Zipporah's Daughter (Knave of Hearts) (18 page)

‘Of course, of course,’ I said.

‘I have so much to tell you … but … could I wash first?’

‘Certainly, and eat too. I will tell them to prepare a room for you and your son.’

I called to the servants. Food must be prepared … a room and everything for her comfort; and the groom who had come with her must be lodged and fed.

I was delighted to have her back with me and could not wait to hear all her news as soon as she had washed and eaten and the boy was sleeping. I took her into one of the smaller rooms of the château where we could be quite alone while she told me her story.

Hers had not been a happy marriage. She had made a great mistake. When she and Tante Berthe had visited their relative she had been introduced to Farmer Dubois; he had fallen in love with her so completely that she had been quite flattered and in a mad moment had agreed to marry him.

‘It was a mistake,’ she said. ‘I could not be a farmer’s wife. It didn’t suit me at all. He adored me …but one gets a little tired of such devotion. I even played with the idea of running away. I thought I’d come to you and throw myself on your mercy.’

‘I wish you had,’ I said. ‘Oh, I have missed you so much, Lisette.’

‘But you are Madame de Tourville now. You have your beautiful château and your devoted husband.’

I lifted my shoulders and she studied me intently.

‘You are happy?’ she asked.

‘Oh yes … yes … quite happy.’

‘I am glad. I think the most awful thing a woman can suffer is an unhappy marriage.’

‘But at least your Monsieur Dubois adored you. Have you left him, Lisette?’

‘I am coming to that. He is dead. That is why I got away.’

‘Dead! Oh, Lisette.’

‘I know. He was a good man, but I was bored. I wanted to get away … though I didn’t want it to happen this way.’

‘Which way?’

‘Well, I was resigned. I had made my bed as they say, and I must lie on it. I tried to become a farmer’s wife. Lottie. I tried hard but I didn’t do it very well. Still, Jacques did not seem to mind and I had my little boy.’

‘He must have been a great consolation.’

‘He is indeed. I don’t think I should have had the courage to come here if it had not been for him.’

‘My dear Lisette, why? You know I should always be glad to see you.’

‘We had so many good times together, didn’t we? Remember the fortune-teller? That was where you first met your husband. I think he fell in love with you on sight. Poor Sophie, what a tragedy! But it made the way clear for you, didn’t it?’

‘I don’t see it like that. I often think of Sophie.’

‘She could have married him.’

‘I don’t think she would have been very happy if she had done so. I can only tell myself that it was her choice.’

‘At least you are happy.’

‘Yes, with the dearest little boy … And Lisette, I am to have another.’

‘Lottie! How wonderful. Is your husband pleased?’

‘Delighted—and so are my father and mother.’

‘That is good news. But I have to talk to you, Lottie. I have to talk very seriously … because I have nowhere to go.’

‘Nowhere to go! But you are here. You have come back. How can you say you have nowhere to go?’

‘Oh, you are good to me. I knew you would be. All the way here I’ve been telling myself that. But we are destitute … we have lost everything. It was those dreadful people. I don’t suppose here … in this peaceful place … you knew much about that dreadful war.’

‘The
Guerre des Farines,’
I said. ‘Oh yes, I know very well how frightening that could be. I heard a man preaching … inciting the people to revolt. It was horrible.’

‘Horrible to be their victims … to be in the heart of it, Lottie.’ She covered her face with her hands. ‘I try to shut it out but you can’t shut out memories by shutting your eyes. You see, he was a farmer and he had grain and corn stored in his outhouses. They came …. They pillaged the storehouses … they dragged out the grain. I shall never forget that terrible night, Lottie. The darkness lighted by torches they carried. The shouting … the threats. Jacques ran out to see what they were doing. He tried to stop them. One of them knocked him down. I was at a window with Louis-Charles. I saw him go down and they all fell on him with sticks and rakes and all the implements they had brought with them as weapons. His own workers were doing that … and he had always been good to them. He was a good man, Jacques was. I know he bored me and I longed to escape from him … but he was a good man. They burned down the barns and all that good corn.’

‘They are criminals!’ I cried. ‘They are not interested in giving bread to the poor. They have destroyed the corn wherever they could. How can that help a bad harvest? My poor Lisette, what you have suffered!’

