“Pierre said your appointment was a farce,” she broke in as she turned back to face him. “Is it? Is that why you’re in London? Is this appointment due to Jim Bishop’s machinations again? His dark intrigues?”

“Dammit, Ginny—”

“I knew it! It is Bishop. He’s here, isn’t he? In London? Like he was in New Orleans, and in San Francisco, and every other time things have gone so wrong…. Will it ever end? Will you ever just want to be with me and not go running off trying to save the world?”

“Save the world? How melodramatic you can be, Ginny my love. If men like Jim Bishop didn’t try to save the world, as you put it, there would be total anarchy. Bands of mercenaries running wild—”

“As you did?”

Blue eyes narrowed fractionally at her, a cold glitter in their depths that reminded her how ruthless he could be.

“I assume you’re referring to my time spent as a Juarista. Juaristas weren’t mercenaries.”

“Weren’t they?”

“No, not like your beloved French soldiers, who raped, murdered and looted with impunity from Maximilian. At least the Juaristas were fighting to protect their own country.”

“Yes,” she said quietly, “and it will happen all over again if you’re right. Steve, please, if Mexico is in danger of having another long revolution, we’ll stay here. Or we can go to France, or even Russia. We could visit my father—he sent for me, and if not for the trouble in Bulgaria, I might be there now. Oh, Steve, it was chance that took me back to France, and then of course, finding out you had brought the children to England—”

When he remained silent, she said almost desperately, “We can go anywhere we’ll be together and not torn apart again. I don’t think I could bear it if we’re separated, or I must be away from the children again. They are just beginning to remember me. You are just beginning to remember me….”

The wariness in his eyes altered subtly. He reached out, touched a blunt fingertip to her cheek, scrubbed his thumb over the moisture he found there and lifted his dark brow.

“Tears, mi amante?”

“Steve, I want a home, a real home, where we can watch our children grow up and know that we’ll always be there together. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but I never knew how much until recently. Until I saw you again, and saw how the children love you and how you love them. It—it showed me a side of you I hadn’t suspected was there.”