Read Online The Night That Started It All by Anna Cleary - Free Book Online Page B

petit déjeuner
!’ an excited voice relayed from close at hand.
    ‘Comment!
Pas
de petit déjeuner
?’
    Until that ripple of concern about her non-breakfast electrified the crowd, Shari hadn’t really noticed people streaming from the chapel and regrouping. Some had positioned themselves quite near to her and Luc, and were scrutinising her every move.
    From under her chic
chapeau
, Tante Laraine in particular was watching her with an expression Shari couldn’t quite interpret. Well, how would she? It was a very French expression. Though encountering the woman’s disconcertingly shrewd gaze a second time, Shari corrected that analysis. A very
womanly
expression.
    She wished she could melt through the stonework. Didn’t these people understand a woman’s need to retch in private? Several of them seemed anxious to remedy her plight, talking rapidly about taking her somewhere and plying her with food and blankets. Judging by the offers and counter-offers one relative tossed to another, and all with cool determined smiles, she gathered there was some sort of a polite contest under way.
    Tante Marise for one was warmly insistent that Shari should go home with her and try a little
bouillon
and an egg.
    Luc frowned at that and shook his head, instantly quashing the idea. The uncle bounded forward with an offer, but ata cool steel glance from Luc the words died on the old boy’s lips and he retreated.
    Then Tante Laraine intervened. Shari thought she could detect her resemblance to her son. While austerely gracious, this Laraine exuded a certain authority. Shari gathered the matriarch was strongly in favour of whisking her
chez Laraine
and feeding her some energising
chocolat
.
    Luc, however, seemed even less keen on his mother having first shot at Shari. ‘
Non
,’ he said ruthlessly. ‘
Pas du chocolat
.’ He murmured something to hold them all at bay, then put his arm around Shari and held her close against his lean, powerful body.
    ‘Come. You are shivering. We need to get you out of here.’
    ‘Oh, but …’ she quavered, regretting the
chocolat
. Even the
bouillon
. Now that her nausea had passed she really was quite cavernously empty. The egg would have been heaven. And if it had come with some hot buttered toast … ‘I—I—I haven’t properly expressed my condolences.’
    He gave her a sardonic glance. ‘I believe you have made your feelings perfectly clear.
Parfaitement
.’
    It was glaringly apparent from his tone that the French despised a show of excess emotion. Shari cursed herself for her weakness. On top of everything else he thought was wrong with her, she had to keep giving into this crass emotionalism. It just had to stop.
    Unexpectedly, a ray of watery sun pierced the grey world and lit the amber depths of his dark eyes, their glow sizzling through her bloodstream.
    Luc steered her across to the first of several long, sleek limos that had silently drawn up in the last few minutes, and she went without resistance. Waving the driver back to the wheel, he opened the rear door for her himself and urged her inside. Shari sank into the warmth, grateful for the comfort.
    She waited until he’d given his instructions to the driver andwas settled at the other end of the wide seat before impressing him with her serene dignity.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she said stiffly. ‘I don’t usually make such a spectacle of myself. I don’t know what got into me. I feel—
mortified
to have embarrassed everyone.’
    ‘No need to apologise.’ A tinge of amusement momentarily relieved the saturnine severity of his expression. ‘They loved it. They’ll talk about it for months.’
    She flushed. Though she kept her voice low, it still sounded fraught and emotional. She couldn’t seem to control that. ‘Heaven only knows what they think of me. I’m surprised they were so kind.’
    His voice, on the contrary, was silky smooth. ‘Why wouldn’t they be kind? It is clear you are the very model of a