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There was an odd silence, and when she ventured to look at him, she saw that he was white beneath his tan, his eyes bleak with shock, and a kind of desperate disappointment.
Small wonder, she thought. After all, it was the last thing you wanted to hear about someone you’d known and trusted for so long.
At last, he said quietly, ‘I think you mean when you were pushed. Monique has admitted to that too.’
‘Admitted?’ she echoed.
‘Why, yes,’ he said. ‘At this moment, she is, as you would say, helping the police with their enquiries.’
‘But you mustn’t let her!’ Ginny tried to sit up and wished she hadn’t. ‘She’s going to say foul things in court about Cilla.’ She looked away, swallowing. ‘About her getting married. It will be dreadful—for everyone.’
He shrugged. ‘Monique est terriblement snob, as all the world will tell you. And if Papa welcomes the marriage, as he does, what else can matter?’
She said in a low voice, ‘Of course, you’re quite right.’ And paused, taking determined control of her emotions. ‘How did you find out about Monique?’
‘Jean Labordier from Credit Regional notified us that a new account had been opened in the name of the Domaine, and he wished to check the letter of authorisation. This, of course, was false,’ he added with a grimace. ‘But we arranged for the account to be left open to see what would happen. We discovered that Monique was quitting her appartement, so Papa tried several times to talk to her—almost to warn her, but it was of no use.’
‘But how could she do this to your father, when she claimed to love him?’
‘Because her love was not returned,’ he said with sudden harshness. ‘And she never learned to understand how that can happen—or to forgive.’
She said haltingly, ‘That’s—not an easy lesson.’
‘I do not need to be told that.’ Andre paused. ‘Yesterday, Jean telephoned to say that one hundred thousand euros had been transferred to the new account. This morning she was arrested, with attempted murder added to the charges against her.’
Ginny gasped. ‘Isn’t that going much too far?’
‘You think so?’ he demanded roughly. ‘When you could have fractured your skull—broken your neck? Do you know the agonies I suffered when you did not immediately regain consciousness? When I realised that Philippe was trying to warn me that because of the blow to your head, you could be brain damaged or suffer a fatal haemorrhage?’
He added, his voice shaking, ‘And you could have lost our child.’
Yes, she thought. It could have happened. My one precious link to you taken from me. Leaving me with less than nothing.
She braced herself. Kept her tone spuriously bright. ‘Yet here I am, safe and soon to be well again. Well enough to leave, anyway, and let you get on with your life.’
‘A thousand thanks,’ he said with intense bitterness. ‘And now, unlike Monique, I suppose I must learn to forgive you. Even to hope you will find the happiness that I have been denied. All that I dreamed, if I was patient, I would discover with you, the love of my heart.’
In spite of her bruises, Ginny sat upright. ‘You dare to say that to me?’ Her voice was incredulous. ‘To speak as if I am to blame for ending our mockery of an engagement? When you’re planning to marry my sister?’
The dark brows snapped together. ‘I—marry Lucille? What madness is this?’
‘Oh, don’t pretend,’ she said hotly. ‘You slept with her in England, and when she turned up here, you resumed the affair. Do you deny you encouraged her to stay for as long as she wanted?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘That at least is true. But for Jules’ sake, not mine. I could see that he too had suffered the coup de foudre—that moment when you look into a woman’s eyes, and know that your life has changed for ever. He begged me to persuade her, and against my better judgement, I did so.’
‘Jules,’ Ginny repeated. ‘You mean—Jules Rameau?’
‘How many others do you know?’ Andre demanded impatiently.
She said slowly and carefully, ‘You’re telling me that Cilla and Jules are together and planning to be married?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘C’est incroyable, n’est-ce pas, what love can do?’
‘Well, yes,’ Ginny said doubtfully.
‘You do not see them as a couple? Yet Jules is the strong man that I knew she truly needed. With him, she has grown into a woman, not the spoilt, selfish child who came to my hotel room because she was bored with her fiancé, and wanted a little adventure.’
