The Maestro's Maker (14 page)

The intensity in his eyes frightened me.

“Now the one person who stood between us is gone, and you are not going to take

her place.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, determined not to show my fear.

“I have stood beside Claude-Michel longer than you have been alive,” François said.

“I have shared everything with him. I was with him in the war, and I saved him from that

Katarina woman.”

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That was a name that interested me, because I had heard Claude-Michel speaking to

Francois about finding her. “Saved him? How?”

“We were due back in Paris and he wasn’t going to leave. So I tipped off the local

constable, told him where the camp was. Added that a few of the men were forming a plot

to kidnap and rape one of the city’s high-placed young ladies.”

“They were?”

“Oh I don’t know,” he said with a flourish of his hand. “Probably. It doesn’t matter.

The camp was raided. I thought there would be beatings perhaps. But the Gypsies fought

them and the father was killed.”

“Katarina’s?”

François nodded. Something in his face changed and I could see he felt regret.

“Claude-Michel had learned to love the violin while listening to that man play. So

Katarina returned and put her father’s violin in our room as he slept. I was awake. She

told me to tell him, so I did. Of course, the next day, he struck me for not waking him. He

wanted to go and find her, but it was too late.”

“That is a terrible thing to do, telling the constable such a thing. It sounds like Claude-

Michel loved her.”

“That woman was almost forty years old, and a Gypsy. What would he have done? He

was twenty, with a life at court, in Paris, awaiting him. I saved him.”

“Does he know?”

“Perhaps.” For a while François was silent. “That was the violin your pirate destroyed.

His beloved Gypsy violin. The last vestige of that hopeless dream of Katarina. Or so I

thought. Now he insists on tracking down that woman’s son. I am not going to let a dead

woman or her bastard child stand between us,” he said.

Son?
I wanted to say. It was news to me.

“Or you,” he said with a sneer, swinging his legs off the side of the bench. “And now

I’d better wake our guard before the wolves get us all.” He climbed down into the floor

and straddled me on all fours. “Not one word of this to him. Understand...
cherie?
”

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“I understand,” I said.

He cupped my breast through my blouse.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “You don’t even like women.”

He tweaked my nipple painfully, trying to make me flinch. As he spoke he ran his

hand down my stomach, and my leg, pulling up my gown. “Let’s just say I’ve learned a

certain appreciation over the years. Claude-Michel has taken you, so when I take you, it

will be close to making love with him. You will be one more thing that ties us together,

like a favorite game. Or a toy.”

I gaped at him as his fingers found their way inside of me. He kept his eyes on me as

he worked them in and out, stimulating my clit with his thumb, awakening my body. I

didn’t expect what happened next, didn’t expect him to open his breeches and tease me

with the head of his erection.

“What are you doing, François?” I hissed at him.

“What Claude-Michel gave me the right to do,” he said, and pushed the length of

his erection into me. I couldn’t help but gasp. Then I looked at Jean. He opened his eyes

briefly, registered what was happening, and turned his back on us.

My body betrayed me, just as it always had with Gunnar. I was tired of fighting it,

so I raised my hips to meet his. If this was to be my place in their little “family,” then I

would enjoy what pleasure there was as a result, just as I had advised Florentine to do.

Becoming more excited, François lowered his head into my hair and warmed my neck

with his whispers.

“Do you remember the story he told you on the ship? Of spanking his wife?”

“Yes,” I whispered back. The sound of his voice in my ear lulled me into his rhythm.

“But you were delirious with fever.”

“Not so delirious that I was not aware the two of you talked. I remember that night

well. And Claude-Michel did not tell you what he was doing before he discovered his son

had not come to the palace.”

François paused to breathe in my ear while thrusting into me. My lips parted and I

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breathed with him as his body moved against mine. I could not believe this was happening,

could not believe how excited I had become by François’ rutting into me on the floor of

Bernardo’s carriage.

“He was chasing his newest conquest through the king’s labyrinth. And I was chasing

both of them.” He groaned with the memory and slowed his pace, pushing into me and

grinding. “There were many lovers in the labyrinth that night, and Claude-Michel had

to pardon himself many times. The girl was a young
marquese
, newly married. When he

caught her, I was on the other side of the hedge, well out of view. I heard her squeal, and

it made me desperate to see through the hedge, so I made a small hole with my hand. I

saw him holding her against him, pressing her stomach through her corset, and feeling

through the layers of her skirts. The night…smelled like horses and sweat.

“I had to force myself to breathe quietly while I touched myself, but I was so excited

by the sounds of their passion, and to hear her pretend to struggle against him.”

“Did you take out your erection?” I asked. His story had excited me too much to

resist.

“Yes. It was hard and dripping. I wanted to fuck that girl with Claude-Michel. I

wanted to fuck her as he fucked me at the same time. I was sure, at least, that I would

have her later, when he grew tired of her.”

His words troubled me for a moment, but I refused to think of Claude-Michel losing

interest, especially after he had said he wanted to keep me, as he had kept his wife and

Jean.

“She complained that he would ruin her wig, and whined about some promise he had

made to play his violin for her, that the queen found it most enchanting. It was true. But

he was not interested in violins. He wanted to take this girl, right there in the hedges. Just

as I am taking you now,” he added, lowering his voice dangerously.

It was my turn to groan.

“‘I have other talents,
Madame
, that I would prefer to demonstrate,’ is what he told

her, and pulled her skirt up over her thighs. I gasped with her as Claude-Michel put his

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fingers inside of her. He whispered, but I could still hear what he said. ‘Don’t make me

come for you in the small hours,
cherie
, when no one is awake to help you.’”

