Broken Legacy (Secret Lives Series) (15 page)

He settled in for the remainder of
their trip beside her. Thoughts assaulted him. There was much to cover before their meeting with General Marc Pierre Bernard.

“Humility, Gerard. At all times,” Eloise said as if she read his thoughts
, catching herself against her husband as the carriage wheels rode over the jagged road, jarring her back and forth. His arm rounded her shoulder and he held her tightly. “Even though you are English, it will not hold favor with the Tribunal. Remember that well, my lord. Hold to only your children, that they are yours and your mistress…so violently stolen from your side.”

“I don’t think it will be an issue
my begging for my children. It is Miranda that poses the greatest issue, if we get a chance to plead for any,” he said. “I promised her father, Colonel Ralston. I gave him my word…”

“I know, Gerard,” she said softly,
her gaze steady. “Leave that to me. It is for you to ask for your children. You have to know each will be separate. Or at least it will be hoped.”

“Why, Eloise, I’m beginning to appreciate
the woman I have married. In all that I suspected, you have exceeded my expectations.”

“Your admiration is too quickly given. Nothing has happened yet. It is only my observations. I can guarantee nothing. I
hold only to my knowledge of their anger. And anger is an emotion without reason.”

“I have an alternative plan if
need be. If negotiations falter…”

“I would guess you would have brought men to use force if we fail, my lord. I know of
none who have escaped their fate after being sentenced. Storming a prison would be suicide. Getting to them before perhaps, on the streets the condemn travel…but again, who am I to say? I have not been to Paris recently, but I would assume it would be most difficult, if not impossible at that point.”

“I would send you…”

“Away,” she finished his sentence for him as a slight smile emerged on her face. “Do you not believe that I now share your fate? You only thus proclaimed you wanted me to be by your side always.”

“I will not sleep well until I have
taken you to Ashwin Manor. I want you to love it as I do. I want nothing more than to enjoy the beautiful countryside with you by my side. I believe you will find it to your taste. It’s quite rural, although it has no coastline.”

“I am sure I will adjust as long as
you are there.” She snuggled into his shoulder. “I am resigning myself to living without the sounds of the ocean. I will have to find comfort in the sounds of the country.”

She shocked herself with the confession she had begun to think of a future with the man beside her. Foolish to lower her guard and feel the growing emotion inside her. She reprimanded herself, but she had come to finally acknowledge
, if only to herself, she would grasp whatever time she had with him, even if it was only for a few moments. She would live within this fantasy world until reality crept within to destroy her illusion.

“I will make certain of it,” Lenister said. “I will show you my
favorite spots, although I have never found secret hallways or compartments at Ashwin Manor.”

She looked up at him. He was teasing her. “Perhaps it is only you have never found them,” she mused, laying her head back on his shoulder. “But I’m certain I will enjoy your home. Tell me
, I want to hear all about it. Did you grow up on this estate?”

“I was born there, I am told, but my mother took me back to her home in Ireland after my father’s death, a freak carriage accident. My mother inherited her father’s estate outside Limerick and wanted me to grow up as she had—surrounded by family. Seamus is my cousin on my mother’s side. At the time, I wasn’t in direct succession to the earldom, being my uncle and two cousins before me had claim to the title.”

“You have an estate in Ireland also?”

“Yes, not that I have seen it in years, but I have promised Seamus he can oversee the estate after this mission. I doubt I will return to Ireland in the near future and Seamus well deserves the opportunity. I was barely seventeen when Grandfather called me back to Ashwin Manor. Seamus and I departed Ireland, so young, feeling indestructible. Rushing forth into the world
, thinking it would pass us by if we let it.

“Grandfather cautioned me about enlisting. I believe he wanted me to become more familiar with Ashwin Manor, get my bearings on English soil, but I did not pay attention to his advice. Perhaps he suspected that the title would pass to me. My uncle had died by this time. Grandfather wanted me to have a semblance of a relationship with my cousins. I found both overbearing and none to my liking. In the end, Grandfather relented and bought both Seamus and I a commission in
His Majesty’s army.”

“Did you know him well?”

“Not as well as I would have liked, not having grown up on his estate. I admired the man, though. His intentions were true. I just did not listen to him. To be honest, I suppose I had a chip on my shoulder, feeling slighted. Always felt my cousins had an air of superiority. It bothered me greatly until now.”

She studied his handsome face. It was not difficult to imagine him a determined young
soldier bent on proving his worth.

“I was told you were an exceptional gentleman
, allowing your cousin’s widow to stay after the birth of her daughter. I am certain your grandfather would have been proud of you.”

He glanced over at her
, smiling. “I suppose. I found with the passing of time that my outlook changed.”

His expression changed.
No longer smiling, Eloise realized his thoughts had turned to his children. It was in his eyes.

“Time has a way of doing that, changing one’s outlook. I wish I could go back to my childhood. It may surprise you to know that I had a wonderful childhood. It was the only way I knew. I thought most people
were like I was. I was so naïve and innocent. I accepted my life. I wanted for nothing.

“I thought myself fortunate. Nana Adele loved me. I had clothes on my back and shoes on my feet. I played and laughed with my cousins. I thought it the grandest adventure to visit my uncle’s house. In my innocence, I assumed his house in Calais a mansion…so it seemed to me. I played with Chanti when I slept over. Her room looked to me as a room a princess would live. Then…”
Her voice faded off when she thought of meeting the marquis.

“Do you want to talk of it?”

