“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 baby! 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
“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.
Ive 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.
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.
There were three inns at Bordereaux and we tried them all without success. We studied the signposts and found there were three routes which the couple could have taken.
“We must try them all,” said Margot firmly.
How weary we were! What a hopeless chase it was i How could we hope to find the baby? But Margot was determined to.
“We cannot stay away much longer,” I pointed out.
“Already we have behaved in a very strange way. What do you think Mimi and Bessell think?”
They are servants,” retorted Margot haughtily. They are not paid to think.”
“Only when it is in your interests for them to do so, I suppose! They have some inkling of what all this is about. Do you think it wise, Margot?”
“I don’t care if it is wise or not. I’m going to find my baby.”
So we went on with our enquiries which brought us nowhere.
At length I said to Margot: “You said that this was to be a visit to your old nurse Yvette. Don’t you think it would be wise to call on her since that is supposed to be the object of the journey?”
She said she did not want to waste time but finally I persuaded her that it would be wise to go. Again I seem to hear the Comte’s voice warning me that if one is going t weave a web of deceit it is better to work in a few strand of truth. I Yvette lived in a pretty little house with a walled garde surrounding it. The gates were wide enough for the carriage to pass through and Yvette herself came to the door.
She was a gentle-faced woman whom I liked immediate but I was very much aware of her evident dismay when sh saw who her visitors were.
Margot ran to her and threw herself into her arms.
My little one,” said Yvette fondly.
“But this is a surprise ( ” We were in the neighbourhood and could not fail to come and see you,” said Margot. oh… who were you visiting?” asked Yvette. ‘ “Oh … well, we really came to see you. It seemed such a long time since I had. This is Mademoiselle Maddox my friend… and cousin.”
“Cousin?” said Yvette.
“I did not know you had this cousin Welcome, Mademoiselle. Please do come in. Oh, do I see Mimi? Welcome, Mimi.”
But her uneasiness seemed to have increased.
“Jose will take care of Mimi and your coachman,” she said, Jose was her maid a woman as old as herself. Mimi and Bessell went off with her and Margot and I followed Yvette into the house. It was neat, clean and very comfortably furnished.
“You are happy here, Yvette?” asked Margot.
“Monsieur Ie Comte has always been good to those who worked well for him,” she said.
“When you no longer needed me and I left the chateau he provided this house for me and an income so that I could afford Jose to look after me. We live very happily here.”