For a moment, François simply rocked his hips against me and I raised mine to meet

his. My hip rubbed against Jean’s
derriere
with our fucking, but he did not move to get

away from it.

“She asked him why,” François whispered. “‘Because then, my dear, I will have no

mercy. You will wake to find me in your bed, my eyes wild with desire.’ Of course,”

François breathed, “I knew those words well enough to whisper them as he whispered

them. ‘I will keep you from crying out, like this...’”

François put his hand over my mouth.

“Do you know what I will do to you then? Hmm?”

He looked at me so intently, I wondered if the story had lapsed into the present. I

wondered if the words were now for me. I simply stared at him, my worry igniting my

desire even more.

François spoke between clenched teeth. “‘I will take you without mercy, like an

animal. I will be a growling, snarling thing, and you will be helpless beneath me.’ When

I heard him say that, I spilled my pearls into the hedge.”

He gave me a self-satisfied look as his body claimed mine, but I did not care. His

thrusting and his breathing grew more insistent. Finally, he lowered his face into my hair

and breathed Claude-Michel’s name, increasing the force of his thrusting until he made

me whimper, emptying himself into me.

He stayed where he was for many moments, composing himself, gaining control of

his breathing. Then, suddenly, he raised himself on his knees and fastened his breeches.

“I wish to be with Claude-Michel alone,” he said. “Don’t disturb us.”

I nodded. When he had gone, I lay there and pleasured myself while listening to them,

until an orgasm warmed my belly and spread down my legs with tendrils of fire.

They spoke softly, but perhaps they had forgotten about vampire hearing, because

I understood all they said without difficulty. “Did you enjoy yourself this evening,
mon

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ami
?” François asked.

“It was extraordinary,” Claude-Michel said. “The brother and sister are quite a pair.”

I pulled myself away from Jean and opened the curtain so that I could see Claude-

Michel and François, then took François’s old place on the seat, leaning against the

carriage wall. Their voices came to me softly but clearly.

“Good,” François said. “I am glad you enjoyed it.”

François reached out and fondled a curl near Claude-Michel’s jaw. “You need

grooming,” he said.

“Yes,” Claude-Michel replied.

I felt a strange feeling—separate, knowing that the two men shared something I could

never penetrate. It saddened me.

For a while neither of them spoke. Then Claude-Michel broke the silence. “You know,

François, you have been with me longer than anyone. You have been beside me through

everything.”

“I have to make myself feel superior somehow,” François said.

Claude-Michel ignored the comment. “So much time has passed without my notice.

Now that everything has come to an abrupt halt...” Claude-Michel sighed. I wondered

if he was talking about the wedding plans he had been making for his son. Then he

continued. “Do you remember when we were boys and—” He stopped suddenly. “I am

still cutting myself on these damned fangs.”

François leaned over and kissed him, right on the mouth. I wanted to run out there and

pull his “golden locks” out by the roots. “I have loved you longer than you can imagine,”

he said.

Claude-Michel sighed. “I am not a man who speaks of love, François.”

“I know.”

The two sat in silence, while I sat in the carriage with my heart beating madly. I didn’t

hear them say anything else for a long time. I must have dozed. The next thing I knew,

the sun was rising, and Claude-Michel was standing.

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“They have slept long enough,” he said, and looked down at François, who was still

sitting with his back against the tree. “You want your consummation with Chloe, yes?”

Claude-Michel asked.

It felt as though my heart stopped. I did not like the sound of that.

“My...consummation?”

“The punishment for pulling your hair. It means something to you.”

My mouth went dry. I had hoped, just a little, that they would forget.

François stood. “It means you and I are the parents of this family,” he said.

“And what is Chloe?”

“Less than I.”

I felt my lips part. I felt as though I should be angered by those words, but they only

made me sink into myself. I felt hopeless.

Claude-Michel seemed to consider this. Then he nodded once and banged on the

carriage door. “Jean!” he called, and came in, nearly stepping on the boy. I did not try

to hide the fact that I had been watching them. Claude-Michel seemed not to notice.

François stared at me smugly.

Jean raised his head, blinking. “Both of you,” Claude-Michel said, glancing at me.

“Get them out here.”

I gave Jean a worried look. He nodded at Claude-Michel and got up. “
Oui, Monsieur
,”

he said and pulled on his pants and blouse, sliding out to climb into the back. I sat where

I was, looking from Claude-Michel to François. François looked at me with a mixture of

disdain and pleasure.

Within moments, Jean had the others up and sitting on a blanket near the still-smoking

embers. They were still groggy from their first bites. I crept out of the carriage without

my bodice, but remained standing with one hand on the open door. I felt as though I may

throw up at any moment. I couldn’t believe this was happening, that Claude-Michel was

going to let François whip me.

Florentine looked around with wide, panicked eyes. When she saw Claude-Michel,

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she whimpered and tried to scurry away. Jean crouched beside her and put his arm around

her thin shoulders. “Shh,” he said. “Shh. No one is going to hurt you today.”

“Unless she doesn’t do what she’s told,” Claude-Michel said.

Bernardo blinked up at him. “What? You—” He looked confused. His eyes

widened.

Florentine’s expression crumbled and she tried to squirm out of Jean’s grasp. Claude-

Michel squatted in front of her and touched her beneath the chin. “Did you sleep well?”

“Keep your hands off my sister,” Bernardo said.

I watched all of this in horror, knowing I was to be the main attraction of this

drama.

Claude-Michel turned to Bernardo and said nothing. Bernardo began to sweat. Claude-