Knaves (9 page)

And yet when he turned to view Karla, jealousy was plainly what he saw: she radiated it. She oozed it, a fierce, cold venom tr
ickling from her burning eyes. He knew that what she saw was an astonishing, tall blonde with an hourglass figure on the arm of a dark-haired, dashing man in evening attire. She saw a sex goddess, and her eyes were filled with a vision of what most men wanted. Most men, Hayden reminded himself, and whatever Karla said a blow job didn’t count. Not really. Okay, perhaps a little bit, but, he insisted to himself, he
hadn’t
fucked that woman.

While Hayden was pursuing a series of rather self-serving moral justifications, Valmont and Eloise moved to the other side of the table, the Marquis holding a chair for the blonde before taking a seat beside her. As Valmont sat down, Hayden noticed a large, emerald ring on his finger
—something else to attract Karla, he though despondently.

“
I hope that you found everything to your satisfaction,” he said, directing his attention mainly to Karla and only glancing briefly in Hayden’s direction.

“
Absolutely satisfying, Donatien,” Karla replied, trilling her voice in such a way that no-one else in the room other than Hayden would have believed she wanted to knife someone in the throat. “I didn’t realise that we would be joined this evening.”

Valmont smiled, a warm expression though his eyes twinkled with a perverse delight as he waved his hand.
“Oh, I am such a fool when it comes to these little niceties,” he said. Turning towards Eloise, he paused for a second. “I was going to introduce you, but I forgot. The two of you have met already, haven’t you?”

Hayden
’s mouth nearly dropped at this. What the hell was Valmont up to? He felt the temperature drop a few degrees on his left hand side where Karla was seated, but he was nearly as surprised by Eloise’s reaction. That impassive, doll-like face twitched for a second, and Hayden almost believed that he saw her blush, though it was hard to be sure beneath all the makeup. For the minutest moment, her blue eyes shifted towards Hayden but just as quickly moved away before settling on Karla once more. At that sight, she seemed to recompose herself.

“
Madame Duval and I haven’t had the chance to know each other fully yet.”

“
Oh, is that so?” Karla asked. “I feel as though I’ve known you much more intimately than I would have expected after such a brief acquaintance.”

Fighting the urge to squirm, Hayden kept  his eyes away from the locked gaze of the two women: from their expressions it was quite clear that each of them would like nothing more than to reach across the table and throttle the other. For his part, Valmont was watching them with clear amusement as he motioned for one of the maids to bring the first course.

As a soup, a delicious game broth flavoured with truffle oil, was laid before them, the two women fumed in silence as Valmont affected to make small talk. “And have you ever been to this part of France before, Monsieur Rider?”

Hayden decided to ris
e to the challenge. Both of them knew that the real contest was about to begin elsewhere, so he would dally in the meantime. There was no way that the Marquis and his bloody chateau was going to get the better of him.

“
A few times,” he remarked casually. “Usually I’m passing through, though. I’ve always thought Northern Italy is more agreeable at this time of year.”

That caused Valmont to frown slightly.
“Italy has its attractions,” he agreed, “but the south of France is where true culture resides. After all, it was the troubadours of Provence and Aquitaine who first sang of courtly love, and after seeing the landscape of the hills that surround us, who can blame them?”

“
Who indeed?” Karla agreed, shifting her attention pointedly away from Eloise and towards the Marquis. “The most sophisticated courts of Europe were to be found here, and they would set up their tournaments of love among the poets and ladies of the court.”

“
Obviously,” intervened Eloise. “The women of southern France were the most beautiful in Europe.”

Karla paused a moment before replying.
“Of course, there were courtesans as well as courtiers, and even in the highest, most noble places the lowest types would ply their trade. Every apple has its canker, after all.”

A spasm of anger passed across Eloise
’s face before she mastered it almost immediately, reaching for a glass of wine. Everyone noticed it. Karla allowed herself a brief moment of triumph while Hayden felt embarrassed for Eloise. Valmont merely laughed and ordered the servants to clear away the first course.

