“I am here for your answer, sir,” he said.
“Answer? What answer, fellow?”
Driscoll breathed once, he breathed twice, and yet again. It may be he counted them. Then he spoke.
“You understand, of course, that I might call you a puppy? Or break you over my knee? But I’ve got something harder on hand. It’s to make you honor your promise. I’ve ridden forty miles for what you were to give me six hours ago at Chapultepec. Now then, shall I bring the men to save your 264empire? Think well. You need not take the question from me. Take it from them, from an army of fifty thousand men. Now, answer! And remember, you can save your empire.”
“Save my empire?” Maximilian repeated the words.
There was a reluctant note in the query. Jacqueline heard. And the bravest act of her life was when she raised her head and faced her shame, with him to see. She must begin her fight all over again.
“Yes, your play empire, sire,” she said, wielding two weapons, the mockery in her voice, the seduction of her eyes.
Driscoll saw his cause forlorn against eyes like those.
“It’s unfair!” he protested involuntarily.
She turned on him in defiance. “It is not unfair! And you, monsieur, of all men, know that it is not. You, and you alone, know what I, what I would give–what I tried to give–that I might win in this!”