He nodded. “If you’d so favor me.”
She started for the cart and then halted. “You won’t tell anyone we were wed?”
“Why should I? The bond doesn’t exist now that it’s not needed.”
She gave him a dazzling smile and hurried over to the driver of the cart.
What the devil was he doing? François wondered. He’d had no intention of lingering at Vasaro. When he’d mounted his horse he’d intended to say his adieus and then start immediately for Paris. He had other things to do beside loll in this garden of paradise.
“You’re Monsieur Etchelet, are you not?”
François turned to see a small, ragged boy who looked vaguely familiar. “Yes.”
The blue eyes of the boy gazing at him were grave, his expression intent as if he were weighing François. Then, suddenly, he smiled radiantly. “Hello, my name’s Michel. Would you like to pick the flowers with me today?”
Andorra
“You’re sure of the information?” Dupree asked.
Pedro Famiro nodded. “In two days’ time the colonel will leave for San Isadoro to examine the fortifications. He’ll be gone for at least a fortnight.”
A fortnight was even more than Dupree had hoped for.
The soldier asked, “It’s what you wanted?”
Dupree nodded and handed him a gold piece. “You’ve done well. Tell me when the colonel leaves Andorra and there will be another one for you.”
Famiro grinned with sly lasciviousness. “You wish not to be caught with Gandoria’s woman? I don’t blame you. He’s said to be jealous of his property and I can vouch for his skill with a sword.”
“A man must be cautious.” Dupree sipped his wine. “The enjoyment of a woman’s body is worth much but not a sword thrust through the heart.”
Famiro rose to his feet. “True. Trust me, I’ll see that you keep your skin in one piece and your manhood rutting in the marquise.”
Dupree smiled blandly. “Oh, I do trust you, my friend.”
A moment later he watched Famiro walk out the door of the café and saunter down the street. Famiro would have to die but not immediately, he thought idly. He could attend to that small detail directly before he left Andorra. He wouldn’t want any hint of suspicion to fall on him until he’d completed his mission.
He looked at the casa on the hill. In the past weeks it had become his custom to sit by this window of the café every evening to view the marquise’s pretty casa. He enjoyed imagining her going about her life unknowing how insecure the walls of her casa were.
Two more days. He had been three weeks in this hellhole of a town and now he was finally to be rewarded for his patience. He’d wait until the day Gandoria left Andorra to kill the cook, he decided. Atheft and murder in a street not too close to the casa would not cause undue suspicion.
His gaze on the casa became almost caressing as he felt excitement harden his groin.
Two more days.
Vasaro
The rain fell, a fine mist washing the grass on the hills to verdant brightness and pearling the blossoms in the fields.
The pickers moved down the road, returning to the village to wait for the rain to end.
Catherine glanced at François as they walked slowly back to the manor and laughed ruefully. “I know it’s very foolish of me to be glad we can’t pick today, but I do love it when it rains here at Vasaro.”
“I can see you do.”
Rain pearled her skin as it did the flowers, and her eyes shone soft, luminous.
“You’re Basque, aren’t you? Do you have rains like this in the mountains?”
