Sepulchre (45 page)

A woman sitting in the side aisle on the floor, in the golden shadow of a reliquary casket set into the wall, began to sing a lullaby, to still the restless baby in her arms.

 

Grateful for the diversion, Léonie turned to look.

Aquèla Trivala
Ah qu'un polit quartier Es plen de gitanos.

The words floated across the church to the nave where Léonie and Victor were standing.

 

'There is a great charm in simple things,' he said.

 

'That is the language of Occitan,' she said, wishing to impress. 'The maids at home speak it when they believe no one is listening.'

 

She felt his attention sharpen.

 

At home?' he said. 'Forgive me, from your clothes and your bearing I assumed you were but travelling in this region. I had taken you for une vraie Parisienne.'

Léonie smiled at the compliment. 'Again, Monsieur Constant, your perspicacity does you credit. My brother and I are indeed only guests in the Languedoc. We live in the eighth arrondissement, not far from the Gare Saint-Lazare. Do you know the quartier?'

'Only from the paintings of Monsieur Monet, I regret.'

 

'The Place d'Europe is visible from our drawing room windows,' she said. 'If you knew the area, you could place our lodgings precisely.'

 

He gave a regretful shrug. 'In which case, if it is not too impertinent a question, Mademoiselle Vernier, what brings you to the Languedoc? It is late in the season to be travelling.'

'We are staying with a relative for a month. An aunt.' He pulled a face. 'My commiserations,' he said. It was a moment before Léonie realised he was teasing her. 'Oh,' she laughed, 'Isolde is not at all that kind of aunt. All mothballs and eau de Cologne. She is beautiful and young, also from Paris in the first instance.'
She saw something flash in his eyes - satisfaction, delight even. She blushed with pleasure that he was evidently enjoying their flirtation as much as she.

It is perfectly harmless.

 

Constant placed his hand on his heart and gave a half-bow. 'I stand corrected,' he said. 'I forgive you for it,' she replied prettily.

 

'And your aunt,' he said, 'this beautiful and charming Isolde, previously of Paris, she is now resident in Carcassonne?'

 

Léonie shook her head. 'No. We are in town for a few days. My aunt has business to attend to, concerning her late husband's estate. We are to go to a concert this evening.'

He nodded. 'Carcassonne is a charming city. Much improved in the past ten years. There are now many excellent restaurants and shops, hotels too.' He paused. 'Or have you taken lodgings, perhaps?'

Léonie laughed. 'We are only here for a matter of days, Monsieur Constant. The Hôtel Saint-Vincent is more than adequate for our needs!' The door to the church opened, with a gust of cold air, as more travellers came in from the rain. Léonie shivered as her wet skirts wrapped themselves around her cold legs.

'The storm distresses you?' he asked quickly.

'No, not in the slightest,' she said, although pleased at his concern. 'My aunt's estate is high in the mountains. In the past two weeks we have experienced thunder and lightning considerably more severe than this.' 'So you are some distance outside Carcassonne?' 'We are situated south of Limoux, in the Haute Vallée. Not far from the spa town of Rennes-les-Bains.' She smiled up at him. 'Do you know it?'

'I regret I do not,' he said. Although, I admit, the region suddenly holds considerable interest for me. Perhaps I will be moved to pay a visit in the not too distant future.'

 

Léonie blushed at the charming compliment. 'It is rather isolated, but the countryside is magnificent.'

 

'Is there much society in Rennes-les-Bains?'

She laughed. 'No, but we are quite happy with the quiet life. My brother leads a busy existence in town. We are here to rest.'
'Well, I trust that the Midi will have the pleasure of your company for a while longer,' he said softly.

Léonie struggled to maintain her calm expression.

 

The Spanish family, still arguing, suddenly got to their feet. Léonie turned round and saw that the main doors were now standing open.

 

'The rain appears to be stopping, Mademoiselle Vernier,' said Constant. 'A pity.'

The last word was spoken so quietly that Léonie threw a sideways glance at him, wondering at so open a declaration of interest. But his face was quite innocent and she was left wondering if she had mistaken his meaning. She looked back to the doors and saw that the sun had come out, flooding the wet steps with a bright and blinding light.

