The Devil on Horseback (27 page)

Margot’s room was next to mine.
I arranged it,” she told me.

“And Mimi is in the ante-room. Bessell is with the grooms.”

I had forgotten till then our plan which involved these two. In fact I had never really taken it seriously and she did not mention it until we had been in Paris two or three days.

The Comte and Comtesse de Grasseville called on our first day. Margot, as the hostess, did the honours very graciously, I thought. She walked in the gardens with them and they were all very solemn. As the Comte had reminded us, we were in mourning.

I wondered then whether this meant a postponement of the wedding and came to the conclusion that this must be so.

I was presented to the Comte and Comtesse. Their manner was a little aloof and I wondered if they had heard rumours about my position in the Comte’s household.

I spoke to Margot about this later.

She said she had noticed nothing and they had spoken very kindly of me.

“We talked about the wedding,” she said, ‘and by rights we should wait a year. I don’t know whether we shall. But I shall go on as though there will be no postponement. “

There was shopping to be done. Mimi always accompanied us with Bessell and if we went in the carriage there would be a footman as well.

Sometimes we went on foot and that I enjoyed most. We all dressed very quietly for these expeditions, though none of us mentioned this.

I shall never forget the smell of Paris. There seemed to be more mud there than in any other city. It was black mud and there were metal fragments in it. If one of these touched one’s garments it would make a hole. I remembered that the old Roman name for Paris was Lutetia which meant Mud Town, and I was surprised it had been so called. In the streets boys stood around with brooms to sweep a crossing for those pedestrians who were ready to pay a sou for the service.

I liked to see the way in which the city came alive as it did each morning at seven o’clock when the clerks, neatly dressed, would be going to work, and one or two gardeners could be seen wheeling their barrows into the markets. Gradually the town would put on its bustling and exciting vitality. I told Margot it reminded me of the dawn chorus of the birds. A little stirring, then a little more and so on, adding up to the full song.

She was a little impatient of my enthusiasm. After all, she had known Paris for so long and as with many things that are familiar one ceases to be aware of them.

But how thrilling it was to see the various trades waking up to the day. The barbers, covered in flour with which they powdered the wigs, the lemonade shops opening their doors while the waiters came out with their trays of hot coffee and rolls to be served to those in the surrounding houses who had ordered them the night before. Later members of the legal profession appeared like black crows in their flapping robes on their way to the Chatelet and the other courts.

Dinner was at three o’clock in fashionable circles and it amused me to see the dandies and the ladies-some in carriages but some on foot-picking their careful way through the mud on their way to their hosts. Then the streets were! full of noise and clamour which died down during the dinner! interval to awaken again about five o’clock when the leisured i crowd was making its way to the playhouses or the pleasure gardens.

1 wanted to see everything, which Margot thought very I childish. She did not know that the need to overlay my I anxiety about what might be happening back at the chateau i was at the heart of my determination to learn all I could :

about this stimulating, wonderful city.

Looking back, how glad I was that I saw it then. It was never to be quite the same again. ;

We shopped. What an array of good things there were in,-‘ those shops!

Their windows were dazzling. Gowns, ready;

made, materials for sale, mantles, pelisses, muffs, ribbons, ;

laces. They were a joy to behold. The hats were perhaps the ;

most striking of all. Following the fashions set by the Queen, they were both extravagant and outrageous. Rose Bertin, i her dressmaker, made for a few favoured people. She graciously consented to make something for the daughter of the Comte Fontaine Delibes.

“I should go to someone who is more eager to serve you,” I said.

“You don’t understand, Minelle. It means something to be dressed by Rose Bertin.”

So we went to her for Margot’s fitting. She kept us waiting for an hour and then sent a message to the effect that we must return next day.

As we came out I noticed a little group of people standing on the corner. They muttered and watched us sullenly as we got into the carriage.

Yes, Paris was certainly an uneasy city. But I was too bemused by its beauty and too stunned by what had happened at the chateau to notice as I otherwise would-and Margot’s thoughts were elsewhere.

