owe you nothing. I gave you half your fee when we set out from Verdun, the agreement was that you would get the other half when we reached Le Havre.’
‘It was not I who ran off.’ He turned to Valerin again. ‘Believe me, sir, she is Doulevant’s whore.’
‘How dare you!’ Cassie raged.
‘You are in league with him.’
‘He rescued me from your attack, that is all. And I have told you, I have no money.’
‘None?’ snapped Valerin. Cassie’s slight hesitation was enough. He said coldly, ‘Will you give me your purse, or shall I call in the gendarmes to search you?’
She did not doubt he would carry out his threat. She pulled the remaining coins from her pocket and displayed them on her palm.
‘You see, nine, ten livres, nothing more.’
Valerin scraped the coins from her hand. He held them out to Merimon.
‘Take these, it will pay your passage back to Verdun.’
Merimon looked as if he would argue, but at last he took the coins and went grudgingly from the room.
‘But that is all I have,’ Cassie protested.
‘If you are indeed in league with Doulevant you will find yourself in prison soon enough and will have no need of money.’
‘And when you discover I am telling the truth, that I am innocent?’
Valerin’s glance was sceptical.
‘If you are innocent, madame, I shall personally escort you to the mayor and you may throw yourself upon his mercy.’
‘Thank you,’ she said coldly. ‘I will ask him to write to my grandmother, the Marchioness of Hune. She will send funds for my passage home. Your First Consul himself has decreed that the wives of the English détenus are free to leave.’
‘Providing they have not shown themselves to be enemies of France,’ said Valerin, adding sharply, ‘Do not go near the window, madame. I would not have you warn your lover.’
‘He is not my lover.’
‘No?’ Valerin got up and came closer. ‘Then he is a fool.’
Before she could guess his intention he put his hand around her neck and dragged her close to kiss her. Cassie struggled against him and when he finally let her go she brought her hand up to his cheek with such force that it left her palm stinging. His eyes narrowed.
‘A mistake, madame, to strike a government officer.’ Holding her prisoner with one hand he drew a length of cord from his pocket and bound her wrists together. ‘There,’ he regarded her with an unpleasant smile. ‘That should stop you scratching my eyes out while I show you—’
The door crashed open and one of the gendarmes burst in.
‘Sir, we have him! The pot-boy says the deserter is in the taproom.’
Cassie’s heart was hammering hard. Relief that she had been spared a loathsome groping was replaced by fear for Raoul. She saw the leap of triumph in Valerin’s eyes.
‘Very well,’ he barked, ‘arrest him. I will follow you.’ He turned back to Cassie. ‘What shall I do with you while I make my arrest?’
He glanced around the room, his eyes alighting on a stout peg sticking out high in the wall behind the door. He picked her up. Cassie kicked wildly but it was useless. He lifted her hands and hooked the cord over the peg. She was suspended, facing the wall, with the cord biting painfully into her wrists and her toes barely reaching the floor.
‘Perfect. That should keep you safe until I return.’ His hand squeezed her bottom through the thick folds of her skirts and Cassie shivered. She knew it was a promise of what he had in store for her.
Valerin went out, Cassie heard him clattering down the stairs, then there was silence. In addition to worries for her own safety Cassandra felt the chill of dread clutching at her insides. Had they caught Raoul? Had they hurt him? She tried to concentrate on her own predicament. Her toes just touched the ground, barely enough to relieve the pull on her wrists and stop the thin cord from biting deeper into the flesh. The wooden peg was angled upwards and strain as she might she could not reach high enough to lift her bound wrists free of it. The light was fading, soon it would be dark. In despair Cassie rested her forehead against the wall. Valerin would return for her and there was nothing she could do about it.
Her ears caught the faint sounds outside the door and she quickly blinked away her tears. This was no time for self-pity; she needed all her wits about her if she was to get through this. She heard the door open and close again. He was in the room. She turned her head, but the scathing remark on her lips died when she saw Raoul standing behind her.
Relief flooded through Cassie. She wanted to cry but would not give in to a weakness she despised and instead she took refuge in anger.
‘Well, do not stand there like an idiot, get me down!’
Raoul had not known what to expect when he entered the room. His imagination had rioted and his blood had gone cold as he considered what Valerin might have done to Cassie. To find her apparently unhurt was a relief and it increased tenfold when she addressed him in her usual haughty manner. He could not stop himself from grinning, although the effect was like pouring oil on hot coals. Her eyes positively flamed with wrath.
‘Get me down, this instant!’
He put his hands on her waist and lifted her so she could unhook herself from the peg. He lowered her gently to the ground and she turned, her arms still raised. Despite their perilous situation he could not resist the temptation to slide his hands up quickly from her tiny waist and pull her bound wrists over his head. He held her arms against his shoulders.
‘Shall I steal a kiss, as my reward for rescuing you?’
His pulse raced even faster when he recognised the gleam of excitement that mixed with the anger in her eyes, a gleam that told him she was not averse to kissing him. It was gone in an instant, but he knew he had not been mistaken and it both thrilled and alarmed him; he could no more stop flirting with her than a moth could ignore a flame.
She shook her head at him. ‘This is no time for funning, Raoul! We must go, quickly.’
Reluctantly Raoul released her.
‘You are right,’ he said, untying her wrists. ‘I have bought us a little time, but not much.’
‘How—?’
He put a finger to her lips.
‘No time to explain now. Come.’
‘Not so fast.’
At the
