Isabelle Beaumont. Big-eyed fragile beauty. A lost little lamb.
After he’d found out Armand had gone with her, he waited secretly until Belle emerged back in the Common Hall. Armand took Belle home in a cab. It seemed as if his cousin didn’t want Belle to know who he really was. Hervé followed them in secret. Then he found out where Belle lived and did some eavesdropping about Belle’s plan when she and Armand were talking. She’d hired Armand to be her pretend lover to fool her family who had been pressuring her to get married. But Hervé knew Armand had the opposite idea. His cousin wouldn’t be hell-bent on chasing a woman if he wasn’t serious about her.
Hervé was the same way, too.
He hatched a plan to sabotage Armand from showing up on the day Belle was supposed to bring her lover to her family. Hervé called in a favour to his old friend Pierre to lace Armand’s drink with sleeping potion. Armand had a sweet tooth habit and always stopped at his favourite café late every afternoon for tea and cake. His devious plan had worked. As soon as Pierre called him to say his cousin was as drunk as a skunk, Hervé went to Belle’s house to play Armand’s replacement.
She looked surprised when he showed up at her
front door. “You.”
“Evening, love. You look simply ravishing tonight.” And he wasn’t lying. When Hervé saw her in Maison Plaisir, she had been dressed in a drab-looking blouse and skirt. Now she was swathed in a black cocktail gown, simple yet classy. Her hair was gathered on top of her head, artfully arranged, and she had also put on some makeup.
Belle checked herself as if she didn’t believe his compliment was sincere. “What are you doing here?”
Hervé sighed. “Armand did something stupid and can’t make it tonight. I’ll be your date for the evening.”
Her eyes rounded. “What did he do?”
“He got himself into a drinking game and he’s too drunk even to stand up. I’ve volunteered to be his replacement. So, here I am.” Hervé gave her the bouquet of roses. “I also brought some vintage wine from my family vineyard. I hope your parents will like it. Ready to go?”
Her pretty mouth opened and closed in shock. “But he promised…”
A surge of guilt rose to his throat. His jaws tightened. Well, screw Armand. He played a trick on me first. “What can I say, love? He’s out of it.”
“I see…” Belle opened the door wider. “Please come in.”
“Thank you.” Hervé strolled in, studying her small apartment while Belle brought the bouquet to the kitchen and put it in a vase. It appeared Belle was a simple girl. The decor of her place reflected her taste. She painted the walls in a creamy colour with white trims, and decorated her place with monochromatic furniture and draperies. Everything looked neat and clean. When Hervé looked at her shelves, he noticed all of her books were alphabetised. No dust or streaks could be spotted anywhere. Hervé was impressed. “So, Belle, want to tell me everything I should know about this dinner party?”
“Oh.” Belle put the vase on the living room table. The sweet scent of roses permeated the air. “We’ll have dinner with my mother and sisters. My mother…she’s…” Belle paused. “She’s very critical.”
“How so?”
“Well, she doesn’t always approve of everything I do.”
“Doesn’t she? You don’t strike me as a difficult person. Why is she hard on you?”
Belle shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. She probably thinks I’m a disappointment. After all, I’m not perfect like my sisters.”
Hervé started to see the problem. He’d pieced together bits of information when he’d eavesdropped on her conversation with Armand, but he still wanted to hear everything from her own mouth. “And what about this charade? I heard from Armand she’d pressured you to get married?”
“Unfortunately. She wants me to marry this man, Trent Curtis.” Belle shuddered. “He’s a jerk. So I told her I’m seeing somebody.”
Hervé already knew this as well, but he was still curious to find out everything about her. “How do you know Trent’s a jerk?”
She blinked. “I’ve known him since I was a teenager. Trust me, he’s a jerk.”
Interesting. But one just didn’t brand someone a jerk so passionately unless that person had wronged her. “Has he done something to you in the past?”
Her cheeks reddened in an instant. “Nothing. It’s not relevant.”
“Belle. The more I know about you, the better we can pull off this charade. You do want to make this convincing, don’t you?”
That got her attention. She pondered. “We dated briefly when we were teenagers. Well, actually it was more like he dumped me right after he got what he wanted. You know…” She shrugged. “It was stupid of me, I should’ve known.”
Dumped her? What kind of fool would dump a woman like her? “You’re not stupid. He is a jerk.”
Her eyes sobered. “Everybody thinks he’s a great guy, though.”