Brocade Series 02 - Giselle (33 page)

“Navarre chose this wing, because he loved the idea of the
secret passages it was rumored to hold.”

“Secret passages?”

Giselle was four steps below her, and moving
awkwardly. Esmee didn’t seem to notice. She waited with the
same smile on her face that she’d had all morning.
Giselle wondered if it was Esmee’s turn to guard her from Jean-Claude. She should probably be grateful they cared.

“Ouì
.
Navarre was always full of stories, even as a child. He was very inventive. I didn’t know whether to laugh or follow when
he dragged me down these halls.”

Giselle reached the landing and looked about with obvious interest.

“‘Look, Esmee,’ he’d say. I’m certain they’re here. If I turn
this cornice-piece, a secret staircase will be revealed behind this
panel.’ He knocked on the walls, searching for a hollow sound. ‘
You hear it, Esmee?’ he would ask.”

She knocked on the wood panels
as she talked, walking slowly toward the
three doors at the end of the hall, imitating Navarre as a boy.

“
’I’m certain this wall has a space behind it, Esmee! Listen!
Do you hear?’”

“Did he ever find any?” Giselle came closer, lowering her
voice at the same time.

“Can you keep a secret, Giselle?”

Esmee bent to Giselle’s level.
Giselle nodded. Esmee crooked her finger at her and pushed
open the first door.

Oh! I shouldn
’t have come!

G
iselle was
immediately wrapped in Navarre’s scent. If Esmee had turned she
would’ve caught Giselle sagging against the doorframe
.

“
Oh. Look at this! He should’ve had maids attend to this room yesterday
when he left.” She shook her head at the sight of Navarre’s unmade
bed with the quilt tossed aside and the sheets dented where he lay.

“Brothers,” she snorted. “
They’re all cretins. I wash my hands of them.”

She
walked
to the fireplace and gestured over her shoulder for Giselle to
follow her.
Giselle eyed Navarre’s four-poster bed, the filmy sheeting of a
canopy spread all about it, and her legs shook beneath her skirts. She had trouble walking across to Esmee.

“
If you run your finger along here…there’s a little button-thing. Like a bump the woodcarver
forgot to remove. It was…right here. Oh. Here it is.”

She
’d run her hand along the bottom of the fireplace mantel, and the panel beside her
dropped back into the blackness. Giselle’s gasp of surprise was
covered by the sliding sound.

“Where does it
…go?”

Her voice stumbled on the last word
. Esmee had just given away
Navarre’s secret. He didn’t use the halls to reach Etienne’s bedchamber. He used this passageway.

“Just about everywhere, I assume
. I don’t know. I never
explored it. Navarre would have my head for showing this to anyone.
Why, I don’t think he knows that I remember it. It was a very long time
ago.”

Giselle glanced at
Esmee uneasily. She’d lived long enough in this
household to realize that Esmee was trying to tell her something.
The unpleasant chill she
felt was worse than the one she’d experienced that morning from waking beside Etienne.

Giselle looked at the floor
. Esmee was letting her know that
she knew the secret. Giselle flushed with shame. What had felt
so wondrous and heavenly the previous night suddenly felt lustful and
damning in the daylight.

Giselle clenched her hands at her side
. Well, what had she expected? Even if it was heavenly and wondrous, her love for Navarre was still a sin.

“Should we explore it and see?”
Esmee stuck her head into the
space while Giselle watched. “It’s not that dark, Giselle. I see
daylight through some cracks, too.”

Giselle waited until Esmee pulled her head back into the room
before peeking in, too. She didn’t see any cracks.

“Should we follow it and see where it leads?”

“No.” Giselle shivered.

“Why not
? It might even lead to the
duc’s
chambers. What a
surprise that would be. What do you think?”

She knows!

Giselle choked on her reply and stepped into the
passageway to disguise her reaction. She was too naive for such word games and too emotional to act a part. She wished Esmee
would simply quit baiting her. It would be more compassionate.

“It’s very dark, Esmee.”

Giselle reached out to gauge how wide the passage was and
squelched the scream as her fingers touched warm stone. She
wasn’t about to speak of it, for Esmee would simply ridicule her
again. But there wasn’t any sun in here to warm anything.