Hayden tried not to look at him directly as the second dish was brought, a
bouillabaisse
stew filled with snapper, mullet and oyster and spiced with garlic rouille. Hayden realised just how hungry he was and, almost despite himself, began to eat mouthfuls of the tempting dish. In between a spoonful, he realised that Valmont was watching him, stroking the edge of a cut-crystal glass with his finger, the emerald ring glinting in the candlelight.

“
Do try the wine,” Valmont told him, smiling archly. “A Baux-de-Provence rosé complements perfectly the spices and garlic of the
bouillabaisse
. To be honest, it’s peasant food, but with a late century vintage it becomes something sweet as well as hot.”

“
The wine is indeed perfect, Donatien,” Karla said smiling softly. Hayden noticed that, like Eloise, she had barely touched the food in front of her.

“
I’m glad you think so, Jeanne,” he responded warmly. “Unfortunately, the one area of Eloise’s education that I’ve never been able to complete is that related to her palate.” He shrugged, and Hayden realised that Valmont’s companion was struggling to keep her own emotions under control.

Coming to the conclusion that he was the only one even remotely enjoying the actual food in front of him, Hayden refused additional courses that were offered. Valmont tsked at this.

“Come, come, Monsieur Rider. A strapping man like you must keep his strength up, otherwise you’ll offend me at my own table.”

Ignoring his mockery, Hayden dabbed at his lips with a napkin and sipped another glass of the aromatic wine.
“I’m sure that I’ll be able to sample plenty of other delights,” he quipped. This made Valmont grin, his handsome face becoming almost wolf-like.

“
Indeed,” he said, slapping his hand on the table. “And perhaps you wouldn’t mind indulging me for a while.”

“
Of course,” Hayden said casually, leaning back in his chair. He’d noticed that a gaming table had been laid out in one corner of the room while they were eating, and wondered if now was the time that Valmont intended to carry through his wager.

Rising from his seat, the Marquis placed two elegant hands on the table and stared directly at Hayden for a while before moving, with a slight smile, to stand behind Eloise. While the maids cleared away the remaining dishes
—most of them virtually untouched—Latour remained in the corner, watching everything silently.

Drawing out Eloise
’s chair so that she was forced to stand up, Valmont held her hand and smiled more broadly at Hayden. Something wasn’t right, Hayden thought before realising what had struck him. While Eloise was still attempting to hide her baleful glances towards Karla, Valmont hadn’t looked in her direction at all for the past ten minutes.

“
I think you didn’t have a proper chance to explore my home before,” the Marquis explained. “I’m sure that you won’t mind if Eloise shows you around.”

It took a second for the importance of what had just been said to sink in.
“Wait a minute,” Hayden began to say slowly. “You want Eloise to show
me
around?”

Valmont nodded, his eyes shining as he watched Hayden.

“What about Jeanne?” As he said this, Hayden noted that Karla was watching both men sharply now.

Now the smile broadened once more.
“Madame Duval and I have a few things to discuss.”

“
Such as?”

“
Well, for one thing I’d prefer to ascertain for myself whether Jeanne is a willing participant in our wager. I’m sure she won’t mind if Eloise accompanies you for a while, will you—Jeanne?”

Karla said nothing before simply
shaking her head stiffly.

“
Very good,” Valmont said, leading Eloise meekly around the table so that the two of them stood behind Hayden and Karla. Hayden turned to look up at them: Eloise’s blue eyes were watching him, a strange light in them, but now Valmont was staring at Karla, his lusts plain to see.

“
If you don’t mind,” Hayden began to say, “I think I’ll stay—”

“
Oh, but I do mind, Monsieur Rider!” Valmont’s voice was hard and now he turned his own dark eyes contemptuously towards Hayden who, with a sigh, stood up slowly.

“
Are you sure you’re alright with this?” he asked Karla quietly.

