Leading Lady (23 page)

‘As you adore so many others. Let's forget that side of it, shall we, and talk like the pair of conspirators we are. Tell me what this secret is you have for my uncle and I'll turn the carriage round, take you down close enough to the castle for safety and leave you there. Make up your mind. I must not risk more delay.'

‘Go back there? I can't do it!' He did not believe this was happening to him.

‘Burned your boats, have you?' Not a trace of sympathy in her tone. ‘That's your problem.'

‘Just take me with you as far as the frontier,' he begged. ‘I'll tell you then; trouble you no further.' He had a horrible vision of struggling back to the castle through the thickening snow, arriving bedraggled: the talk, the laughter, the questions.

‘No,' she said. ‘How can I trust you not to play the same game with me as you did with Cristabel? You never thought she was my friend, did you?' And then, surprised. ‘Well, nor
did I. Or Martha. But I find that they are. And you, Mr Fylde, are contemptible. Now, time's passing. Make up your mind.'

‘Bitch!' Fatally, totally, he lost his temper, lunged at her. ‘You led me on. I'll make you sorry.' But she had reached for the check string; the carriage juddered to a halt. The two men perched behind were so quick to the doors that he realised, in so far as he was capable of realising anything, that they must have had orders to be ready.

‘Throw him out,' she told the two men.

‘No! Dear lady! You can't! We're at the top of the pass.'

‘Not quite,' she said implacably. ‘It will be a healthy walk for you, Mr Fylde.'

‘No! Wait! I'll tell you –'

‘Too late. Get rid of him,' she told the men. ‘He's a coward; don't hurt him.' And, to the coachman. ‘Drive on.'

‘Martha!' Franz's voice came to her as from a great distance. ‘My darling! Wake up! Look at me!'

It was an effort to open her eyes. Franz was holding her hand, Anna beside him with smelling salts. Something was terribly wrong. ‘I'm all right.' She pressed his hand reassuringly, felt the warm instant response. ‘But, how long? What's happened?'

‘Anna found you; luckily I'd just come back. What did Minette do to you, my darling?'

‘Nothing. That's it! She came to say goodbye. Has she gone? It's not safe, over the mountains without a guide. I was going for help. Oh, don't worry about me. Go quick, see if she's gone. Anna will look after me.'

‘I will indeed.' Anna's smile was loving. ‘Though why you didn't tell me …'

‘Tell you?' asked Franz, but a ferocious gesture from his wife sent him hurrying from the room.

‘Quite right,' said Anna. ‘Not just the moment.'

Franz's rapidly assembled search-party came back as dusk fell to report that they had followed Minette's carriage as far as Lake Constance and learned there that she had bribed the captain of one of the lake ferries to take her across that night.

‘Oh, well, she's safe at least. That's something.' Joseph had returned late in the afternoon. ‘I must say I rather hoped she would decide to leave before the winter, but one must regret the scrambling way she has done it. What, precisely, did she say to you, Martha?'

‘She said she could take a hint when it was thrown in her face. But there was something else. Just as she was going. I asked if Napoleon might not be angry, and she said on the contrary he would be delighted to see her. And hear her news. As if –' she hesitated.

‘She had something useful to tell him,' Joseph finished the sentence for her. ‘I do wonder what.'

‘I doubt we'll know till spring,' said Franz cheerfully. ‘The searchers said the pass was desperately difficult, coming back.'

‘And it's snowing again,' said Max. ‘Do I take it you gave Minette the hint to leave?' he asked Joseph. ‘Because if so we all owe you our thanks.'

‘Do you know,' said Martha, surprising herself as much as the rest of them. ‘I believe I shall miss her?' And then wished she had not called attention to herself. Franz's report of the faint that had fatally delayed her intervening to stop Minette had got her a very close look from Joseph, but, to her relief, no comment.

‘Then I am sorry I hunted her away,' said Joseph now. ‘But, Martha, as your resident doctor, may I suggest that someone who fainted this morning should perhaps go early to bed tonight? Franz, take her away and see to it. And, Martha –' With a very friendly look. ‘I should have thought of this sooner; I'm ashamed. I'll come to you, in the morning, for the day's plans, not you to me. At ten, perhaps?'

