Page 119 of Under Her Protection

"Thank you for what you did tonight. You have done your job exceedingly well tonight. I will, on Monday, ensure that Dominique receives a letter to that effect. I would like you, please, to leave the residence."

A beat.

"Madame."

"I am not, this evening, in a position to have a conversation with you. I cannot have you in this house tonight. Avery is here. I would like you, please, to go."

"Vivienne."

She looked at Leo and her grey eyes gave nothing away.

A beat.

"Copy."

"Thank you."

Leo looked at her beautiful unreadable face for just a second.

Then she turned.

She went out of the office. She went across the hall. She went past Beaumont, who did not look at her, and out through the front door, and across the gravel of the courtyard to the lodge, and into the lodge, where the paraffin heater was on and the cot was made and her bag, which she had not unpacked from the rue Oberkampf because she had not been planning to be in this lodge tonight, was on the chair.

She picked up the bag.

She went out of the lodge.

She crossed the courtyard back to the front gate. The Blackthorn driver in the second car was still at the kerb with the engine on. He saw her coming. He got out and opened the back door.

"Mademoiselle."

"Rue Oberkampf."

"Mademoiselle."

She got in.

She had, she registered, in the last few hours fallen the rest of the way in love with Vivienne Strauss.

She had fallen with Vivienne's hand inside her hand.

And the woman she had fallen for had dismissed her.

The driver started the car.

The car rolled out of the gate and onto the rue de Chaillot. The gate closed behind it The car turned onto the avenue Kléber.

Leo, in the back, put her head against the cold of the window glass.

She did not cry.

She put her head against the window. The window was cold.

The job was done.

Leo had loved her.

Leo loved her still.