The gentleman in the top hat helped his companion to her feet. They stepped carefully out of their pew into the nave and walked out. One by one, everyone else started to follow. Léonie was surprised to realise how large the congregation had become. She had barely noticed them.

Monsieur Constant held out his arm. 'Shall we?' he said.

His voice sent a shiver down her spine. Léonie hesitated for only a moment. Then, as if in slow motion, she saw herself reaching out her ungloved hand and resting it upon his grey sleeve.

'You are most kind,' she said.

 

Together, Léonie Vernier and Victor Constant left the church and processed into the Place Saint-Gimer.

 

CHAPTER 60

Despite her dishevelled appearance, Léonie felt herself the most fortunate person in the Place Saint-Gimer. Having often imagined a moment such as this, it was nonetheless extraordinary that it felt so natural to be walking, arm in arm, with a man.

And not in a dream.

Victor Constant continued to be the perfect gentleman, attentive but not inappropriately so. He asked her permission to smoke, and when Léonie granted it, did her the honour of offering her one of his Turkish cigarettes, thick and brown unlike those Anatole favoured. She declined, but was flattered to be treated as an adult.

The conversation between them continued along predictable lines - the weather, the delights of Carcassonne, the splendour of the Pyrenees - until they reached the far side of the Pont Vieux.

'This is, I regret, where I must leave you,' he said.

 

Disappointment swooped over her, but Léonie succeeded in keeping her expression perfectly composed.

 

'You have been most kind, Monsieur Constant, most solicitous.' She hesitated, then added, 'I, too, must return. My brother will be wondering what has become of me.'

For a moment, they stood awkwardly together. It was quite one thing to make one another's acquaintance in so unorthodox a manner owing to the peculiarities of the circumstances of the storm. It was quite another to take the association a step further.

Although she liked to think herself not bounded by convention, Léonie nonetheless waited for him to speak first. It would be perfectly improper for her to suggest a further meeting. But she smiled at him, hoping to make it clear she would not rebuke him should he issue some kind of invitation.

'Mademoiselle Vernier,' he said. Léonie heard a tremor in his voice and liked him the more for it.

 

'Yes, Monsieur Constant?'

'I hope you will forgive me if this seems too bold a comment, but I was wondering if you yet had had the pleasure of visiting Square Gambetta,' he said, gesturing to the right. 'No more than two or three minutes from here.'

'I walked there this morning,' she said.

'Should you happen to enjoy music, there is an excellent concert every Friday morning at eleven o'clock.' He turned the full force of his blue eyes upon her. 'Certainly, I shall attend tomorrow.'

Léonie hid a smile, admiring the finesse with which he had invited her to meet him without transgressing the bounds of social proprieties.
'My aunt had intended for me to enjoy a range of musical activities while we are in Carcassonne,' she said, tilting her head to one side.

'In which case, perhaps I may be fortunate and find that our paths cross again tomorrow, Mademoiselle,' he said, raising his hat. 'And to have the pleasure of meeting your aunt and brother.' He fixed her with a look and, for a fleeting instant, Léonie felt they were bound together, as if she was being inexorably drawn towards him, reeled in like a fish on a line. She caught her breath, wishing for nothing more at that moment than that Monsieur Constant would circle her waist with his hands and kiss her.

'A la prochaine,,' he said.

 

His words broke the spell. Léonie blushed, as if he could read her innermost thoughts.

 

'Yes, indeed,' she stammered. 'Until the next time.'

 

Then she turned and walked briskly away up the rue du Pont Vieux before she shamed herself by revealing the extent of the hopes playing within her.

 

Constant watched her go, seeing from her posture, her pretty step, the way she held her head high, that she was more than aware of his eyes upon her retreating back.

 

Like mother, like daughter.

In truth, it was almost too easy. The schoolgirl blushes, her widening eyes, the way she parted her lips revealing the tip of a pink tongue. He could have enticed her away there and then, had he so wished. That did not suit his purposes. It was infinitely more satisfying to play with her emotions. Ruin her, certainly, but by making her fall in love with him. That knowledge would torment Vernier more than the idea of her being taken by force.

