Chapter 25 #2
“You’re in luck, my friend,” Jervis’s cheerful voice drifted back down the hall, as he and Rafe dragged Lamartine with them. “We’re sending you back to France.”
“Okay, up with you, and let’s get that dress and them stays off,” Ginny ordered.
Alix stood unresisting as the bright-haired maid bustled about, removing her dress and chemise, slipping a crisp clean nightdress over her head.
“Now you just lay back here,” she said, patting a space in the bed where she’d drawn back the covers.
“I’ll go down to the kitchen and see if I can’t get something for your cheek. ”
Alix sat for a time after Ginny had gone, her knees drawn up under her chin, her eyes staring unfocused at the fire Ginny had stoked before leaving.
Images from the night’s events kept replaying unbidden in her head.
Lamartine standing next to her bed, Lamartine kneeling beside her, boasting about killing her father, his knife edging into her neck.
And over and over the words, “You were supposed to die with your father... perhaps I should kill you.” She’d sent Lamartine to his death and that haunted her, too.
Alix rubbed her temples, pulling inadvertently at the skin across her cheek and sending a fresh wave of pain through her swollen face.
Lamartine had wanted to kill her and she’d stopped him, and then Rafe had appeared.
It was a wonder how he kept showing up just when she needed him most. She closed her eyes, recalling the relief she’d felt when she’d seen him standing in her bedchamber tonight, when his arms had closed around her, when he’d kissed her and told her he loved her.
She hadn’t had a chance to tell him she loved him, too, so she’d given him the one thing that meant as much to her as her own soul, the titles to Valcour.
Had he understood what she had not been able to say?
She heard the sitting room door open and then Ginny’s voice, “I’ve brought a nice piece of raw meat with a bit of salt and lemon on it.
Should take that swelling down, though it might sting a bit.
” As Ginny arranged the meat on Alix’s face, she explained, “I took his lordship’s suggestion and told ‘em all downstairs that you fainted and that you’re shivering abed with the fever.
That ought to keep them all away till you’re ready to face the world again.
As for your neck, we can wrap a bit of ribbon around it; I hear it’s actually becoming the fashion in Paris, mocking the guillotine, so they say.
” She shook her strawberry curls. “It’s just grisly, if you ask me.
But then there’s no accounting for taste.
” Ginny stood back, admiring her handiwork.
“Will you be needing anything else, mademoiselle? A bit of tea, or something stronger?”
Alix shook her head. “I’m sure I’ll be asleep before my head hits the pillow,” she lied. “It’s been a long night. Why don’t you go on back to your bed now?”
As soon as the maid departed, Alix got out of bed, tossed the beef into the farthest trash bin, then washed her stinging cheek off with the most heavily scented soap she could find.
She was climbing back into bed when she heard her bedroom door opening.
The scent of lilacs and the swish of skirts alerted her to her mother’s presence, even before she caught sight of Madeleine’s peach floral dressing gown.
“So,” Madeleine said as she seated herself on the end of Alix’s bed and smoothed her brightly colored skirts into a neat arrangement.
“Your maid says you are unwell, but I don’t believe it.
” She gave a knowing smile. “Really, my dear, if you are going to have your lover visit you late at night you might at least be a bit quieter. I could hear you and Moreham shouting at one another all the way down the hall.”
Alix had the grace to blush.
Madeleine gasped. “Mon Dieu! What has happened to your beautiful face? Did that English beast strike you? If so, you may not marry him. No matter what you think, my dear, men who beat their wives never change.”
Alix raised a hand to stem the flow of her mother’s tirade.
“Non, Maman, he didn’t hit me. Lamartine did.
” She ran her hand down the length of her throat and saw Madeleine’s eyes widen as she saw the evidence of Lamartine’s knife.
“He wanted the titles for Valcour. He killed Papa for them and he would have killed me, too.”
“Moreham saved you?”
“I saved myself. But Rafe has promised to see to it that Lamartine never threatens us again.”
“But then why were you fighting with Lord Moreham?”
Alix gave a tired laugh. “A misunderstanding, Maman, that is all.”
“You understand that if I heard you two shouting, then others did, too.” Madeleine frowned.
” I have always suspected there was something more between the two of you than either of you let on.
Indeed, it would not surprise me if the earl were somehow involved in your sudden arrival on Lady Melbourne’s doorstep.
” She shrugged. “But you have chosen not to confide in me, and this I understand.”
Alix attempted to interrupt, but Madeleine waved her into silence. “I could overlook Moreham’s previous visit, even if he did stay rather close to dawn, since you were both quite discreet. But this time, ma petite,”—she shook her head—“I’m afraid I will have to insist that he marry you.”
“But Maman...”
“No, do not argue with me…”
“I am not trying to argue…”
“Absolument, I insist.”
Alix finally managed to get a few words in edgewise. “Oh, Maman, we’re already married.”