‘Thank you.' How long had he known? It was certainly more than time she told Franz.

Anna was waiting in their apartment, a loving scold at the ready, but Franz sent her away before she could get started. ‘Now,' he had seated Martha in a chair, his arm around her shoulders. ‘This faint of yours. Not just your line, surely.' He paused, looking down at her. ‘Martha?'

‘Yes?' She settled more comfortably against his arm.

‘Am I being a hopeful fool?'

She turned to smile up at him, ‘Well, if you are, Anna and I are too.'

‘And Joseph? One tends to forget he's a doctor, now he's a prince. Well, we have our orders. I am to look after you and you are to take care of yourself.'

‘An heir for Lissenberg?'

‘No, my darling, our son.'

‘Or – I hesitate to suggest it – our daughter?'

‘Dearly welcome either way.' He pulled her close for a long, gentle kiss.

It snowed again next day and Prince Joseph dismissed his men early from the road works. Returning to the palace, he found Baron Hals watching for him. ‘Lady Cristabel is here, highness. Asking to see you. Says it's urgent.'

‘Lady Cristabel?' He looked down at himself. ‘Urgent? She won't mind my wet clothes. I'll see her in the study. At once.' And when she appeared: ‘What is it? What can I do for you?'

‘It's Desmond.' She blushed crimson, then, as it faded, he saw how pale she was. ‘He's vanished.'

‘Vanished?'

‘Nobody has seen him for two days. Since yesterday morning. I'd not have troubled you, highness, if I had not learned that Minette de Beauharnais left unexpectedly yesterday.'

‘Don't call me highness!'

‘It's your title. Don't make it harder for me. I saw him dancing with Minette the night before last.' She flashed him a straight, furious glance. ‘Wooing her, the way I've seen him woo so many fools. Like myself.'

‘Don't.' What could he say? ‘But – you think he has gone with her? Why would she have taken him? Not, surely, on one night's wooing. Though it's true.' He was talking as much to himself as to her. ‘I had made her very angry. I suggested she go,' he explained.

‘Did you? Yes, that would have made her furious, poor Minette. And she danced the next dance with him.' Again the fiery blush as she realised she had revealed that she had been watching him and Minette.

‘She said something to Martha.' His colour was high too. ‘Something that sounded like a threat. Napoleon would welcome her, she said, and the news she brought. I've been worrying about that. But how could Fylde have known –' He stopped short.

‘About the road?' She took the wind quite out of his sails. ‘That it goes in the wrong direction? You really did not know that secret was out? Has been for two days, since you started blasting? One of those Lissenberg secrets everyone knows and nobody mentions. I would have thought Desmond – and the French officers of course – was probably the only person who was unaware of what you were doing. But, if he found out somehow … He might well have thought it a valuable enough bit of information to pave his way with Napoleon. We had had an offer from Vienna,' she explained. ‘His doing. I refused to go. He longed to. He was afraid of the winter here … He likes his comforts, Desmond. And, if Minette smiled at him … He thought himself irresistible to women … Why am I talking like this? As if he was gone? He might just have gone to Brundt, on one of his impulses. But we had an important rehearsal today. Franz was furious.'

‘Franz should have told me.'

‘Why? We thought it was just Desmond being Desmond. We didn't know then that no one had seen him. Don't you see? Maria thought he was with me. I was sure he was with Maria. He would not have spent the night in Brundt. So, where did he spend it?'

‘Not with Minette. I sent after her to make sure she was safe. She crossed the border and went on board the ferry with only her men and her maid. She's gone, that's one thing certain, no stopping her now. And the very fact that she went so suddenly does make one think –'

‘That she had learned something. To make up to Napoleon for her failure to marry you. I take it that is how you made her so angry? I'm only surprised she didn't decide to stay and have another try for poor Max. You're laughing?'

‘I'm afraid I told her that was no use either.'

