She could almost hear him grinding his teeth to a pulp. "I believe you're in need of a lot of things I could offer."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Winter's coming and you're living in a wet, drafty hovel."

She nearly stumbled. "You were insidemy apartment?"

"Aye, Bea let me in. We talked for a bit."

"So she's the one who told you where you could find me? Why would she do that? Did you threaten her?" she demanded. "Were you cruel to her because she's…because she's popular?"

"No, she helped me because she said youliked me," he answered, raising his eyebrows.

Bea had revealed that? How embarrassing! Maddy sounded like a simpering girl at her first cotillion.

"Corrine told me how to find you at this tavern."

Corrine, too?"I can't imagine why they helped you—my last word on the subject of you was that you were an ass."

"Corrine entreated me no' to let you get hurt by some woman named Berthe."

She slanted a glance at him. "How did you find my apartment in the first place?"

"Quin Weyland gave me an address in St. Roch, and I followed your trail to La Marais."

"You're friends with Quin?"

"I'm a family friend of the Weylands. Even related to them in a way—my brother recently married Jane Weyland."

"That makes no sense. The last I heard, Jane was supposed to marry some rich English earl."

"Believe me, I doona see it either."

"So you knew who I was the night of the masquerade?"

"No, only that you were an acquaintance of theirs as well. Listen, Madeleine, with the rate you've lost weight since I last saw you, the apple I found in your garret is likely the only dinner you're returning to, and the men outside your building are no' the type to show mercy."

She could deny none of it.

"All I'm asking you to do is share a dinner with me and hear me out." When she was still shaking her head, he snapped, "Do you really need to mull over the choice of a warm meal with me or facing those men?"

If Toumard's men were there, she'd be forced to wander the streets again. Yet still she said, "Yes, MacCarrick. Yes, I do. You were hateful that night, and the only thing that got me through it was telling myself I never had to see you again. 'Decide what's to be done with you,' you said. How galling. I want nothing from you—not then, and not now! I've taken care of myself since I was fourteen." She was almost home, to her bed, to oblivion.

"Aye, and a capable job you're doing. With the poverty, hunger, and debts. Seems you might have stuck around Quin's till I came back if this was what you were returning to." He waved a hand at the street.

Homeless men gathered around fires in clay pots, casting long shadows over the buildings. Gunfire popped in the background. Somewhere in the dark a fistfight broke out.

"Quin told me you were intelligent and practical. Surely you've the sense to at least hear me out."

"Quin talked to you about me?" she asked, slowing.

"Aye, and he knows I've come to Paris to see you. He would no' like to learn that you live in a place like this."

She would die if Quin knew! She twined her fingers. But would her pride force her to go along with the Scot? At that moment, she feared pride had just taken a generous lead over curiosity toward her downfall. She finally stopped. "I don't want him to know."

"Then come along," he said in a stern tone that must usually send people scurrying to do his bidding—because he looked perplexed when she only raised her brows at him. "Come with me, and I'll get you a room at my hotel, and you'll enjoy a nice hot meal."

"Now it's to yourhotel ? Do you think I'm a fool? Besides, I thought you preferred intercourse in moving conveyances."

He made a sound of frustration, then dug a small jewelry case from his pocket, presenting it to her. "Have dinner with me, listen to my proposition, and I'll give you this. No strings attached."

Her hand shot out for the case so swiftly that he had to blink. She whirled around, opening it. A diamond ring! "You don't mind if I examine this more closely?" she asked over her shoulder.

He quirked a brow, waving her forward. "No' at all."

She needed a streetlight. Of course, the sole one in La Marais had been torn down, its iron sold for scrap. But she could feel the stone's weight and knew it couldn't be paste.A diamond, a real one. This would pay off Toumard and keep her foryears . "One dinner earns me this?"

"Aye, you can keep the ring, regardless of your decision."

"Would you vow you won't try anything unseemly with me?"

"Unseemly? Aye, I can vow that."

She could tell the ring wouldn't fit her thin fingers, so she pulled her key ribbon from her skirt pocket. After untying the red ribbon and threading the ring along it next to her apartment key, she stowed it back into her deep pocket.

When she faced him again, he appeared to barely check a smug smirk, no doubt thinking she'd just agreed. "It's obvious you always get what you want," she said. "Maybe it'd be good for you to be turned down flat by a girl from the slum."

At that, he obviously reached his limit. He took a step forward, looking as though he planned to toss her over his shoulder.

"Ah-ah"—she wagged her finger at him—"I wouldn't do that. You won't catch me, not in my neighborhood."

He seemed to grind his teeth again, then clearly lit on an idea.

From his jacket, he pulled an apple—it washer precious apple, abducted from her home.

"No!" she cried, forced to watch as he took a big bite, chewing with exaggerated relish.

"So I take it we have an engagement for dinner," he said between bites.

When Ethan tossed the core away, she looked as though she would cry, and for some reason he almost felt guilty. He gentled his tone. "Come with me, Madeleine. I promise your apple will be a worthy sacrifice."

Even now, dressed as she was, she seemed so out of place in La Marais. She was tired, but her hair shone in the street fires, and her eyes were bright, not like the sunken eyes of the denizens all around them. She appeared so fragile, yet she had no reaction to the shots fired at regular intervals not more than a couple of blocks away in any direction.

"I still have to go home to let my friends know I didn't get hurt," she said. "They'll be worried."

"So you plan to wade into a dangerous area in order to inform your friends that you're safe? That's ridiculous."

"It's notdangerous ," she scoffed.

The mere idea of her down here at night was insufferable. "Do you no' hear the guns going off?"

She gave him a look that said he was daft. "Well, it's not as though they're aimed atme . If you're afraid, then stay here until I return."

Little witch. "I'm no'afraid —"

"Then you won't mind waiting here. You can't tell me Corrine and Bea were worried and then expect me to ignore their worry."

At another time, he might have been impressed with her loyalty and concern for her friends. Now, it only irritated him. "If you think I'm letting you go down there alone, you're mad."

She put her hand on her hip. "And what will you do about it?"

He lunged forward, seizing her elbow, and began dragging her back up the hill.

"MacCarrick, Ilive here. I only want five minutes." She cursed him in French. "You can't order me about, Scot!" Her hard little boots connected with his shins.

He grated, "Damn it, Madeleine, we'll send them a message from the hotel."

"No one will deliver a message to La Marais after sunset!"

"They will if I pay them enough." He considered throwing her over his shoulder, but he risked opening his stitches. When she still resisted, he said, "We'll send them food as well, then. Would that sway you?"