Page 86 of A Proposition for the Comte

‘Take him outside and hold him.’ This came from Aurelian as he stood sheltering Violet across the room from where Douglas Cummings lay. His arms came around her strong and solid, the smoke wafting about them making her cough.

Was there fire, too? She suddenly saw flame take on the fabric of the sofa, threatening to light the curtains.

Aurelian moved to lift the rug across the fire, jerking away the long curtains from their pelmets and stomping on them with fervour, his hands and face blackened by the task.

Finally there was a silence.

Much, much later they lay in the main chamber of the town house in Portman Square, the curtains pulled back from the window frame so that they could look outside at the night.

The glass fragments from the explosion had been removed from Aurelian’s face, the process leaving him with a swollen eye and a split lip.

‘So where do you think the gold will be?’

‘Antoinette Herbert herself has probably stashed it away. Mountford will find it, believe me, just as he will easily track her down and he will be the one to return it to Paris.’

‘What of your father?’

‘That’s part of the bargain I made. He will be released into Mountford’s custody and he will bring him back to England.’

‘To live at Compton Park?’

‘No. He will want to be with my sister at the house of my aunts’ outside of London.’

‘My goodness. I shall inherit a family that grows by the moment, then.’

‘You will like them, too, for they are good people.’

‘And Amaryllis?’

‘They can come home when they wish to.’

‘Will the gold go to Napoleon?’

‘I doubt it. Our countries might have been at war but those with true power always keep doors open for other opportunities.’

‘Like you do, Aurelian?’

‘Less so now than ever before. Now I know what I want and it is only you. We can be married as soon as everyone is home again.’

She laughed at that and took his hand. ‘Thank you for all you did for me today. I hope these don’t hurt too much.’ She touched with one finger his face in all the places the glass had punctured.

‘Kiss me and they will feel better.’

When she turned to him in the semi-darkness she did a lot more than that.