Lisette drew in a ragged breath. ‘And what happens when your “ward” suddenly disappears? When I have returned to France? What lies will you tell about me then?’
The truth was Christian had no idea what the future held for Lisette.
He only knew his own need to protect her as much as he could. And publicly claiming her as his ward now he was back in England was the only way he knew to do that.
‘As you are now acknowledged as being my ward, I will be perfectly within my rights to hunt you down and bring you back if you should attempt to run away from me,’ he stated evenly.
‘You—’
‘Just as, as your guardian, I would also be perfectly within my rights to hunt down anyone who attempted to hurt you,’ he added softly, understanding now why his close friend Griffin Stone, the Duke of Rotherham, had once felt pressed to claim his now wife as his ward. As he had also discovered, for a single gentleman it was the only way in which to protect an unprotected female who had no one else to care what happened to her.
And Christian did care what happened to Lisette. Very much so.
‘—are an arrogant—’ Lisette stared at him suspiciously. ‘Why should anyone attempt to hurt me? I do not know anyone in England. Or they me.’ She looked puzzled.
The time for truth, Christian acknowledged with an inner wince. ‘Unfortunately, that is not true of your mother—’
‘Helene?’ Lisette looked even more mystified. ‘As far as I am aware, she does not know anyone here either—’ She broke off to look at him searchingly. ‘This has something to do with the fact that you were in Paris spying upon her, doesn’t it?’
‘Did you know your uncle, André Rousseau?’
Lisette stilled. ‘I believe I told you that he died before I arrived in Paris...’
‘I believe you did too.’
‘And?’
Christian Seaton grimaced. ‘And I have no way of confirming whether that is the truth.’
Lisette’s chin tilted challengingly. ‘Unlike you, Your Grace, I do not lie.’
His mouth thinned at the rebuke. ‘I did not start out with the intention of lying to you, Lisette.’
‘That may be true,’ she allowed grudgingly. ‘But you are certainly responsible for continuing to do so.’
He grimaced. ‘I had no way of knowing if you were to be trusted with the truth.’
Lisette gave what she knew to be a humourless smile. ‘You still do not.’
‘True,’ the Duke conceded. ‘But we are on English soil now.’
They were, yes, and, despite Lisette’s outward show of bravado, she was more than a little unnerved by being in a strange country where she knew no one. Except the man who had been lying to her from the moment they first met. A man whose reason for being in Paris had been to spy on Helene Rousseau.
‘What did you hope to learn by watching Helene?’ she prompted cautiously; she knew that the woman who was her mother had been plotting and planning—even if Lisette had no idea of the details of those plots and plans—during those late night and secret meetings in a room above the tavern. But she had no way of knowing how much Christian Seaton knew of those meetings, or indeed Helene herself.
In the circumstances, sadly perhaps more than Lisette knew herself, in regard to the latter.
‘How much do you know of her...nocturnal activities?’
Lisette blinked. ‘I am uncertain of your meaning,’ she came back cautiously.
Christian could not help but smile ruefully at Lisette’s guarded response to his question. No, there might not be any physical similarities between Lisette and her mother, but the intelligence was most certainly there.
‘Oh, I believe you understand me perfectly.’ He nodded. ‘That you are well aware your mother is a Parisian who has no affection for her own King.’ He paused but Lisette offered no reply. ‘Your uncle, André Rousseau, was another. He came to England two years ago under an assumed name, to work as tutor to the son and heir of an English earl. During the year he spent here he set up a network of spies, within the homes of many members of society as well as the English government,’ he continued evenly. ‘Their ultimate intention was to assassinate the Prince Regent, as well as the other leaders in the coalition, and thus cause chaos within those countries which would allow the newly escaped Bonaparte to march on Paris and resume his place as Emperor of France.’
Lisette was so shocked by what Christian was telling her that her legs felt so weak she now stumbled her way across the bedchamber to drop down onto the chair beside the window before answering him. ‘That is incredible.’
‘But nevertheless true.’