“
Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be?” she asked, trying to keep her tone light and cheerful.

As he began to move forward, he realised that something was in his way. Looking down, he saw that Eloise
’s hand, released from the Marquis’s grip, now reached out towards him. With a grimace of annoyance he pushed it away and began to walk from the Galerie, barely looking to see whether she followed him or not.

It was only as he entered the corridor outside, fuming and wondering whether he should turn around and drag Karla away from the lascivious Marquis, that he realised that the former porn star was standing in his way. His annoyance was about to give way to disgust
, but that feeling disappeared when he looked at her properly.

Eloise was standing now, her hands placed together in front of her and her head bowed slightly as though in shame, for all the world looking like a young, foolish girl in the body of a woman who had grown too quickly. Remembering the mild but cutting insults that Valmont had thrown her way, Hayden realised that he had no desire to add to such petty humiliations and began to walk off rapidly.

It was not long before he realised that he was lost. Damn it! There had been a time when he could memorise any building perfectly, a useful skill for a burglar, but something about his emotions conspired with the elegant, treacherous architecture of Chateau de Tour to confuse him. He was almost glad for a moment that Eloise was with him as a guide.

“
You didn’t say much about how the two of you met.” he asked abruptly. He’d meant to make some meaningless small talk, to try and put her at her ease, but instead he simply spoke what was on his mind.

“
He was at Cannes. I was making a movie—
Salopes Anales IV
—and he would come onto the set to watch.”

“
And he liked that?” Hayden asked, slightly taken aback by the bluntness of her reply. “To watch, I mean?”

She shrugged.
“I guess so. He liked more to take me in the ways he’d seen men use me during the day.”

“
Fucking weirdo,” Hayden couldn’t help but mutter under his breath. Eloise smiled at this.

“
And wouldn’t you like to do that, Sebastian?” she asked, moving closer to him.

“
I don’t know,” he replied. To his astonishment, he suddenly realised that he felt slightly prudish—and also a little ashamed. He could guess the things that Lupa had done in a movie entitled
Salopes Anales
, and was confused by his own reaction: some animal part of him would have gladly taken Eloise in a dozen ways, but the thought of the perverted Marquis touching Karla made him feel sick. He began to walk back in the direction they had come, but Eloise placed her hand on his chest.

“
Don’t,” she said, very quietly. “I realised that you like things more… vanilla, as they say.”

“
Vanilla?” he said, almost laughing. “What the hell do you know about me?”

“
More than you can possibly imagine,” she said, her eyes shining more deeply now as she let her hand slide down his chest, beneath his jacket, her fingers lingering about his belt.

“
You don’t know anything about me at all,” he retorted angrily, pushing that hand away from him. She simply laughed at this and walked past him, beckoning with her finger. Any embarrassment she’d displayed in the Galerie was long gone now, and her hips swayed from side to side as she placed one high-heeled foot in front of the other.

“
I know you’ve got a big cock, Sebastian. A
very
big cock. Come along. Valmont will be angry if I don’t show off his home to you.”

“
And do you always do what he wants, like his little lapdog?” Hayden asked sarcastically. She paused for a moment, looking back over her shoulder, her face slightly coy and coquettish.

“
If it suits me,” she replied.

Still annoyed
—more now that he was entranced by the way her hips moved as she walked, and forgetting that beneath the satin of her dress were buttocks scored by Valmont’s blows (a memory that, when it surfaced, almost shocked Hayden with its perverse possibilities)—Hayden followed. From time to time, Eloise would point out some magnificent room, many of them ancient and almost decadent in their aristocratic sense of entitlement, others filled with all the satisfactions that modernity could bring. He saw a large swimming pool and gym fit for an Olympic team, an armoury with various antique swords and modern pistols, a cinema that made him wonder if Lupa’s entire back catalogue were stored there, and a huge den filled with soft furnishings and luscious rugs that, he suspected, was one of the Marquis’s more normal rumpus rooms, a heavy wooden door leading off the other side.