Page 53 of The Assassin and the Libertine
“No, Daphne. I’ve had enough of this. It is your life—your decision—if you choose to remain under Noailles’s influence, but I will not have you dragging my wife down with you. I feel like I can’t trust you anymore, and if I cannot, then neither can The Order. I’ll be writing to them this evening and telling them that you’ve been compromised. Do not send them any further messages.”
Shock slammed into me. I felt rooted to the ground. My heart pounded with the speed of a runaway horse. I swallowed and opened my mouth, but no sound came out.Out of The Order?I couldn’t believe it. Charlotte’s worried gaze met mine and she shook her head, eyes warning me to be silent. She sighed deeply, picked up her mask from the table, then came to kiss my cheek.
“It will be all right,chérie.I will call on you in a few days when all of this has blown over.D’accord?”
Then, straightening with as much grace as the queen herself, she exited the room. As she passed Philippe, she looked at him and said in a voice more chilling than I’d ever heard from her, “Apollo always was a silly, jealous god.”
A muscle in Philippe’s jaw ticked and he slammed the door, leaving Étienne and I in devastated silence.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ÉTIENNE
October 31, 1765
Palace of Versailles
It wassome moments after the Comte and Comtesse de Brionne had left before Daphne finally exhaled. She sat heavily in one of the chairs and raised a hand to her forehead, rubbing a spot of tension between her brows. The defeat in her posture left a hollow ache in my chest and the mask of detached composure I’d been struggling to maintain began to fracture.
“Daphne…”
She closed her eyes and held up her hand to silence me.
“Please,” she murmured. “I have lost much tonight. I do not wish to lose my temper, as well. Go away, Étienne. I cannot bear your presence just now.”
Frustration tumbled through me. I was desperate to pull her into my arms, kiss away her sadness, and move heaven and Hell to right her world, but those promises would tie me to her and to a future I knew we could not have. A future she did not want.No. The best way to help her would be to deal with the demonand his summoner, and leave her to the luxurious life she rightly deserved. Emboldened by that sense of rightness and quelling the selfish wrongness I felt at letting her go, I knelt before her and cleared my throat.
When she opened her eyes, they were shimmering with unshed tears. For all her exquisite beauty in her angelic silk, there was something tragic lurking in the depths of those large violet pools. After a beat, I was able to find my voice again.
“Have you encountered demons before in your work with The Order?”
She shook her head.
“We must find someone who knows how to perform an exorcism. The demon is the greatest threat to us now. If we remove him from the equation, the summoner is temporarily impotent. If we go after the summoner first, who knows what will happen. The demon may become untethered to Hell and be unleashed upon our world with nothing left to control him. Right now, he is bound by his ties to the summoner.”
“We don’t have time to wait on the Vatican. I don’t suppose you know of someone who can help?” Her voice had lost its ragged edge and was frosty with irritation.
“Unfortunately, I do not often engage with men of the cloth,” I said wryly.
She ignored my attempt at levity.
“I’m afraid I rather lost my faith after Michel died,” she said. “I don’t have many friends in the church. I would have sought assistance from The Order; they have several members familiar with some of the more indelicate religious practices, but I can’t count on their help right now.”
“Is there no one you could ask from The Order? Even if you do not petition the group as a whole…”
She looked at me murderously and gestured to the door. “Yes, there was! And there he goes! If you hadn’t been here,Étienne… If you just would have gone when I first asked, I could have convinced Philippe that Charlotte and I had snuck away to be in each other's confidence. Why did you follow me?”
“My apologies,” I said, more curtly than I intended. “I wanted to make sure you were all right after our little balconytête-à-tête.”
She stood and paced around the library, her skirts swirling in a soft rustle that sharply contrasted the resonance of her anger. I leaned against the desk, attempting to calm my own emotions.
“Yes, fine, thank you. Being caught kissing at a party is actually the least of my worries right now,” she huffed.
“That’s not what I was referring to,” I said. I thought back to her words,what if it’s not enough?Of course it wasn’t enough—certainly not enough for me. But the possibility that the end of our investigation and return to our old lives was not enough forherfilled me with a perverse kind of hope. It was the hope for a future neither one of us could have, and that I didn’t deserve in the first place.
“Oh, that. Yes. You’re right, of course. It doesn’t make sense—the two of us. It was foolish of me to think…” She trailed off, her voice barely a whisper.
“Foolish to think what?” I pressed.Foolish to think there was something more for us? That, perhaps, you wanted me as more than a throwaway lover like the rest of the women at court do? Foolish to think that you’d be willing to sacrifice so much to be with me?I felt phantom beats from my dead heart in my chest, anticipating the rejection I knew would come.
