The Chateau on the Lake (40 page)
Read The Chateau on the Lake Online
Authors: Charlotte Betts
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Genre Fiction, #Historical, #Romance, #Historical Fiction, #French, #Historical Romance
‘But Jean-Luc told us he murdered her.’
‘He told so many lies I had to be absolutely sure about this. It took time as I had to work under cover of darkness but I found her body. And I have proof of her identity.’ He reaches into his pocket and then uncurls his fingers. A gold and sapphire pendant rests on his palm.
I stare at it. ‘I remember this from her portrait.’
‘Her grandmother left it to her and Isabelle always wore it.’ His face is unutterably sad. ‘I’m haunted by guilt. She and I did not have a perfect marriage but she was my wife and I should have been able to protect her.’
‘How could you have known that the man you trusted was capable of murdering again and again?’
‘Nevertheless, it was important to me that she should have a proper burial. She never was happy at Château Mirabelle.’ Etienne puts the pendant back in his pocket. ‘Isabelle has now been interred in her own family’s vault. It delayed my return to you but I had to do this for her.’
‘So, at last, you have an end to your torment?’’
He nods. ‘Madeleine, there’s something else too. I found Sophie, lying beside Isabelle.’
Tears start to my eyes. ‘Jean-Luc said he’d make it look as if we’d run away.’
‘I’ve had her buried in a pretty country churchyard. In due course we’ll arrange a headstone for her and I’ll take you there to pay your respects.’
‘Thank you, Etienne.’ My heart aches as I picture her smiling face but I hope she is at peace. ‘What will you do now?’
‘A year ago I could not have survived the anguish of losing my home and the estate. They meant everything to me. One after another members of my family died and it became more and more important to me to maintain their traditions while the foundations of my world were swept away. But now,’ he looks at me, his dark eyes intent upon my face, ‘I feel a curious sense of lightness that all that responsibility has gone and I am free to make a new beginning.’
‘What will that be?’ I ask.
‘That depends on you.’
I become very still and a pulse begins to beat wildly in my throat.
He tucks one of my curls behind my ear, tenderness in his eyes. ‘Madeleine, it’s very clear to me now what is essential to my happiness. It isn’t Château Mirabelle or my estate. It isn’t riches or a title or fine clothes, and it doesn’t matter to me if I live in England or in France.’
The knot of misery I’ve carried in my breast over the last weeks begins to unravel and I feel the sweet dawning of hope.
Reaching for my hand, he turns it over and kisses the soft skin of my inner wrist, sending a shiver running up my arm. ‘My dearest girl, I love you with all my heart and soul and I shall never know true happiness unless you are by my side. Madeleine, sweet Madeleine, please say you will be my wife?’
A sob of pure joy escapes me. ‘Oh, yes, Etienne,’ I say.
He exhales on a sigh and gathers me in his arms. His lips are as warm and sweet as honey. He winds his hands though my hair and time ceases to have any meaning as I drown in his kisses. I slide my hands around his neck and press myself against him, melting against the hardness of his muscular chest, feeling the heat of him through his shirt. All the anxiety and uncertainty of the past weeks drains away and I feel myself born anew in the wonder of our love.
‘Madeleine? I have no fortune or estate any more…’
‘But I have,’ I say. ‘Or I will have once I’m twenty-five. And we shall live perfectly comfortably on it.’
Etienne’s eyes open wide. ‘You have surprised me yet again. I’m not entirely penniless, however, as I still have several smaller properties. Then, if you have no objections, I wish us to be married very soon.’
‘The sooner the better,’ I say, nearly bursting with happiness.
‘Good.’ He kisses the tip of my nose. ‘Because I have arranged for us to be married at the Mairie tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow!’
‘I want to make you mine without delay,’ he whispers, his breath tickling my ear. ‘But there’s another reason. Stay here for a moment.’ He releases me and goes into the hall.
I hear a murmured conversation.
Curious, I follow him and then stop dead. My heart begins to beat very fast.
Etienne is talking to Madame Gerard who holds a baby in her arms. A baby with copper curls as bright as a new penny.
‘Babette found her,’ says Madame Gerard, smiling at me. ‘She returned to your house to see if you needed her and saw Monsieur Viard throttle Madame Levesque. She ran inside and snatched Marianne from her crib before he could find her. I’ve been nursing her ever since and she’s thriving.’
Etienne carefully takes Marianne from Madame Gerard and cradles her against his shoulder.
My knees buckle and I cling to the newel post.
