‘He is far too intelligent, that one,’ Helene muttered.
‘That he is.’ Maystone nodded with satisfaction. ‘I will take it upon myself to explain all to my son and daughter-in-law in regard to the reason Michael was chosen for abduction. After which, I see no reason why Helene should not be allowed to return to Paris. For you to come back to England to visit Lisette occasionally, if that is what you wish. As long as you first make a promise to cease this war against the English Crown,’ he added sternly. ‘And your personal vendetta against me, of course,’ he said with a grimace.
‘And Lisette?’ Helene prompted huskily.
Lord Aubrey Maystone, the man Lisette now knew to be her father, turned to look at her. ‘I believe that must now be for Lisette to decide...’
Lisette looked at the three other people in the room.
Helene, who loved her but was totally incapable of showing that love.
Lord Maystone, who had learned only hours ago that he was her father but already showed a surprising protectiveness towards her, to the extent he had offered himself up to be shot this evening if Helene would only release her.
And Christian.
Christian, of the wicked lavender-coloured eyes.
Christian, of the wicked hands and lips that reduced her to a limp and satiated puddle every time he took her in his arms.
Christian...
A man—the only person here—Lisette knew she could trust completely.
The one she could not bear to be parted from.
A fact she had realised during the hours she had been tied and kept prisoner, when she’d had nothing else to entertain her but her own thoughts. A time when she had realised her heart was breaking at the thought she might never look upon Christian’s handsome face and those wicked lavender-coloured eyes again.
Because she had fallen in love with him.
Was so much in love with him that she had even offered to become his mistress, if he would have her.
An offer he had refused.
But perhaps if she were to become Lord Maystone’s daughter, this English Miss he wished to make of her, then she might still see Christian occasionally?
She did not wish to leave France, but she no longer had a real home there. Only Helene. But Lord Maystone had said he would arrange it so that Helene and she might see each other sometimes and perhaps, over time, the two of them might come to feel some sort of affection and understanding for each other.
Lisette had no wish to become an English Miss either.
Except...
Except this was where Christian was.
Lisette raised her chin, her decision made.
Chapter Fifteen
One month later
‘I hate to say it, old chap, but you have been like a bear with a sore head these past few weeks!’ Marcus murmured conversationally as the two men stood at the edge of the dance floor in Maystone’s full-to-overflowing ballroom.
Christian’s scowl did not lessen in the slightest as he glowered at the young buck twirling past with a glowing Lisette in his arms.
A transformed Lisette, with her fashionably styled red curls and equally fashionable sky-blue silk gown, with matching slippers upon her dainty feet as she danced lightly, and perfectly, by.
She now looked and sounded—he had spoken to her briefly, politely, as she stood at her father’s side receiving their guests—every inch the young English society Miss, with not a trace of a French accent to her softly spoken voice, her manner one of perfect politeness.
Tonight was the occasion of Lisette’s formal introduction into society, Maystone having decided that, in these unusual circumstances, the ‘Little Season’ would suit for an introductory ball far better than waiting until next February or March, when the main London Season would begin.