‘I ran away with Louis-Charles to a neighbour’s house, about half a mile away. I stood at one of their windows throughout that night and when dawn came I could still see the smoke rising from what had been my home. So you see, Lottie, I lost my husband and my home and now I have nothing … nothing at all. I was with my neighbour for a few weeks but I could not stay there. Then I thought of you. I thought, I will go to Lottie. I will throw myself on her mercy. I will ask her if she will give me a roof over my head. I could make myself useful with you. I could be a lady’s maid. I could do something … if only you will let me stay here with my little boy.’

There were tears in my eyes as I put my arms round her and held her against me.

‘Don’t say any more, Lisette. Of course you will stay here. I have tried to find you. Tante Berthe wouldn’t help me. But now you are here, there is nothing else to fear. You have come home.’

She was so grateful. She said: ‘I knew you would take me in … but there are others …. You have a new family here.’

‘They must welcome you as I do, Lisette.’

‘You say they must. Can you insist?’

‘I could. But it won’t be necessary. Charles is very easygoing. He asked about you once or twice. And my parents-in-law are very kind … kind and quiet. They never interfere. My father-in-law is an invalid and scarcely ever leaves his apartments now. I have a sister-in-law Amélie who will shortly be married. I think they will be ready to welcome you.’

‘And if they are not?’

‘Then they will see that they must. Don’t worry. It is wonderful that you have come back. We are going to be happy again. There is so much to talk about. It has been a little dull at times.’

‘What! With such a husband?’

‘He is away now and then. And I have missed you. It will be like the old days.’

‘Except that you have become a wife and I am a widow.’

‘And we have two dear little boys. I do hope they will be friends.’

Lisette and I were in the small chamber which led from the hall when Charles returned to the château. We were talking as we had been doing since her return, almost breathlessly chattering, stopping each other with reminders of something that had happened in the past, questioning each other about our lives since our parting.

Charles stood in the doorway. There were a few seconds of tense silence while he stared at Lisette. She looked at him a little defiantly. Poor Lisette, she is afraid of being turned away, I thought.

I cried: ‘What do you think has happened? Lisette has come.’

Lisette smiled hesitantly; ‘You don’t know me,’ she said.

‘But I do,’ he replied. ‘You were at the fortune-tellers.’

‘You remembered that. You rescued us both.’

‘Terrible things have happened to Lisette,’ I put in. ‘Her husband has been killed and her home burned down. It was the mob … the rioters who took his grain.’

‘How … shocking!’ said Charles.

He seemed to have recovered from his surprise and coming into the room sat down and, looking at Lisette, he said: ‘How did you get here?’

I answered for her. ‘On horseback. She came a long way with just one groom lent to her by her neighbours.’

Charles nodded. ‘The mob,’ he murmured. ‘The mindless mob. Those who have aroused them have a lot to answer for.’

‘Thank Heaven they have quietened down now,’ I said. I added: ‘Lisette has a little boy. He is charming. Such beautiful manners. I am sure Charlot will be pleased when he meets him.’

Charles repeated: ‘A little boy …’

‘He was worn out by the journey,’ I said. ‘He is fast asleep now.’

Charles talked with us for a while, then he said: ‘I will leave you two to continue. You will have much to tell each other. I will see you later.’ He laid his hand on my arm and pressed it and bowed to Lisette.

When we were alone Lisette burst out: ‘I don’t think he will want me to stay here.’

‘Why ever not?’

‘He was remembering that I was the housekeeper’s niece.’

‘Charles wouldn’t care about that.’

She was earnest for a moment and looked angry; her mouth looked square as though she could not control it. ‘Oh yes,’ she said quietly. ‘They care very much.’

‘No, Lisette, you are mistaken. I never thought of it for a moment. Nor did Sophie … in the old days.’

She was smiling now, all bitterness gone. ‘I always knew I had a good friend in you, Lottie,’ she said.

We went on talking, but she was changed, wary. Charles’s coming had alarmed her. I thought she was exhausted and should retire early so I took her to her room just as I would an honoured guest. I wanted to make her happy, make her forget all she had gone through. I wanted to see her merry as she had been in the old days.

