“Have no fear. He knows you’re the innocent here. My issue with her goes back years.”
Their eyes met. His had darkened until there was no more blue left to be seen.
“Lance—”
“Do me a favor and sit down while I talk to you?” he said emotionally. “After your emergency visit to the clinic the other day, this is all you need to suffer a relapse. If anything happened to the baby because of me—”
The fear in his eyes and voice drove her to obey his suggestion. In truth, since the ugly confrontation with Corinne, she felt drained.
After she sat back against the pillows, he leaned over to ease her legs onto the bed. Every touch increased her awareness of him.
Like before, he drew the chair close to the bed and sat down. She watched him run a hand through his hair in a gesture that could have meant resignation or defeat. Andrea had the impression he was tired, as if he’d been wrestling with the same nightmare for years.
It brought out her compassion, a reaction she fought against, yet she doubted he was aware of its effect on her.
His head reared. “Where to begin,” he muttered.
She moistened her dry lips. “Try the beginning.”
A nerve hammered at the corner of his mouth. “In the beginning, there was a happy family of three. I was halfway through my engineering studies at the University in Rennes where I was living in an apartment when mother came down with the flu. She had a low immune system, and it took its toll on her.
“Rennes is only a forty minute drive from here, so I moved back home temporarily. Papa and I watched her like a hawk, but we couldn’t prevent her from catching the pneumonia that took her life.”
“How awful,” Andrea whispered. A tight band squeezed her lungs to think Lance had come home from the military to discover his father suffering from the same condition.
“It was a hellish time.” His eyes had a wintry look. “Life wasn’t the same for either of us after that. I went on to finish up my degree, but Papa fell into a decline. When I graduated, his closest friends Helene and Yves Dupuis gave a party for me.
“It was there my father met an attractive divorcée named Odette de la Grange. She was from Paris. According to Helene, Odette’s husband had divorced her, but left her well enough off.
“Her daughter Corinne was reputed to have suffered from the divorce and had been in and out of several unsatisfactory relationships. A strong hand was what she needed. She was twenty-two at the time, two years younger than myself.
“Papa was lonely. In his vulnerable state both needy women brought out his protective instincts. So he married Odette who it turned out had no money left. Papa didn’t worry about that. He was much more concerned about taking care of them and being a good father to Corinne.”
“Your father’s a sweetheart.”
Lance grimaced. “Unfortunately he had no idea how much more his ambitious stepdaughter wanted from life.”
“You mean she wanted you.“
There was a sustained pause before she heard him say, “Yes.”
Andrea took a fortifying breath. “She’s a beautiful woman.”
A strange sound came from his throat.
She locked her arms around her knees. “What did Corinne do?”
“What didn’t she do—” he bit out. “Everywhere I turned, there she was. To please Papa, I made an effort to be her friend, but she had something else in mind. She was like my shadow. I couldn’t shake her. Before long she became repugnant to me, but of course I didn’t want to tell him.
“It had taken him so long to consider remarrying, the last thing he needed was to find out Odette’s daughter had problems only a psychiatrist could help her solve, mainly abandonment issues.”
Andrea nodded. “While we were downstairs, she mentioned that her father had left her early in life.”
Lance used the heel of his hand to rub his eyes. “About a week before my father’s wedding I was invited to spend a few days at Mont Saint Michel with a girlfriend whose parents ran a restaurant there. I needed the break and told Papa where I’d be if he needed me.
“The next thing I knew, Corinne showed up alone with her usual sob story of feeling left out. Could she hang around with us?
“To say I was shocked is putting it mildly. She was totally out of line, Andrea. A normal mother would have taken her daughter in hand, but Odette wasn’t normal, either.”
“Obviously.”
“My girlfriend couldn’t believe it, but she was great about it. She made Corinne feel welcome, which prevented the trip from turning into a complete disaster. But my aversion to Corinne reached a new low. I could scarcely abide her presence and avoided her whenever possible.
“After the wedding I assumed she would go back to Paris where she’d been living with her mother. But as my father was leaving for the South of France on his honeymoon he said, “Odette couldn’t afford to keep up her apartment, so I’ve told Corinne she can live with her mother and me for the time being.
“The news twisted my gut. I’d just graduated from college and had arranged to live in Rennes while I worked at a hydraulics plant there. But knowing Corinne would track me down and never leave me alone meant that idea was out.
“After the reception I went to my room in a complete funk. That’s where I found Corinne naked in my bed waiting for me.”
Andrea groaned.
“I was repulsed. When I told her to go to her own suite, she refused. The horror story had begun in earnest.”
She stared at Lance. No one could make up something so awful.
“There was only one thing to do. I packed my things and left the château. She chased after me all the way to my car wearing my robe. Do you know what she said to me?”
“I can’t imagine.”
“If you walk away from me, Lance Malbois, I’ll tell our parents you tried to rape me.”
Andrea was aghast.
“I told her to go to hell, then I drove away and stayed at Giles’s house. He’s my best friend. We talked everything over and came to the conclusion that the only thing I could do was leave the country for an indefinite period. That way Corinne couldn’t have access to me on any level, and she’d give up.”
“That’s why you joined the military?” Andrea cried.
He eyed her solemnly. “It was the only solution.”
“What a brilliant move on your part,” Andrea murmured. “You had a legitimate excuse for being gone where she couldn’t come after you. But it had to be the last thing you ever thought of doing in your life.”
“I was young, I needed to leave and it seemed like an exciting option,” his voice grated.
“Your father must have suffered terrible pain when he found out.”
“Except for the fact that he had a new wife and stepdaughter to keep him occupied. By the time their marriage ended he was used to my being gone.
“I must say that from the beginning he hid it well. Once he got back from his honeymoon, I phoned to tell him I’d decided to go into the service as a classified officer where I could use my engineering training. I half expected to hear that Corinne had carried out her threat, and he wanted an accounting. When he answered, I was prepared for the worst.
“To my astonishment, he said he was proud of me for choosing to serve our country. Then he confided what he’d learned from Corinne.
“Apparently