‘Nor I,’ Lisette stated just as determinedly.
That was not his intention, Christian acknowledged with frustration. Although, knowing Lisette’s stubbornness, he should have expected it. ‘Were it not for your rebelliousness of nature, then none of us would be here at all,’ he reminded harshly.
A guilty blush instantly coloured her cheeks, her lashes becoming downcast, but for once she remained silent.
Christian found that he disliked Lisette’s silence even more than he had enjoyed her outspokenness in regard to himself these past few days.
As much as he disliked the fact that she remained at Maystone’s side once she achieved her release. Perhaps understandably when his own anger must be so apparent. Lisette obviously did not realise it, but it was an anger born of anxiety, rather than anything else.
‘As the young people both seem bent on being a part of this conversation—’ Aubrey Maystone spoke lightly ‘—perhaps we might all, with the exception of your young accomplice, retire to the comfort of Sutherland’s carriage for the rest of it? Away from prying eyes and listening ears.’
Helene Rousseau gave him a contemptuous glance. ‘I have nothing to say to you.’
‘Nothing?’ He quirked steely brows.
Her mouth thinned. ‘No.’
‘Just want the satisfaction of putting a bullet through my heart, hmm?’ the older man said drily.
The Frenchwoman gave a hard feral smile. ‘I have thought of little else for some time now.’
Christian could see the bewilderment in Lisette’s expression and knew that it must reflect his own. Maystone had never mentioned knowing Helene Rousseau personally during all these months they had been investigating her and her brother, and yet it was obvious from the conversation that the two had met before.
An uneasy feeling had begun to settle in the depths of Christian’s chest.
‘Dear, dear, Helene,’ Maystone chided mockingly. ‘Has no one ever told you that vengeance invariably destroys the avenger rather than the victim of that vengeance?’
She eyed him contemptuously. ‘And yet I am the one standing here with a pistol aimed at your treacherous heart.’
‘Oh, I did not for a moment mean that you would not kill me, my dear—’ Maystone spoke calmly of his own imminent murder in cold blood ‘—only that by doing so you stand a chance of losing the one thing that matters to you. Am I right?’
Christian was now standing close enough that he could see Helene Rousseau’s eyes narrow in warning. ‘Perhaps it would be best if we were all to retire to my carriage,’ he suggested mildly, his pistol remaining unwavering on the Frenchwoman as he turned to look at the boy lingering in the shadows. ‘You and I will talk again, young Davy,’ he added.
‘She made me do it!’ He stepped forward in alarm. ‘I only went to the tavern for a drink or two that last night ashore in Paris, and—and— She plied me with free liquor and threatened to ’ave someone ’arm me mam if I didn’t do as she asked!’
‘Which was?’
‘To leave word for her at Portsmouth as to where you and the young lady ’ad gone—er—Your Grace. To follow you and then wait for her arrival. I couldn’t let nuffink ’appen to me mam, Your Grace,’ he added desperately. ‘She’s all me brothers and sisters ’ave while I’m away at sea. I mean, I like the young lady well enough, but—’
‘You are excused, Davy,’ Christian interrupted wearily, having no wish to hear how much Davy ‘liked’ Lisette. He was also well aware of the methods of persuasion of which Helene Rousseau was capable. ‘But a lesson has been well learned, I hope?’
‘Your Grace?’ Davy wrinkled his grubby brow in concentration.
Christian grimaced his exasperation. ‘In future, stay away from French taverns and free liquor.’
‘Oh.’ The grubby brow cleared. ‘I will, Your Grace. Thank you, Your Grace.’ He touched a greasy forelock.
‘Just go, Davy.’ Christian sighed, waiting until the young lad had scuttled away into the darkness before turning back to the woman who had put the fear of God into the boy. ‘I trust he, and his family, need not live in fear of any retribution from you?’
Helene Rousseau gave a dismissive snort. ‘He was merely a means to an end and is of as much importance to me as the flea on a dog!’
Christian nodded his satisfaction with her answer. ‘Then if we might all adjourn to my carriage...?’
Lisette had to admit to being baffled by all that had happened these past few hours—these past few minutes especially.
Helene in London.
The fact that she and Lord Maystone obviously knew each other.