"St.Cyr was a vile man who had Armand thrashed for daring to love above his class, so to say I hated the man would be an understatement." It was part of the story she hadn't told on the footbridge, it wouldn't have done anything when that in and of itself hadn't been the cause of the blackmail. "But it was the past, before I became an actress and there wasn't much that could be done."
Sighing, Marguerite ran her fingers through her hair as she wrung her hands from nerves.
"At that time, I..she... well, I'd been living as a free woman... it afforded Armand and I a permanent residence as opposed to the life we had led before," The moving from inn to inn and taking odd jobs. She knew that in the courtship she had briefly gone over how they had lived before she had become an actress, just leaving out the prostitution aspect. Their life as orphans well known, "It was how I met Chauvelin. It was Bastille Day and he became my lover for a brief time."
Even now that continued to haunt her. It had bled over and despite the shortness of that liaison, he still.... "Well, when he learned of our upcoming wedding, he came to me. Threatened to expose my past. Perhaps it was ridiculous to worry it would have any sway, but English sensibilities. Marrying a French actress was scandalous enough. He promised silence if I found out where the Marquis de St. Cyr and his family were being hidden. It was as if he knew that would be the one man I would have less qualms with denouncing. But he promised not to kill him, that they would be questioned. Deported. But not killed."
Yes, she had received the note from Chauvelin with the location at the wedding reception. But honestly. Had Percy truly expected her to say it all there? In front of all those people?
"He tried the same method of blackmail when he came to England but it wasn't until he had Armand arrested that he was able to force my hand again in figuring out the identity of the Pimpernel."
Finally she looked to where Percy was instead of at the wall or her hands or table as she tried to focus just on that story. On those memories.
"It's why I felt that if he ever were to be similar in his possessiveness here, that it would involve an attempt at blackmail even though there was nothing here that could be used in such a way. I never expected..." Matthew being attacked, put in the hospital. Though now with what he had done to Armand in the Dreams, perhaps he had just jumpstarted that insanity.