There were eerie red sunsets, crows, Madonna and child, the vineyard at harvest, and bottles of wine with baskets of grapes and cheese. In each painting, the brushstrokes seemed to capture centuries of thought in mottled colors that made Eleni think of ancient despair.
A chill raced over her skin as she reached the corner and turned to her right. Immediately, the bedroom door came into view. Eleni walked to the door and stopped. She reached up to knock but hesitated. She was inexplicably nervous. It wasn’t like the woman could kill her or anything.
Still, dread curled through her as she was reminded of all those times she’d thought about peeking in on Gisele’s room, wondering what it might reveal about her, what sort of a glimpse it might offer into her psyche, perhaps. At the same time, she feared it might tell her things she didn’t want to know, or in some way confirm or at least make sense of her concrete belief that Julian loved her. If there was any proof to the claim, certainly there had to be evidence of it in that bedroom.
It worried her, what she would say if she ran into her. Eleni wasn’t afraid of her, exactly, but the anticipation of weathering her unpleasantness was enough to make her heart race. She didn’t think Gisele was home, but when she stopped in front of the bedroom door, she hesitated before knocking.
She rapped twice against the pocket door and waited. There was no answer. She started to knock again, but at the last second, halted, considering. Glancing back over her shoulder, she assured herself she was alone in the hallway and slipped her hand around the door handle and pressed the latch with her thumb. The door wouldn’t budge.
Oh, really?
Eleni tried again, rattling the door, but it was locked. Slow anger crept through her, a blistering crimson heat that settled in her face.
“There are no locked doors. No secrets in my house.”
Apparently that rule didn’t apply to Gisele. Or more likely, it did, but Gisele blatantly disregarded it, and Julian was blissfully unaware of that fact. Eleni imagined there was probably quite a bit going on under Julian’s nose without his knowledge, particularly where Gisele was concerned.
Eleni hung the straps of the bag over the doorknob, hoping that when Gisele found it, she took it for the message that it was.
I’ve got figured you out.
Not only did Gisele lock her door, Eleni hadn’t seen her in the house since her argument with Claudette in the garden. Deep in thought, she walked back down the dark corridor toward the foyer.
As she gripped the rail and started upstairs to her room, she wondered where Gisele been going almost every evening. Claudette said Gisele had friends in the village, but if that were true, they must be questionable friends, because Gisele hadn’t once mentioned anyone by name, or brought them to the chateau to visit, not even in passing.
She had to be spending the daylight hours somewhere. Either Julian hadn’t noticed, or didn’t care that his servant went missing for days at a time. When she considered how much Gisele disliked her, it made her feel like she was living under constant threat. No wonder Julian liked transparency.
As much as the double standard annoyed her, Eleni had no plans to get in an argument over it as long as Gisele kept her distance. Her upcoming probationary hearing and Rubio’s vampire representative gave her enough to worry about without Gisele’s secret life—both inside and outside the chateau—adding to it.
Chapter Fourteen
“I want you to go,” Julian told Eleni as he rummaged through the papers on his desk. For the past half hour, he’d been frantically getting things in order for the wine distributor who had called unexpectedly earlier in the evening and was now on his way to the chateau from Bergerac to discuss plans for the new Sévigné vintage.
She understood the importance of this meeting, and hated to bother him when he was so obviously busy and distracted as he was at the moment, but when he’d called her down to his office to cancel their planned outing, she thought that was the end of it. She hadn’t expected him to make other arrangements for her.
“Julian, the whole point of going to the festival was to go with
you
.”
“I don’t want you to miss it on my behalf.” He glanced up from his desk and papers to gaze at her with a faraway look in his eyes. He moved to the filing cabinet across the room and began to dig through a drawer. “I don’t know why you’re so reluctant to go. I’ve already talked to Gisele about it, and she agreed to drive you. The two of you can go together and take in the sights. It’s not like it’s a hardship. She’d already planned to go herself.”