“Wait while I light a candle, Giselle
. I can’t wait to see….”

The panel slid easily back into place, cutting off her words
.
Giselle was left staring into the blackness without time to even
gasp. The warmth of the stone was all she found soothing, and she
spread her hands about it at her back.

“Giselle!”

She barely heard Esmee’s words, but the noise of her pounding against the
panel reverberated through the passageway.

“Giselle
! Oh, Lord! What am I to do? Don’t move. Giselle!”

Esmee’s voice faded as she moved away
. Giselle blinked the
self-pitying tears back. Esmee was leaving her after sealing
her into the wall. She didn’t question it. She should’ve suspected it, instead of following blindly
.

Warmth surrounded Giselle then, calming her panic, and she
turned to face the outer castle wall. Esmee had been right, and now
Giselle could see there were tiny slits assembled into
the stone that let in a hint of light. She waited for her eyes to become
accustomed to it.

There was no reason to panic. If Navarre found a way out as a
child, she could do it as an adult.

“All right, Bertina.” Giselle whispered it, feeling silly
. “Show me the latch.”

There
was a narrow flight of steps climbing to her left. Another set
sank into the blackness on her right. Giselle looked from one to
the other. The heat was definitely at her back though, so she turned
around.

There was a vague outline of the panel, and it had a peep hole
.
Giselle rolled her eyes as she saw the height of it. She should have
known if the Berchalds had a secret passageway, it would be built for
giants, too. Giselle had to stand on tiptoe and lean one side of her face against the wood in order to see out of it. She was surprised to
see Esmee’ s frantic movements at the mantel, and Esmee was crying.

“Esmee?”
Giselle pounded on the panel.

“Giselle
? Oh, God! I’m so sorry. I can’t get the button to budge now. Are you all right?”

She instinctively knew she
’d m
isjudged her sister-in-law. When Esmee had championed Giselle against Jean-Claude, she
should have been listening with her heart, and not her imagination.

The heat intensified at Giselle’s cheek, and she pulled back
as it got hot.

“Stand back, Giselle
. Can you hear me? I’ll be right back.”

Giselle ignored the instruction
. She concentrated on following
the heat source along the inside of the door. Her fingers scraped against
wood, and then a tiny bump moved.

Giselle barely ducked in time
as the panel opened. Esmee
was on the other side, swinging a chair toward the wall. It struck the stone wall at Giselle’s back, and bounced into the back of her legs, and that’s what buckled them
.

“Mon Dieu!
Are you hurt? Oh, Giselle, I told you not to
move.”

Giselle stayed on her knees
, laughing so hard she couldn’t
answer at first. Esmee had lifted one of the heavy chairs and swung it
. That was surprising, and then it got more so as Esmee grabbed her into an embrace and hugged her.

“You’re all right
? Truly?
Etienne would never have forgiven me if anything happened
to you.
I’m
so sorry.”

Giselle patted her back awkwardly
.

“It’s all right, Esmee, see?
I’m
fine, and, not counting the chair, there’s been no harm done.”
Giselle pulled away and motioned toward the chair. Esmee
made an attempt to smile.
“I can’t believe you lifted that,” Giselle said, “but I hope you
can do it again. Come. We’d better put it back before someone
comes.”

They tugged to get the chair
out. Giselle was amazed that any
woman could have lifted
such a heavy item. It took so much work getting it back into place,
that once it was done, she sank into it gratefully. And then looked over at where Esmee sank o
nto Navarre’s bed.

“
I am so sorry, Giselle. I hope you forgive me. I was only going to spy on Etienne. I thought it would be
amusing. I’ve heard about this morning, and it made me
very happy. Since you came,
things have gotten much better. I never meant for you to be trapped
in there. I swear it.”

“Perhaps it was my movement that closed the door. You’re not
to blame.”

“You’re sweet to think that, but I should
have made certain it was safe before putting you into such danger.”

“It wasn’t that bad, Esmee
. Truly. And I was lucky.”

“
Yes. You are. You and Etienne are so lucky. Sometimes, I wonder why I
still exist. For that’s all I do, you know.”

