‘Helene...?’ Maystone prompted softly.
‘I do not— I am—’ She broke off, her mouth thinning stubbornly.
‘I believe, despite everything, Madame Rousseau, that you are a mother who wants what is best for her daughter,’ Christian continued softly. ‘You were young when she was born, and no doubt it seemed the best thing for all if she was placed with foster parents. But, from the little Lisette has told me, you went immediately to claim her the moment you realised those foster parents had both died. That is not the behaviour of a woman who did not care for her child.’
Lisette had never thought of Helene’s actions in quite that way before...
She saw now that Christian was right.
She had no knowledge of Helene until that day she came to the farm for her, no awareness that the Duprées were not her real parents. Helene could so easily have ignored Lisette’s existence, and merely thought herself fortunate in no longer having the burden of paying for her child’s upkeep.
Instead Helene had taken her to live with her in Paris. Not an ideal situation, for either of them, but she could see now that Helene had perhaps done her best in the circumstances.
‘You love me...?’ she prompted tentatively.
Helene looked first irritated and then exasperated. ‘Of course I love you, you stupid child! Perhaps I do not have the necessary skills to be votre mère, but I tried as best I could to protect you. You were the one who constantly threw yourself in the path of danger, first with Le Duc and now here again in London.’
‘A habit I have also tried—and failed—to curb, madame,’ Christian drawled.
Lisette gave him a quelling glance before turning back to Helene. ‘You believed that following me to England, arranging for me to be kidnapped and then threatening to kill mon père in front of my eyes, having just discovered who he was, to be an effective way of protecting me?’
‘She would never have shot him, Lisette,’ Christian chided gently. ‘That was not your intention at all, was it, madame?’
‘He—’
‘I am not interested in what he did or did not do twenty years ago.’ Christian spoke firmly. ‘It is here and now that is important.’
Helene seemed to fight a battle within herself for some seconds before her shoulders slumped. ‘I have tried, these past months, to be a mother to Lisette, but I simply do not— The tavern is not—’ She gave a shake of her head. ‘She is not happy there, and I am not happy for her to be there either. Not for the r
eason you suppose, Lisette,’ she added softly as she flinched. ‘You do not belong in such a place; I knew that from the start. I became convinced of it when the Comte took such an interest in you.’
Lisette frowned. ‘If that is true, why did you not simply contact mon père and ask him to take me, rather than go through this elaborate charade to achieve your aim?’
‘Pride,’ Lord Maystone put in gently. ‘I believe, my dear Lisette, that when judging your mother you should also consider my own part in all of this. As far as Helene was concerned, I had abandoned her. She is a proud woman. A strong and independent woman. To have asked me for help now would have been—’ He looked at Helene. ‘It simply could not have been borne.’
‘How can you defend her when she arranged for the kidnapping of your grandson?’ Lisette frowned.
He smiled sadly. ‘I am not defending, only understanding.’
Lisette looked at him with the beginning of a grudging affection; Aubrey Maystone might not have been in love with Helene all those years ago, but he had certainly known her—the woman that she had been and still was.
And Lisette...she could understand Helene’s need, not only for revenge but also for the assistance of the man who had fathered her child twenty years ago.
She understood it, even if she could never have behaved in such a way herself.
‘Helene—’ Lord Maystone spoke again ‘—I promise you I would never have abandoned you, or our daughter, if you had once told me of her existence. I will not abandon you now. Either of you,’ he added firmly before turning to Christian. ‘There will be questions for Helene to answer to the English Crown, but I believe I have enough favours to draw upon to make those questions less...probing than they might otherwise have been. Your brother André was the main conspirator, was he not?’ he prompted Helene.
‘I tried as best I could to continue his work after he was killed,’ Helene stated flatly.
‘Did any of your actions succeed?’ he mused.
She sighed. ‘You know they did not.’
‘You arranged for Christian to be shot!’ Lisette reminded exasperatedly.
‘It was never meant to be a killing shot, Lisette,’ Christian said with certainty. ‘Am I right, madame? You wished only to disable me enough that I must return to England, in the hope I would take Lisette with me?’
Lisette looked round-eyed at her mother. ‘Is this true?’