Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
éduard sighed, and rubbed at his tired eyes. It had been a long day, and he had barely made any progress. The smell of leather filled his nostrils and he tried to ignore the rumble of hunger in his stomach.
This was pathetic, he told himself. If anyone stepped into the library now, they would enter to see the lord and master of this castle – a castle, mon dieu – lying on the floor of his library, face down, with four or five maps before him and pencils strewn all over the place.
You are pathetic, éduard told himself. He should have paid more attention when Monsieur Victor had taught him geography, but he could make hide nor hair of these ridiculous maps.
There should be a pattern, a pattern of some sort.
It could not be completely random, Giselle’s movements around the country…
He would find her. He would work it out, he would crack the code of her travelling pattern and he would find her.
It must have been almost ten minutes later when he heard footsteps in the passageway.
There could only be one reason for them, as the library door was at the end of the corridor, but éduard did not move.
How could he move, what was the point in moving, if it was not to be closer to Giselle? He had to concentrate…
The door opened, and the footsteps became louder. Then there was a deep tutting.
“What are you doing, mon prince?”
éduard ignored Berlioz. It was easy too, when you could not see a person, but that did not last long. Heavy footsteps sounded out as the butler walked around to look at him.
“Nothing,” said éduard flatly, trying to ignore him and focusing on the compass that was marking out the distance between London and Paris.
He could feel the awkwardness of his position, he really could; a dark, sort of cold embarrassment that a prince of the realm was lying on the floor of his own library, but it seemed a long way off. It did not seem to touch him.
“Nothing?”
éduard nodded. “Nothing. There is nothing to do, nothing to be done.” He could hear the hollowness of his words, feel the despair, but why should he hide it?
“I found the perfect woman, Berlioz. Perfect, in every way, and what did I do? Upset her, to the extent that I physically drove her into freezing ice cold waters to swim for miles. She would rather swim a mile in the ocean than spend any more time on an island, with me. And now I need to find her.”
Berlioz looked at him for a moment, forehead wrinkled, as though attempting to solve a puzzle. éduard could feel tears threatening to approach, but he blinked them away forcibly. He had not allowed himself to weep for Giselle, and he would not do so. He was not so weak…he hoped.
“C’est dommage,” murmured the butler, stepping over éduard towards the drinks cabinet that was always kept well stocked. He poured out a large brandy into a glass, and shook his head at his prince.
“I do not wish to have any brandy.” éduard groaned as he pushed himself up off the floor and sunk into a leather armchair, rubbing at his exhausted eyes.
Berlioz smiled. “It is not for you.”
Throwing back his head, he swallowed the entire glass of brandy in one gulp.
éduard stared at him, and laughed. “Help yourself! There is no one else to drink it, save myself, and I do not wish to drink alone.”
They had had naught but ice cold stream water on the island, he thought, and a warm smile swept across his face. It had been simpler there, purer perhaps. If only the outside world had not intruded, if only he could have forgotten about the Great Whisperer for just –
“If you do not mind me saying so,” Berlioz’s words interrupted his thoughts, and éduard scowled, “I believe that you would feel much better, mon prince, if you were to go outdoors.”
“I would feel much better, Berlioz, if I was to find Giselle,” retorted éduard, but there was no malice in his voice.
“What do you think, Berlioz? You have never married, from what I know. There can be no greater tragedy than a man without the woman that he loves, and I am he, trapped in this misérable life without the one woman that I care for.”
Berlioz smiled sadly, and shook his head. “You err, mon prince, if you think that you have been the only one who has loved and lost. If anything, mon liege, you should pity me. The very evidence that I have not married should be enough of a clue for you.”
éduard opened his mouth, but no words came out. How could he be unthinking, so unfeeling?
“But we are not here to talk about me,” continued the butler lightly, walking over to the windows and pulling back the curtains to allow the weak January sunlight in. “We are here to talk about you. You and Giselle. If you love her so much, n’est pas, why do not you find her?”
