When Strangers Marry (Vallerands #1)(20)

“No,” she replied, keeping her arms linked around his neck. “I am merely wondering what your game is, monsieur.”

He gave her a blank look. “Game?”

Lysette rolled her eyes at the show of innocence. “The game I have become a pawn in. The one you are playing with Etienne Sagesse. Clearly you had no intention of letting me appeal to my cousin for refuge. You wanted to keep me here, and you’ve succeeded. Now tell me what your plan is.”

“We won’t discuss that until you’re better,” he muttered.

“You may as well admit it,” she said. “I’ve already figured out what you want, and how you plan to get it.”

“Oh?” A hot flicker entered his eyes. “Tell me what you think I want.”

Before Lysette could answer, he set her carefully on the settee, and Noeline was there to drape a lap blanket over her knees.

Vallerand began to release her, and Lysette felt a painful tug on her scalp. A few strands of her hair had caught in one of his coat buttons. Realizing what had happened, he and Lysette reached for the button at the same time. Their fingers caught together, and Lysette recoiled in confusion.

The warm puff of his breath against her cheek unloosed a blaze of sensations that stunned her. With a dreamlike slowness she let her hands fall, while her heart hammered in her breast. Carefully Vallerand freed the tiny snarl of hair, dismantling the silken bond that had held them together. His scent floated to her nostrils, the intoxicating salty maleness that made her want to press her open mouth to his skin. Her response to him was so carnal and deep that she shrank away from him, shocked at herself.

Vallerand continued to lean over her, one arm braced on the back of the rosewood settee, the other hand resting close to her hip. “Don’t be afraid of me,” he said, mistaking the alarm in her gaze.

“Afraid of you?” she whispered dazedly. “You’re the last man in the world I would be afraid of.”

The words seemed to jolt him. His breath quickened, and he stared at her as if he didn’t dare believe her.

Irénée entered the room, her voice penetrating the spellbinding silence. “Lysette, how do you feel this morning?”

Max’s peculiar expression vanished. “She’s fine,” he said curtly, striding to the door. “I’ll be in the library.”

As he left, Irénée looked after him and shook her head. “He has behaved so oddly of late.”

Lysette sighed, reflecting that her illness had been only a temporary reprieve from whatever plans Maximilien had concocted. “Madame,” she said slowly, “certainly you must know that Monsieur Vallerand never sent the letter to my cousin Marie.”

Irénée frowned. “Lysette, we should wait until you are stronger to discuss—”

“He planned to dishonor me, didn’t he?” Lysette laced her fingers together over her midriff. “Well, I have been here long enough to ensure that my reputation is in shreds, regardless of your presence. My guess is that no one would believe I could stay under Maximilien Vallerand’s roof for this long with my honor intact. Will Sagesse demand a duel now? That is how any Creole would respond, n’est-ce pas? Obviously it has all turned out the way your son wanted.”

Irénée was silent for a long time. “Lysette,” she finally said, “it is still not too late for you to be returned to Sagesse. If that is what you wish, I will see that it is done.”

Lysette shook her head. “Good Lord, no. I would become a streetwalker before I went back to him.”

The older woman was clearly startled by the frank statement. She was spared from replying by Noeline’s arrival in the doorway. “Madame,” the housekeeper said, rolling her eyes heavenward, “it is Monsieur Medart— he wants to take Mademoiselle Lysette away with him.”

Chapter 4

Lysette damned her own physical weakness as her stepfather and Tante Delphine entered the room. The impulse to leap from the settee and run was uncontrollable, but she knew she wouldn’t make it five yards before collapsing.

“Lysette,” Gaspard said calmly, a smile on his lips. The expression in his eyes, however, was one of undiluted hatred. Her marriage to Etienne Sagesse was the only thing that stood between him and financial ruin, and she had almost succeeded in sabotaging his plans. “You are fortunate, you foolish girl. Sagesse still wants you, regardless of all that has happened. The marriage will take place as planned. Now that you are better, you will come with me.”

“The marriage will never take place,” Lysette said. “I would have thought that would be clear to you by now.”

“Lysette,” Tante Delphine exclaimed, hurrying forward in a display of maternal affection. “There, there, enfant. We have come to take care of you. Certainly you do not wish to be a burden to these strangers any longer. I would have expected you to be more considerate than that.” She caressed the side of Lysette’s face with her plump hand and tucked the lap blanket more tightly around her.

Lysette realized guiltily that Delphine had a point. She had indeed been a burden to the Vallerands. Moreover, she had no wish to be the unwitting instrument of Vallerand’s destruction. If a duel did result from this, there was a possibility that Sagesse would manage to wound or even kill him. Somehow that thought was too awful to contemplate.