“The man Jean-François is extorting, with new threats for the Fortier family.”
“Blast it.” Lucas set a hand gently on the back of her arm and led her from the dark passage back into the ballroom and the countless blinding rays of light. “We have been looking for you. Henri saw you sitting here a moment ago, then you were gone.”
“That man grabbed me and tried to pull me from the ballroom entirely.”
Just as they reached Julia and Nicolette, Henri did as well.
“Someone tried to abduct Céleste,” Lucas said. “I saw him run off.”
They all looked at her, wide-eyed and clearly worried. “He spoke of the extortion and of getting revenge. I think he was—I think he intended to hurt me.”
“We need to get you out of this ballroom,” Nicolette said.
“We need to get you out ofParis,” Henri added.
They all walked with her, everyone watching the crowd as they went.
“Any idea who he was?” Nicolette asked.
“I had thought earlier that the victim of Jean-François’s extortion might have been M. D’Aubert—the son, not the father. But he had only just left me in the chair. I don’t think he would have had time to circle back and place himself in that corridor.”
“Likely not,” Henri said.
“And Pierre Léandre is here tonight. But he and Jean-François did not interact the way two people who were involved in a menacing cat-and-mouse game would.” Her heart was still pounding, and worry crept uncomfortably over her skin, but she felt braver now that she wasn’t alone. “Whoever he was, his manner of speaking was that of the upper class, though he was likely disguising his voice.”
“But you never saw his face?” Henri pressed.
Céleste shook her head. She might not have been able to make out his features anyway, even if she had glimpsed his face, thanks to the blazes of light obscuring his appearance.
“Where is Aldric?” she asked, then immediately castigated herself. Yes, she would have felt safer with him there, but it was a foolish inclination to lean on him as much as she instinctively would have.
“He chose not to attend tonight,” Henri said. “He’s been a little withdrawn since Versailles.”
Any further discussion of Aldric was cut off as they stepped out of the ballroom and found Jean-François and Marguerite.
“We need to leave,” Nicolette said to them.
“Absolutely not,” Jean-François said.
“You do not control my comings and goings,” Henri said.
“But I control hers.” He thrust his chin in Céleste’s direction. She was to once again be a weapon he used to control Henri.
“I was nearly dragged from this ball by a man who knowingly inflicted physical pain upon me while threatening my person.” She held Jean-François’s gaze. “In the midst of this, he spoke of you.”
Jean-François actually looked a little worried.
“He told me to inform you that he is tired of the game you are playing. Extorting him may have been tolerated up until now, but it won’t be any longer. He says he will begin recouping the losses you have inflicted on him and will do so ‘one Fortier at a time.’”
Henri looked truly horrified. Marguerite appeared ready to flee.
But Jean-François only grew more defiant. “I don’t believe you. You simply wish to undermine me again, working to make me look like a fool when compared to my younger brother.”
“I saw the assailant,” Lucas said. “He was indeed holding your sister against her will, and there was legitimate pain in her expression. Are you choosing to callmea liar?”
Jean-François looked tempted to do precisely that.
“We are leaving this ball,” Henri said to everyone except his brother. “We will all stay at Jean-François’s house tonight as a guard against any additional assailants while we determine what is to be done next.”
