Charlotte shook her head, keeping her eyes hidden, for
it was too soon to let Lizette see that her loyalties were • already divided. *I won't leave you,' she promised.
Somehow, she had no idea how yet, there must be a way for her to stay near Raoul. He had seen her being Lizette's daughter as a miracle that could give Lizette the reason she needed to live—perhaps another miracle could be made to happen that would enable her to stay where Raoul was.
In other circumstances it would have been something of an j anti-cHmax returning to the house after the events of the ! past few hours. But to Charlotte it seemed more like the beginning of something even more exciting and she felt her heart thudding hard as she went in through the front doors to the cool formality of the entrance hall.
All the doors facing into it were closed, but there was an air of expectancy in the atmosphere that tingled along her spine and prickled her scalp as she walked across the stone floor towards the salon. Madame Menais had left the hospital for home some time before she did herself, and she had promised to tell her all about her conversation with Lizette the moment she got back, but she found herself much more anxious to see Raoul again.
The sound of a door opening brought her to an immedi- , ate halt and she stood there without turning, almost with- ^ out breathing, for she knew which door it was that had opened, without having to turn. The call, when it came, was neither unexpected nor any different from any other time he had called her to come to him, only this time her whole body and mind seemed to respond to his voice.
^Charlotte!'
She turned and looked at him for just a second before she started towards him. Standing framed in the doorway of his office he leaned against the frame with what must be an assumed nonchalance and it was impossible to see the expression in his eyes until she got right up to him. By then
he had carefully concealed them with his lashes.
*Hello, Raoui;
It sounded so ordinary that she almost laughed, realised how unwise it would be, and hastily pulled herself together. He said nothing for the moment but heaved himself away from the doorframe and followed her into his office. Sitting on the desk, he regarded her steadily once more, both his long brown hands gripping the edge of the desk as he watched her, waiting for her to enlighten him.
*I saw Madame Lizette,* she said, and his sardonic response reminded her that it had been he who arranged the meeting.
*So I imagine! * he said, and indicated the chair provided for visitors. But CSiarlotte preferred to remain standing for the moment and she shook her head. Momentarily at a loss for words, she stood with her head bowed watching her own restless fingers stroke the shiny wood surface of the desk top until she felt he was bound to lose patience with her. *Lizette confirmed that she and Raoul had a daughter?'
He must know that, for his grandmother would have already told him so, but evidendy he wanted to hear it from Charlotte herself. *Yes, she confirmed it,' she said, but hesitated about telling him why Lizette had kept her existence a secret for more than twenty years. Although he probably had his own ideas about that, and she looked up at him through her lashes, seeking his opinion. *It—it looks as if we're cousins,' she ventured.
*That pleases you?'
She was too unsure of his opinion and she still watched that dark intriguing face rather anxiously. *I was rather hoping someone in the family would be pleased beside Grand'm^re,' she said, and used the tide deliberately to sec what he would do.
He said nothing for a moment but looked as if he was trying to come to terms with her new status. Then after a
moment or two he looked up and met her eyes. *WiU you not tell me how it all happened?' he asked, and Charlotte found it impossible to refuse; as impossible as she would have found it to refuse him anything he asked.
'I'll tell you everything Maman told me,' she promised, and used her mother's title with the same air of bravado, though it brought no visible reaction from him. *I—I don't know that you'll understand, but I did and I hold no grudge at all. I don't blame her for anything, I told her so.'
He once more indicated the chair just beside her. *If this is to be a long story,' he said, ViU it not be better if you sit down?'
But as before, Charlotte shook her head. 'I'd rather not,' she told him, and her eyes held a glint of challenge when they met his briefly. *I don't feel at such a disadvantage standing up.'
He shrugged and did not press it, but sat back on the desk and listened carefully while she told him everything that had passed between her and Lizette at the hospital. When she finished she looked up at him once more, looking for his reaction.
*She says I look like Raoul, your uncle; do you think I do, Raoul?'
He put a hand under her chin and raised her face so that he could judge more accurately, it seemed, and she bore the intensity of that steely gaze for several seconds before he spoke again, *I was barely twelve years old when he died, and it was almost twenty-two years ago,' he said. *I do not remember exactiy how he looked. But Grand'mere sees him in you and that is sufficient evidence—Grand'mere adored him as she will no doubt adore you because you belong to him.'
She was aware of the tingling pleasure her body took from the brief touching of their bodies each time she breathed, and her heart was beating so hard she could hear
it like the beat of a drum in her head. She needed something to distract her senses from the wanton desires he aroused in her, and yet she found it hard to think of anything but his nearness and her own need of him.
*I—I didn't know they were married. Lizette and Raoul, I mean,' she explained, 1 didn't realise they were ever married to one another. I thought they were just—lovers.'
