The Brooding Frenchman's Proposal. Rebecca Winters

      Laura nodded. She was the middle-aged woman who helped out with Paul and provided companionship for Chantelle during the day while Guy was at work.

      “She’s going on vacation for two weeks starting tomorrow. I’ve scheduled another woman to fill in, but I was hoping I could influence you to stay on while Françoise is gone, provided your work schedule could allow it.”

      “Guy—”

      “Let me finish,” he implored. “When Chantelle said you were welcome to stay and for as long as you wanted, I was overjoyed. Since the accident she hasn’t shown an interest in anyone. But she trusts you. After the way you took care of Paul in California, she loved you. Since you two have a history together, it’s obvious she doesn’t feel like you’ll ask more of her than she’s willing to give.”

      The man was desperate.

      “Much as I’d like to be of help, I’m not a doctor.”

      He shook his head. “She already has the best there is. I’m talking about her response to you. If you were to be around during the day, not every minute of course, I’m hoping that one of these mornings soon she’ll start to confide in you like she once did. It’s my opinion you could find a way to help her open up. I’d give everything I had for such a miracle.”

      Laura grew restless. “Today she responded to me, but you know as well as I do a short visit is a good one. I’m afraid that if I stayed, she’d grow to resent me being around and close up completely. I wouldn’t want you to take the risk of that happening.”

      “There’d be no risk. You’re a very peaceful person, and just what she needs. You handled Paul so beautifully she accepted you without question eleven years ago. That hasn’t changed. It’s why I feel you could be of help. If you would extend your time here a little longer, who knows what could happen.”

      “I don’t know, Guy.”

      “Just promise me you’ll think about it,” he begged. “Naturally I would pay you a generous salary.”

      Laura drew in a sharp breath. “I’m flattered to think you feel my presence could benefit her, but I would never take your money.” Laura managed just fine on the money she made earning her living, and she hated the idea of receiving money she hadn’t earned herself through hard work, even if she were entitled to it. She hadn’t touched the money the court had ordered Ted to pay her and was thinking of donating it to a charity.

      Laura’s experience with Ted had made her wary of men with a lot of money and power. Too late she realized Ted had chosen her to be his trophy wife, not the love of his life. Like all the Stillman men, he had thought nothing of being with other women while hiding behind his marriage to Laura, but it appeared that Guy, who could buy the Stillmans’ assets many times over, wasn’t cut from the same kind of cloth.

      “Does that mean you would consider staying here out of friendship then?” His eyes went suspiciously bright. “I might have died at dinner from lack of oxygen if you hadn’t acted as fast as you did. I feel closer to you now than ever. That’s why I’m going to tell you something very personal.

      “Chantelle and I have both been given a second chance at life, a life she used to embrace, but since the accident things have changed. We have drifted apart and I feel a gaping hole opening between us. In the past we always attended the Palio with the Charrières. This year she told me to go without her. I only went with Paul because she got agitated when I told her I wouldn’t leave her.

      “Something is terribly wrong and holding her back. The psychiatrist working with her is frustrated there has been no breakthrough yet. She hasn’t allowed me to make love to her since the accident. I love my wife, Laura. I’m willing to do anything to get her past that barrier she has erected, but I’m afraid something happened while she was waiting to be rescued that terrified her.”

      “Like what?”

      “Maybe some monster came along and molested her while she was trapped and she can’t bring herself to tell me.”

      Laura shuddered at the thought. She had to agree it was possible, though she couldn’t imagine it. “You don’t think she would have told you?”

      He jumped up from the chair. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.” Guy was in pain. The way his voice throbbed revealed his agony.

      Chantelle Laroche had to be one of the luckiest women alive to be truly loved by her husband. Not just on the surface, but deep down in his heart and soul where it counted.

      She supposed Carl, her boss in L.A., might be willing to let her extend her time in Europe for another two weeks and call it her vacation. She could even make it a working holiday, which she knew would please him. She doubted she could make a real difference with Chantelle, though if Guy was this determined to get his wife back, Laura was willing to try to get on her old footing with Chantelle.

      “Tell you what, Guy. My boss should be in his office right now. I’ll phone him and if he says it’s all right, I’ll be happy to stay and see what I can do. Chantelle was so wonderful to me back then, and who wouldn’t adore it here with all this beauty? You live in a paradise only a few people in the world are privileged to see.”

      The men Ted had hired to follow her every move would have to possess extra powers to know her location right now. Two weeks free of the Stillman net would be a bonus she hadn’t counted on this trip to Europe. In her heart of hearts she had to admit that in wanting to keep her whereabouts a secret from Ted, Guy’s proposal couldn’t have come at a better time.

      He moved closer to grasp her hands. “You are an angelic woman, Laura. I don’t know what good I’ve done in this life for you to come into it again at the moment you did, but I will always be indebted to you. Whatever you need or want, it’s yours.”

      “Thank you.” She rose to her feet and accompanied him to the door. “I’ll join you after I’ve made my phone call.”

      “I can’t ask for more than that.”

      Raoul Laroche slipped into his brother’s villa through a side entrance closest to his own smaller villa on the south of the family’s private estate. He joined Maurice who stood just inside the French doors of the living room. “Eh bien, Maurice. Qu’est-ce qui se passe?”

      His head turned. “Bonsoir, Raoul! I didn’t know you were back from Switzerland already.”

      “I finished business faster than I thought and got home this afternoon,” he muttered. “As Guy was leaving the office he told me he was giving a party, but he didn’t tell me why. What’s the occasion? Since the accident Chantelle has avoided company like the plague.”

      “This is different. He wanted everyone to meet Mrs. Aldridge, the American woman you’re staring at.”

      Raoul realized he was staring. It irritated him that Maurice had noticed. “Who is she?”

      “The woman who saved him from choking to death.”

      His black brows met. “Literally?”

      After Chantelle’s accident, the idea that his elder brother had experienced a close call like that wasn’t exactly the best news in what had started out to be a hellish afternoon. He’d received another abusive phone call from his ex-wife, Danielle, swearing she would end her life if he didn’t give their marriage another chance. Raoul had become weary of her attention-seeking tactics and had cut her off, but the distaste he had felt stayed with him.

      “Quite literally.” Maurice sounded shaken.

      “When was this?”

      “Last evening at the Palio in Siena. We were eating dinner with Luigi before the race started. I didn’t realize Guy was even in trouble until she came flying to the rescue. She grabbed him and performed the Heimlich maneuver. Out came a piece of roll lodged in his throat and suddenly he could breathe again. It was over within minutes.”

      Raoul