“Yes.” She turned away. “I’ve been thinking about it and we must discuss the matter of this Wind Dancer more thoroughly. Possessing such a treasure could be very beneficial to me. It’s far too fine a tool to give to Marat.” She straightened her skirts. “But we can talk of that later. I believe we’ll have goose for supper and then I’ll play the viola for you. Would you like that?”
“Yes, Mother.” He hated goose and she knew it. She was still angry with him. She would watch him eat a large portion of the goose, making sure he gave no sign of distaste. But the punishment might have been worse.
She could have sent him away.
FOURTEEN
The front door was opening.
“Christ, not again!” Jean Marc muttered as he pushed back his chair and swiftly covered the distance between his desk and the door of the study he had deliberately left ajar. After three nights he had begun to think Juliette’s sleepwalking had been only a singular occurrence not to be repeated.
The front door was standing wide open again. The blasted woman was probably halfway to the goddamned abbey. At least she’d picked a night that wasn’t rainy this time.
But when Jean Marc reached the doorway, Juliette had only just reached the bottom of the stone steps. In another moment he was standing beside her.
“Juliette.”
She didn’t answer and, with a muttered curse, he picked her up in his arms and carried her back to the foyer.
She stiffened in his arms. “The abbey…”
“No.” He kicked the door shut with his foot and carried her across the foyer toward the staircase. “It’s over.”
She shook her head, her eyes glazed, unseeing.
He started up the stairs. “You’ve got to stop this, you idiotic woman. I have no desire to spend my nights chasing you through the streets of Paris.”
Why was he even talking to her? She obviously wasn’t comprehending anything he said.
She had left the door of her chamber open and he carried her across the room, laid her on the bed, and pulled the covers over her. A crisp autumn breeze and pale moonlight poured through the open window beside the bed, illuminating Juliette’s strained expression.
He stood looking down at her, his hands closing into fists at his sides, trying to crush the aching pity and tenderness raging through him. He didn’twantto feel like this. It wasn’t at all what he had planned for her. He could permit himself lust, amusement, even respect for a worthy opponent, but not this. Mother of God, he had wanted her for five long years, and he would not let this softness rob him of her.
“Let me do it again,” she whispered.
He could see the shimmer of her eyes in the moonlit darkness, and he knew he couldn’t leave her until those eyes closed and she fell into a normal sleep. He sat down beside her on the bed, every muscle and tendon of his body stiff and unyielding.
Merde, he didn’t want this.
“I can do it right this time. I have to go to the abbey and do it again.”
Her eyes were moistly brilliant now, and the agony in them woke a pain that echoed with unbearable intensity through Jean Marc.
He couldn’t let it go on.
“I’m afraid you’re right.” He gently stroked an unruly curl back from Juliette’s temple and whispered, “Very well,ma petite, we’ll go back to the abbey and do it again.”
“But I have to get to my work, Mademoiselle Juliette,” Robert protested. “I’ve been sitting on this bench so long my bones are melting into it.”
“Hush, Robert, I’m almost finished.” Juliette added a little more shadow to the seamed lines fanning his eyes. “What’s more important? A painting that will give you immortality or doing your chores?”
“Marie would say my chores,” Robert said dryly. “Keeping the house clean and putting meals on the table with no other servants in the house are not easy tasks.”
“But you’ve both done splendidly. I’ll help you with your chores as soon as we’re finished here.” Juliette grinned as she looked at him over the easel. “I suppose you’ll be glad to see us all gone and the house closed again.”
“Of course he will,” Jean Marc answered for Robert as he strolled down the path toward them. “You can escape now, Robert.”
“Merci.”Robert scrambled to his feet and hurried away from them toward the house.
