‘Oh, but—’
‘If you still wish to return home afterwards—’ he talked over what he knew was going to be Liset
te’s protest ‘—I will bring you back in my carriage.’
‘There is no “if” about it, monsieur,’ she assured him firmly. ‘Nor do I wish to go to your home; an unmarried lady does not enter the house of an unmarried gentleman without causing severe damage to her reputation.’
The fact that Lisette currently lived in a lowly tavern with a woman such as Helene Rousseau was surely already damage enough to her reputation?
As if aware of his thoughts, a blush now appeared in Lisette’s cheeks. ‘I did not always live in a tavern, monsieur,’ she informed him stiffly. ‘Until just two months ago I lived on a farm in the country with my...with relatives.’
Very curious...
Although it would explain why there had never been any mention of Lisette in the reports made by other agents for the Crown, in connection to Helene or André Rousseau.
‘I, for one, am grateful that your aunt brought you to live with her in Paris,’ he drawled.
‘My aunt?’ Lisette repeated sharply.
‘Mademoiselle Rousseau,’ Christian supplied slowly even as he looked at Lisette searchingly; she seemed surprised—shocked?—by his knowledge of her relationship to the older woman. ‘She explained your connection to me earlier this evening,’ he added gently.
Lisette moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘Yes, of course...my aunt,’ she rallied slightly, even tried to smile a little.
Christian was not fooled for a moment by Lisette’s attempt to cover her confusion.
He just had no idea as to the reason for that confusion...
Chapter Three
Lisette was so taken aback by the Comte de Saint-Cloud’s comment regarding her relationship to Helene that she could think of nothing more to add to the conversation.
Of course she accepted that it would have been awkward for Helene to suddenly produce a fully grown daughter.
But surely no more awkward than it was for that fully grown daughter to suddenly discover that the couple she had thought were her parents were not even related to her, and that instead the cold and haughty Helene Rousseau was actually her mother?
Even so, Lisette had not realised until now that Helene had not publicly claimed her as her daughter at all, but instead only as her niece.
She was not sure how she felt about that.
‘Lisette...?’
She had been so deeply in thought that she had not realised the carriage had come to a halt, and that a groom now stood beside the open door waiting for her and the Comte to alight.
Which must mean, whilst she had been lost in thought, they had arrived at the Comte de Saint-Cloud’s home.
She gave a firm shake of her head. ‘I wish to return to the tavern now, monsieur.’
‘Why?’
‘Why? Because...well, because—’
‘What so urgently awaits you there, Lisette, that you cannot spare a few minutes to sit and share a glass of wine with me?’ the Comte teased softly.
It was not her time that concerned Lisette, but her reputation.
At the same time she felt slightly rebellious after learning that Helene chose to claim her only as her niece—that relationship implying she was the daughter of a man, Helene’s brother André, who was now dead.
Also, Lisette did not think that the Comte had taken her at all seriously when she had tried to warn him of the possible danger he was in from Helene Rousseau.