Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was not exactly a dream, but she wasn’t awake either. All Giselle knew was that she was more comfortable in that moment, eyes closed breathing slowly, than she could ever remember being before.
She was a little cold, but what did that matter?
All she had to do was open her eyes and reach out for the window latch which must have been left open the night before.
It was in that moment that she realised that her bed, though warm and comfortable, did not quite feel right. For one thing, it was moving.
Giselle’s eyes snapped open. She was lying on her side, leaning up against Prince éduard Aviroux’s chest, with cool wintery sunlight pouring down onto them.
She could feel a slight dent in her cheek where her diamond earring had been leaned on throughout the night.
The fire that she had lit had burnt itself out, but was still smouldering slightly.
Her heavy cloak covered her, and she had evidently been looked after with great care, but that did not negate the fact that she was naked.
Startled and a little embarrassed by her state of undress, Giselle sat up. The sleeping éduard grunted but stayed in slumber.
Her cheeks pinked as the memories of the night before rushed back. To think that she had – and he had – and she had let him!
Staring up towards the sky, Giselle frowned. By the position of the sun, she would say that it is still relatively early morning, perhaps ten o’clock? That would still mean that they had plenty of time to attempt the swim to the mainland. All she had to worry about now was getting dressed.
It was only when she found her gown, a few feet from where éduard still lay, that she remembered the erotic way that he had undressed her the night before.
The gleam of moonlight on the dagger, the desperate hunger in his eyes as he had leaned down towards her, the feeling of her gown being cut and pulled off her naked body …
Giselle swallowed. Just the remembrance was enough to warm her up in this cool December wind, but as she picked up her gown from the sand, she shivered and knew that it was vital she get dressed as quickly as possible. The last thing that she needed was a cold.
It took her about ten minutes to find the spare knot of string in one of her cloak pockets, and remake the ties that éduard had so unceremoniously cut the night before.
Finally dressed, and with her cloak once more wrapped around her, she was so lost in her thoughts as she examined the swell of the tide that the sound of a voice made her jump.
“Merry Christmas, Giselle.”
Turning around quickly, she saw that éduard was awake. He was smiling at her, unconcerned, until the memory of the night before washed over his mind like a wave, and his face froze as he recalled the delightful things that they had done to each other.
“Souffrir en silence,” Giselle said quickly. “Say nothing. We do not have to speak about it, no words need escape our lips about last night.”
For a moment, it looked as though éduard was going to protest, to say something. For a moment, Giselle almost hoped that he would; that he would say he could not possibly ignore what happened between them, that it was too special, too magical just to leave behind.
But he did not. “Well, it is not the Christmas Day that I imagined. I suppose that now we have run out of food,” he said gruffly, pulling his breeches towards himself, “that we really should start to worry about leaving the island.”
Giselle swallowed. So, were they to have a normal conversation? It did not seem possible, and yet here they were attempting it.
“Yes,” she said quietly, looking away as he clothed himself and fighting the temptation to get one last glimpse of his naked form before it disappeared. The magic of Christmas, then, had not been enough for him to care for her, but it had worked its magic on her.
éduard coughed, and she looked round. “A boat will surely pass today,” he said with a lopsided grin. “As yesterday was Sunday, a day of rest, that was undoubtedly why we saw none at all. We shall be fortunate today, je pense.”
“On Christmas Day?” Giselle arched an eyebrow, trying to remove all the passion that she felt for him from her look. “I think it is unlikely, monsieur, that anyone will be out today. We have to resign ourselves to the fact that we … we are alone again.”
Giselle swallowed. He had only taken one step closer to her, and yet every inch of her body was yearning to be closer. She had to do something, she had to get off this island. If she had admired him before, had been taken with his handsome looks and charm before, it was nothing to how she felt now.
She was in love with him. How had this even happened? Was one night enough to love a person, to know a person? Her cheeks coloured once more as she recalled that it had certainly been enough for her to offer herself to him, to allow him to…
Delightful and naughty images floated past her mind, but Giselle pushed them away. How could this have happened? How could she be in love with the man who was hunting her down without even realising it? It was ridiculous, it was stupide?
Should she tell him?
Without any time to decide, before she could even ponder whether this a clever decision or the stupidest thing she had ever thought of, éduard called out.
“Giselle, look at this?”
He had spotted something, and was now striding away towards it: a large log, one that looked like it was oak.
“It must have washed up onto the shore last night,” éduard looked excited and was walking around the log, staring at it from all angles. “Do you think we could make it into a raft?”
Giselle shrugged as she meandered over to it. “Perhaps.”
Why did she feel so despondent at the thought of leaving this island, now that a potential method of escape had presented itself? Surely she could not wish to stay here, on this cold, freezing, and most importantly food-devoid island? Christmas Day was not a day to starve!
“What luck!” éduard smiled up at her, and Giselle found her knees go slightly weak.
