Beloved by Annette Chaudet Page A

watched a cloud of melancholy descend over Christina, knowing he was the cause of her unhappiness. Taking her hand, he led her from the table to her father’s big chair that faced the warm glow of the marble fireplace. He sat down and easily pulled her into his lap.
    Christina, without saying a word, slipped her arms around his neck and laid her cheek against his shoulder. They had shared so many evenings like that, from the time she was small and Richard had spent many a summer night reading to her at Beauvu.
    “Beloved, why are you so sad?” He knew the answer, but hoped to find some way to comfort her.
    “You know how I hate for us to be apart, and it seems that each time I have to say goodbye to you, it becomes more difficult.”
    “But we have all the rest of our lives to spend together. Despite the way you feel tonight, it really won’t be that much longer until we’re married, Chrissa.” He ran his hand gently over her hair. “Whenever you feel like you’ve been waiting a long time for us to be together, just remember I’ve been waiting six years longer.”
    Christina sighed, unconvinced. She’d heard these arguments countless times. It didn’t change the way she felt whenever she was away from him.
    “Will you be back at Beauvu this summer?” she asked hopefully.
    Richard hesitated. He knew she wouldn’t be pleased, but he was also unwilling to give her any sort of false hope.
    “I’m afraid not. But with any luck, I’ll be home for Christmas.”
    She wasn’t expecting that! Her worst fears were that they might only have a few weeks together in the summer, but to say he wouldn’t be home at all was unthinkable. She pushed away from him.
    “But what am I to do all summer without you?”
    He couldn’t help but laugh at the note of outrage in her voice. “Work on your trousseau ?” he offered.
    “Richard!”
    He didn’t want to tease her. More than anything else in the world he wanted to make her happy.
    “Chrissa, do you love me?”
    “Of course I do. You know that.”
    “And do you know—really know in your heart—how much I love you?”
    “Yes,”
    “Then you know that I don’t like this time we have to spend apart any more than you do. But I don’t want to be away from you after we’re married, and if that’s what you want, too, then you’re just going to have to be patient with me for one more year.”
    “I know. I’m sorry,” she said, kissing him lightly on the cheek before she leaned back against his shoulder again. “It’s just that things are different now. It seems each time I have to say goodbye to you, I miss you ten times more than before. I only feel like half a person when I’m away from you.”
    “I know, Sweetheart, believe me, I know.”
    Richard’s eyes closed and he wished with all his heart that the last year of their separation was past, that they were wed, and that he could take her in his arms and show her how very much he loved her.

 
    Rien au Paradis, rien sur la Terre, peut me l’arracher;
    Puisque c’est l’amour, qui nous a attachés.
    —Sauvalle

    Nothing in Heaven or Earth can take her from me
    For we two are bound by Love.

Chapter 5

    Juillet 1752
    Arles

    Richard hadn’t expected to find himself in Arles again until December, but his sister Cybelle’s request that he help her engage a tutor for her children, meshed with an opportunity to help an old friend, and brought him back to Provence in the middle of July. And now he was looking forward to surprising Christina, for he’d said nothing of his impending visit in his letters and had asked his sister not to mention it.
    The Marquis’ carriage met them in Arles the day after their ship docked. He would have preferred to ride, but Lauro hadn’t been on a horse in some time and Richard had no wish to reintroduce a saddlesore young man to Cybelle.
    Laurenzo Paulo Floriani was a childhood friend, his father a silk merchant in Rome. He’d handled the books and recordkeeping for the