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“Let me help.” She slid her hands over his back and eased his injured shoulder out of the coat. He closed his eyes, trying not to imagine what he might feel if she touched his naked skin.
When the coat was off, she prodded his shoulder. He jerked back and glared at her.
“I don’t see any fresh blood on your shirt,” she said, ignoring him. “Perhaps we should remove it and look underneath. You must have a bruise.”
Yes, and he could imagine what sort of bruises he might receive if Dewhurst came upstairs to find him half naked and alone with her. “That is not a good idea.”
Her hands immediately fell to her sides. “You are right, of course.”
“In fact, this plan was not wise. It was a mistake to return here.”
Now she scowled at him. “And where else did we have to go?”
“The Pimpernel’s men—”
“Shh!” she hissed at him. “One never knows who might be listening.”
If someone was listening, then he or she had already heard enough to damn them all seven times over. “The men of FR,” he began again, “will obviously not help us. We are wasting our time here.”
“I am not wasting my time. I need the tools I have here in order to make the documents we’ll need. If you could but manage to avoid fisticuffs, it would make my task easier.”
“I would avoid it more easily if I were not watched like anenfant. How do we know what documents you should make if we do not know how many of us will be in the carriage? And even if we knew that, we cannot plan the rescue without knowing something of the daily routine of the Temple. I must go to the Temple and observe, not sit here under guard.” After being on the streets of Paris, he’d realized his plan to slip into the Temple and take the children was not feasible without some knowledge of the guards’ schedules. Which meant even more of a delay.
She shook her head. “Too dangerous. If any of the former servants are still there and see you, they might report you.”
“It’s a chance I will have to take. There is no other way.” And he could not sit idle another moment.
“Yes, there is. We ask Ffoulkes to send one of his men.”
Laurent shook his head. “I don’t trust Ffoulkes or his men.”
“Do you trust me?”
He heard the tone of challenge in her voice, and his first impulse was to disarm her. It was an old habit, charming women and disarming them, but he couldn’t quite make himself answer as quickly as the lie would dictate.
She folded her arms over her chest. “You do not. I told you I would help you, and I will.”
“Your loyalties lie with Ffoulkes and the other men. If you were forced to make a choice, can you honestly say you would choose me?”
She glanced away, at a painting on the wall. The seconds ticked by, while she stared at the painting as though she studying it. Laurent tried not to feel offended. After all, why should she choose him? She had known him only a handful of hours, and in that time he had abducted her, cuffed her, and put her in danger. Moreover, it would not be him she rejected, but the mission. The dauphin and Madame Royale.
And though many women had chosen him over the years, he had never cared half as much as he did at this moment for this one woman’s opinion. This one woman’s choice.
Finally, she looked back at him, her violet eyes troubled. “I don’t know. That is the honest answer.” She started for the door, and he followed, slamming his hand on it to keep it closed.
He also unintentionally boxed her in.
Or was that his plan all along?
“Think on this then, mademoiselle: two children are suffering in that prison. I have been inside. Artois refurbished much of the palace, but the Tower is still much as it was when it was built in the Middle Ages. The Tower is cold”—he moved closer, forcing her to look up at him and press her back to the door—“dark, and damp. Their father is dead. Their mother has been taken from them and will surely follow her husband to the grave. If you are not on my side, can you at least be on their side?”
Her eyes met his, and he saw the flash of fire. “Do not use those children to attempt to manipulate me. We do them little service if we are killed or stage a failed rescue attempt.”
“We do themnoservice if we sit on the Rue du Jourday after daydoing nothing! And I will use those children’s circumstances to manipulate you. I’ll use whatever means I have available to save their lives. Just like your precious Pimpernel, I will lie, steal, cheat, or seduce to save innocent lives.”
She raised a graceful brow. “Seduce?”
Laurent shrugged. “Perhaps he does not have that talent.”
