leaned against him and said, ‘I wonder what everyone will
say when we tell them?’
‘Tell them what?’ he said, horrified.
‘That we are going to be married, silly,’ she laughed.
‘When should we tell them? Shall we do it today, when we
get back? But no, maybe it’s a little too early. I think we
should wait until I return from Paris. Oh, Freddy, I’m so
happy. I love you so much. I want to hold you in my arms and
never let you go. Do you feel the same way, cherie? Tell me
you love me too. Tell me you’ve waited all your life for this to
happen. But you’re only nineteen, how could you have
known it would happen so soon? But me, I have been waiting
for you…
‘I knew that one day you would come, that there was a
reason for all the rejection I have suffered. But those men,
pah! They mean nothing now. They are Spiders compared to
you - you, who are so sweet and so full of love. How am I going
to keep this to myself, Freddy, when I want to shout it from the
hilltops? I think, don’t you, that we must spend our summers in
France, but I can barely wait to see your home, my darling.
And soon, very soon, we shall fill it with children …’
He let her go on, too stunned to interrupt. All he was
thinking was, when, during those few ecstatic moments, had
he asked her to marry him? He had no recollection of it, but
he must have asked her or she wouldn’t be carrying on like
this. He felt almost suffocated by his own breath as he tried
to speak, tried to assure her that he loved her. Only an hour
ago he had hardly been able to stop himself saving it, yet
now…
Why was it that she suddenly seemed like a stranger when
they had just shared such intimate moments? Why was it
that he wanted to pull his arm away, to escape her, when
earlier the very touch of her fingertips had set him on fire
with passion? Why was it that everything she was saying
repelled him? The more she went on, the worse it became.
Even the sound of her voice, that beautiful throaty voice,
now grated on his ears.
By the time her chauffeur had dropped him at Montvisse,
and she had promised a thousand times that she would call
him that night and then again from Paris the next day, he
was beginning to realize that he would never again recapture
the feelings he had had beside the lake. He still could not be
sure why they had changed, and as he turned from waving
Monique off and went into the chateau, he had no idea what
he was going to do about it. He went upstairs to his room,
informing the butler that he wouldn’t be wanting dinner that
evening.
He sat on the edge of his bed, letting the hours slip by. He
saw his life’s plans, his hopes and dreams float away from
him. He longed to talk to someone, but who could he tell?
Dissy was no longer in France, and it was unthinkable that
he should mention this to Celine. In the end, he realized
that there was no way out. If he had asked Monique to marry
him during those lust-crazed moments, then it would make
him the greatest cad on earth if he were to spurn her after
she had all but given herself to him.
At ten o’clock his valet knocked, and with a heavy heart
Freddy prepared himself for bed. The joy of being in
France had been extinguished, and he longed only to go
home.
It was one of those crisp days of early autumn, when the light
was so clear that Paris was even more beautiful than in the
spring. The leaves on the trees lining the avenue Foch
glinted gold in the brilliant sunlight, and the air was bracing.
The breeze that wafted in through the open window of Elise
Pascale’s drawing-room carried not only the sleepy purr
and growl of afternoon traffic but also the haunting strains
of ‘Tout va bien’ played on a gramophone in an apartment
below.
Elise adored this time of year - but then she adored every
time of year, she adored her whole life, and never a day
passed when she did not thank the Good Lord for enabling
her to use her exceptional beauty to such unforeseen
advantage.
It was her striking resemblance to Titian’s Venus ofUrbino that had started her on the road to success, for that was what had first captured the eye of Gustave Gallet, the now
forgotten artist who had passed through Toulouse ten years
ago, and in return for her favours had taken her to Paris.
Before leaving Toulouse her ambition had been merely to
marry a man of means and status, and when Gallet first
appeared she had already made some headway with the son
of the local prefet. But the moment Paris was mentioned, she
had seen all her dreams start to come true… Ever since her
daughter was old enough to understand, and right up to the
time of her own death, Elise Pascale’s mother had read her
stories of the great courtesans of France, La Pompadour,
Diane de Poitiers, Agnes Sorrel, women whose rise and fall
had never ceased to fascinate them both. Elise wanted to be
one of them, she wanted her name too to go down in history,
and it had angered her that she was living in a France where
there were no longer any kings, where she could never be a
royal mistress. But then Gustave Gallet had taken her to
Paris, and she had known that somehow she was going to
make herself the most talked about woman in all France.
Unfortunately, soon after their arrival in the city Gallet
had died, and for three years Elise had been an artist’s
model, moving from one cramped studio to the next. Then
she had acquired her own modest apartment on the Quai de
la Tournelle, paid for by an ageing film director, Alain
Mureau. She had grown fond of Mureau during their eight
months together, but when, at a party to celebrate his latest
film, she was presented to Gerard, the bohemian son of the
Due de Verlons, she had no compunction whatever in
consigning her lover to the past. And with Gerard her career
really began to take off, for he took great delight in
introducing her to his wealthy and influential friends, and Elise soon discovered that there was little she wouldn’t do to get what she wanted, and no one she minded hurting along
the way.
And now here she was, luxuriously ensconced on the
avenue Foch. She never missed her daily prayer of
gratitude - but it was at the shrine of her own voluptuous
body that she most frequently worshipped, for it was that
wonderful body, that face with its brazenly alluring
features, that had got her where she was today. That, and
ambition - which had seized her first all those years ago in
Toulouse, and even now, despite her success, still burned
like a fire in her veins.
