Protection

Chapter Thirty

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The streets of Paris were filled with fashionable people, all merry and cheery.

Adrien led Alex through the crowd, their horses pinned back at the place they were staying, where they had stayed and freshened up that morning. Alex had slept an hour, but no more than that. His exhaustion ran high, and even showed in his face. He looked as if five years had been added to him.

    He did not care to know about the height of fashion. He disregarded the attractive females who sashayed close to him on the streets.

  He was sick.

“Monsieur,” Adrien sighed, pointing to a tall, stone building. From the outside, Alex perceived that it was unsanitary. “That is the only place she could be. If she is imprisoned.”

  Alex exhaled intensely. “Then that,” he paused, eyes studying the structure, “is where we will search for her.”

  Adrien hesitated. “I was mistaken, and…please, do not….  s’il vous plait, do not tell her.”

“I will not utter a word.” A thought crept into his mind. “But. The question is, truthfully, do you love her?” He faced the emaciated man. There was an uncertain light in the bluish eyes.

  Wordlessly, he shook his head. Yes, he loved her.

Save for some reason, Alex could not believe him.

But this was the man, the saint she had dreamt about…certainly, he loved her. Did he not?

Perhaps it was Alex’s own pride that whispered this. He wondered if perchance, his conceit said this. That he loved her better than even the love of her life could.

Of course, Adrien had loved her first. And she had-

Alex did not care to think of what she had disclosed to him. Alternately, he wondered if she had mentioned the fact to Sterling. Perhaps that was part of all this bloody rubbish.

  He was suddenly angry.

Sterling. What did Sterling have to do with any of this? Why was he a part of this?

  Blast it all, there were so many questions! He felt the heat of his fury.

Why was Sterling doing this? Where had Adrien been this whole time? Why was Louisa-

Oh. He hadn’t thought of Louisa…had there been something she knew? He wondered if she had known something.

  He pushed the thoughts away. He would think of all those things later. At the present, all Alex needed to do was figure out a way to get her out.

    “Is there any chance that we can get in without detection?”

“I was there once. If there are as many guards as before…non, it is impossible. “

Alex watched the structure, as if waiting for it to bop across the streets. “Nothing is impossible.”

He thought for a moment, eyeing the windows and then turned to Adrien.

“I believe that I have an idea. But let’s not talk here.”

“Monsieur, she may already be-“

Alex revolved, ignoring the comment, and strode down the boulevard, knowing, and praying and hoping that his plan would succeed. If he had the saints of fate on his side, surely he would win.