The loathing burned within him again. His brother had betrayed him and everything he held dear. He would never have the opportunity, if Louis could help it, to do so again.
As for Lisette… at that moment, Louis had no wish to look on her ever again, but there was no avoiding his responsibility. Reluctantly he turned his horse and started for home.
* * *
The carriage was in the stable yard; Jeanne and Antoinette had returned, then, from their drive.
Louis found them in the parlour, Jeanne sitting with Antoinette curled against her whilst she read from a storybook. She looked up and smiled at him as he entered the room, then the smile froze on her lips when she saw the thunderous expression on his face and his hair wild from the ride.
‘Gavin is not here, I trust,’ he said harshly.
‘Gavin?’ Jeanne repeated, puzzled. ‘He is in his room, I think.’
‘The devil he is!’ Louis turned away, intent on establishing his brother’s whereabouts.
‘What’s wrong, Louis?’ Jeanne asked sharply. ‘Have you two been quarrelling again?’
‘A little more than that, Mama.’
‘Oh!’ Jeanne sighed in exasperation. ‘I saw that he had hurt his mouth. He said he had fallen. It was you, wasn’t it? You did that to him.’
‘With cause, Mama,’ Louis said bitterly. ‘He’s lucky to escape so lightly. I was hoping he would have had the good sense to be gone by the time I returned. I want him out of this house. I have told him so, and I meant what I said. I won’t have him under my roof tonight, or any other night.’
‘What are you saying?’ Jeanne was shocked. She was used to her sons and their differences, but clearly this was far more serious than their usual disagreements. ‘You can’t turn your brother out! This is his home!’
‘No longer,’ Louis said coldly.
‘But what has happened, Louis, to bring it to this?’
Louis looked at Antoinette, squashed still against her Grandmama’s skirts. She had caught the fact that something very serious was occurring though she did not fully understand; her lip was held tight between her teeth, and her eyes, wide and alarmed, were on her father.
This was not something that should be discussed in front of her, he knew.
‘Where is Rose?’ he asked.
‘In the nursery, preparing the child’s tea… Louis, what…?’
‘Antoinette, go to the nursery,’ he said. ‘Not to your mother’s room, and not to Uncle Gavin’s, but to the nursery. Do you understand?’ His tone was kindly but firm, a tone Antoinette, for all the wilfulness she sometimes displayed, knew better than to disobey.
She wriggled down from the chaise.
‘Go along now,’ he said.
‘So, Louis,’ Jeanne said when Antoinette had left. ‘What is it that is so serious it cannot be discussed in front of the child?’
‘Mama…’ He hesitated, ashamed suddenly, as if the whole outrageous incident had been his fault. ‘Mama, I hardly know how to tell you this. It’s not a pretty story.’
‘We don’t have to distress Mama with the details of our quarrel, surely, Louis?’
Louis swung round at the sound of his brother’s voice, his anger rising again in a hot flood tide.
Gavin stood in the doorway. His lip had swollen now, and the hoarseness was still there in his voice, but the tone he employed was silky smooth as ever, and he was even attempting a parody of his usual charming smile.
‘I thought I told you to get out of my house!’ Louis grated.
‘Oh Louis… I thought you would have thought better by now of your rash threat. You can’t really mean to turn me out!’ He looked towards his mother, enlisting her support, and confident, too, that Louis would not repeat his attack in Jeanne’s presence.
‘I most certainly do mean it!’ Louis said harshly. ‘After what happened here today I cannot believe you can seriously think for one moment that things can continue as before.’
‘Is someone going to enlighten me as to what is going on?’ Jeanne asked.
‘It was nothing, Mama…’ Gavin began.
‘Nothing!’ Louis interrupted furiously. ‘You take my wife in my house and call it nothing! Sweet Jesus, Gavin, your sheer effrontery takes my breath away! Why, I don’t believe you are even sorry for your dastardly betrayal!’
