Chapter Two
Her breath sawed in and out of burning lungs. Her heart beat so heavy and so fast the forest animals probably heard it.
She certainly couldn’t hear anything over the drum of it.
Her legs weakened. Exhausted, she pressed on.
In the distance, she heard the faint sounds of the baying dogs.
Mon Dieu, he’d brought the dogs!
She put on a burst of speed. A tree branch snagged her veil and yanked her head back.
Whimpering, she grabbed at the veil, not wanting to leave a trail even though the dogs could easily smell the wake of her fear.
She tripped over a root, stumbled a few steps and went down on one knee.
She swallowed her sobs, tears leaking down her cheeks.
A glance over her shoulder showed only leafless branches, ghostly in the fog suspended over the forest floor. The sound of the dogs appeared closer, but that could have been a trick of the fog.
She began to pray. Broken prayers that never helped before but in which she’d never given up hope.
“Pater noster, qui es in caelis,” she whispered through uneven breaths, “sanctificetur Nomen tuum.” Our Father, who art in heaven…
The voices of her pursuers approached, closer now. Her heart nearly stopped and she forgot about praying.
“Do you have those papers?”
Lainie looked up from her computer monitor to find Giselle inside her office door, one pale, perfectly plucked eyebrow rising in inquiry.
She’d been expecting Giselle all day, had futilely hoped she wouldn’t show, but knew this conversation was inevitable.
Lainie was exhausted from a night of tossing and turning and from the strange dream that plagued her once she did fall asleep.
She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to verbally spar with her boss, but she also knew Giselle wouldn’t go away if politely asked.
The questions that had kept her awake most of the night weighed her down.
Why would Giselle send her on a mission with phony papers?
And were they truly phony or was Chevalier playing some game?
No. The look on Chevalier’s face and his anger convinced her he wasn’t playing a game.
So why did he believe the papers were fake?
She wasn’t any closer to the answer than she had been in Chevalier’s office. Just more tired.
“About those papers.” She sat back and eyed Giselle, trying to quell the nervous flutters in her stomach.
Things weren’t adding up and it was making her uneasy.
Uneasy enough to question what she should do.
Tell Giselle that Chevalier thought the papers were fake?
Or keep the information to herself? Right now playing things close to the vest was her best option.
“Mr. Chevalier knew nothing of our appointment.”
Other than a slow blink, Giselle’s face remained expressionless.
“I had to wait in line and pay twenty bucks to get in.” If she expected Giselle to offer reimbursement, she would have been disappointed. Good thing she didn’t expect it. “I only saw him because he saved me from being accosted by a customer.”
That got a reaction, but only a slight twist of the lips. Sometimes Lainie believed Giselle was made of ice.
“Is there a point to this drawn-out story?” Giselle asked in a bored tone.
Lainie tamped down her rising anger. “My point is he knew nothing of the appointment, yet you were adamant I had an appointment with him.”
“I can’t help it if he’s so disorganized he can’t keep his calendar straight.”
Lainie highly doubted Chevalier was disorganized. She was pretty sure, just from meeting him once, he knew everything that went on around him.
However, she chose not to comment on the last remark. Arguing with Giselle was useless, and damaging to one’s career and psyche. “Mr. Chevalier seemed angry at the content of those papers.”
Again no expression, but it seemed as if Giselle was trying too hard not to express any emotion.
On a normal day, Giselle wouldn’t have a problem expressing to Lainie or anyone else exactly what she was thinking.
But today wasn’t normal. Nothing had been normal since she walked into The Chevalier last night.
“I repeat my first question. Do you have the papers?”
Lainie took a deep breath. “No. Chevalier wouldn’t sign them.”
The muscles in Giselle’s face tightened in contained anger, putting Lainie even more on edge.
“So you left the papers with no idea if he would return them? You have no idea what was in those papers or how important they were.”
“He didn’t seem to think they were very important.”
Brows slammed down over pale blue eyes. Everything about Giselle was pale. Her hair was so blond it was almost white, her skin so fair it was translucent and on the days she wore red—which was almost every day—the look was jarring. “What are you trying to say?”
