Тесс Герритсен – In Their Footsteps / Stolen: In Their Footsteps / Stolen (страница 22)
“I promise,” said Richard.
“Good. Because she’s all we have left.” Sadly he touched Beryl’s cheek. “All we have left of Madeline.”
“WERE THEY ALWAYS that way together?” asked Beryl. “Reggie and Helena?”
Richard kept his eyes on the road as he drove. “What do you mean?”
“The sniping at each other. The put-downs.”
He chuckled. “I’m so used to hearing it, I hardly notice it anymore. Yes, I guess it was that way when I met them twenty years ago. I’m sure part of it’s due to his resentment of Helena’s money. No man likes to feel, well, kept.”
“No,” she said quietly, looking straight ahead. “I suppose no man would.”
“Part of it, too,” said Richard, “is the fact that Reggie never really liked being in Paris, and he never liked being a banker. Helena talked him into taking the post.”
“She doesn’t seem to like it here much, either.”
“No. And so there they are, always sniping at each other. I’d see them at parties with your parents, and I was always struck by the contrast. Bernard and Madeline seemed so much in love. Then again, every man who met your mother couldn’t help but fall in love, just a little.”
“What was it about her?” asked Beryl. “You said once that she was…enchanting.”
“When I met her, she was about forty. Oh, she had a gray hair here and there. A few laugh lines. But she was more fascinating than any twenty-year-old woman I’d ever met. I was surprised to hear that she wasn’t born to nobility.”
“She was from Cornwall. Old Spanish blood. Dad met her one summer while on holiday.” Beryl smiled. “He said she beat him in a footrace. In her bare feet. And that’s when he knew she was the one for him.”
“They were well matched, in every way. I suppose that’s what fascinated me—their happiness. My parents were divorced. It was a pretty nasty split, and it soured me on the whole idea of marriage. But your parents made it look so easy.” He shook his head. “I was more shocked than anyone about their deaths. I couldn’t believe that Bernard would—”
“He didn’t do it. I know he didn’t.”
After a pause, Richard said, “So do I.”
They drove for a moment without speaking, the lights of passing traffic flashing at them through the windshield.
“Is that why you never married?” she asked. “Because of your parents’ divorce?”
“It was one reason. The other is that I’ve never found the right woman.” He glanced at her. “Why didn’t you marry?”
She shrugged. “Never the right man.”
“There must have been someone in your life.”
“There was. For a while.” She hugged herself and stared out at the darkness rushing past.
“Didn’t work out?”
She managed a laugh. “I’m lucky it didn’t.”
“Do I detect a trace of bitterness?”
“Disillusionment, really. When we first met, I thought he was quite extraordinary. He was a surgeon about to leave on a mercy mission to Nigeria. It’s so rare to find a man who really cares about humanity. I visited him, twice, in Africa. He was in his element out there.”
“And what happened?”
“We were lovers for a while. And then I came to realize how he saw himself. The great white savior. He’d swoop into a primitive hospital, save a few lives, then fly home to England for a bracing dose of adulation. Which, it turned out, he could never get enough of. One adoring woman wasn’t sufficient. He had to have a dozen.” Softly she added, “And I wanted to be the only one.” She leaned back against the car seat and stared out at the glow of Paris. The City of Light, she thought. Still, there were those shadows, those dark alleys and even darker secrets.
Back at the Place Vendčme, they sat for a moment in the parked car, not speaking, just sitting side by side in the gloom.
“Then I can’t talk you into leaving,” he said.
She looked out at the plaza, at the silhouette of two lovers strolling arm in arm through the darkness. “No. Not until he’s free. Not until we see this through to the end.”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.