A section of the floor between the two of them cracked, then gave way to flames.
“Run!” he shouted to Solange, pointing to the door with his bloody hand gripping the brooch.
For once, she did as she was told. He followed her, but had to dodge flames and furniture to find a clear path to the door. The floor snapped ominously beneath his feet as he grew closer to the door, and if he hadn’t leapt for the hallway, it would have disappeared beneath his feet, plunging him into flames.
The rest of the house was burning just as quickly as they raced through the halls for the front door. The amount of smoke had tripled, stinging Louis’s eyes and making him cough as he ran. Solange coughed as well, which made his blood run cold with fear for her, but also told him she was still alive, as he could barely make out her form through the smoke.
He only felt a tiny bit of relief as they made it to the front door and bolted out into the clear night. Some of the watchers gasped as they emerged, coughing and sputtering, but Louis ignored them. They were so stunned that they stepped aside and allowed the two of them to push on, up the street and away from the house. In the distance, fire bells sounded as the fire brigade finally arrived at the blaze.
Louis and Solange didn’t stop until they reached their carriage. Even then, Louis shouted, “Go, go, go!” at the driver as they leapt inside. The driver obeyed at once, tapping the reins on the horses’ backs and shouting for the crowd to move out of the way.
Louis and Solange sagged against the seat, coughing and catching their breaths as much as they could. Neither said a word as the carriage jostled and jerked its way through the growing crowd and back to the main road.
Only when they had been galloping for several minutes, indicating they’d cleared the city and were on their way back to the palace, did Louis reach for Solange’s hand.
“I didn’t need the brooch,” he wheezed. “Not really.”
“Yes, you did,” she told him, following her words with a wracking cough. “If you hadn’t rescued it, you would have regretted it for the rest of your life.”
He wondered if she were right. It was entirely possible. He nodded and squeezed her hand, but didn’t say more as the carriage sped on.
By the time they reached the palace and stumbled out of the carriage, exhausted, bleary, smelling of smoke and sweat, and dragged themselves up the stairs and into the strangely quiet hall, the ball was over and all of the guests were gone. There was no sign of Lafarge’s body or police activity, or anything at all. Louis found the whole thing odd.
“Something must have happened after we left,” he said.
Solange wasn’t listening to him. She marched straight into the closest parlor, the ledger she’d taken from Lafarge’s house clutched to her chest. Louis followed her.
“You shouldn’t have risked your life to get those things,” he told her, barely able to hold his thoughts together. “Lafarge is dead. His press and his home are destroyed. What is the point of saving incriminating evidence against him when there will be no trial. It’s over.”
Solange shook her head as she sat on one of the sofas and opened the ledger. Loose papers spilled over the edges and soot stained the sofa. “It’s not the evidence against him I wanted to save,” she said. “It’s this.”
She selected half a dozen papers from the ones she’d gathered in a hurry at Lafarge’s house, then closed the ledger, stood, walked to the fireplace, and threw the ledger on the flickering flames. Once that was done, she took the six pages she’d saved to Louis, handing them over.
Louis took one look, and his stomach dropped into his feet. “My God,” he muttered. “What was Asher thinking?” If anyone saw the things the handful of letters in Louis’s hands said, Asher would be in a lot more danger than having his family’s business printed in gossip rags. Louis glanced up at Solange. “We need to burn these as well,” he said, starting for the fire.
“No.” Solange stopped him with a hand on his arm, then plucked the papers from his hands. “We have to keep them.”
Louis frowned. “But the things they contain. They could ruin the entire McGovern family.”
Solange shook her head. “There has to be more to it than that. Something isn’t right about these letters, and something isn’t right about what Asher did.”
“I’ll say it isn’t right,” Louis growled. “I didn’t know the man was a traitor.”
“That’s just it.” Solange carefully folded the papers, a frown creasing her sooty brow. “I don’t believe he’s guilty of any of this.”
Louis opened his mouth to argue the point, but decided against it. He let out a breath and stepped closer to Solange, resting his hands on her arms.
“I admire your loyalty,” he said, a smile tugging at his mouth. “I think you are beautiful and noble to stand up for your friends this way. I think you have been unbelievably brave through all of this. And I know I would never have succeeded in my mission against Lafarge without you.”
He stepped even closer to her, taking the papers out of her hands and tossing them aside. With them out of the way, he closed his hands around her beautiful, soot-streaked cheeks and leaned into her for a kiss that came from the bottom of his heart. Solange tensed in surprise for a moment before every last ounce of resistance drained away from her. She slid her arms around him, digging her fingertips into his back in a gesture of need and acceptance that had Louis’s blood racing through his veins.
“I love you,” he said, breaking their kiss long enough to take in the loveliness of her expression and the heat in her eyes. “I love you for who you are and who you will always be to me. I don’t care how unusual it might be, I want to marry you. I cannot go through another instant of this strange life of mine without you by my side, as my partner and my heart.”
“Louis,” she said on a rush of breath. “Are you certain?” Her question was small, but the wealth of emotion and meaning in her eyes as she gazed up at him spoke more than he could ever put into words. She cared for him—enough to let him go if she had to. But he wasn’t about to let them continue on for another second apart.
“I am more certain of my love for you than I am of the sun rising in the morning. I’m more certain than I would be if I’d grown up knowing we would be together. The moment I saw you, my heart belonged to you. And we’ve lived more of an adventure in the last few days together than most couples ever encounter in their lifetimes.”
He stole another kiss from her lips. The taste of her and the heat of her ardor far outweighed the smoke and dirt that their adventure had left them with, just as the core of who she was and how he felt about her would always outweigh the trials and stupidity life and society would throw at them. None of that mattered. She was all he needed.
“Marry me,” he said, swaying back enough to smile at her and to see delight take over her expression. “Marry me and continue this mad adventure of life with me. I have no interest in an ordinary life and every interest in being yours.”
“I don’t think I’m capable of an ordinary life,” Solange said, a smile growing on her face, lighting her eyes with joy and excitement. “But if you’re willing to put up with me, then I’m yours.”