A Powerful Little Love

Chapter 63

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like what I'm about to hear?"  Amorette asked plainly as Sacha Rouzet spread some documents out across the dining table.

They were back in her rooms at the Louvre, and Amorette was still reeling from the solemn and slightly guilty look that Sacha had thrown her when he had answered her knock upon the door of his lodgings a little while before.

Sacha sighed heavily as he passed her back the accounts book for her mother's estate.  "For a start Cometess, your accounts are in shocking order.  You need to employ someone to sort them out.  I'll recommend a man to do the job well." 

Amorette smiled her thanks at her lawyer friend but he didn't return the gesture.  "I have no head for figures Sacha.  Besides, I know there's more than enough money to play with.  I don't need to know the ins and outs of it all."

Sacha shook his head as he took a seat beside her.  "The thing is Madame that you give so much of it away, it's hard to track where all of it ends up!"

"What are you saying Sacha?"

Her friend paled a little in the waning candlelight.  "You were right.  You won't like it.  Whilst I thoroughly believe that when you agreed to pay funds to your charitable benefactors they were trustworthy; but you've failed to keep track of them over the years.  You've a good heart Amorette so providing for those in need comes naturally to you.  You did not ensure they were always so reliable though.  I think that one way or another, some of that money made its way into your father's hands."

Amorette felt a minute but painful jolt in her side as Sacha placed a sheaf of documents in front of her on the table and sat back to sip at his wine warily.  She was silent as she poured over the tightly and neatly written accounts that were not hers, but showed vast amounts of money transferring into the hands of her father.

"These are your father's accounts," Sacha continued when Amorette found herself incapable of speech.  "Don't ask me how I got them because quite frankly if I told you I'd have to kill you.  This money trail goes back a few years but I think it became infinitely worse when you came back to Paris permanently.  Your estate in Provins was not as closely watched with you involved in the courtly conspiracies.  Amorette I know you don't care about money and will say you still have plenty more, but this is not about that.  This is about the principal of all of this.  Your father has been extorting money from you for a good few years now without your knowledge.  He knew of your charitable donations and he has wormed his way into them.  Whoever was handling your legal matters beforehand should be ashamed of themselves.  Any man with some knowledge of book-keeping would see discrepancies here."

Amorette buried her head in her hands as angry tears pricked her eyes.  "I should have paid more attention to all of this.  I should have been more careful!"

Sacha squeezed her shoulder gently.  "You said yourself that you have no head for figures.  The lawyers who have been in your employ were there to do a job and failed.  They should have noticed this."

Amorette wearily glanced through the pages that littered the table again, a thought beginning to form in her mind.  "Maybe they didn't fail Sacha.  Maybe he planted them."

"That wouldn't surprise me Amorette, considering what you've told me of the man," Sacha agreed.

Amorette turned helpless eyes upon him then as he sipped his wine again.  "What do I do Sacha?"

"I'm dealing with this now," he said confidently and Amorette was sure it was only for her benefit.  "I've cut all the fraudulent charities already, and  blocked some others that I am still unsure about.  We can go through them in greater detail another time.  What you need to do is berate yourself for not seeking out the right kind of help from the start.  You've had Buckingham as an ally for years and you should have been using his lawyers and accountants yourself.  As Englishmen they would surely have been able to trace all of this back to your father far quicker than I was able to.  I'll find you an accountant and I'll work with him to close all avenues that lead to your father.  He won't get another penny from you Amorette.  He has amassed a small fortune already though."