Choice And Consequence

CHAPTER 3

LISTEN TO :

Drive Forever - Sergio Valentino
Goodnight n Go (slowed) - Ariana Grande      Complicated - Eves Karydas

***

Jolting awake, the girl's heart raced, filing her ears with a violent thumping. Madelaine wanted to scream out of embarrassment. She blushed at the memory of the steamy visions of the monsieur, completely immobilised by shame.

It was just a dream. A very wrong dream. 

"What were you dreaming about?" The monsieur's voice interrupted Madelaine's scrambled thoughts, but she was too ashamed to look at him.

She shuffled as far away as the seat would allow, furiously blinking the forbidden dream from her eyes. How was she supposed to answer the monsieur's question when she couldn't even answer it herself? Madelaine's breathing rate began to steady as she exhaled a shaky breath.

"Are you not feeling well?" He frowned as he glanced at her pale face. "What is it?"

"A headache" Madelaine quickly replied, straightening up against the seat.

It wasn't completely a lie. Her neck ached from resting her forehead uncomfortably against the window, her body stiff from sitting in the same position. 

"It's probably from all the excitement." the monsieur said wryly, turning his attention back on the road. "I think we better find somewhere to sleep tonight  and continue our journey tomorrow. When I said we would drive all the way to Bordeaux, I forgot that you are not as used to travelling as I am."

Madelaine wanted to protest, but her throat was far too parched to argue with him. She didn't want to spend any more time with this man than she needed to. 

"I'm not going to eat you, mon petit." he laughed mockingly, keeping his eyes on the road. "But surely the Sisters must have taught you that it is rude to look at a man the way you are looking at me now. Your eyes have all the dread and fear of the persecuted, and who would blame me if, when I look into them, I am tempted to make your fears reality."

He saw her flinch, and the smile disappeared from his lips. "Do you really fear me that much?"

The Nuns always enforced respect and obedience to their superiors, and the fact that the monsieur was her father's friend, had made Madelaine defer to him. Now, she faced him with stormy eyes, her slender body braced against retaliation as she spoke defiantly, "I am not afraid of you, Monsieur Bordeaux."

"Just as cautious as a gazelle penned up with a lion." he murmured in Russian. "Tell me, what are your plans for the future?"

Not sure what had prompted the sudden change of conversation, but nonetheless grateful for it, Madelaine tried to answer as best as she could, explaining that the convent did not really equip its pupils for careers.

"And what about marriage? Is that what you want, Madelaine? To go from the classroom to the bedroom?" He heard the girl's shocked gasp, and chuckled amusingly.

"Are you telling me that the nuns kept you in complete ignorance on the matter?" glancing sardonically at her. "What about on holidays? Surely there must have been encounters with attractive young men who were only too willing to add practical knowledge to theory?"

"NO!" Madelaine's shocked outburst silenced him for several seconds, while she sat bolt upright in her seat. Her body was trembling, her mind unable to understand why his questions provoked such a strong response. 

"No?" The monsieur pulled off the main road, bringing the car to a halt beside a field. For a moment, Madelaine admired the verdant fields stretching into the countryside. Squinting her eyes, she could make out a a stone building perched precariously among the foothills.