Surely it could not be because she wanted to remain here, with éduard?
éduard tried to lift it, and grinned. “It looks sturdy enough, do not you think? Just imagine, we could be back on the tail of the Great Whisperer within the day! I wonder if I will be able to pick up his trail easily, now that he has had a head start…”
Her heart sank as she watched him. Even after sharing her body with him, his mind could not be pushed off track: he was determined to find the Great Whisperer.
“But then you said London,” said éduard, sitting now on the large log and smiling at her. “So London it shall be, and we shall go together!”
Panic, pure panic now rose in Giselle’s throat, and she had to swallow it down like bile.
That log meant that they could get back to shore soon – back to the rest of the world, and then what would happen?
How will she ever be the Great Whisperer again now that one of the people who is hunting her down knows her face so well?
It was all too much to think that éduard could ever forget what she looked like – and her heart sank at the thought that he ever could.
She swallowed. Was it best to tell him now, to try to explain what she was doing, that she was doing her best to bring down a government so corrupt that it was killing its own people? How could she try to make him understand?
And the question that overwhelmed her the most continued to overpower her. How could she, the Great Whisperer, have fallen in love with éduard, a prince who was attempting to catch that very same spy?
“…just think,” he was saying, smiling at her as though nothing would ever separate them in the world. “We will be closer to the Great Whisperer than ever before in just a few short hours!”
Giselle walked slowly over to him, and sat beside him on the log. “Nothing excites you more than catching him, does it?”
She tried to keep her voice light, to ensure that it was not too dull, too sad, but it was impossible. She loved him, and he was hunting her.
The light in his eyes had fallen slightly. “Do you not want to … to find him, too?”
Giselle sighed, and looked out at the small strip of ocean that was preventing them from joining the rest of the world. “There is nothing more that I would like than to see the Great Whisperer come to an end.”
He must have sensed the truth in her words, for he looked at her strangely. “You really think that you will be able to catch him? You, a woman?”
éduard realised his mistake as soon as the words were out of his mouth, but it was too late to take them back now, and he could think of no way to prevent the look of outrage from growing on Giselle’s beautiful face.
“I mean,” he said hurriedly, “the Great Whisperer has managed to evade the world’s capture for so long, so – ”
“Homme grossier!” Giselle breathed, rising and walking away from him.
éduard felt his heart sink as she strode away from him. Every step that took her further away from him was actually painful. He could not have imagined such a thing, such a person who could have such an effect on him, and yet here she was – and she was angry.
“I did not mean it like that,” he said hastily. “I meant – ”
“Yes?” Giselle snapped, glaring at him as she stopped in her tracks. “Yes, you meant what, exactement?”
At the worst possible moment in his life, éduard found that he had no words.
Nothing. He had been raised in one of the finest castles in France with some of the best tutors, and could speak three languages.
But at this moment, there was not a single word in any of those three that he could recall which would protect him from Giselle’s ire.
“You think, perhaps, that because I am a woman, I am weak,” she said, eyes blazing. “But then I was strong enough to turn you onto your back, weakling, when I wanted to!”
éduard was conflicted with the arousing image of her above him, breasts heaving, with the panic that he had angered the present Giselle, right before him.
“I do not think that you are weak, I did not say that!”
“But you thought it!” Giselle shook her head, her disappointment in him visible for him to see.
“And I thought that I had demonstrated enough times that I can take care of myself, that I have been taking care of myself for a while now. You do not think a woman is smart enough to catch the Great Whisperer?”
éduard knew that it was a trap, but what could he do?
Desperate though he was to join the Great Whisperer and help him in his aims, he was hardly going to be able to do so with Giselle alongside him.
She would take one look at him, and clap the Great Whisperer in irons!
éduard knew that he was no match for her, no match at all, and what’s more, he did not want to be.
If he could lie down on the ground and let her walk all over him forever then he would; but he had to help the rest of the French nobility, and the only way that he could do that was with the Great Whisperer.
“It is just,” he managed to say, thoughts whirling about his head and overpowering his usually quick wit, “I thought that perhaps you would not want to catch the Great Whisperer, after all. Perhaps … perhaps you could trust me to do it. We could find a place, a house, a home for you – ”
It had been the wrong thing to say.
Giselle’s eyes widened. “You want to stick me in a house, cook and clean for you as you go about hunting for the Great Whisperer, is that it?”
In that moment, éduard spoke from the heart. “You would be safer there. I want you safe, Giselle.”
He had thought that his honestly would touch her heart, as everything she was touched his, but he was wrong.
“Safe. Safe!” Giselle rolled her eyes and threw up her arms to the heavens. “Safe? I have not been safe for two months you absolute fool, have you not worked it out yet?”
éduard’s throat was dry, but he did not know why. All he could feel in the back of his mind was that something terrible was about to happen.
Giselle smiled wickedly. “I am the Great Whisperer, you dolt!”