‘Perhaps,’ Gavin said before he could stop himself, ‘you should spend a little less time on trying to emulate Papa’s business acumen and a little more on keeping your wife satisfied. Then she would not need to look elsewhere for her pleasures.’
‘Why, you…!’ Louis moved furiously towards Gavin, on the point of striking him again.
‘Louis – Gavin – stop this at once!’ Jeanne’s tone was the same one that had disciplined them as unruly boys. ‘Neither of you might be willing to tell me what has happened here, but I’d be an innocent fool not to be able to guess. How could you cuckold your own brother, Gavin? I know you are wild – you always have been. But this…’
‘Mama…’
She silenced him with an imperious gesture and turned to Louis.
‘As for you, Louis, you should know that brawling like a common roughneck will solve nothing.’
‘Brawling, Mama? I’d like to kill him! And he’d do well to get out of my house as I told him to before I do!’
‘I think, Gavin, you would be wise to do as Louis says,’ Jeanne said.
‘But Mama…’
‘I can well understand that Louis does not want you here – why, at this very moment, I don’t know that I want you here myself! The situation would be intolerable! I suggest you go to an inn for tonight at least until we can arrive at some acceptable solution to the problem you have created by your own unpardonable behaviour. Go now, and pack some things together, and let us try, all of us, to bring a little decorum to this disgraceful situation!’
‘Oh, if that’s the way you want it,’ Gavin said impatiently. ‘I see I am cast as the villain of the piece, as usual.’
‘I am afraid, Gavin, on this occasion, it is no more than you deserve,’ Jeanne said fiercely. ‘And I fail to see how you can continue to justify yourself. As it is, there is nothing to be gained by discussing this further, except to say how shocked and disappointed I am. I had hoped that losing your father so tragically would be a reason for you to act more responsibly. Unfortunately it seems my optimism was quite misplaced.’
A haunted look crossed Gavin’s face suddenly. ‘Perhaps, Mama, I know that whatever I may do I shall never hold a candle to Louis in your eyes, just as I never did in Papa’s. All right, I’ll go. But do not be surprised if I never come back.’ As the door closed after him Jeanne sank back on to the chaise, head bowed, fingertips pressed to her brow.
‘Oh Mama,’ Louis said helplessly. ‘I am so sorry you should be distressed so.’
‘It’s not your fault, Louis.’ She looked up at him. ‘But neither do I think it is entirely Gavin’s.’
‘Lisette encouraged him, you mean? I dare say, but…’
‘Well, yes, that too, I suppose. Yes, almost certainly. But that was not what I was thinking of. Gavin is jealous of you, Louis. He always has been, since he was a small boy. I’ve seen it and tried to compensate him in small ways, but it does no good. Nothing can change the order of things – you are the elder son, and inherit everything. He has always felt worthless by comparison, even believing, foolishly, that your father and I valued you more. His behaviour, over all the years, is a sort of rebellion, I believe, and this is just another way for him to put himself on an equal footing with you.’
‘Cuckolding me, you mean. I am sorry, Mama, I am afraid I cannot see it as charitably as you seem to.’
‘Oh Louis, I do not for one moment condone what he has done…’
‘Good,’ Louis said harshly. ‘For I am afraid, Mama, that I shall never be able to forgive him.’
* * *
Neither, did he think, would he ever be able to forgive Lisette. That night, unable to bea
r the thought of sharing a bed with her, he had a couch made up in his dressing room and lay on it, sleepless, while the creeper, blown by the wind, slapped mournfully against the window and the scene played and replayed itself before his wakeful eyes.
A small sound – the creak of a floorboard – impinged on his consciousness. He stiffened, aware suddenly of the scent of Lisette’s rosewater in his nostrils. She crossed the floor almost soundlessly, her hair fanned across his face, her lips were on his throat. He twisted his head away as if she were a vampire preparing to suck his life’s blood.
