“You have a message from Jean Marc?”
“No, I arrived only this morning. I haven’t seen Jean Marc yet.” She smiled ruefully. “Juliette knew he wouldn’t approve of my coming here, so she whisked me off before I could even—”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my husband,” she said simply.
He shook his head. “Nonsense. You never regarded that ceremony as anything but expedient.”
“It’s true that I’d like to be married again by a priest. Could we please do that, François?”
He went still. “What are you saying?”
“That…I love you.” She rushed on. “And I know you may not love me any longer, but I had to tell you. I had to try to—”
“Mother of God.” He swept her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. “Of course I love you,” he said thickly. “Always. But the abbey…”
Relief poured through her as her arms went around him to hold him tightly. “You persist in acting as if you’d raped me yourself. You should have explained why you couldn’t help me instead of letting Juliette tell me of William Darrell. Did you think me so shallow I would put my violation over the lives you’ve saved since then?”
“You forgive me?”
Her expression was sober as she stepped back and looked up at him. “The question is, do you forgiveme?I was afraid to share your life even though I loved you. I don’t even know how you could still love me.”
“Don’t you?” His lips pressed her temple. “Perhaps because you have strength and gentleness…and truth.”
“Not truth. I seem to have told myself a good many lies in the past.” She smiled tremulously. “But I’ll try to give you truth from now on.”
His hands cupped her cheeks as he looked down into her eyes. “Catherine, I…” He kissed her gently, sweetly, with exquisite tenderness. He lifted his head and the expression on his face was as beautiful as the dawn rising over the fields of Vasaro. “My love.”
The joy became too strong to bear, and she closed her eyes for a moment. He was still looking at her with the same expression when she opened them and she knew she had to do something to lighten the moment or she would start to weep. She took a step back and laughed shakily. “Then it’s settled.” She looked around the apartment. “I must do something to improve this place. I don’t know how you can live in such discomfort. If we’re to stay here for any length of time, we musthave blankets and carpets and a curtain for the window. And perhaps a comfortable chair by the stove for—”
“We?” He shook his head. “You can’t stay here.”
“Oh, but I can.” She gazed at him steadily. “I intend to stay here as long as you do, François. Make up your mind to the fact that I won’t return to Vasaro until you can return with me.”
“Catherine, Ican’tcome with you. There is much I have to do here.”
“I know, Juliette told me.” She reached up and touched his lips with her fingers. He belonged to her, she thought wonderingly. She had the right to reach out and touch him whenever she liked. “Then I’ll help you do them. We worked very well together at Vasaro. I’m sure we’ll do equally well here.”
“No.” His jaw set stubbornly. “You can’t stay at the Temple. For God’s sake, it’s a prison, Catherine.”
“That’s another reason we must make our surroundings as comfortable as possible.” Catherine brushed a kiss on his cheekbone before moving toward the door. “They’re bringing my boxes now. Will you see if that nice captain can find me an armoire in this vast place? I must go back to Jean Marc’s house and beg linens and blankets.”
“Stay there.”
“And we must keep a fire burning in the stove all the time. These stone walls are dreadfully damp.”
“Catherine, I have no intention of arranging a pass for you. The guards will refuse to let you back through the gates.”
“No, they won’t.” She paused at the door, her smile infinitely loving as she looked back at him. “Because, if they do, I’ll sit at the gate and weep and wail until they let me come to you. And that would cause a good deal of attention, don’t you think?”
“Yes, but you still—”
“And attention shouldn’t be focused on you at the present time. Besides, didn’t you marry me to protect me from the eye of the republic? Would you want word of François’s poor, rejected bride to be bandied among the soldiers and come to the ears of the Commune?”
A slow smile lit his face. “You’d really do it, wouldn’t you?”
She smiled serenely. “Certainly. I thought I’d made clear my position. If you wish me to be gone from here, you must accomplish your task quickly so that we may both leave.”
