Percy laughed. “That sounds ominous.” Then he halted, forcing Heathbrook to stop, too. “Are you joining us, Mademoiselle Bernard?”
“If I’m allowed,” she said coolly.
Heathbrook could have kicked himself for letting her think otherwise. “Of course you’re allowed,ma chérie.Why wouldn’t I want my fiancée along?”
Percy appeared surprised by that but swiftly hid his reaction. “So, you managed to snag Mademoiselle Bernard, did you?” He gave Heathbrook an assessing glance. “Good for you. And lucky, too, since otherwise, I might have snagged her first.”
With her free hand, Giselle took Heathbrook by the arm. “You could havetried,anyway,” she teased Percy, then gave him one of her musical laughs.
Heathbrook fought a scowl. He didn’t like the idea of Giselle flirting with Percy. He hated the idea of Percy flirting with her. And he positively despised the fact that he felt that way.
She was already halfway to twisting him about her finger as it was; if he gave in to jealousy, he’d soon be putting the shackle on his own leg. “I’m no fool,” he drawled, feigning nonchalance. “I can tell a good woman when I see one.”
“It took you long enough,” Giselle said, her expression veiled. “I have known you already for ten years,non?”
“I take my time when I’m choosing a prospective wife.” Heathbrook looped his arm about her waist and pulled her close. “I like to be thorough.”
“Ah, but were you being thorough, old chap?” Percy asked. “Or simply sowing your wild oats?”
She cast him a gleaming smile. “Yes,mon chéri.Which is it?”
“I’m not fool enough to answer that,” he said, somehow managing to chuckle, though it sounded false even to his own ears.
Then he halted outside the door to the drawing room. “Here we are.”
Percy grabbed a tray of glasses of champagne from a passing waiter as Heathbrook opened the door to find the room still empty. Then Heathbrook nodded to indicate they should all enter.
After they did so, Heathbrook closed the door. “So, tell me, Percy, how in hell did you manage to return to England when everyone said you died in Arras?”
Chapter 9
Wondering the same thing, Giselle set her plate down on a card table, then perched on the edge of one of its chairs.
“Clearly, I didn’t die in Arras.” Sir Percy laid the tray of champagne glasses on the card table and sat down on another of its chairs. “Unless you suspect me of being an impostor.”
“Of course not,” Heath retorted. “But I would certainly like to know how the rumor about your demise got started.”
“It probably began when I didn’t show up in Arras,” Sir Percy said dryly.
That clearly caught Heath off guard, which was surprising, since nothing else today had seemed to do so. He certainly had not seemed rattled by Sir Percy’s comments about his snagging her and sowing his wild oats.
“That one you will definitely have to explain,” Heath said, finally joining them at the table with his plate of food.
“The short version is that on the way to Arras I escaped my captors,” Sir Percy said. “So, I can only assume that the two gendarmes told their superiors I had died. Better that than revealing how they’d managed to lose me.”
Heath’s eyes narrowed. “Howhadthey managed to lose you?Jon, Scovell, Morris, and I didn’t succeed in getting away from Verdun by so much as a mile.”
Sir Percy shook his head. “Yes, I heard that the escape we originally planned for the five of us didn’t work. Throughout my own escape, I imagined you four wending your way to England. I was rather hoping to join you once I got home.”
“When did you find out that they had not reached here?” Giselle asked.
“It took some months, partly because of how long I spent navigating my way through French territory. As so many others who escaped did, I crossed the Rhine into Germany, traveled through Austria, and then through Italy until I reached Trieste, where I could buy passage to England.”
Since this seemed the beginning of a long tale, Giselle started eating.
“But it made more sense to bypass London and go straight up the Channel to Sunderland’s port,” Sir Percy went on. “Once there I wrote my family to have me fetched and brought home to Northumberland. That’s all I wanted—to reach Tindale Castle and my mother.”
“Ah, yes, I forgot.” Heath toyed with a shrimp on his plate. “She was your reason for wanting to escape with us. As I recall, she was desperately ill. How is she now?”