Page 14 of A Sense of Paradise
‘Archie,’ she said in the heavily accented English that had once enthralled him. ‘It has been too long.’ She fixed him with a probing gaze that made him feel as though she wanted to devour him whole.
‘Eloise,’ he replied, indicating a seat in front of the fire.
She looked a little discouraged by his curt greeting but lowered herself elegantly into the chair. Archie took its twin on the other side of the fire with a good deal of space separating them. She glanced at Pawson, who stood impassively at the back of the room and Archie thought at first that she would ask him to leave. In the end she did not act so presumptuously and sent Archie a nervous smile.
‘I rejoice to see that you are so much more mobile.’
‘Which is not why you are here,’ Archie replied. ‘We had an agreement, Eloise, so why have you come? What is so important that you had to see me in person?’
‘It is Maurice,’ she said, biting at her lower lip in a manner that had once entranced him. ‘He is missing.’
‘Your brother?’ Archie shared a look with Pawson, who shrugged. ‘I am sorry to hear it, but what is that to me?’
‘How old is he now?’ Pawson asked.
‘He is sixteen and very impressionable. He adored you, Archie, and hung on your every word.’ She lowered her head. ‘We all did,’ she added, so softly that Archie barely caught the words.
Archie nodded, ignoring the mild rebuke and concentrating his thoughts upon Maurice. He had been fond of the boy too, but Eloise was right to say that he had been impressionable. He’d sneaked into his uncle’s chateau in Eloise’s wake when Eloise had first started to nurse Archie shortly after his arrival in France following several months of recovery in a private clinic in Switzerland. Maurice had been a small boy then, full of mischief and curiosity. Archie had taught him to speak English, told him stories about England and how he would be expected to behave if he’d been born an English gentleman. Maurice had lapped up every word and asked an endless stream of questions.
‘Why do you think I can help you to find him?’ Archie asked. ‘Is this not a situation better handled by the French authorities?’
Eloise again bit at her lip. Archie could see that she was not trying to be deliberately provocative and that she was exceedingly worried. ‘It would be if he were still in France, but I have reason to believe that he came here, to England.’
‘What is your father doing about the matter?’
‘He is concerned, and he is angry with Maurice for his disobedience, his unwillingness to knuckle down and learn what duties are expected of him in the vineyard now that he is old enough to take them up. He thinks Maurice is simply running wild and he refuses to come to England and search for him, especially not at this time of year.’
‘You clearly don’t think it’s simply a case of youthful high jinks. And so you came hoping that I would take up the search on your behalf.’
‘Certainly not.’ Eloise served Archie with an incensed look accompanied by a gallic shrug. ‘I know that what we once had cannot be rekindled, and I accept that. You never deceived me in that respect.’
He glanced at Pawson, whose expression remained impassive, despite the fact that his man thought he had inadvertently encouraged Eloise to have unrealistic expectations by allowing her to get too close to him. Perhaps he had, but when she had first come into his life, he had not expected to survive for long, and had been reckless in his pursuit of a distraction. By the time he realised that he would likely pull through and one day return to England to resume his position in society, he was in too deep with Eloise to withdraw. He did however become more circumspect, emphasising constantly that their relationship was a temporary affair. He thought a Frenchwoman would understand, and accept his conditions.
Clearly he had miscalculated, but her reason for coming to him appeared to be genuine. He was aware that she loved her brother unconditionally and felt responsible for him, given that her mother had died giving birth to him. Being so much older, Eloise had taken on the role of the only mother that Maurice had ever known. His father worked long hours in the vineyard and didn’t have much time to spare for his family, so perhaps Archie had become a father figure to the boy without his realising it.
He tamped down his guilty conscience and threw back his head to apply his mind to the problem. Eloise and Maurice were incredibly close and Archie found it difficult to believe that an impressionable young man would have run off without at least explaining to the sister he adored why he felt the need to go. He shared a glance with Pawson, whose own expression implied that he too thought there was something off-kilter about the entire affair.
The manner in which Eloise looked at Archie now without endeavouring to disguise the nature of her thoughts implied that her passion had not waned in the two years since their parting, warning him to remain on his guard.
‘What makes you think he came to England?’ Archie asked, stretching his injured leg in front of him and wincing against the pain as he straightened it. Eloise watched him, probably recalling that he hadn’t had nearly so much flexibility when he’d been in France. She opened her mouth, presumably to remark upon the fact, but then closed it again without speaking. She was being extremely careful not to give the wrong impression and stray onto personal territory, at least verbally.
But the unguarded passion in her expression gave her away. Her feelings for Archie had not changed. She didn’t wear a wedding band, he noticed, and hoped he was not the reason why she had declined all the offers that he felt sure must have come her way. He sighed inwardly, not liking himself much at that particular moment.
‘He left a note.’
Eloise rummaged in her stocking purse and handed the missive to Archie. He reached across to take it from her and their fingers briefly touched. The contact did nothing to invoke Archie’s passions but when Eloise gasped, Archie pretended not to notice. Instead, he concentrated upon reading the note.
‘He says he was coming to England with his friend, Francois. Who is Francois and what business does he have in this country?’
‘Francois deBois is his closest friend. I don’t think you ever met him, or would recall the occasion even if you had. He is the youngest son in the Chateau Chambrox.’
‘I do recall that vineyard.’
‘I am sure you do.’ Eloise flashed a brief smile. ‘They have a very pretty daughter. I think you remarked upon her once or twice.’
Archie shrugged. ‘I have no recollection.’
‘Well anyway, the pretty daughter, Celine, came to England to marry an aristocrat.’