‘Now I do wonder if you were right about that. You told her he was still wearing the willow for me? He's not, you know. He got over me a long time ago, just hasn't noticed
it yet A pity she's gone, really; I'd been beginning to wonder … But I'll tell you one thing, if she has taken Desmond with her –' she ignored his protest, ‘disguised as one of her men, maybe? He's an actor, remember; he could do it. But – if she has, she'll keep him in line. She's got a great deal of sense, Minette. If he has been indulging himself in the idea of becoming Napoleon's nephew-in-law he's in a fool's paradise. Minette is no green girl; she values herself highly, and why should she not?'

‘She's younger than you, surely?'

‘In years. But what I am trying to say is that I think your secret is probably safe with Desmond for the time being. He'll keep it to himself, as a bargaining point, until they catch up with Napoleon.'

‘By which time the pass will be well and truly closed.' He looked out at steadily falling snow. ‘I'd better question my men again. Would you mind staying? Something they said might identify Fylde to you.'

‘Yes.' It was odd, she thought, how neither of them referred to Desmond as her husband. But then this entire conversation was strange beyond belief.

The two messengers were sure that Fylde had not been in Minette's little party. ‘She came with a coachman, two men and a maid; she left with them; the papers were all in order. There was just one odd thing, it didn't seem worth mentioning before.' The two men had obviously been talking between themselves. ‘The official who passed them through said something about a boy who should have been with her, and wasn't. And Mademoiselle de Beauharnais laughed about it and said the poor boy had got left behind. The party seemed to think this very funny, the man said.'

‘A boy?' Joseph looked at Cristabel; they both thought about the stalwart tenor who would soon be portly, and Cristabel blushed furiously, then spoke. ‘Not Desmond, that's for sure. But do you remember Minette's maid? Why should you? You probably never noticed her. A tiny little shrew of a French girl. She could pass as a boy easily enough, and have you ever heard Desmond sing falsetto?'

‘He'd have been the maid?'

‘I think so. I wonder … Poor Desmond. He's such a fool!
Do you think – would you mind? Could you send out a search-party?'

‘You think Minette took drastic steps to keep him in line?'

‘It could have happened.' she said soberly. ‘And if so he has been out there in the snow for a day and a night.'

‘And it's almost dark now. I'm afraid no search-party will be possible until the morning. I'm sorry! But they shall go out at first light, I promise.'

‘Thank you. Poor Desmond,' she said again, and rose. ‘I must go back to the hostel; maybe I'll find him there fresh from a long night at the gaming tables.'

‘If you do, send at once.'

‘Of course. I do thank you, prince.'

‘You haven't asked me why I decided to change the route of the road,' Joseph said.

‘No. I thought it none of my business.' And then, smiling for the first time. ‘But I confess I long to know.'

‘Thank you.' He was aware that they were talking in much more than words. ‘It's the Lissenbergers,' he said now. ‘This extraordinary cohesion among them. Well – imagine anywhere else, a secret known to everyone and mentioned by none. It makes sense about the Lissenbergers. I knew that the minute you told me. I've been learning it all summer, as I learned my way round the country. You called me spy and traitor once. Well, you were half right. I was a spy, but you can't be a traitor to a cause you don't know.'

‘And now you do?'

‘Well, I know Lissenberg a little now. And, if I can help it, I'm not going to let it be lost in Napoleon's military empire. That's what would happen, I'm sure, if the road went the way he intended. With Switzerland as a barrier it will be another story. Mind you, I've a case ready to make out to Napoleon, in the spring. If I'm lucky, and he hears it first from me, I might even convince him. It's an easier route, will cost less, take less time, be cheaper to maintain. I managed to convince his engineers, but then they are engineers, not military strategists. And they don't know much about our export trade.'

‘It always comes back to that,' she said. ‘Did you know that Napoleon himself saw to it that Lissenberg remained independent under the treaty of Rastatt?'

‘Did he? Well, that's encouraging at least.' He held out a hand. ‘Am I forgiven, Cristabel?'

‘Forgiven?' She made herself ignore the hand. If she let him touch her, anything might happen. ‘Long ago. What else could you do?'

‘What else could we do? Are you going to call on Martha? She is missing Mademoiselle de Beauharnais, I think.'

‘Good gracious. Then I'll certainly stop and see her.' She was grateful to him for getting them so easily past the moment of tension. She smiled. ‘I think you may find your brother Max misses her too.'