Guarded Heart by Jennifer Blake Read Free Book Online Page B

“Certainly not without permission. I do try to be loyal to my friends.”
    So she did, he conceded as he appraised her through his lashes. Maurelle loved gossip as she loved life, but had her own personal code in such matters, one as stringent as that governing the conduct of sword masters. “You must have known the lady for some time for her to be so near and dear.”
    â€œA number of years, yes. We met in Paris during one of my sojourns there.”
    â€œHer accent is not Parisian.”
    â€œHer family is from Louisiana, somewhere upriver, I believe. She had just been married to the head of a banking family of some renown in France when we became acquainted. Her parents had returned here, leaving her behind, and she was lonely since she knew no one in the city, scarcely knew her husband.”
    â€œAn arranged marriage, then.”
    â€œAnd an excellent alliance, though he was ill with consumption. Jean Marc Faucher was a distant relation of her father’s, a kind and gentle man of great intelligence and understanding. He thought perhaps to sire a child to live after him, though it was not to be.”
    â€œHe hardly sounds the kind to give his wife a distaste for men.”
    â€œCertainly not.”
    â€œWhat of her father? Did he force her to accept the match?”
    Maurelle’s smile had a wry edge. “What a romantic you are, cher. But I must tell you that Ariadne revered her father. It was ever an object with her to please him, and she made no objection whatever to the marriage. In all truth, she was…”
    â€œWhat?” he asked as she trailed off, a conscious expression flitting across her face before she hid it in her coffee cup.
    â€œShe had no other attachment and was just as happy to be in France.”
    â€œLeaving scandal behind, or did she drag it, whining, at her heels?”
    â€œNothing of the sort! She had been living quietly in the country.”
    â€œA difficult thing to imagine,” he said, recalling the soignée lady he had met on that first evening.
    â€œI assure you it’s true. If you must know, she was taken abroad because her parents thought her too subdued.”
    â€œAll pale and forlorn, possibly pining after a lost love?” He tipped his head, waiting to see if Maurelle would respond to that assessment.
    â€œAfter her brother, rather, with whom she was quite close. He had come to town for a little polish, leaving her behind at home.”
    â€œHere to the Vieux Carré, you mean.”
    She gave a brief nod. “So, there you have her history, mon ami, dull as it may be. All I can say is you must have given her the wrong idea concerning the use of the foils, or else so incensed her with your obstinate manner that her feelings overcame her.”
    â€œPerhaps,” he allowed in pensive tones.
    Maurelle raised expressive brows. “What did you do?”
    â€œNothing that I recall, which means I may have to repeat what passed between us in order to discover it.”
    â€œMonsieur Blackford!”
    â€œOh, never fret, chère madame. She will be safe, if not particularly subdued, in my hands.”
    She watched him while an odd expression, half gratified, half disapproving and wholly captivated, appeared in her fine eyes. When she spoke, her voice held tones as ripe and mellow as a winter pear. “You are épris. Who would have thought it? All the ladies who have paraded themselves before you, and what piques your interest? One who cares only for swordplay—which is her appeal no doubt, other than that she has no use for you beyond your expertise. If you had but known, you might have made a fortune as a tutor of female clients.”
    â€œOr not,” he said, his voice dry. “One seems more than enough.”
    â€œYou don’t deny being smitten?”
    â€œOf course I deny it, mon amour, for what good it may do me. Curiosity was ever my downfall, and now that I have awakened from