She saw realisation dawn in his eyes and knew that at last he saw the reason for her secrecy. Still balanced on the edge of his desk, he seemed already less wary, she thought. His mood seemed to have expanded a little and he seemed more at ease.
*So that was why you hugged your secret so closely?' he said, and Charlotte nodded. A faint smile hovered about his mouth and he looked at her steadily. *Your only desire was to conceal the fact that you were— un enfant d/amour, hmm?'
Charlotte flushed and her eyes were reproachful when she looked up at him. *If that means I kept quiet because I thought I was illegitimate, you're right,' she told him. *But it was less for my sake than for the sake of your family that I didn't say anything. I oaly wanted to establish my identity, not cause you embarrassment by raking up old scandals.'
*Child of love,' Raoul said softly, and caught her swift puzzled frown. *It means child of love— enfant d'amour, not quite the same.'
Something in the grey eyes brought an even more urgent beat to her heart, but still he did not reach out for her as she so desperately wanted him to. It should have been enough that she had achieved what she came to France for. She had established herself as one of the Menais, a legitimate member of their family,^ut more important than anything else was what she felt for Raoul, and she no longer attempted to deny it to herself.
Standing so near him she was more than ever aware of that stunning aura of maleness about him, and even without touching him she could so easily recall the warm firioness of tanned arms around her, and the fierce, hard passion c^ his mouth. She found her eyes irresistibly drawn to his mouth . while he was speaking, and it was a moment or two before she realised what he was saying.
*I was an enfant d^amour myself, cherie; we do not deny our own, no matter what we do to suppress scandal for the sake of our good name. My birth came only six months after the marriage of my parents, and I have no reason to believe that either of them has regretted it.* His brows darkened and drew together. *Lizette, it would seem, has fewer scruples than the rest of us; she abandoned you without a qualm!'
*Not without a qualm!' Charlotte denied swiftly, and quite automatically put a hand on his arm. *Don't believe diat for one minute, Raoul; she's regretted it all her—^all my life. She loved me, but she had so much to lose and she wa
s young '
Raoul's grey eyes swept slowly over her flushed face, then settled intently on the soft vulnerable appeal of her mouth. *Not so very much younger than you are now, ma cherey he reminded her sofdy. *Would you leave your child to strangers for the sake of your own convenience?'
'Would you make the kind of condition that Michel made when he proposed to her?' Charlotte asked swifdy. *That there would be no children?'
He placed his hand over hers and his long fingers curled lighdy as he conveyed it to his mouth. Pressing his lips to her palm, he looked into her eyes, a long and sensuously slumbrous look that stirred a chaos of desires in her that she could not hope to control. *Let us agree,' he said in his deep soft voice, *that neither of us would ever abandon our children, heinV He buried his mouth in her palm once
more and slid an arm about her, drawing her close until she caught her breath at the first tingling contact with his body. *Child of love/ he murmured as he placed his other arm about her. *It is such a good name for you, ma petite, and a much sweeter translation than the other, eh?'
*Much—sweeter,' she agreed, her hands side by side on the broad expanse of his chest. *Even though it doesn't apply, it's much nicer.'
His lips touched her brow lightly and he looked down into her face, her eyes hidden by long tawny lashes and brushing her flushed cheeks. *We are—some kind of cousins, Charlotte j eh? Not so close, because Grand'mere married for a second time. Could you love your cousin?'
Charlotte's heart beat hard againsT her ribs, and she dared not look up at him, for he would surely see just how much she could love her cousin. Yet she could not yet let him know how much, and she spoke without looking up, giving another meaning to his question.
*0f course,' she said. 'We should love our cousins, shouldn't we, Raoul?'
In the brief silence that followed she sensed a moment of doubt that brought a strange stillness to him, almost as if he had stopped breathing for a moment or two. Then a big hand raised her chin until she was obliged to look up into his face and see the steely brightness of his grey eyes.
*So you still seek to provoke me?' he said, but apparently without resentment, and the hand on her chin tightened its hold. 'Have I not warned you of the dangers of doing that, ma helleV
*Raoul '
His mouth covered whatever she had been going to say and Charlotte lifted her arms and drew the dark head closer still, clinging tightly to him while her body responded to the persuasion of his touch. Deep inside her somewhere a little niggle of doubt disturbed the perfect pleasure of the
moment, but she did not pay heed to anything but the excitement of his kiss and the thrilling vibrance of his lean hard body for the moment while he held her close.
'Charlotte! Ma belle petite cousine!' He kissed her again lighdy, and he was smiling in a way she had never seen him smile before, his grey eyes gende and warm as he looked down at her. ''Do you love your cousin as you should, cherieV He pressed another, harder, kiss on to her parted lips, robbing her of the chance to answer. *Did I not tell you, Charlotte, that once I had discovered your secret I must find another reason for kissing you?'