Not a hardship
, Eleni thought with derision. If only he knew. It was the first night of
Le Festival Des Masques
, and while she’d been excited about it and wanted to go in the beginning, she’d changed her mind the minute she’d learned Julian expected Gisele to take her in his place. Dread churned in her stomach when she imagined herself stranded with Gisele’s sour attitude for the night.
She folded her arms across her chest and sighed. “I think I’d rather just stay home and watch TV.”
“And have you sulking on me later that you never go anywhere?” He grunted his disapproval.
“When have I ever done that?”
“You haven’t—yet. And that’s the point.”
Annoyed, Eleni watched him pick up a stack of printed pages off his desk. He tapped the loose ends into place on the blotter before shoving everything into a desk drawer. Of course, Gisele wouldn’t tell Julian no to a request to act as a chaperone in the village. That didn’t mean the woman wanted to spend the evening showing her around—and as far as Eleni was concerned, the feeling was mutual, festival be damned.
She was just about to tell him that when a sudden sharp knock on the door had her glancing back over her shoulder. Julian stilled, cursing under his breath. He still wasn’t prepared. The rapping started up again, leaving him no choice but to round his desk and head for the door.
Observing quietly, Eleni backed up toward the sitting area, her arms folded firmly across her chest while he went to the door and opened it.
Claudette stood in the hallway. “The man from Bergerac has arrived,” she informed him quietly.
“Send him in, please, Claudette. Oh, and could you make coffee?”
The housekeeper nodded, her eyes drifting toward Eleni before she backed out of the room and shut the door. When she was gone, Julian took a deep breath to relieve tension before he crossed the room and pulled Eleni into an embrace.
“You’ll give me no trouble tonight,
hein
?”
She wrapped her arms low around his waist, sighing, resigned to do what she really didn’t want to do if it satisfied him. It was her job to please him, after all, and he seemed to want this adventure for her, whatever the reason. She lowered her eyes, but it didn’t stop him from kissing the tip of her nose, then her forehead. At last, he lifted her chin and forced her to look at him.
“I know you’re disappointed. I said I would take you—now this.” He brushed a stray lock of blond hair from her cheek. “Don’t look so down. It can’t be helped.”
“I know…it’s not that.”
“I promise to make this up to you. Now go with Gisele. Have a good time.” He held her at arm’s length then kissed her hand as he moved away to the office door, where someone now knocked—Claudette with the business man.
Frowning at no one, Eleni thought grimly of the night ahead and turned, walking across the room to take Julian’s private elevator up to the second floor.
* * * * *
By nine-thirty, Eleni had showered and dressed in sweater, jeans and a comfortable pair of riding boots, since she expected to do a lot of walking. Standing in front of her dresser mirror, she applied her makeup, and braided her long hair into a single plait, knowing the whole time she was dragging her feet and only putting off the inevitable.
Finally, she grabbed her wallet and her keys, resigned to the fact she wouldn’t be able to excuse her way out of this situation. On her way downstairs, she tried to convince herself the evening could turn out passable, if not okay.
From the foyer, she heard the car running out front. She went to the coat closet and took down a navy pea coat and slipped it on over her shoulders, bracing herself for the worst.
Outside, the evening air was chilly and slightly damp. A thin white mist rose up from the vineyard, which began down the hill from Julian’s house. She quickly crossed the raked gravel drive and climbed into the waiting car. As she strapped on her seatbelt, she glanced over at Gisele, who sat mutely behind the wheel, her dark eyes glittering with barely restrained dislike. That along with the angry set of her jaw told Eleni everything she needed to know.
Yep, this is going to be fun. A real picnic!
They spoke barely two words to one another all the way to Ville Cleménce, and that suited Eleni just fine. But as they reached the edge of the village and Gisele began navigating their way through traffic choked streets, Eleni began to feel overwhelmed by it all—the crowds of people, the loud music, and anonymous mask-covered faces of hundreds of strangers.
Julian hadn’t been kidding when he’d claimed the festival was a major local attraction. Street vendors had cropped up everywhere and were selling everything under the moon, from food to balloons, to collectibles and trinkets. Almost everyone wore, or at least carried, a silk or paper mask.
