‘Success?’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘You kissed me that you might make me find it for you instead?’
‘I had no such intention. I certainly didn’t mean to kiss you.’
‘Parbleu, you deserve I should stick this dagger in you this minute.’
Gerald raised his brows. ‘For kissing you, or for not meaning to do so?’
‘Imbecile,’ exclaimed Melusine impatiently. ‘You should not kiss me at all, and undoubtedly I should kill you.’
‘Undoubtedly,’ Gerald agreed. He held her eyes. ‘Why don’t you?’
Melusine frowned at him, grasping the dagger more firmly. ‘You wish to die?’
‘Not in the least. But I shan’t try to stop you. You have threatened to kill me for nothing, I know not how many times. Now I have done something for which you might be pardoned if you did kill me. So here is your chance, Mademoiselle Charvill.’
He held his hands out of the way, surrendering his chest for her assault. Her eyes flashed and she withdrew the dagger, pulling away from him.
‘But it is idiot. Certainly I cannot kill you if you tell me to do so.’
‘Only in hot blood, eh?’ grinned Gerald.
‘Exactement.’
Gerald held out his hand, and she meekly gave the dagger up to him. He did not pocket it, but sat hefting it lightly from hand to hand, watching the girl thoughtfully.
‘I might have killed you,’ she snapped, ‘if only you did not say anything. For my blood you made it very hot indeed.’
‘Did I so?’ Gerald said, amused. ‘I assure you it was mutual.’
Which effectually silenced her. She blushed prettily, and in a moment regained command of her tongue.
‘Why did you kiss me?’
‘I don’t know,’ Gerald admitted.
‘There you have soldiers. For nothing they kiss.’
‘Oh, do they?’ Gerald said, sudden wrath kindling. ‘I suppose I need not ask to which other soldier you refer.’
‘That is not your affair. En tout cas, we are not talking of that kiss, but of this one.’
‘Must we talk of it? I’m trying to forget it.’
Melusine glared. ‘I find you excessively rude. Why should you wish to forget it? Unless it is that you did not enjoy it.’
‘I didn’t say I did not enjoy it,’ Gerald protested.
She smiled. ‘Eh bien, does that mean that you will do it again?’
‘Not if I can help it,’ Gerald uttered, alarmed.
‘Ah.’ Melusine sighed in a satisfied way. ‘So it is that you could not help it. That can be very useful, that.’
‘You little fiend,’ exclaimed Gerald wrathfully. ‘If you imagine you’re going to use one ungentlemanly act to manipulate me, you very much mistake the matter.’
‘Yes, but when I think about this, I do not think I can do so,’ she said candidly. ‘For that, I must conceal that I also have enjoyed the kiss.’
‘It’s too late for that,’ Gerald told her evenly. ‘But the fact remains that you should not have enjoyed it, you were quite right to threaten to kill me, and I—God help me!—should not have kissed you at all.’
‘Then why,’ demanded Melusine, ‘did you do it?’
Gerald closed his eyes. ‘Here we go again.’
She giggled suddenly. ‘Gérard, you are a great fool.’
‘Indeed, I’m beginning to think so,’ he said ruefully. ‘But I’m hanged if I know why you find it so amusing.’
‘But it is stupide. Each time that we meet I try to kill you. Each time also we quarrel, and even if you are laughing very much, you become angry. And still you interest yourself in my affairs. And when I ask you why it is you do so, you have no answer.’
‘Now you come to mention it, it is stupid,’ Gerald said, struck. ‘Hilary was right. He will have it that I’ve taken leave of my senses.’
‘That is silly. Certainly you have a reason.’ She eyed him. ‘It does not seem to me that you can be an emissary for that pig.’
‘You mean Valade? Certainly not.’
A little sigh escaped her. ‘I did not think so.’
Gerald reached out and took her hand, enclosing it between both his own. ‘Can’t you trust me a little?’
