Simply Shameless by Kate Pearce Page B

ring, unlocked the two doors, and went into the second room. She paused to light the fire and open the heavy blue drapes before swinging around to the twins.
    "Do you have any luggage?"
    Christian shrugged. "Someone from the shipping company will deliver it later today."
    To Helene's satisfaction, her brisk no-nonsense attitude had obviously left him uncertain of how to proceed. She had no intention of arguing with him or Lisette about their unplanned arrival. Christian didn't know that she'd learned to make the best of a bad situation well before he was born. Her search for Marguerite was far more important than trading insults with the twins.
    A few riotous weeks in London and then hopefully they would be ready to go back to France again or at least compromise on new living arrangements. Despite her misgivings, she had planned on inviting them over to visit her at some point that year. Well, that point had arrived, and once she had sorted out Marguerite's more pressing problems, she was more than ready to deal with the twins.
    "Aren't you going to shout at us?"
    Lisette leaned toward the fire, her slender hands held out to the blaze, her wary gaze on her mother.
    "Why would I waste my breath? You are here, aren't you?" Helene opened the doors that connected the two suites and lit the other fire as well. "Perhaps after I find Marguerite, she will wish to visit with me, too, and I'll have all my family together."
    Christian laughed, and the harsh sound reverberated around the room.
    "Don't lie, Maman. We all know you don't have a maternal bone in your body."
    Helene walked back to the door. "You know nothing about me, Christian. And that was my choice to make, not yours."
    She met his gaze. "Perhaps it is time for there to be honesty between us. Perhaps your visit will enable us to make something out of the bonds that tie us together."
    Christian moved to stand beside his sister. "Perhaps we don't care what you want?"
    Helene faced them and suddenly envied their closeness. "Then why did you come here?"
    "As we said, to make sure you help Marguerite."
    "If Marguerite wishes to be helped, I will help her."
    "What do you mean, if she wishes?"
    "She is twenty-one and old enough to marry without my permission." Helene shrugged.
    "If she is really set on this course, there is little I can do to prevent her from choosing her own husband,"
    "So what you are actually saying is that you won't do anything at all."
    Helene studied her son's angry features. "You deliberately misunderstand me. But I promise you, if Marguerite wishes to get out of her hasty marriage, I will make it happen."
    His sneer was like a slap in the face. "As if you have the power to help anyone."
    Helene raised her eyebrows. "Yet, you came to me for , help—remember that."
    He stared at her, his expression as challenging as her own. Helene turned her back on him and walked to the door.
    "I would still like to know how you found out exactly where I live. I doubt it was blind chance that brought you here."
    Lisette took off her bonnet. "We received a letter from someone who said he was your friend."
    "My friend." Helene ignored the angry glance Christian gave his sister and concentrated on Lisette. "What exactly did he say?"
    "That you ran a brothel in Mayfair and that you were a notorious whore."
    "And you chose to believe him?"
    Lisette blushed. "But he was right, wasn't he?"
    God that hurt. It was her own fault for lying to them, but in her own defense, she'd hoped to spare them the harsh realities of her life.
    "I do not have time to explain everything to you now, but I'm certainly not a whore, and this isn't a brothel." She held Lisette's gaze. "Does it truly look like that to you?"
    "I've never been in a brothel before, Maman." Lisette stuck her lip out. "But you did lie to us. When you visited us, you said you were a housekeeper and that you couldn't keep us with you because your employer hated children."
    Christian snorted. "She couldn't keep us with her