‘Louis…’ She was pushing aside the covers, caressing him with the practised ease of a courtesan, soft, gentle, pliant. Briefly the familiar need for her flared in him, then died, as once again he was tormented by the knowledge that she had used those same wiles on Gavin.
‘Go back to your bed, Lisette!’ he grated.
‘Don’t send me away, Louis, please! It’s you I want! Always you…’
The angry words of accusation rose to Louis’ lips – that she had not wanted him when she had lain this afternoon with Gavin. She had betrayed him, hurt and humiliated him, and the very thought of touching her was repulsive to him. But there had been enough recriminations today, he was weary of them, and wanted only to be alone to lick his wounds. Impatiently he jerked the covers over his body, pushing her aside and turning his back on her.
‘Leave me be, Madame. This time your wiles won’t work, for I no longer want you.’
For long tense moments she knelt there, her fingers hovering over his shoulder as she debated whether or not she should touch him again, tears starting to her eyes and running down her cheeks. Louis sensed her continued presence and ignored it, hardening his heart against her.
He had no way of knowing how real was her regret, how deep her despair that she could seemingly never control the need for reassurance that she was desired – loved!
And he had no way of knowing either that his display of anger this afternoon had made her burn with desire for him. Of late she had grown used to a sober Louis, with no time for pleasure, no energy for, or interest in, anything but work. ‘Stuffy’, she had called him once, and it seemed an apt description, whereas Gavin had flattered and flirted, seeming to match her wildness and mischief with his own. But today…
Today, she had seen a new Louis, and what she had seen excited her. This was a man who could crush and master her, and perhaps, in so doing, exorcise the demons that tormented her.
At last, defeated, Lisette crept from the dressing room back to her own bed. For a little while she sobbed loudly, hoping that he might hear her and yet come to comfort her and make up their differences. When he did not, the emptiness of rejection ached within her, as it had ached once before, with another man, and Lisette made a vow.
Somehow she would regain Louis’ love. She would be in his arms again.
She little knew that the first was beyond her grasp, lost for ever by her own foolish faithlessness, and the second, when it eventually came, would be far from the passionate idyll she imagined.
IV
In spite of all that had happened, the state of high tension and open warfare within the family could not continue for ever. As the weeks passed, life returned to some semblance of normality. But it was a thin veneer only, covering the bubbling cauldron of suppressed passions.
Louis, unmoved from his edict that Gavin should no longer live under his roof, but, out of deference to his mother, unwilling to see his brother on the streets, purchased a house in Dartmouth for Gavin to occupy. It proved a sensible plan, for it meant that Gavin could be on hand to oversee the movement of goods within the port and be readily available to deal with the captains of their schooners, and it provided an explanation to the outside world as to why Gavin had left the family home.
Though he was at first bitterly resentful that Louis had the power to exile him, Gavin soon found the new arrangement suited him rather well. He liked the freedom having his own house afforded him, liked being able to entertain and roister without his mother and elder brother to answer to, and actually discovered a new incentive to work harder than before.
With peace now reigning once again between England and France, traffic between the two countries became easier and Gavin often made the trip across the Channel, making new contacts and forming fresh liaisons. His easy charm was a formidable asset in this respect, and for the first time the two brothers began to use the differences between them to the advantage of the business – whilst Louis was able to give the rock-solid stability that was so important in bolstering the confidence of associates, Gavin had the ability to reel them in with a smile, a joke and a shared brandy.
On one trip to France, Gavin secured an introduction to the Marquis de St Valla, and the two immediately struck up a firm friendship. Both were young, wild and handsome, both had an eye for – and a way with – the ladies. And when the Marquis came to England and was invited to stay with Gavin at his house in Dartmouth, more than one young lady turned a hopeful eye in his direction, just as they did at Gavin – much to the dismay of their mothers, who were hoping for more suitable matches.
Though he no longer lived at Belvedere, Gavin still visited, since their business partnership meant the brothers were still in regular contact. And it was there that the Marquis and Lisette first met.