The slight headache Lainie had been battling all day threatened to erupt into something much worse, but her spurt of anger pushed it away. She didn’t like being played with. “I’m just telling you what happened. Chevalier wasn’t impressed with the papers.”
Giselle’s look turned speculative, which was odd. Nothing about this conversation was going as she expected and it made her headache worse and her anxiety skyrocket.
“Did he say anything else?”
Lainie took her time forming her answer, because she was taken off guard. She’d expected Giselle to ask why Chevalier thought the papers weren’t important but it appeared Giselle was fishing for something else.
What was going on here?
“Other than the fact he was angry, no.” Technically not a lie.
Chevalier hadn’t said much past the observation of the papers.
It was the other stuff that bothered her.
His strange reaction when he first saw her.
The visions. Lainie’s heart constricted when she thought of the visions and the dream that troubled her sleep.
Whatever she was in the middle of, she wanted no part of it. Something wasn’t right about her whole meeting with Chevalier.
“I suggest Mr. Lucheux call Mr. Chevalier to clear things up,” she said.
Giselle drew in a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. Lainie’s stomach fluttered in apprehension. Giselle was known for her unexpected explosions of anger. Lainie sensed one of those explosions was imminent. “Mr. Lucheux is far too busy to be chasing paperwork when that is your job.”
“I fail to see how advertising contracts fall under the Human Resources Department.”
Three months ago she thought the very generous salary Lucheux Limited offered would help her look past Giselle’s disdain and abrasiveness.
With her student loans due each month and her father’s nursing-home bills, Lainie had been drowning in debt and needed the money.
With this job she could afford to pay her loans and the exorbitant nursing-home costs.
Even though she had nothing left over at the end of the month, she felt better knowing her dad was in a good place, with qualified people to look after him and someday those student loans would be paid.
Until then she’d eat peanut butter and jelly, refill her water bottle instead of buying bottled water and drink the office coffee instead of the fancy stuff.
Until then, she’d have to put up with her boss’s weird looks and condescending attitude.
“You work for me,” Giselle said quietly. “Your job is not to question my decisions.”
Lainie sat up, her exhaustion falling away in the face of her anger. Her stubbornness ignored the voice that screamed shut up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I’d signed up for the army.”
Giselle’s pale eyes narrowed. Lainie could almost see the fire breathing from her mouth.
“Do you have a problem, Miss Alexander? Is there something you’d like to discuss with me? Like maybe your two-week notice?”
A tremor shook her body. She’d pushed too far this time.
She thought of her father, frail and confused after all that had happened to him.
If she lost his spot in the nursing home because she lost her job she’d either have to find a cheaper place that was less equipped to handle him or she’d have to take him in herself.
She’d tried taking care of him in the beginning and it hadn’t worked.
His mood swings had become violent and she’d been forced to put him in the home.
She bit the inside of her cheek and tamped down on the anger. She’d been doing that a lot lately. For her father she’d continue to do it even if it was humiliating. “No, ma’am.”
“I didn’t think so.” Victory gleamed in Giselle’s eyes as well as a touch of disappointment.
She wanted Lainie to fight back, but Lainie wasn’t giving her the satisfaction.
“Go back to Mr. Chevalier and retrieve those papers. Signed papers.” She glanced at her watch. “I want them by tomorrow morning.”
Lainie went still. Her anger disintegrated, replaced by a tremor that shook her body and soul. She didn’t want to go back to The Chevalier. She had a feeling she’d barely escaped last night. “But tomorrow’s Saturday.”
Giselle shot her the evil glare that had earned her the nickname Dragon Bitch. “Tomorrow. Or you’ll be looking for another job.”
Lucheux stepped closer to the window to watch Madelaine exit the building.
The warm April breeze fanned her hair out behind her, picking up the glints of red and reflecting them back. His fingers curled around the windowsill. He leaned forward, hampered by the thick glass.
“She delivered the papers as promised,” Giselle said.
“Good.”
Giselle stepped up next to him, nearly trembling from her suppressed fury. Madelaine enraged Giselle. Ever since he discovered her existence Giselle had been quietly seething.
“Chevalier isn’t pleased.”
“I didn’t expect him to be.” What had Chevalier’s reaction been when he saw her last night? As shaken as Lucheux’s when he first spotted her?