éduard sighed. “How do you go about finding one woman in the whole world? I have worked as hard as I can, poured over the maps, I have even asked Monsieur le Teacher, down in the village. She could be anywhere, and I mean anywhere, Berlioz – and what is more, I do not think that she wants to be found.”
Berlioz picked up a few of the maps that éduard had left on the floor, and sighed in return.
“What am I to say, mon prince, that if she does not want to be found then you should not look? You know better than that. The prince I saw born here I have watched grow into a man with such a determined will of steel that he was willing to go to Angleterre to find a man to partner, because he believed in the same cause.”
éduard smiled. “I believe in it still, and I believe in her more.”
“Then do not waste your life here.” Berlioz placed the folded maps on the table, and smiled at his master.
“You will go mad if you do not get out of this castle, mon prince. Yes, the maps, but why not plan instead for a return to England, to find her yourself? You are a little wild, you know, like your mother. She always felt all the better for a little time outdoors, no matter the weather. As your butler, and your friend, I give you this advice. Get out.”
And with that, Berlioz stepped out of the room and closed the library door behind him.
éduard sighed. The leather armchair was indeed most comfortable after leaning on the floor to better spread out the maps, but Berlioz was right. Both he and his mother before him hated to be inside too long, it would drive his father, the Prince Renard, to distraction. It was time to move.
The stables were the same side of the house as the library through a quirk of design, and éduard found that his feet took him there.
Even the idea of doing anything so simple as riding his favourite steed seemed mundane compared to what Giselle was undoubtedly up to, but éduard had to push her out of his mind.
Berlioz would right. As soon as he returned to the castle, he would put together a plan of action, and find Giselle.
D’oro nickered to him as soon as he entered the warm stables, the smell of hay ripe in the air. éduard smiled weakly. D’oro had clearly missed him, and though there were no stable boys around, he did not need one. He had been riding almost as long as he could walk.
Riding D’oro bareback was a different experience, and éduard could not help but feel a rush of energy flow through him as they started to canter around the estate.
The figure of a peasant wandering through a meadow that had been set aside for a fallow year did nothing to improve his mood.
Irritation, an emotion that was always just lying under the surface now in éduard’s heart now that it was broken, rose up again within him.
“This is private property,” he shouted, and D’oro slowed to a trot in response to his delicate touch.
He had not been expecting a response – why would he, as prince of this area? And yet that is exactly what he did receive.
“No, it is not!”
The voice sounded confident, self-assured, absolutely convinced in the words that they said.
éduard stared in surprise. It was a woman; a woman coming here, telling him that his land was not his land!
“I think you will find,” he said brusquely as he trotted D’oro towards the figure, “that this is my home, and – ”
“No, it is not!” The voice sounded always cheerful now.
éduard raised his eyes to the heavens. The poor woman, she was obviously confused, and…
The figure was closer now, and he could make out more of its outline. Graceful, elegant, with long dark hair that had been piled up on top of her head, and a smile that…
Something painful stirred in éduard’s stomach, but he ignored it. It could not be Giselle, it could not possibly be – it was a trick of the light, because his mind was playing on her so much.
But in four seconds, he could no longer deny it. He was but feet from her now, and Giselle looked up at him, a smile on her face.
Giselle did not think that her smile could have grown any wider, but she had been mistaken. As soon as éduard was close enough to see who she truly was, she thought her cheeks would ache forever for the joy that was spreading across them.
“But…but this is my home,” éduard said softly.
Giselle had to tilt her head slightly to gaze into his face, and she felt the wave of happiness rush into her. Nothing could ever compare to this, nothing had felt so good as this, seeing him, seeing éduard again, seeing him and knowing that she would never have to leave him again.
“I am afraid you are wrong,” Giselle said gently. “This is my home.”
éduard said nothing, but blinked at her in a slightly confused and befuddled way.