And she would fall in love him. She was impressionable and young, ripe for the taking.

 

Pitiable.

 

He clicked his fingers. The man in the blue cloak, following at some distance behind, appeared instantly at his side.

 

'Monsieur.'

Constant penned a curt note and gave instructions for it to be delivered to the Hôtel Saint-Vincent. The thought of Vernier's face when he read the letter was too much to resist. He wanted to make him suffer. Both of them, Vernier and his whore. He wanted them to spend the next few days looking over their shoulders, waiting, haunted, always wondering when the blow would fall.

He thrust a purse of money into the man's greasy hands.

'Follow them,' he said. 'Stay with them. Send word in the usual manner to let me know precisely where they go. Is that clear? You think you can deliver the note before the girl arrives back at the hotel?'

The man looked offended. 'It is my town,' he muttered, then turned on his heel and vanished into a narrow allée running along the back of the Hôpital des Malades.

Constant put the girl out of his mind and considered his next move. During the course of the tedious flirtation in the church, she had not only given him the name of the hotel in which they were staying in Carcassonne but, more importantly, had told him where Vernier and his whore had gone to ground.

He was acquainted with Rennes-les-Bains and its therapeutic treatments. The location suited his purposes well. He could not move against them in Carcassonne. The city was too crowded and a confrontation here would attract too much attention. But an isolated estate in the country? He had some connections in the town, one man in particular, a person of few scruples and a cruel temperament to whom he had once been of service. Constant did not foresee any difficulties in persuading him that the time had come for the debt to be repaid.

Constant took a fiacre back into the heart of the Bastide, then threaded his way through the network of streets behind the Café des Négociants on the Boulevard Barbes. There the most exclusive of private clubs was to be found. Champagne, perhaps a girl. There was mostly only dark meat this far south, not the pale skin and blonde hair he preferred. But today he was prepared to make an exception. He was in the mood to celebrate.

CHAPTER 61

Léonie rushed through the Square Gambetta, its pathways and borders glinting with pools of rainwater reflecting the pale rays of the sun, then past an ugly municipal building and into the heart of the Bastide.

She was all but oblivious to the rush of the world about her. The pavements were crowded, the streets swirled with black water and debris carried from the top of the town by the force of the storm.

The consequences of her afternoon's excursion were only now hitting her. Thoughts of how Anatole would chastise her filled her head as she half walked, half ran, picking her way through the drenched street, her nerves stretched to breaking point. Although I do not regret it.

She would be punished for her disobedience, she had no doubt, but she could not say that she wished she had never gone.

She looked up at the street sign and found she was in the rue Courtejaire, not in Carrière Mage as she had supposed. Indeed, she was quite lost. The plan de la ville was soaking wet and disintegrated in her hands. The ink had run and the street names now were all but illegible. Léonie turned to the right first, then to the left, looking for a landmark she might recognise, but all the shops were boarded up against the ill weather and the narrow streets in the Bastide looked the same.

She mistook her way several times so it was the best part of another hour before she managed to locate the church of Saint-Vincent and, from there, the rue du Port and their hotel. As she charged up the steps of the main entrance, she heard the bells of the cathedral strike six.

She burst into the lobby, still at a run, hoping at the very least to be able to regain the privacy of her room and change into dry clothes before facing her brother. But Anatole was standing in the reception hall, pacing up and down, a cigarette wedged deep between his fingers. She stopped dead in her tracks. When he saw her, he stormed across the floor, took her shoulders and shook her hard.

'Where in the blazes have you been?' he shouted. 'I have been going out of my mind.'

 

Léonie stood fixed to the spot, struck dumb in the face of his anger. 'Well?' he demanded.

 

'I - I am so sorry. I got caught out in the storm.'

'Do not play with me, Leonie,' he yelled. 'I expressly forbade you to go out alone. You dismissed Marieta under some absurd pretext, and then disappeared. Where in God's name have you been? Tell me, damn you!'

Leonie's eyes widened. He had never sworn at her before. Not once. Not ever.

 

'Anything could have happened to you! A young girl alone in an unfamiliar place. Anything!'

 

Léonie glanced at the patron, who was listening with undisguised interest.