Gisele navigated the traffic well. Even so, Eleni was relieved when she began looking for a place to park. Keeping to the side streets, Gisele stayed away from the immediate action, and kept hunting in areas that wouldn’t put them too far away from the square to walk.
Eleni was relieved when they came across the glowing red taillights of a car pulling out of a tight parking space. Gisele rushed up the street to stake her territory then hung back to wait for the car to vacate the spot. Horns blared behind them. Gisele looked up into the rearview mirror, a gleam of reflected light created a skewed rectangle across her face. Cursing the impatient drivers under her breath, she weathered the annoying insults that were hurled at them and refused to budge.
Eleni didn’t realize how hard she was gripping the edge of her seat until Gisele zipped into the empty spot. She killed the engine, and finally, Eleni was able to relax.
A humorless laugh escaped her lips. “I’m glad you were the one driving. I’d have turned back at the edge of town.” She looked across at Gisele, reaching out, hopeful. She lowered her voice a fraction, testing the waters. “I think we can manage to get along for one night, don’t you?”
Gisele scoffed as though the very idea was an insult. Her smoky eyes brimmed with malice as she flicked her gaze over Eleni’s face. “I told Julian I’d bring you here, but I never agreed to be your babysitter.”
Just like that, she snatched her leather handbag from the center console and got out of the car, slamming the door behind her. Stunned, Eleni gaped after her then hurried to get out of the car. By the time she set foot on the street, Gisele was already a half a block down the street, walking with an arrogant jauntiness that rapidly ate up the distance.
Eleni started after her, following the woman’s blonde head of hair through a thin crowd that walked along the narrow strip, but then up the block, a car came slowly around the corner, turning onto the street in her direction with the headlights beaming brightly.
Eleni squinted in the brightness, and ended up lifted her hand to shield her eyes before the car passed. In that short amount of time, she completely lost sight of Gisele.
Worry swirled through her as she walked to the end of the block. At the corner, she stood beneath the street lights while looking around at the vendors and the shops, searching for any sign of Gisele among the people drifting by and finding none.
She wondered briefly whether to go back to the car and wait. But then her anger caught up with her. If Gisele thought she was going to let this one slide, she was in for a rude awakening.
Falling in behind a group of pedestrians, two nice looking young couples trailing woolen scarves and carrying stick masks, Eleni made up her mind to explore. A determined scowl crossed her face. If she ended up lost, with no other choice but to hire a driver to take her back to the chateau, so be it. She’d let Gisele explain that one to Julian.
Two hours later, she wandered around the bustling village square. It had taken her a few false turns to find it, but once she did, her anxiety eased and she began to enjoy herself. A temporary stage had been set up near the fountain where Julian had walked with her weeks before. The fountain gurgled with water now, and a local band complete with accordions, clarinets, and a piccolo played a traditional French song to a masked, enthusiastic crowd. The melody was so moody and haunting it seemed to shiver through the night air like an electric current.
Eleni listened to it, the hairs prickling along the back of her neck. She kept glancing around, expecting to find Gisele at any minute, but there was still no sight of her. She stopped to watch a part of a marionette show, and had just finished eating a chocolate crepe she’d bought from a street vendor when she turned to walk back toward the an area closer to the stage that had places to sit, and walked head first into another woman and would have topple to the ground if the woman hadn’t caught her up and steadied her.
“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” Eleni blurted in English.
“Eleni, it’s me!” The woman laughed as if it were all a great joke, and Eleni straightened, red faced, relieved to see Marguerite’s familiar face beaming at her in amusement. Before Eleni could say a word, Marguerite greeted her with a brief kiss on both cheeks. Then, she glanced around as if searching for someone. “This is such a pleasant surprise. Julian is with you?”
“No. I came with Gisele…who is somewhere around here.”
“Abandoned you, did she?” The vampiress didn’t sound surprised. “The girl is insolent. No respect for others, or for her station in life,” she said with a sniff. “But never mind her; I was just going to sit over at this little café to sit and watch the crowds. I’m old, you know?” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “I’ve been shopping and I need to rest my feet. You must come with me.”