“Jesus,” he said. “How should I kill him? There are many methods, you know. Many, indeed. I have quite a range, a lot of choice. Shall it be slow? Shall we make him scream and plead and beg to know the final moment of his miserable life? Shall I use the garrote?” He rubbed his hands together, his eyes alight, his mind racing with plans and strategies.
Douglas said, “You forget that he is surrounded by more soldiers than I could count. He lives in a fortress. He has guards accompany him everywhere. He also knows me by sight and you and Janine.”
They brooded in silence.
Tony said, “He’s never seen me before.”
“Oh no,” Douglas said. “This isn’t your fight, Tony.”
“I don’t know about that, it—”
Alexandra moaned softly; she opened her eyes to see Douglas over her, smiling gently. She felt his hand pressed against her. “Am I going to live, Douglas?”
He leaned down and lightly kissed her mouth. He said very quietly, “Oh yes. I have missed your impertinent tongue, madam. I have missed your pathetic flights of French. Most of all I have missed holding you against me.”
She was crying; she didn’t want to but the tears fell and trickled down the sides of her face. He wiped them away with his fingers. “Hush, love, I don’t want you to make yourself ill. Hush. Now, just hold still. Are you warm enough?”
She nodded, gulping.
“I will continue the pressure for some more minutes. Then I’ll bathe you and make you more comfortable.”
“I lost our child. I lost your heir, Douglas, and that is all you wanted from a wife, from me. I did promise to be a brood mare but I’ve failed. I am so very sorry, but—”
“You will be quiet. It happened and that is that. I want you to be all right. You are what is important. Do you understand me? I’m not lying. It’s the truth.”
He hated the pain in her eyes, the pain of her loss, the pain of what she believed to be an irreparable loss to him. He would convince her otherwise. And eventually she would believe him. He started to say something but saw that she was no longer crying. Her eyes had narrowed. It was remarkable how she could be crying pathetically one moment and looking mean as hell the next. “What is that French hussy doing here? Did she follow you again, Douglas? I won’t have it, I tell you! Tell me what to say to her, please.”
“All right. Say, ’Je suis la femme de Douglas and je l’aime. Il est à moi.’ ”
She looked at him suspiciously.
“You are telling her that you are my wife and that you love me. You are telling her that I belong to you.”
“Say it again.”
He did, slowly.
Alexandra opened her mouth and shouted the words to Janine Daudet.
There was stunned silence, then Georges said thoughtfully, “I prefer your rendition of merde, I think. It brought the entire Hookams bookshop your English aristocracy love so well to a standstill.”
Douglas smiled, something he wouldn’t have thought possible. As for Alexandra, she was still thin-lipped as she looked at Janine Daudet. “Tell her, Douglas, tell her that if she ever again lies about you, I will make her very sorry.”
Douglas didn’t hesitate. He spoke rapid French to Janine. She stared from him to Alexandra, then nodded slowly.
Georges was rubbing his jaw as he said to Douglas, “Thankfully you didn’t break it.”
“You deserve that I thrash you within an inch of your life. However, I agree with Tony. I want to see Belesain pay for his crimes.”
“Your eye is quite black,” Janine said. “Did she do this to you?”
“No, but it doesn’t sound odd to think that she would be quite capable of blacking both my eyes.”
It was one o’clock in the morning. There was no moon. Dark clouds hid the few stars that would have shed light on the three men as they ran, bent low, from the shelter of one tree to the next.
There were no lights coming from the mayor’s charming house in Etaples. There were four guards patrolling the perimeter. They were bored and tired and they spoke in low voices, trying to keep themselves awake.
The three men were on their haunches not fifteen yards from the guards. Douglas said low, “Tony, take down the one on the right. You take the one at the far corner over there, Georges.”