I was gratified to see that England appeared to be held in great respect. It was as Gabrielle LeG rand had said. The shops were full of clothes proclaiming to be made of English cloth. Signs announced that English was spoken within, in the windows of the shops was written Le Punch Anglais, and in all the cafes it was possible to take lethe.

Even the tall vehicles were called whiskies and an imitation of those used in England.

I was amused and I must say somewhat flattered. And in the shops I made no attempt to disguise the fact that, like so many of their products, I came from across the Channel.

We were buying some beautiful satin one day which was to be made into a dress for Margot’s trousseau when the man who was serving us leaned across the counter and looking at me earnestly said: “Mademoiselle is from England?”

I agreed that this was so.

“Mademoiselle should go home,” he said.

“Lose no time.”

I looked at him in surprise and he went on: “Any day the storm will break. Today, tomorrow, next week, next year. And when it comes none will be spared. You should go while there is time.”

Cold fear touched me then. There had been so many pointers, I could see that everyone around me was trying not to see them but there had to be uncomfortable moments when they could not be avoided.

This was indeed a waiting city.

We walked out into the sunshine and our steps led us to the Cour du Mai. I could not forget the shop man warning; and as I walked it seemed to me that a terrible foreboding of the future came to me.

I was to remember it there in the Cour du Mai later on.

Margot came to my room. There was a sparkle in her eyes and she was very flushed.

“It’s all arranged,” she said.

“We are going to see Yvette.”

“Who is Yvette?”

“Don’t be deliberately obstructive, Minelle. I have told you about Yvette. She used to work with Nou-Nou in the nursery. She lives in the country-not so very far from where I lost Chariot.”

“My dear Margot, you are not still thinking of looking for him.”

“Of course I am. Do you think I would let him go and never know what has happened to him? I must content myself that he is well and happy . and not missing me.”

“As he was only a few weeks old when you parted from him, he could hardly be expected to know you.”

“Of course he’ll know me. I’m his mother.”

“Oh Margot, you must not be so foolish. You must put i unfortunate episode behind you. You have been lucky. Yo have a fiance whom you like very well. He will be kind a good to you.”

“Oh, don’t set yourself up as an oracle. You’re not t schoolmistress now, you know. You promised we would to find him. Are you a breaker of promises?”

I was silent. It was true I had promised when I though! she was on the verge of hysteria, but I had never really takei| the plan seriously. ^ “I have it all worked out,” she explained.

“I shall go to vis iA my old nurse Yvette. I want to tell her that I am betrothedl;

to Robert. Mimi and Bessell will accompany us, and we| shall take the carriage. We shall stay at inns and travel aj little each day and as we are going back to that neighbour1 hood I shall become Madame Ie Brun. It will be a sort of’l masquerade. I have told Mimi that it is better not to traveli as my father’s daughter because of the recent scandal about) my mother’s death and the mood of the people. She is pleased;;

She thinks that will be safe. Why don’t you say something? ? You just sit there looking disapproving. I think it’s a wonderful plan. “

“I only hope you don’t do anything foolish.”

“Why do you always think I am going to do something foolish?” she demanded.

“Because you often do,” I retaliated.

But I could see that she was really set on the plan and there was no withholding her.

Perhaps, I thought, it is not such a bad idea, for if she-saw for herself that her child was well cared for she might cease to fret about him. But how could we hope to find him?

She had decided that we should make our way to Petit Montlys but we should not of course call on Madame Gr6mond. Even she realized what folly that would be.

“What we must do,” she said, ‘is to find the inn where we stayed when Chariot was taken from us and make enquiries in that area. “

I said: “It’s a wild goose chase.”

“Wild geese are sometimes caught,” she retorted.

“And I’m going to find Chariot.”

We set out on our journey and in three days we covered a good few miles and spent the nights at inns, which Bessell had a gift for finding.

Madame Ie Brun, her cousin and her man and maidservant dearly had enough money to pay for what they wanted and for that reason they were very welcome.