Giselle watched Esmee go to the windows and open Navarre’s
drapes, revealing an edge of the maze. So…that was
how Navarre got from the dower house, too — the maze ended almost on his
doorstep.

“Why do you say that, Esmee?” she asked. “
I can’t manage
without you. Aunt Mimi dotes on you, and Navarre would…uh…I’m sure he would be lonely without you.”

‘That’s just it, Giselle. It’s lonely for him
. And me. Oh…I know
what you’re thinking. It’s impossible to be lonely in such a beautiful chateau. But I think that’s your love for Etienne coming through. And the fact that it’s returned. I know.
I’m
in love myself.”

“Pardon?” Giselle couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“I know you don’t trust me, especially after the ball. I
wouldn’t trust me, either. But how could I tell you that
Mademoiselle
Frerre was Jean-Claude’s mistress? I didn’t want to ruin your
happiness. And you were so happy. I saw it. I think
everyone else did, too.
That was when you first fell in love with him, wasn’t it?”

She
looked at Giselle for confirmation.
Giselle didn’t move. It felt like blasphemy to lie. Esmee smiled.

“
It’s all right. You don’t have to answer. I know. I saw it. Everyone did. It was easy
to see how much you cared for each other.”

It was
?
She must be better at intrigue than she thought.

“
I even saw to it that you matched. It was the least I could
do, with you wearing
Mademoiselle
Frerre’s gown. It was a perfect
gesture, too. I congratulated myself. You looked so happy. You still
do…and
I’m
jealous of it.”

She strode to where Giselle sat and swooped into a pile of skirts at her feet
. And then she reached for Giselle’s hands, surprising her.

“
I beg you, Giselle, before it’s too late for me. Please? I need your help. I’ve
heard he searches the village for a wife, and I can’t see another in that
position. I love him too much. I never thought
I’d
feel this way.”

“Who, Esmee
? Who searches?”

“Monsieur
Ambross. Didn’t you see the way he looks at me?
I almost swoon.”

“Ambross
? The mayor?”

When Esmee had
been flirtatious with the mayor, it was because she loved him?

“
I know what you’re thinking.” Esmee released Giselle’s
hands and looked away. “He’s not particularly assuming and isn’t as
handsome as Etienne, but there aren’t many like my brother, are
there?
And
I’m
almost too scandalous for him to consider. I was
disowned, I’m not young anymore, and I might not be able to have
children. The list against me plays in my head until I want to
scream.”

“Esmee.”
Giselle touched her shoulder, and Esmee turned
tormented eyes to her. “You’re every bit a marital prize. I can’t see
why he wouldn’t be delighted at the prospect of wedding you. He’s
not blind, and you are a beautiful woman. Besides, you’re a
Berchald. A nobler bloodline would be difficult to find.”

“But I have no dowry.”

“That’s easy to arrange.”

“Etienne has to do it, though, and I can’t
even get in to see him.”

“Oh, Esmee!”
Giselle felt giddy with the relief. She’d been so busy with her
own life, and putting secret meanings behind everyone’s words and
actions, she missed everything. “I can speak with Etienne.
We must plan another soiree, too, one which Monsieur Ambross
won’t decline. Didn’t Na…varre intimate that very thing last night?”

Giselle stumbled on the name
.
Had it really only been last night?

“Oh, Giselle. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me
! Perhaps it’s not too late for me after all. What do you think?”

“
I think we’ve done enough exploring for one day.”

“You’ll speak with Etienne?”

“Of course.” Giselle stood and waited for the trembling in her
legs to subside. “I’ll do it the first moment I can. I promise.”

“And Navarre
? You’ll speak for him, too?”

“Navarre?” Giselle was in front of her or Esmee would have seen the expression. Giselle barely managed to keep her voice
even.

“Oh come, Giselle
. He can’t spend his entire life taking
Etienne’s place about the estate.”

She was innocent of the meaning Giselle gave her words
. The
spurt in her heart stopped her for a moment.

“Hasn’t he spoken to you about it?” Esmee asked. “
I felt
certain he would, by now. You two seem very close.”

Giselle watched Esmee shut the door behind them
.
She didn’t trust herself to answer.

“
I know him best, I think,” Esmee continued. “And I’ll tell
you another secret.”