And now, as she stood at her drawing-room window
looking along the avenue to the Arc de Triomphe, Elise felt
so triumphant herself, so happy, that she wanted to laugh.
For she was not alone in the room; and her engagements for
the rest of the day were even now being cancelled by Gisele,
her maid, who had taken the diary to the telephone in the
dining-room so that she should not disturb her mistress and
their unexpected visitor.
As yet Francois had said little, but it was not in his nature
to indulge in idle talk, and besides, his presence here, at her
apartment, told Elise all she wanted to know. It would be
unwise to express her delight, though, even if her heart was
singing like a teenager’s; Francois was well aware of the
effect he had on her but he hated her to show her feelings.
So Elise kept them to herself, and displayed instead the kind
of bored sophistication and cat-like indolence he preferred.
It was like a game, a game she had come to excel at: always
careful to read his moods before she spoke, judging when to
disguise her love beneath a mask of indifference; always
concealing the deep, secret fear that one day she would lose
him. For she loved him as she had never loved any other
man.
She took a deep breath, then turned from the window to
look across the sumptuously furnished drawing-room. With
its muted shades of turquoise and yellow it was a blatantly
feminine room, arranged so that every chair and sofa faced
the tall arched windows and the white wrought-iron
balustrades of the balconies beyond. As she looked at
Francois a teasing light flashed in her narrowed emerald
eyes. ‘So,’ she drawled in her low, husky voice, ‘you are
married.’
Francois was sitting in an Aubusson tapestried armchair,
his long legs stretched out in front of him, a Gauloise in one
hand and a glass of his own wine in the other. For answer, he
merely raised an eyebrow, took a final draw on his cigarette
and ground it out in the ashtray beside him.
The corners of Elise’s soft mouth twitched. Lifting a
hand-mirror from the little table beside her, she inspected
her delicately rouged lips and patted the waves of her
expertly coiffed yellow-gold hair. ‘I didn’t expect to see you
so soon,’ she remarked.
When again he didn’t answer, she put down her mirror
and went to sit near him on the sofa. ‘Weren’t you supposed
to be in Biarritz for two weeks?’ she asked.
‘My wife was eager to leave,’ Francois answered, taking a
sip of wine.
‘She didn’t find Biarritz to her liking?’
He met her eyes, and after a moment or two the corner of
his mouth pulled into a smile. ‘Shall we just say that my wife
prefers to be at Lorvoire?’ he said smoothly.
She hated him referring to The Bitch as his wife, but said
nothing, understanding that she would be wise to let the
matter rest there.
‘Have you heard from von Pappen?’ he asked, holding out
his glass to be refilled.
‘I thought he’d left a message for you at Poitiers?’
‘He did. Do you know where he is now?’
‘In Munich, I believe.’
Francois was quiet for a moment. Then, as she handed
him his wine, he said, ‘I am leaving for Berlin in a few days. I
want him to meet me there.’
‘Berlin?’
‘I have a new customer there with a penchant for Lorvoire
wine.’
Their eyes met fleetingly, and Elise smiled. Sitting down
again, she rested her finely pointed chin on her hand and
watched him as he sat once more immersed in the privacy of
his thoughts.
It was two years since he had come into her life, and
almost as long since she had fallen so desperately in love
with him that, when he asked it, she had abandoned every
one of her other rich and titled lovers and kept herself for
him alone. From that time on, he had become her whole life.
Only once had she made the mistake of telling him how she
felt about him. In return he had made it plain that he did not
love her, and did not now - nor ever would - entertain the
slightest intention of marrying a whore from the gutters of
Toulouse.
It wasn’t the first time he had called her that, but it was the
first time she had allowed her fury and pain to get the better
of her. The clock she hurled at him had missed, but the
bone china pot she threw after it found its mark, and blood
began to flow from the barely healed scar on his face as he
moved purposefully towards her. Terror kept her fighting,
beating her hands against his chest and insulting him with
all the foul language she knew, until he threw her across the
sofa and began to make love to her. But it was hate, not love,
for at the end he had left her begging and screaming for the
total satisfaction he sadistically denied her.
‘Love me if you must,’ he told her when he had had his fill
of her, ‘but I don’t want to hear it. All I want from you is what
I have just taken.’
After that she hadn’t seen him for a month, during which
time she had heard the rumours about Hortense de
Bourchain. Immediately she had resolved never to see him
again; but when at last he came again, when he stood
looking at her with those mesmeric black eyes, she had felt
herself drawn to him as a moth to a candle. She had run
towards him, ready to embrace him - but he put out a hand
and held her at a distance, looking at her. Then, with a smile
that twisted through her heart like a knife, he had lifted his
hand to her cheek, saying, ‘I shall never repeat this, but
perhaps you should know that I desire you as I’ve never
desired another woman in my life. I will give you all that I am
able to give, and it will be to you, and you alone, that I shall
turn for fulfilment. However, your declarations of love
revolt me - which is why I spoke as I did. And I warn you,
that is the only response you will ever get from me should
you be so unwise as to mention your feelings again.’
And then he had pulled her into his arms, and kissed her
with a tenderness he had never shown her before. That was
when, looking up into those curiously compelling eyes, she
first began to recognize the extent of his power.