It was unfortunate that one of our horses should cast a shoe and we must go to the nearest blacksmith and that this should happen to be not much more than a mile away from the town of Petit Montlys.

We left the carriage at the blacksmith’s and went into the village which I remembered from my stay in Petit Montlys. While we waited we decided to take some refreshment at an inn we discovered and this we did.

The landlord was rather garrulous. News travels fast in such places and he had already heard that we had come in a carriage and the reason for our delay.

“It gives me a chance to serve you some of my wife’s bread straight from the oven with good cheese and our own butter -and would you like some hot coffee with it? I can serve Ie Punch here. Mercier … as good English a drink as sold in Paris.”

Margot, Mimi and I took the coffee and hot rolls. Bessell tried the mercier and found it good.

“How is life in Paris?” asked the landlord.

“Very gay, very lively,” Bessell told him.

“Ah, it is long since I have been. Mademoiselle, I fancy I have seen you before.” He was looking straight at me.

“You are English, are you not?”

“Yes.”

“Staying with Madame Gremond with your cousin who had suffered a great bereavement, were you?”

I looked at Margot who burst out: “Yes, that’s so. I had suffered a bereavement. I lost my poor husband.”

“Madame, I trust you are happier now.”

“One grows away from sorrow,” said Margot.

I could see that Bessell and Mimi were a little bewildered and I said:

“We should not stay too long. We have to get on and the blacksmith should have done his job by now.”

We came out into the sunshine. Margot was laughing as though what had happened was something of a joke. I felt less happy.

As we walked towards the blacksmith’s shop, a young woman came running towards us.

“It is!” she cried.

“Why, it is. It’s Madame Ie Brun and Mademoiselle Maddox.”

There was no denying who we were for the woman who faced us was Jeanne.

“It is good to see you Madame, Mademoiselle,” she said.

“We often talk of you. How is the little one?”

He is well,” said Margot quietly.

“Such a bonny babyl Madame Legere said she had never seen a bonnier.”

How stupid we were to have come! I might have known that we should run into danger. But what would have been the use of pointing that out to Margot 1 “With his nurse, I’ll warrant,” went on Jeanne.

“I heard there was a fine carriage at the blacksmith’s. Ladies from Paris, they thought. I never dreamed who it would be.”

I laid a hand on Margot’s arm.

“We must be on our way,” I said.

“You are coming to see Madame Gremond?”

No, I’m afraid not,” I replied quickly.

“Do give her our best wishes and tell her that this time we are in too much of a hurry. We lost our way and that is why we have arrived here. Then unfortunately the horse cast a shoe.”

“Where are you making for?” asked Jeanne.

“For Parrefours,” I said, inventing a name.

Tve never heard of that. What is the nearest big town? “

“That is what we have to find out,” I replied.

“We really must get to the carriage. Good day.”

“It was a pleasure seeing you,” said Jeanne, her little monkey’s eyes taking in everything, the livery of Bessell, the near lady’s maid cloak of Mimi. I was glad that the times made it necessary for us to dress simply so that Margot’s garments did not proclaim her rank too clearly.

We were subdued as we got into the carriage which was ready for us. I noticed the speculation in Mimi’s eyes, but like the good lady’s maid that she was, she made no mentionj of what had passed. I expected that she and Bessell would! discuss it later.

190 I

Margot refused to be depressed by the encounter. She would concoct some tale for Mimi later, though whether Mimi believed it would be another matter. What had happened appeared to have been very revealing. It lingered very unpleasantly in my mind.

We found our way to the inn where we had been with Chariot. The landlord remembered us. We must have been conspicuous partly I supposed because of the foreigner, myself; and of course the fact that Margot had arrived with a baby and left without him did mate the conclusion a little obvious.

Margot said she would ask a few discreet questions, but Margot and discretion did not really go together. It was soon clear that she was trying to trace the couple who had taken the baby, which clearly she had had to bear in secrecy and the reason for that would leave little doubt. But she did glean the information that the couple had taken the road south, towards the little town of Bordereaux.