‘Steady!’ says Etienne. He wraps me tightly in the circle of his arms with Marianne between us. He strokes the baby’s cheek with infinite gentleness. ‘So now you can see why I’m in such a hurry. This little orphan of the Revolution needs a family as soon as possible, don’t you think?’
I began to research
The Château on the Lake
with the vague thought that it would be interesting to write a novel set at the time of the French Revolution. I didn’t know much about it but everyone knows that the starving poor rebelled against the greedy aristocrats and beheaded Louis XVI, don’t they? Except that, once I started my research, I quickly discovered that it was nothing like as straightforward as that.
What caused the Revolution? France had been involved in several of the wars that took place in Europe and America in the forty years leading up to the Revolution and the financial implications of this were considerable. The cost of maintaining the army severely depleted a treasury already drained by royal extravagance and the country was almost bankrupt.
The bourgeoisie and the poor, known collectively as the Third Estate were resentful and angry because the wealthy clergy, (the First Estate), and the nobility, (the Second Estate), owned land, had fortunes and paid no taxes. This was manifestly unfair. The bourgeoisie began to rally support in the
salons
of Paris and London to bring about change.
By 1789 it became apparent that the First Estate and the Second Estate had no interest in using their privileged position the assist the Third Estate. The frustrations of the bourgeoisie reached boiling point. The final straw came when severe weather caused the harvest to fail and the poor went hungry.
The discontent grew and an angry mob stormed the Bastille and took control of the armoury. Later that year the women of Paris marched to Versailles to complain about the food crisis. In 1790 the nobility was abolished. Two years later the royal family was arrested and in January 1793 Louis XVI was guillotined. Soon France was not only at war with Austria, Prussia and Britain but had to contend with bitter civil war and rioting within the country.
In simplistic terms, there were two main rival factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins. The Girondins were a group of radicals who campaigned for the end of the monarchy and represented the idea of a democratic revolution. The Jacobin’s power was most often felt through their influence with the Parisian underclass, the
sans-culottes
, so-called because they wore loose working mens’ trousers rather than the knee breeches of the gentry and aristocracy.
The Girondins became dismayed by and resisted the spiralling momentum of the Revolution. The
sans-culottes
were by now out of control and changed their rallying cry from ‘Liberty!’ to ‘Equality!’ while the idealist Jacobins led by Robespierre, were prepared to take aggressive action to further the aims of the Revolution. Robespierre seized control of the Committee of Public Safety and set about targeting anyone whose views differed from his own. The Reign of Terror had begun.
It is often perceived that most of the victims trundling their way to the guillotine in a tumbril were powdered and patched aristocrats but this wasn’t the case. The great majority were of working class background who had taken up arms against the Revolution, most notable in the Vendée. Those nobles who had chosen to emigrate and then returned to France were also executed as they were assumed to be spies. Priests who had refused to take an oath of loyalty to the constitution were also seen as enemies of the Revolution and guillotined. Many ordinary people were denounced for very little reason and an atmosphere of suspicion and fear prevailed. Even those who orchestrated the Revolution were not immune and Robespierre himself was guillotined in 1794.
Finally the populace had had enough. It was impossible to continue to live in such a heightened state of fear. The civil wars and revolts were supressed and the necessity for a government ruled by terror was lessened. The Committee was disbanded and the Jacobin club closed down.
It’s impossible to perfectly distil the facts of the Revolution in so few words and the description above is, of necessity, vastly simplified. For those of you who are interested in finding out more, I have added a list of some of the books I kept constantly to hand while writing
The Château on the Lake
. Not all of these contain information about the French Revolution but were the sources I used to gain a wider picture of the world in which Madeleine Moreau lived.
I’m grateful to everyone who helped me to bring this story to life; all the team at Piatkus but especially my wonderfully encouraging editor Lucy Malagoni, Caroline Kirkpatrick and Lynn Curtis. My thanks also to my lovely agent, Heather Holden-Brown, and to my hugely supportive writers’ group, WordWatchers, who supplied cake and bracing comments in equal measure. My love, as always, to my husband Simon for accepting that I’ve spent most of the last year in another century. Again.
History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814
by Francois Mignet
The Journal of a Georgian Gentleman
by Mike Rendell
Ladies of the Grand Tour
by Brian Dolan
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
Behind Closed Doors
– At Home in Georgian England
by Amanda Vickery
The English
– A Social History 1066–1945
by Christopher Hibbert
The Glass Blowers
by Daphne du Maurier
Fatal Purity
– Robespierre and the French Revolution
by Ruth Scurr
War and Society in Revolutionary Europe 1770–1870
by Geoffrey Best
A Place of Greater Safety
by Hilary Mantel