Startled, she had lost herself in the memories. She lowered her gaze and shook her head. He said nothing, but bent his lips to hers and kissed her. His concern touched her and she returned his kiss. His arms rounded her, wrapping her in a protective shield against the hurt of yesterday. There she stayed. She found she didn’t want to be anywhere except here in his arms. Her eyes weighed upon her as she felt the rhythm of the wheels beneath her. She slept.

Long hours later, the carriage rolled to a stop and waited at the checkpoint allowing entrance into Paris. The day’s light gave way to the reddish glow of the sun setting.

Eloise watched Lenister exit with papers in hand. Suddenly, her hands shook nervously. She could
not stop them.
Oh, heavens, what is wrong with me! I have to compose myself. He cannot have come in vain!
Her anxiety heightened upon her entrance in this city of terror.
They had nothing to fear? Did they not?
They came only to plead for his children. Lenister had planned every possible scenario. Then why did her heart beat so quickly!

Her eyes widened when the carriage door opened. She breathed again
, seeing her husband standing on the bottom step beside a patriot in a red cap and tricolored cockades. She couldn’t take her eyes off the man’s weapons secured to his belt on each side, with national musket and a sword. Behind him, a band of patriots dressed in a range of similar clothing in different degrees of wretchedness, ragged and, the truth be told, quite filthy. 

“Eloise, you do not have to come out at the moment. My dear wife, Citizen Daffe
is seeing to our welfare while in Paris. He is our escort. Why, we have even been given an invitation by General Bernard himself as his guest.”

“It is good,” Eloise said
, finding her voice. Her eyes never left the guard’s face.

“And much appreciated
.” Lenister bowed slightly to the patriot and stepped back into the carriage.

Eloise scooted over. Immediately
, his hand gripped her trembling ones. No sooner had the door closed when his arms encircled her. He said nothing, but held her closely. Safe and secure within his arms, her trembling stopped.

She gradually withdrew back. “I don’t know what overcame me. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Eloise,” he said in a low voice. “How long have you taken all burdens on your shoulders? No more. I am not going to leave you. Do you understand? Never. Trust me.”

“I do,” she whispered. “It is not you. Can you not feel it, Gerard? The smell encompassing us the moment we rode in. Death. It is this I can’t take. My
heart aches even though I don’t know of the ones being led to their deaths. What is wrong with me? How is it that I can hear their cries and the cheers of the crowd?”

“Empathy, they call it, my dear. Empathy. It is what explains your
actions. It is not what is wrong with you, but what is wrong with the rest of us.”

Once more the carriage wheels began to slow.
Lenister looked out the curtain window. “Are you readied?”

She swallowed hard. Never before in her life had she played a part more
important. She patted her hair and fluffed up her skirt. Lenister reached over and pushed back fallen tresses of her hair that had escaped. Quickly, he leaned down and kissed her lips.

“I love you, Eloise.”

Astonished, shock, she was certain, illuminated from her eyes from his words. His expression softened upon her. He reached over and caressed her cheek. “I know it is not fashionable to be so with one’s own wife. I know it is not a suitable place to utter to you for the first time, but never have I more felt the need to tell you words you need to know. I love you, Lady Lenister.”

He kissed her once more. She didn’t have a chance to respond. The door
of the carriage opened. Lenister exited and extended his hand to her. Accepting his hand, she stretched out as she stepped down and lifted her head. The carriage had parked in front of a large mansion.

Within the Saint Germain
quarter of Paris, the former home of an aristocrat had been occupied by the Republic guard. Sitting back a few yards from the street, the carriage had entered through an iron gate, which had now been closed. The house was shut off from the public by a high wall.

Her hand grasped tightly to her husband’s as she descended out of the carriage. Glancing up, her sight grazed up the
many stone steps. Standing in front of the massive building, the man she had traveled so long and hard to see. Tall and agile in appearance, his blonde hair was pulled back in a queue and he was dressed in a suit of substance. A white shirt with a neatly tied cravat lay underneath a navy waistcoat. General Marc Pierre Bernard stood awaiting her.

Lenister watched the reunion unfold through jaundiced eyes. Forgetting momentarily of his mission, jealousy built within him. Resentment toward this man he had need of…this General Marc Pierre Bernard raged within him. The man was young, much younger than himself, only a year older than his wife, tall, and without question extremely handsome. He carried himself with an arrogance that Lenister well recognized. Suddenly, Lenister had a vision of what his brother may have looked like and the knowledge didn’t ease his mind.

General Marc
Pierre Bernard all but ignored him after a stiff formal acknowledgement. The man’s eyes lay upon Eloise, who looked quite lovely even dressed as she was in a simple gown. Painstaking effort had been made to give the appearance of humility, as Eloise phrased it. Lenister would have liked nothing better than to have dressed his wife in the finest silk in Europe and adorn her in jewels, but it would have served no purpose.

General
Bernard made no attempt to hide the fact of his relation to Eloise. With the ease that comes with an intimate knowledge of another, General Bernard embraced Eloise, who held to none of the formal greetings. She greeted him as one would a brother. She leaned up and kissed the man’s cheek three times as was tradition.

“Marc
Pierre, I’m happy to have found you looking so well,” Eloise said, stepping back from the embrace.

General Bernard did not release his grip on Eloise nor did Eloise try to resist
, much to Lenister’s chagrin. Instead, the man escorted his wife into the large house. Lenister followed in silence. At one time, Lenister imagined someone of importance lived within these walls—an aristocrat, no doubt—and that a butler would have greeted them alongside many footman and servant girls. He also had no doubt that the owner no longer lived within the borders of France, either dead or escaped. Though he didn’t hold much hope that many escaped the brunt of the first onslaught at the beginning of the Reign of Terror.