Read Fairchild's Lady (Culper Ring Series) for Free Online

You would cross the duc de Remi? You must not, or we will all pay.”
    “Not if we are out of his reach. Maman, if we go to England—”
    “I cannot!” The shout and wide eyes made her mother look more like a child than an esteemed matron of the court. More like a frightened bride than a widow.
    Julienne released Isaac’s hand so she could wrap her arms aroundher. “You can. You yourself said he is a good man. And he wants you back.”
    “ Non . He does not. I said things to him in my last letters he will not have forgiven. Made accusations…no. It has been too long. It is too late.”
    “My lady.” Fairchild held out a hand, palm up in a gesture of pleading. “If all wrongs had not been forgiven, if it were too late, then he would not have begged me to risk a second trip into France to convince you to come home. He has regrets too—many, I would guess, though he did not share them all with me. But he did say his greatest one was not coming after you sooner and missing so many years of your lives.” His gaze locked on Julienne’s again. “And he expressed the deepest yearning to know his daughter.”
    She gave her mother a squeeze. “I want to meet him. I want to know my father. This is an opportunity I never thought I would have.”
    Mère pulled away and swiped at her eyes. “You speak as if it were so very simple. As if there were not a lifetime to be bridged, as if one of the most powerful men in France were not determined to marry you. As if we could leave with no consequences.”
    Bitterness pounced and fought for control of Julienne’s tongue, making her want to point out that, no, leaving always had consequences, as her mother should have known twenty-five years ago, but she bit back the words and drew in a steadying breath. “I am willing to accept whatever comes from it.”
    “Julienne.”
    She shook her head again at the surprise in her mother’s tone. “All my life I have done exactly what you instructed, but I intend to do this with or without you. Know that as you consider your decision.”
    “You baffle me.” Indeed, Mère frowned as she studied her and then Fairchild. “I never thought you prone to rash decisions. You cannot say within minutes of hearing a story that you will leave with no thought, no prayer. Not when it could well mean your life—socially, if not literally.”
    How could Julienne explain that she knew this was the answer to her prayers without making her mother think her as impulsive as she had been in marrying Julienne’s father?
    She opened her mouth to try, but Isaac spoke before she could. “Iam the first to grant the need for thought and prayer,” he said quietly, “but I beg you to think and pray quickly. France is ripe for uprising, and getting you to England will be difficult enough without that added to the mix.”
    Mère’s hands raised in exasperation. “And so we should simply trust you? You, a total stranger? You could be a pretender claiming a false association with my husband, a pirate wanting to ransom us, a murderer interested only in luring us out here alone so you might—”
    “Mère!” Julienne settled her hand on Isaac’s arm to comfort him, to assure him she believed no such nonsense. Though when she glanced at his face, he seemed more amused by the suggestions than offended.
    He tilted his head and smiled. “I have faults aplenty, madame, but I must say this is the first anyone has thought to wonder if I am a pirate or his like.”
    Her mother gave him a glare that had shriveled many a man in the court. Fairchild, however, did not so much as flinch, even when she added that low hum that sounded as though she were finding every imaginable flaw. “Then what are you, monsieur? Other than a spy.”
    “I am not —” He came to an abrupt halt and drew in a quick breath. The muscle under Julienne’s hand tensed. “I am not a spy by profession. I am the grandson of a duke, the son of an earl.”
    Her mother arched a single, deadly brow.