Marie-Cecile put Will from her mind. She looked around. Her maid had been in and tidied the room. Her things were laid out ready on the bed. Her gold handmade slippers were on the floor beside it.
She lit another cigarette from her case. She was smoking too much, but she was nervous tonight. She tapped the end of the filter against the lid before lighting it. It was another mannerism she’d inherited from her grandfather, like so much else.
Marie-Cecile walked over to the mirror and allowed the white silk bathrobe to slide from her shoulders. It pooled around her feet on the floor. She tilted her head to one side and stared in the mirror with a critical eye. The long lean body, unfashionably pale; the full high breasts, the flawless skin. She ran her hand over her dark nipples then lower, tracing the outline of her hip bones, her flat stomach. There were a few more lines around her eyes and mouth perhaps, but otherwise she was little marked by time.
The ormolu clock on the mantle above the fireplace began to chime the hour, reminding her she should begin her preparations. She reached and took the full length, diaphanous shift from the hanger. Cut high at the back, with a sharp V-neck at the front, it had been tailored for her.
Marie-Cecile hooked the straps, narrow ribbons of gold, over her angular shoulders, and then sat down at the dressing table. She brushed her hair, twisting the curls around her fingers, until it shone like polished jet. She loved this moment of metamorphosis, when she ceased to be herself and became the Navigataire. The process connected back through time to all those who had filled this same role before her.
Marie-Cecile smiled. Only her grandfather would understand how she felt now. Euphoric, exhilarated, invincible. Not tonight, but the next time she did this, it would be in the place where her ancestors once had stood. But not him. It was painful how close the cave was to the site of her grandfather’s excavations fifty years ago. He’d been right all along. Just a matter of a few kilometers to the east and it would have been him and not her who stood poised to change history.
She’d inherited the de l’Oradore family business on his death five years ago. It was a role he had been grooming her for, for as long as she could remember. Her father-his only son-was a disappointment to him. Marie-Cecile had been aware of this from a very early age. At six, her grandfather had taken her education in hand-social, academic and philosophical. He had a passion for the finer things of life and an amazing eye for color and craftsmanship. Furniture, tapestries, couture, paintings, books, his taste was immaculate. Everything she valued about herself, she had learned from him.
He had also taught her about power, how to use it and how to keep it. When she was eighteen and he believed her ready, her grandfather had formally disinherited his own son and named her instead as his heir.
There had only been one stumble in their relationship, her unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. Despite his dedication to the Quest for the ancient secret of the Grail, her grandfather’s Catholicism was strong and orthodox and he did not approve of children born outside marriage. Abortion was out of the question. Adoption was out of the question. It was only when he saw that motherhood made no difference to her determination-that, if anything, it sharpened her ambition and ruthlessness-that he allowed her back into his life.
She inhaled deeply on her cigarette, welcoming the burning smoke as it curled down her throat and into her lungs, resenting the power of her memories. Even more than twenty years later, the memory of her exile filled her with a cold desperation. Her excommunication, he’d called it.
It was a good description. It had felt like being dead.
Marie-Cecile shook her head to shake the maudlin thoughts away. She wanted nothing to disturb her mood tonight. She couldn’t allow anything to cast a shadow over tonight. She wanted no mistakes.
She turned back to the mirror. First, she applied a pale foundation and dusted her skin with a gold face powder that reflected the light. Next, she outlined her lids and brows with heavy kohl pencil that accentuated her dark lashes and black pupils, then a green eye shadow, iridescent like a peacock’s tail. For her lips, she chose a metallic copper gloss flecked with gold, kissing a tissue to seal the color. Finally, she sprayed a haze of perfume into the air and let it fall, like mist, onto the surface of her skin.
Three boxes were lined up on the dressing table, the red leather and brass clasps polished and gleaming. Each piece of ceremonial jewelry was several hundred years old, but modeled on pieces thousands of years older. In the first, there was a gold headdress, like a tiara, rising to a point in the center; in the second, two gold amulets, shaped like snakes, their glittering eyes made of cut emerald; the third contained a necklace, a solid band of gold with the symbol suspended from the middle. The gleaming surfaces echoed with an imagined memory of the dust, the heat of ancient Egypt.
When she was ready, Marie-Cecile moved over to the window. Below her, the streets of Chartres lay spread out like a picture postcard, the everyday shops and cars and restaurants nestling in the shadows of the great Gothic cathedral. Soon, from these same houses, would come the men and women chosen to take part in tonight’s ritual.
She closed her eyes to the familiar skyline and darkening horizon. Now, she no longer saw the spire and the gray cloisters. Instead, in her mind’s eye, she saw the whole world, like a glittering map, stretched out before her.
Within her reach at last.
CHAPTER 15
Foix
Alice was jolted awake by a persistent ringing in her ear.
Where the hell am I? The beige phone on the shelf above the bed rang again.
Of course. Her hotel room in Foix. She’d come back from the site, done some packing, then had a shower. The last thing she remembered was lying down on her bed for five minutes.
Alice fumbled for the receiver. “Oui.Allo?”
The owner of the hotel, Monsieur Annaud, had a strong local accent, all flat vowels and nasal consonants. Alice had trouble understanding him face to face. On the phone, without the benefit of eyebrows and hand gestures, it was impossible. He sounded like a cartoon character.
“Plus lentement,”s’il vous plait,“ she said, trying to slow him down. ”Vous parlez trop vite. Je ne comprends pas.“
There was a pause. She heard rapid muttering in the background. Then Madame Annaud came on and explained there was someone waiting for Alice in reception.
“Une femme?” she said hopefully.
Alice had left a note for Shelagh at the site house, as well as a couple of messages on her voicemail, but she’d heard nothing.
“Non, c’est un homme,” replied Madame Annaud.
“Okay,” she sighed, disappointed. “J’arrive. Deux minutes.”
She ran a comb through her hair, which was still damp, then pulled on a skirt and T-shirt, pushed her feet into a pair of espadrilles, then headed downstairs, wondering who the hell it could be.
The main team were all staying in a small auberge close to the excavation site. In any case, she’d already said her goodbyes to those who wanted to hear them. Nobody else knew she was here. Since she’d broken up with Oliver, there was no one to tell anyway.
The reception area was deserted. She peered into the gloom, expecting to see Madame Annaud sitting behind the high wooden desk, but the was no one there. Alice took a quick look round the corner at the waiting room. The old wicker chairs, dusty on the underside, were unoccupied, were the two large leather sofas that stood at right angles to the fireplace draped with horse brasses and testimonials from grateful past guests, lopsided spinner of postcards, offering dog-eared views of everything Foix and the Ariege had to offer, was still.