It was the perfect solution to her troubles.
Now all she had to do was convince Madame Aphrodite.
Chapter 27
Antoinette didn’t know what she expected a brothel to look like but this wasn’t it. Aphrodite’s Club was a plain-fronted, discreet building that appeared rather like a girl’s boarding school than a house of ill-repute. But the cabdriver assured her this was the right address, wished her luck, and left her standing outside.
She hadn’t really decided what she would say when she came face-to-face with the courtesan, but there wasn’t time to plan. As she climbed the steps to the arched entrance, Antoinette hoped something would occur to her when the moment came. The door was closed, and she reached for the heavy brass knocker, only to snatch back her hand at the last moment, staring in disbelief.
The knocker was shaped like a man’s member, complete in each and every detail.
Antoinette hesitated. Was she jumping into more hot water by coming here? But what else could she do? Surely it was worth a chance? Antoinette might find Madame Aphrodite not interested, in which case she would have to think of another plan. But she would not give up. Lord Appleby would not win.
Her mind made up, Antoinette took the object in her hand, closed her eyes, and rapped hard three times on the door.
Gabriel had arrived at Aphrodite’s Club the previous day, and he and Madame Aphrodite had spent a great deal of time together in conversation. A couple of t
imes Aphrodite had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing too loudly. When he told her about Antoinette stealing his pistol and rowing away from him, for instance, or his disguise as the smelly Coombe. But most of the time she listened in solemn silence.
“It is difficult to advise you, mon ami,” she said at last.
Gabriel’s eyebrows rose. “Advise me? I don’t need advice, Madame.”
“Oh?” She smiled a wicked little smile. “I thought that you did. You seem to want this girl for yourself, Gabriel. First you are jealous of Lord Appleby and then of this unknown protector, this duke. I can hear it in your voice and I can see it in your eyes.”
“You must be joking! She’s a lying, manipulative little…” But he didn’t finish the sentence; he couldn’t. “You’re right,” he admitted dully. “I do want her. And I’m sure she wants me, too, except she won’t admit it.”
“I wonder…perhaps she is as muddled and mistaken as you, Gabriel. You are like cats in the darkness, oui? You are attracted to each other, and yet each of you thinks the other is a wild cat that roams the streets when in fact you are both cozy domestic cats, playing at being wild.”
“Mmm, I’m not quite sure about that, Madame.”
She laughed and waved her hand. “You know what I mean.”
“I don’t know what to do,” he said bleakly. “I thought I wanted Wexmoor Manor, but now I can’t see myself being lord and master there if Antoinette isn’t by my side. I didn’t know what I was missing until she came along, and now I can’t stop thinking about her.”
“Perhaps,” Aphrodite said thoughtfully, “you are in love with her, Gabriel?”
“In love with her?” he scoffed. “Can you fall in love with someone who points a pistol at you and threatens to shoot?”
Aphrodite laughed softly and with a wealth of experience. “Oh yes, Gabriel, you can.” And laughed again at his crestfallen expression. “Mon ami, it is not so bad. Perhaps she loves you, too, but is afraid to tell you so. How can she commit herself to a man who keeps telling her all he wants is a letter he believes she has in her possession?”
“A letter that her protector gave her to keep safe! And now she plans to use it to ‘persuade’ Appleby into allowing her to leave him for the duke. She’s frightened of Appleby, Madame; I can see it in her eyes.”
“And you want to protect her,” Aphrodite murmured. “You are on dangerous ground, Gabriel. She could hurt you very badly.”
“I don’t know how good a shot she is—”
“No, no, I did not mean with a bullet. I meant she could break your heart.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to argue, to declare himself completely heartless, to deny such a thing could ever happen to him. And closed it again.
He was more confused than ever. His instincts were telling him one thing about Antoinette and his mind was telling him something else. Suddenly he had a clear image of her rowing away from him, her hair wild, her face white, her eyes big and frightened but determined, too. That was bravery. She was a courageous woman. She had refused to yield when he held up the coach, and although he’d convinced himself that for a woman like that to be threatened with being stripped naked and searched would mean little, he knew it wasn’t true. She must have been very frightened, and yet she didn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing it, not until right at the end when she’d wept in his arms.
But later, when they came together in the woods, she had yielded. She’d given her body to him. Not for any payment or desire to gain something from him, but for the sheer joy and abandonment they found together.
Gabriel groaned and dropped his head into his hands.
“What will I do, Madame?”