Lisette was desperately unhappy. In spite of all her efforts, it seemed she was unable to win back Louis’ love, which she now craved so desperately. With every rejection she only wanted him the more until her desire for him obsessed her, but there was no way, it seemed, that she could break through the cold barrier he had erected between them.
She was lonely, too, for she had never been close to Jeanne, and since her indiscretion the relationship had deteriorated still further, for Jeanne was unable to forgive her for her betrayal of Louis and the upheaval in their lives which had ensued. In her desperation, Lisette had even tried to form some kind of relationship with Antoinette, who was growing into a rather precocious little girl, but it was too late. Antoinette’s love was for her father, her grandmother and her nurse; it was to them she turned, never to the mother who had shunned her. So when the handsome, charming Marquis came into her life, Lisette clutched at his company as a drowning man clutches at a plank of driftwood.
He was a compatriot, who not only spoke to her in her native tongue, but also knew many of her relatives and friends from the old days. He fed her tidbits of gossip about them and their doings, which she gobbled up eagerly, and told stories about them which amused and diverted her. He was also a charming and handsome man who took no trouble to hide the fact that he found her desirable. Lisette, who had begun to doubt her powers of seduction, basked in his attention, in the compliments he paid her and the looks he gave her.
She did not want him. She wanted no one now but Louis, but she still found his admiration for her persuasive and as her confidence returned, a dangerous idea came into her head. If Louis were to see that other men were still attracted to her, then perhaps his feelings for her would be stirred and reignited. It was, after all, when she had been the centre of men’s attention that he had first been attracted to her; perhaps it was her pliant attitude and constant efforts to please him that kept him cold towards her. If he thought she no longer cared, perhaps he would look at her through different eyes, the eyes that had seen a butterfly fluttering outside his reach, and fallen in love with it. He needed to be shown, Lisette thought, that there were others who thought her desirable even if he did not, and that she would not always wait for him like some lovesick puppy.
And it did not occur to her to realize that it was the faithlessness that had caused him to cool towards her in the first place. Somehow, that truth had become distorted in her mind with the passing of time. She had been schooled from too early an age to believe it was her favours which secured for her everything she wanted, not the withholding of them. And if Louis failed to respond to her directly, then perhaps a little nudge towards jealousy wou
ld elicit the required response.
Lisette began her dangerous game, flirting with the Marquis directly under Louis’ nose. It excited her and made her feel empowered again. Intoxicated as she was by the sensations that had lain dormant for too long, She forgot the very real threats Louis had made, forgot everything but her intention to remind him that she was a very desirable woman.
Lisette failed to realize she was not the mistress of her own fate, as she believed, but the author of it.
* * *
‘I wish to speak to you, Madame.’
She was brushing her hair, sitting before the mirror in her dressing room. Louis’ tone was cold as ice; she raised her glance to catch sight of his reflection and saw that his eyes, too, were cold and his face set in hard lines.
Desire twisted within her. This was the Louis who excited her almost beyond endurance. But she was determined not to let him see it. She matched the coolness of her tone to his. ‘For what reason?’
‘I think you know very well. You are returning to your old ways, Lisette.’
‘What are you talking about?’ She raised her brush for another stroke through the thick fall of her red-gold hair and the wrap she was wearing fell a little further open at the neck, revealing the creamy swell of her firm breasts. She did nothing to pull it together; the image reflected in the mirror was exactly the one she wanted to present – careless grace, demure temptation.
‘I am talking about your shameless behaviour with the Marquis de St Valla. I thought I made it clear to you, I won’t tolerate you making a fool of me.’
Her green eyes opened wide. ‘I’ve done nothing!’
‘Don’t play the innocent with me!’ he ground out. ‘You cannot help but act the seductress, it seems. You are a wanton woman, Lisette.’
‘Louis…’ She rose, and took a step towards him, ensuring the neckline of her wrap fell even further open as she did so. ‘Why are you always so cross with me? Don’t be cross, please…’
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