*I remember.'
She made the admission breathlessly, and RaouFs grey eyes sent disturbing litde flutters of anticipation rippling through her body. Then somewhere out in the hall a door closed and footsteps sounded on the bare stone floor. Charlotte glanced across, half fearful that the door might open and socoeone come in; she wanted this moment to go on for ever, not be interrupted by Bernard or Michel coming in, and she looked up at Raoul anxiously.
*Michel?' she asked, and he shook his head, drawing her back to him, as close as he could bring her, where the muscular vibrancy of his body transmitted its urgency to her, and made her tremble.
*Michel is seeing Lizette,' he said, and even now his voice conveyed a suggestion of that familiar impatience. *He has other matters to attend to, he will not come here.'
Charlotte remembered then what it was that niggled so persistently at the back of her mind, even while Raoul was kissing her, and she looked up at him in sudden anxiety.
'They're not ' She caught her lower lip between her
teeth and shook her head slowly, remembering the promise she had made to Lizette. *They won't part, will they, Raoul? I mean permanendy,' she went on. *Only I promise —^I made her a promise that I wouldn't leave her again;
I had to, she needed me, Raoul, she still does.'
'And I also need you, ma cherie,'' Raoul said, his hands holding her bruisingly tight while he looked down into her troubled face. * Would you desert me, Charlotte, so soon?'
She knew she couldn't, but what would happen if Lizette left Michel and Les Chataignes for good, she dared not contemplate. Holding tightly to him, she looked up, searching his face for something to help her nnd the answer, but she could see only the bright, glowing look in the steely grey eyes and feel the head-spinning sense of elation it aroused in her.
*No,' she whispered huskily, *I don't think I could—^I know I couldn't!'
Raoul's hands framed her face, the long fingers gently holding her head while the thumbs caressed the vulnerable sofmess of her mouth. *Lizette needed you to give her a sense of purpose,' he told her, 'and now that she has you she will not, I think, trouble herself quite so much about
Michel's 'A large hand let go briefly to express his
meaning, then once more curved about her face with that gentle caress. 'Michel has been frightened by what happened, very badly frightened, and I think there will be more—more understanding between them now.'
Scarcely daring to hope, Charlotte looked up at him. 'Truly?' she said, and Raoul kissed her mouth with infinite gentleness.
'I have sent Annette Villeaux away,' he said, and the sound of his voice made her shiver momentarily. He could be ruthless, and he would be in the protection of his family's name and to avoid the scandal of divorce. 'She has been well provided for and she will not be coming here again—ever. If the marriage does not work then it will be the fault of the partners and neither can make demands on anyone else. If Lizette refuses to listen to Michel's proposal
for contmuing their marriage then she will leave without you!'
*Oh, but Fm sure she'll agree,' Charlotte assured him. *She doesn't really want to end it, she's—settled here, and now that she has her baby—me, off her conscience I think she'll be much better. She'll stay, I'm sure she will.'
The big hands moved caressingly on her cheeks and Raoul looked at her with such intensity in his grey eyes that she turned her head and pressed her lips to one broad palm before resting her cheek there and half-closing her eyes. *And you, ma belle amie? Will you also stay?'
Charlotte looked up at him, her whole being responding to the look in those grey eyes. *ril stay if you want me to, Raoul,' she said, and he pulled her to him swifdy, and kissed her.
He kissed her for so long that she felt she had ceased to breathe, conscious only of the crushing force of his arms about her and the passionate fierceness of his mouth. 'You will stay,' he whispered in a voice that was harsh with emotion. *You will stay and marry me, ma belle, because I cannot face a future without you!' Once more he sought her lips with compelling force and crushed her close to the vibrant urgency of his body. *I love you, ma chere Charlotte, and I need you like a tree needs the earth! Will you give me what I crave, mignonneV
Held close in his anns Charlotte had scarcely enough breath to say she would, but eventually she smiled and he bent and kissed her parted lips fiercely. *I love you,' she said. 'Whatever happened now, I couldn't leave you!'
*If you did,' Raoul promised, *I would follow you and bring you back! I am not like my namesake, I would never let you go!'
Charlotte looked up at the firm curve of his mouth and traced its outline with the tip of a finger. It was hard to think about anything else, but just for a second she gave a
thought to her true father, killed before he was as old as she was now, and to Lizette, her mother, who had paid a
thousand times over for one impulsive gesture made a lifetime ago.
*Don't ever let me go, my darling,' she whispered, and clung to him even more tighdy.
*Never!' he vowed firmly, and with Raoul's kiss on her lips she had no fear that he would.
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Table of Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Pages
Back Cover
Lost Heritage Page 18