AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She went back to the Embassy to wait for Jay to return. She had hardly taken off her hat and coat when Madame Gilbert came to announce a visitor. ‘Shall I show him in?’ she asked.
It was the visitor himself who answered. ‘No need,’ he said. ‘I am already in.’
Lisette sprang to her feet. ‘Mr Wentworth!’
‘Mr Wentworth is too formal, don’t you think?’ he said pleasantly as the concierge withdrew. ‘Why not call me Uncle?’
‘Uncle,’ she repeated, her heart thumping.
‘Yes, Lisette, I am your uncle, but I am sure you knew that, didn’t you?’
‘If I did, what does it signify? You turned your back on my mother, cut her out of the family, so why should I acknowledge you?’
‘Not I, Lisette, that was my father. I was only a young man at the time and had no hand in the decision. On the contrary, I was very fond of Louise.’
‘But you did nothing to keep in touch with her, you never visited, you never wrote to her.’
‘I believed that was her wish. We did not turn our backs on her, she turned her back on us.’ He looked about him. ‘Are you not going to invite me to be seated?’
She was in a quandary. If Jay came back now, there would be an unholy row and she dreaded the consequences, but she could not send the man away, not because he was her uncle, but because he might have news of Michel. She indicated a chair. ‘Please be seated.’
He flung up his coat and sat down. ‘That is better. Now that we have established our relationship, we can talk of your brother.’
‘Is that how you found out who I was?’
He chuckled. ‘I had to go and see the young man after you told me his name. He is my nephew, after all. As soon as I saw him, I knew. You are as like as two peas in a pod.’
‘He is my twin. What did he say?’
‘Naturally he begged me to help him.’
‘And can you?’
‘I am prepared to try, but you know he was very surprised to learn you had married Commodore Drymore. Why did you do that, Lisette?’
‘Why does one usually marry? We fell in love.’
‘After he had liberated your father from gaol and sailed away with you.’
‘Whatever gave you that idea?’
‘It did not take a genius at mathematics to work it out.’
‘Oh.’ The worst had happened. The danger had increased a thousandfold and it was all her fault. She wished herself anywhere but where she was. She longed for Jay to come home at the same time as she dreaded it.
He smiled. ‘You see, my dear, I am in possession of information that could send you both to Madame Guillotine.’ He paused to watch her face, while she tried not to show her dismay. ‘However, I may not make use of it.’
‘You want something from me.’ It was said with a heavy heart.
‘Let us say you could provide some names which I can exchange for your brother’s release.’
‘Names?’
‘Of those Englishmen who have become a thorn in the side of the Revolutionary government.’
‘I do not know what you mean.’
‘Come now, I think you do. Jay Drymore is one, that I know, and so, I believe, do you.’
‘I know nothing of the kind,’ she retorted, pretending anger. ‘My husband is an envoy for the British Government. I told you before that he would not jeopardise his position for the sake of one prisoner and that still holds good.’
‘Not even when that prisoner is his brotherin-law?’ he queried with a twisted smile. ‘I know you are anxious to set your brother free and I cannot believe a man would turn a deaf ear to the entreaties of the woman he professes to love.’
‘He is a man of strong principles.’
He laughed. ‘What about your principles, Lisette? Where do they lie? You are a Frenchwoman, your loyalties should lie with France, not with someone who will abandon you as soon as your presence becomes inconvenient. for your brother’s sake I urge you to consider what I have said. His fate is in your hands. I know for a fact that his trial has only been delayed because the court is waiting for Henri Canard to come to Paris to give evidence. He is bringing the two gaolers with him who were guarding your father. They, of course, are eager to save their own skins.’
With every word he uttered her heart sank further. He had her in a vise from which she could see no way out. Betray Jay and save her brother or remain silent and see Michel go to the guillotine. ‘And what do you hope to gain by this, Mr Wentworth?’ she asked, desperate to turn the tables on him. ‘You are an Englishman and yet you consort with Revolutionaries and lecture me on patriotism.’
