Free Love Captive by Jacqueline Hope

kinship with those hungry children.
    When they left the Jeu de Paume, they agreed it was past time for lunch. Carlos asked her with a smile whether she'd prefer an elegant or casual atmosphere. Before she'd had a chance to decide, he suggested with a boyish grin that they try casual for lunch and save elegant for dinner.
    "Fine with me," Anne responded, grinning too, her pulse racing to hear that Carlos planned to stay with her at least through dinner. What a fabulous day he was giving her!
    They had lunch at the Bar des Theatres across from the Plaza-Athénée, an inexpensive place that Carlos told her excitedly was a favorite of models, actresses and their legions of male admirers. While they were lunching, Carlos cast a number of interested glances at the tall, voluptuous, heavily made-up young women.
    Royalty often formed informal alliances with actresses and showgirl types, Anne thought rather sadly to herself; but, then, so did many men who didn't have a drop of royal blood. She could feel herself becoming withdrawn, irrationally resenting Carlos's obvious admiration for the glittery, glamorous young Frenchwomen laughing and chattering gaily on every side. Why should she care what kind of woman Carlos found most attractive? She had known from the first that he was not a man she could ever win for herself. Nor did she want to win him, she hastily reminded herself.
    After lunch, they visited the Eiffel Tower, drove past the Luxembourg Gardens, passed the Sorbonne and wound up at the Notre-Dame cathedral. Wandering through the cathedral, Anne felt all but overwhelmed. Unexpected tears came to her eyes as she stared at the glorious stained-glass windows, especially the rose window, which Carlos whispered to her was seven hundred years old. Carlos asked her, also in a whisper, whether she felt up to climbing to the top of the tower. "It's a pretty stiff climb," he warned her, eyeing her with concern. "If you'd rather not, just say so, and we won't."
    "Oh, no. I'm not feeling overly tired and I'd like to, really."
    It was already twilight when they reached the tower, and the lights of Paris were beginning to sparkle below. Anne sighed at the magnificent view spread out all around them. Carlos, standing beside her, momentarily put his arm around her waist. "It's almost too beautiful a sight to bear, isn't it?" he suggested, in a softly subdued voice.
    As she glanced around to agree, Anne thought,
But, no. I can bear the sight of beautiful, romantic Paris, as lovely as it is; it's having you so near and knowing you will always be out of reach that is unbearable
. Her eyes stung with a hot mist as she nervously moved away, and Carlos dropped his arm, as though rebuffed.
    After they climbed down from the tower and left the cathedral, they strolled for an hour along the banks of the Seine. "No tourist who comes to Paris, even if only for a day, should miss this," Carlos said. They passed numerous young people sitting on the banks of the river; some were earnestly conversing, while others were embracing and kissing. Here and there were artists planted before their easels, attempting to catch the last faint glimmers of twilight before giving up and going home. The river, flowing smoothly along, glittered with reflected light and Anne wondered whether this wasn't the most beautiful sight she had seen all day.
    "Shall we take a cruise along the river?" Carlos suggested with sudden inspiration. "I've taken it during the day but never at night. What do you say?"
    "Sounds wonderful. I'd love to."
    The cruise was marvelous. It was fully dark by the time they climbed board the launch at the Pont d'Iena for the three-mile journey to the lie de la Cite. Paris sparkled before them. As Anne stood leaning over the upper rail, Carlos beside her, she allowed herself to drift into a fantasy that the incredibly handsome, charming man at her side was her husband, and this was their honeymoon. Had she not known Carlos for what he really was—an