Page 26 of Forbidden: Claude

Claude wasglad to see the mercenary go. He’d been wracking his brain trying to figure out why the man seemed familiar. Then, when he saw Augustin pull Evelina out into the hall, it all came back to him. He was a mercenary and not a good one at that. Claude used him once, but when he found the mercenary stealing from his coffers, he let the man go. He really should have cut off his hand or hanged him, but that is not the kind of lord Claude wanted to be.

Claude had money. If the man had just asked, he would have helped him out. There were a lot of poor people that he’d helped over the years, even bringing the peasants into his castle walls for meals several times a week.

“Thank you,” said Evelina once Augustin had left.

“Who are you?” he asked her.

“I told you. I am Evelina . . . Evelina du . . . de . . . I’m just called Evelina,” she answered, almost sounding as if she couldn’t remember who she was.

“You told me your surname was Du Bisset.”

She looked startled when he corrected her.

“Yes, that’s my name.”

“Why are you lying to me, Evelina?”

“Lying?” Her face became red.

“I knew from the moment I met you that you weren’t who you claimed to be. I have figured out who you are and why you came here from France, even though you won’t tell me.”

“Y-you have?” she asked.

“You are a merchant’s daughter. Perhaps a spinster.”

“Why would you think that?” She faked a laugh.

“I’ve seen the way you eat and the way you conduct yourself. You are certainly not a servant. I have also seen the way you stitch. It is as if you were born with a needle in your hand. That mercenary kidnapped you and brought you to England, trying to get ransom from your family, didn’t he?”

“What? Nay. That’s not true.”

“Then there is only one other option.”

“And what is that?”

“He was your lover.”

“That is preposterous! He most certainly was not my lover.”

“Then perhaps my squire was right. I saw you exchanging money with the mercenary. Mayhap you are a whore, and he wasn’t satisfied and demanded his money returned.”

That earned him a hard slap across the face. Evelina glared at him and stood with her hands on her hips looking as if she wanted to tear off his head.

“Don’t ever speak to me that way again.”

As she stormed off, Claude chuckled to himself. He knew the mercenary wasn’t her lover and she was no whore. He only said it to get her flustered so she would hopefully tell him her true identity but it didn’t work. Well, he’d find out who she was because now he was not only Rose’s protector but Evelina’s as well. The closer he got to her, the easier it would hopefully be to figure out why he was having these odd feelings for a mere commoner.