedchamber last night, he told himself he wanted only to check on her to ensure her needs had been met. The moment he saw her sitting there in her white nightdress and her dark hair flowing down below her waist, his good intentions faded, replaced with assaulting erotic images. He desired Eloise. Seeing her with her hair down, her eyes blazing up at him, only funneled his desire.
“Gerard.” Eloise was awake. She tipped back her head to look at him. Her beautiful face, flushed from the night’s activities, stared up at him. Oh God, she was beautiful! “Is it time to rise? We have much to do before we enter Paris. I need…”
“No, Eloise,” he said, reaching down to push back her disheveled hair from her face. “I have already decided to take the necessary measures for our venture. You won’t be going back as I would have liked. I thought about what you said and have determined it is safer to keep you by my side. We don’t know what awaits you in Calais, not with your network being exposed. It is best to let Andre handle the situation. Besides the fact I don’t trust that you will stay where I put you. I believe it best for you to enter Paris upon my arm…as my wife.”
“Then you need to know that I do not believe Marc Pierre will be overly excited to see me.”
Eloise’s manner had changed. Gone was the wall she had erected around herself. She had opened herself up to him, and he was touched.
“With reason, I am sure. Does he know about your activities?”
“I trust Marc Pierre with my life. I have no secrets from him. The last time I was within Paris, he could have easily arrested me. I ran into some difficulties and he was my only escape. He placed himself in danger to save me, but warned me not to return. He could do nothing more for me.”
“This is different. We are not sneaking in. We are going straight into Paris as we are. My plan is simple. My children are English and are my main concern. I promised Colonel Ralston I would rescue Miranda if at all possible. I gave my word. I believe if we can get an audience with your friend, Bernard, he could lead me to Citizen Gairden. He is the one with the power to release my children to me.”
Her face went tight upon the mention of Citizen Gairden. “Citizen Jean-Antione Gairden?”
“I know well who he is, Eliose,” Lenister answered her in a soothing voice. The man commanded fear with the mere mention of his name: the man responsible for sending thousands to the guillotine. “I have tried in vain to get an audience with Citizen Gairden on both of my previous trips, with no success. I fear he is the means to our success or failure.”
“He is not a man to be trusted, my lord,” she said with a sudden lack of emotion. Her voice sobered from the mention of the name. “Let me understand you correctly. This is your plan?”
“Eloise, there is no other way. Tell me if you have ever rescued anyone from the La Force prison, much less four persons.”
“Four? I thought it was your two children and their mother.”
“I’m afraid Miranda had a child with her lover, a small lad. I do not plan to leave the young one either, if I can help it at all. Though, he is of French aristocratic blood.”
“Of course not,” she rapidly agreed. “But you have to understand. This Gairden is renowned for his cruelty. He hates anything aristocratic, whether French or British…my lord.”
“I do not underestimate the man. I know who I deal with, but I have no choice. My actions have been driven by my love for my children. I can’t, won’t, accept their fate. If you are willing to come with me, I promise…” He paused as if finding the words he wanted to utter. He pulled her closer to him and kissed the top of her head. Then he lifted her chin to look into her eyes. “When I saw you yesterday, climbing out the window in the pouring rain, running from certain death, I have never been more scared. I had prayed you were more than what you said. That your connections were what I needed, but when I saw you, I was enraged…at myself for putting you in this position. I was angry with you for choosing to help me and my children who you have never seen, that Society would shun.
“Then came the realization that it was more.” He stopped and began to bring his head towards hers. “I need you, Eloise.”
Time slowed as he breathed his declaration against her mouth. He felt a welling of desire for her. He kissed her hungrily and she met his kiss. Flames of wanton lust ignited. She burrowed next to him, matching his want with her own. He pressed his palm against her tautly peaked nipple. Then the passion exploded in a rush of furious kisses.
She touched him with an urgent need. Her fingers splayed out over his chest and downward. Her hand gently grasped his hardness and it thrilled him. No more than when she spread her legs apart and eased on top of him. She stared down at him with her eyes sparkling with desire as she straddled his hips. He found her mouth again and ravished her, hotly and fiercely. She rode him with a rhythm that heightened in a growing heat. Her muscles tightened around him until they both climaxed together. A cry escaped her lips and she collapsed down on his chest.
“Eloise,” he murmured against her ear. They needed to rise and ready for the day, but he paused. Suddenly, he wanted to hold to this moment. They were still joined as if they were one entity. He made no move. Reality would come soon enough.
Chapter Eight
The travel to Paris fared slow and tedious. By midday, Lenister tied his horse to the carriage and climbed in next Eloise. He left Seamus out riding alone with an escort that Citizen Fontaine arranged to continue their journey into Paris unscathed. Citizen Fontaine couldn’t have been more accommodating after sending a messenger with a note ahead of the small group to be delivered to this Marc Pierre Bernard, General de Bridgade, serving as chief of staff to General Jean-Charles Pichegru.
Citizen Fontaine asked no questions, not even how Eloise lost her traveling trunk of clothes. Instead, he proved his usefulness and gathered up a semblance of a wardrobe for Lenister’s lady.
Thankful the carriage offered a semblance of a screen from the eyes of the Republic, Lenister lifted his wife’s hand and kissed it. A reassurance of sorts. She smiled to let him know she was composed.
He settled in for the remainder of their trip beside her. Thoughts assaulted him. There was much to cover before their meeting with General Marc Pierre Bernard.
“Humility, Gerard. At all times,” Eloise said as if she read his thoughts, catching herself against her husband as the carriage wheels rode over the jagged road, jarring her back and forth. His ar
m rounded her shoulder and he held her tightly. “Even though you are English, it will not hold favor with the Tribunal. Remember that well, my lord. Hold to only your children, that they are yours and your mistress…so violently stolen from your side.”
“I don’t think it will be an issue my begging for my children. It is Miranda that poses the greatest issue, if we get a chance to plead for any,” he said. “I promised her father, Colonel Ralston. I gave him my word…”
“I know, Gerard,” she said softly, her gaze steady. “Leave that to me. It is for you to ask for your children. You have to know each will be separate. Or at least it will be hoped.”
“Why, Eloise, I’m beginning to appreciate the woman I have married. In all that I suspected, you have exceeded my expectations.”
“Your admiration is too quickly given. Nothing has happened yet. It is only my observations. I can guarantee nothing. I hold only to my knowledge of their anger. And anger is an emotion without reason.”
“I have an alternative plan if need be. If negotiations falter…”
“I would guess you would have brought men to use force if we fail, my lord. I know of none who have escaped their fate after being sentenced. Storming a prison would be suicide. Getting to them before perhaps, on the streets the condemn travel…but again, who am I to say? I have not been to Paris recently, but I would assume it would be most difficult, if not impossible at that point.”
“I would send you…”
“Away,” she finished his sentence for him as a slight smile emerged on her face. “Do you not believe that I now share your fate? You only thus proclaimed you wanted me to be by your side always.”
“I will not sleep well until I have taken you to Ashwin Manor. I want you to love it as I do. I want nothing more than to enjoy the beautiful countryside with you by my side. I believe you will find it to your taste. It’s quite rural, although it has no coastline.”
Broken Legacy (Secret Lives Series) Page 10