I kissed her tenderly when I said goodnight.

‘Dear Lisette,’ I said. ‘I want you to understand that you have come home.’ Then I went to the small bed which had been put up temporarily in her room and in which her son was sleeping.

I gazed at him and said: ‘I am longing to see Charlot’s face when he meets Louis-Charles. That is for tomorrow.’

Then I went to the room I shared with Charles.

He was already there and in a thoughtful mood. He was seated in an armchair and as I entered he said: ‘Lottie, come here.’

I went to him and he seized me and pulled me down until I was sitting across his knees.

‘So,’ he said, ‘your partner in crime has turned up, it seems.’

‘Crime?’ I cried. ‘What crime?’

‘The crime of naughty little girls who disobey orders and sneak out of their homes away from their guardians to visit evil procuresses.’

‘Haven’t you forgotten that?’

‘Forgotten the first moment I saw my love?’

‘Charles,’ I said, ‘I believe you are annoyed.’

‘About what?’

‘Lisette’s being here.’

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘What will she do? Will you give her some post? I think she would make a good lady’s maid. She would know the latest fashions, and if not, where to discover them.’

‘I don’t want her to feel like a servant here, Charles.’

‘She is the niece of one.’

‘A very superior one. I don’t think Tante Berthe would relish being called a servant.’

‘Well, isn’t she the
femme de charge
at Aubigné?’

‘Yes, but she is in a very special position. She is Queen of the Nether Regions and there is strict protocol, I do assure you. People almost have to make appointments to see her. I think that Lisette was always conscious of being not one of us … like Sophie and myself, I mean … while at the same time she was educated with us.’

‘That was a mistake. Education gives people ideas.’

I laughed at him. ‘That is surely what it is meant to do.’

He was silent and I put my arms round his neck. ‘Tell me what is on your mind,’ I said.

‘I wonder,’ he replied. ‘I think she might be a bit of a schemer.’

‘A schemer! What do you mean?’

‘She seems to have bewitched you.’

‘Charles, that’s nonsense. She is my friend. She has been through a terrible ordeal. She has seen her husband murdered before her own eyes.’

‘Don’t get excited,’ he said. ‘Of course she will have to stay here until something is found for her.’

‘Found for her? What do you mean?’

‘Some post perhaps … someone’s lady’s maid, as you don’t want her in that capacity yourself.’

‘Why don’t you like her?’

‘I neither like nor dislike her.’

‘You talk as though you don’t want her here.’

‘My dear Lottie, we are not a hostel for waifs and strays.’

‘Have you some reason for disliking her?’

He drew away from me. ‘Why should I have?’ he said sharply.

‘You seem so … hostile.’

‘My dear Lottie, it matters not to me. I shall not have to see her, shall I? Do you propose to treat her like an honoured guest?’

‘Charles, are you telling me that you don’t want her in your house? Because if you don’t … ’

‘You will take off with her. I know. You will go back to Aubigné … the two of you adventuring together. Lottie, my lovely Lottie, mother of my son and the one who will be with us ere long, I want you to be happy. I want to show you in every way that I love you. Whatever I was before I met you, whatever I am now … Lottie, I am yours.’

‘What a charming speech!’ I kissed him lightly. ‘What on Earth provoked it?’

‘You, my beautiful and fruitful wife. You satisfy me completely.’

‘You are indeed a devoted husband tonight. And what has all this to do with Lisette?’

‘It is quite apart. But what I was trying to say about her was this: Is it wise to have her here?’

‘I can’t see why not, and I want her to feel happy here. I am going to insist that she stays and is made welcome by everybody in this house.’

He drew me towards him and kissed my neck.

‘So be it,’ he said. ‘Madame has spoken.’

I could not sleep that night. Nor, I was sure, could Charles. He was very tender and more than once assured me that he loved me. I think he was trying to make up for his rather cold reception of Lisette, of whom he knew I was very fond. We lay side by side, hands entwined, but silent.

When I awoke he was gone. It was quite early and my first thought was for Lisette. I was happy that she had come back, although in such sad circumstances, and I was flattered that in her need she had thought of me first. Then I wondered about the groom who had come with her and it occurred to me that he might like to stay for a day before undertaking the long journey back.