Page 81 of A Night of Secret Surrender
‘The agents of Les Chevaliers were at the port then and you spoke to them when I went to meet Aurelian?’
She nodded. ‘There were five of them and they had been waiting for a week. Two of the older men held great ambitions to replace Benet, so my allegations whet their appetites for a regime change.’
‘You knew that about them?’
‘I made it my business to.’
‘So you struck a deal with them? Your honesty for my safe passage?’
‘Well, it was a little more complicated than that. You were right out in the open and one of the agents was the finest marksmen in all of France. He would not have cared if others were in the way and got hurt and I knew that he hated Aurelian de la Tomber with a passion.’
‘So it was for both of us, then?’
‘I decided to implicate de la Tomber, too, for if I could not save him in Paris, then at least I might try in Nantes and I had seen him outside the Dubois home just before the children were killed.’
‘A fortunate happenstance?’
‘I thought so. I promised I would accompany the agents back to Paris of my own free will and give my accusations when I got there, but I also insisted that I retained my weapons at hand. If anyone touched me, I would kill myself. They made certain no one did, for arriving empty-handed in Paris would have invited sterner questions than each thought they might survive.’
‘And in Paris?’
‘Well, things went a bit awry there because Benet is wily and de la Tomber is clever. But I kept saying what I thought was true despite the opposition and within a day there was an inquiry.’
‘And then you left?’
‘Carefully at midnight on the third day, for everything I had set out to do was done and de la Tomber seemed to be safely absolved from it all.’
‘A perfect outcome for everyone, save you?’
She smiled. ‘It was the end of everything, anyway, and the resulting confusion made my escape easy.’
He shook his head and walked to the window, looking out with his hands on the sill. Then he turned.
‘You told me today that I was beautiful, both inside and out. Was that something you have regretted saying since?’
A jolt of shock ran down from her throat to her stomach, making her breathless. He never had been a man to skirt about issues, but then, neither had she. ‘It is not. I love you. I will always love you. For ever and ever.’
‘God.’
‘When you left the port safely and I watched the sails of your fishing boat fill with air as it made for the open sea, all I could think was, this is my finest moment. I had not lost you to death and there was still hope in life for us.’
‘Us?’ A new tone in his question held her still.
‘I missed you and I hoped you might have missed me, too.’
‘I did, every day.’
She watched him as he came forward to kneel on the thick Aubusson rug next to the bed, his hand searching for hers and taking it into his own, the fingers warm and strong.
‘Will you marry me, Celeste? Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?’
‘Your wife?’ She had never believed he would ask her this, never even hoped for it. Such a proposal was so far from any expectation that she was momentarily mute.
‘My wife, to have and to hold for ever. In sickness and in health. For richer, for poorer.’ He began to smile. ‘In bed and out of it. In danger and in safety. In France and in England. In my heart and blood and soul. That sort of wife.’
‘You were always good with words, Summer.’
‘And you were always good at hiding, Celeste.’