Giselle took a deep breath. This was it: her one chance to try and make things right. “I have been discovered.”
If she had expected a dramatic response from the Prince of Aviroux, she was disappointed. éduard, still atop his large horse, just stared at her, as though he had just discovered the strangest and most bizarre thing in the world in his grounds.
Giselle swallowed, and continued. “My cover is blown, éduard, and so I have decided to give myself up to you, both as a woman, and a spy. Do with me what you would like, and if that means handing me over to the authorities, and making me an appointment with Madame guillotine…well, if that is what you want.”
It was almost a relief to get the words out, almost a relief to say what had been on her heart for so long but had not been able to express.
“And if that is your choice,” she said quietly, her smile unfading, “then I will follow you to it. I…I love you too much to deny you.”
Not a single word escaped éduard’s lips as he stared at her. He did not even attempt to make a sound. Instead of speaking, he dismounted slowly from his horse, who nickered slightly in protest at the sudden change of weight.
Heat rose in Giselle’s body. Was this it then?
Did éduard’s determination to see her punished for leaving him, alone and helpless, on that island prompt him to arrest her?
He was well within his rights, of course, but she ached for his touch, ached for him in a way that she had not known was possible.
But she did for him. She loved him, loved him more than her own self. And if that meant giving herself up to him, then…well. It was like Florence had said.
“Any man that makes you feel loved and desired is worth fighting for, credo, even if it does not seem possible. Even if it does not make sense.”
éduard took three quick steps forward, reached for her waist, and pulled her so rapidly into a passionate kiss that her breath was completely taken away.
This was everything, this was all she wanted: his strong hands around her, pinning her to him, his lips roughly forcing hers open, his tongue ravishing her own and nothing else mattered, nothing else existed, but they two.
Had it been minutes, or hours? When they finally broke apart, Giselle had no way of knowing.
“Mon dieu, Giselle, I cannot apologise enough,” said éduard in a jagged voice, his forehead close to hers, his arms refusing to let her go. “When I consider what you must think of me, what impression I must have given to you – ”
“No, the fault is all mine,” Giselle interrupted, her heart singing at his closeness, the intensity of his warmth, the safe shadow that his body created that she could nestle into.
“You can do anything, anything, and I greatly underestimated you.” éduard kissed her again, deeply and with more passion than Giselle could imagine.
“I…I will never do that again. I will never underestimate you again, if you give me the chance to spend the rest of my life attempting to keep up with you. Every Christmas, every Christmas I want to be by your side, with or without food, shelter, home, family, friends…Will you, Giselle?”
Giselle’s eyes widened. Could this be…?
She laughed shakily. “I am not ready to become the mistress of a prince just yet, mon liege.”
éduard smiled, and now it was a genuine one, one of confidence, and fire, and desire. “I do not recall saying anything about becoming my mistress.”
Her heart thundered in her chest, her pulse rushing through her ears and making it hard to focus. Could this be – was he going to ask her to…?
éduard leaned down and kissed once more, his hands wandering from her waist and tightening over her buttocks. He drew back when they were running out of air, so hungry were they for each other’s lips.
Without taking his eyes from her, éduard lowered himself down onto one knee, and Giselle found her own were shaky. This was not happening, this simply could not be real!
“Giselle.” éduard’s intense eyes gazed up at her, and she felt completely lost in them. “May you be hung, drawn, and quartered for your crimes against me.”
Giselle’s mouth fell open and panic started to flood her veins. She should have known she could not trust him, she should have known that he would betray her!
“May you be hung with diamonds,” éduard whispered, eyes shining with devotion, “for no jewels are too precious to be around your neck. May you be drawn in the finest carriages, for your feet should never have to touch the ground. May you be quartered in the best house in the land, and I pray that it is my home, Giselle, for I love you. I want you to be my wife, and I shall go mad if you do not say yes. Please – please say yes?”
Giselle fell to her knees, and kissed him hard and passionately on the mouth. “Yes.”