She bent down to Giselle as they reached the
stairs.
Giselle clutched the railing and forced herself to study the black and white flooring below them. Otherwise, she was afraid she
might swoon.

“I
think Navarre is in love, too! Wouldn’t
it be wonderful? Would Etienne arrange a…what is it called? Oh
yes, a double wedding? Navarre is quite a catch, you know. Any woman would find him an acceptable….”

Giselle didn’t hear the rest of her words
. For the first time
since she came to Chateau Berchand, she fainted.

~

“You gave us quite a scare, young lady.”

Louisa’s hands had to be the ones moving the cloth on
Giselle’s forehead, although she didn’t feel ready to open her eyes and verify it. She was in bed, but the linens smelled of Navarre so strongly
she didn’t want to open her eyes for another reason. The sheets
shouldn’t have that scent.

Where was
Madame
Dessard? Such ineptitude
wouldn’t do. Giselle had instructed them to have the linens cleaned as she’d bathed this morning. And then she’d had to suffer the blushes as the maids exclaimed over the bloodstains
on the sheets.

“You’re lucky that
Madame
Esmee is as stout as she is. I
shudder to think what could have happened if you had fallen, Giselle.
It’s only by the grace of
Dieu
that doctors haven’t been summoned
already. The staff has noodles where their minds should be.”

“What are you talking about now
? So, I fainted. Is that so
rare?”

“It is when the staff believes you’re expecting a Berchald heir
. And brings everyone on the run to
Monsieur
Navarre’s chamber.”

Giselle’s eyes flew open
. “I’m in his bed?”

“
Oui.
That was where
Madame
Esmee placed you. And then she came for me. You’d think
you were dying the way some of the staff acts. And that Gerty is
the worst. No child makes itself known so early. I told her as
much when she fetched me.”

“O
h, Louisa. I’m so confused.” Giselle lifted the sodden rag
from her forehead.

“You’re confused
? When you’d rather die than accept
the
duc?
”

‘Things aren’t as they appear, Louisa. I can’t say anymore
.
Help me up.”

“
Oh no. You aren’t to move until
Monsieur
Navarre arrives. He’ll
move you back. Esmee insisted on it. I think she was just
forestalling Jean-Claude’s assistance with it. Since he offered.”

“Where’s Giselle? I heard you fainted, my love.”

Navarre pushed his way to her, oblivious
to Louisa, who stood right beside him.
He lifted Giselle’s hand to his cheek and leaned against it.

“I’m well, Navarre. Truly.”

Giselle pulled her hand away, while Louisa did her best to look away.

“I’m to see you to your chambers. Don’t tell me you’ll walk,
either. After all, I enjoy holding you. And just this morn, you said
I could sleep.”

Giselle supposed he thought he was whispering, but the
smile
Louisa was hiding let her know Navarre spoke too loudly.

“Navarre….”

He put one arm
under her knees and lifted her. She gripped to his shoulders, trying to keep from clasping both arms about him.

“You should eat more,
Madame,”
he announced loudly. “You
weigh nothing. Get the door, my good woman.”

Louisa opened the door, and Giselle hid her face against
Navarre’s shoulder when she saw how many servants lined the hall.

“She’ll be fine, Esmee
. She just needs some rest, she says.”

He spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear
. Giselle closed her eyes, held
to his neck, and tried to memorize how his coat felt against her
.

“I can’t hold you much longer, Giselle,” he whispered into her ear.
“You must know what you are doing to me.”

She blushed, and hid against his neck.

“Can someone see that the door is opened ahead?”

He spoke in a rough tone
. She knew why
. She felt everything coming alive on her with every prolonged moment in his contact. But
her desire wouldn’t be as apparent as his was.

“Of
course, my lord.”

Isabelle
did his bidding and waited for them to pass before shutting the door on the rest of the onlookers.

“My thanks, Navarre.”

Giselle held to him a moment longer
than necessary once he lay her on her bed. It was difficult to let go.

“I’ll see you at sup, still?”

She tried to act unaffected as if they
were sharing tea, and not remembering. She glanced at where he’d
shown her such joy, and then back at him. When she tried to look
away again, she failed.