I went down at once and when I saw who was standing in the hall I gave a cry of joy and ran to her.
‘Lisette! You have come at last. I have tired so hard to find you. It is wonderful to see you.’
‘I knew you would say that,’ she answered, her lovely blue eyes glowing with affection. I had forgotten how pretty she was. Now she was rather soberly dressed, with her fair hair escaping from the pins which held it, so that it made little curling tendrils on her forehead and neck, and smiling half whimsically, half tenderly, and I could think of only one thing: my friend Lisette had come back to me.
‘I had to come,’ she said. ‘I had nowhere to go. I thought you would help me. I couldn’t face Tante Berthe.’
‘I’m glad you came. This is your little boy? I heard you had one.’
She laid her hand on the boy’s shoulder. He looked older than Charlot. ‘Louis Charles,’ she said, ‘take Madame’s hand as you know how.’
The boy took my hand and kissed it. I thought he was charming.
‘There is so much to tell you,’ said Lisette.
‘I long to hear it,’ I replied. ‘How have you travelled? Have you come far? Are you hungry?’
‘We came on horseback … Louis Charles riding with me. One of the men from my neighbour’s stables brought me here. I have left him in the stables. Perhaps they could give him a bed for the night. He will want to leave in the morning.’
‘Of course, of course,’ I said.
‘I have so much to tell you … but … could I wash first?’
‘Certainly, and eat too. I will tell them to prepare a room for you and your son.’
I called to the servants. Food must be prepared … a room and everything for her comfort; and the groom who had come with her must be lodged and fed.
I was delighted to have her back with me and could not wait to hear all her news as soon as she had washed and eaten and the boy was sleeping. I took her into one of the smaller rooms of the château where we could be quite alone while she told me her story.
Hers had not been a happy marriage. She had made a great mistake. When she and Tante Berthe had visited their relative she had been introduced to Farmer Dubois; he had fallen in love with her so completely that she had been quite flattered and in a mad moment had agreed to marry him.
‘It was a mistake,’ she said. ‘I could not be a farmer’s wife. It didn’t suit me at all. He adored me …but one gets a little tired of such devotion. I even played with the idea of running away. I thought I’d come to you and throw myself on your mercy.’
‘I wish you had,’ I said. ‘Oh, I have missed you so much, Lisette.’
‘But you are Madame de Tourville now. You have your beautiful château and your devoted husband.’
I lifted my shoulders and she studied me intently.
‘You are happy?’ she asked.
‘Oh yes … yes … quite happy.’
‘I am glad. I think the most awful thing a woman can suffer is an unhappy marriage.’
‘But at least your Monsieur Dubois adored you. Have you left him, Lisette?’
‘I am coming to that. He is dead. That is why I got away.’
‘Dead! Oh, Lisette.’
‘I know. He was a good man, but I was bored. I wanted to get away … though I didn’t want it to happen this way.’
‘Which way?’
‘Well, I was resigned. I had made my bed as they say, and I must lie on it. I tried to become a farmer’s wife. Lottie. I tried hard but I didn’t do it very well. Still, Jacques did not seem to mind and I had my little boy.’
‘He must have been a great consolation.’
‘He is indeed. I don’t think I should have had the courage to come here if it had not been for him.’
‘My dear Lisette, why? You know I should always be glad to see you.’
‘We had so many good times together, didn’t we? Remember the fortune-teller? That was where you first met your husband. I think he fell in love with you on sight. Poor Sophie, what a tragedy! But it made the way clear for you, didn’t it?’
‘I don’t see it like that. I often think of Sophie.’
‘She could have married him.’
‘I don’t think she would have been very happy if she had done so. I can only tell myself that it was her choice.’
‘At least you are happy.’
‘Yes, with the dearest little boy … And Lisette, I am to have another.’
‘Lottie! How wonderful. Is your husband pleased?’
‘Delighted—and so are my father and mother.’
‘That is good news. But I have to talk to you, Lottie. I have to talk very seriously … because I have nowhere to go.’
‘Nowhere to go! But you are here. You have come back. How can you say you have nowhere to go?’
‘Oh, you are good to me. I knew you would be. All the way here I’ve been telling myself that. But we are destitute … we have lost everything. It was those dreadful people. I don’t suppose here … in this peaceful place … you knew much about that dreadful war.’
‘The Guerre des Farines,’ I said. ‘Oh yes, I know very well how frightening that could be. I heard a man preaching … inciting the people to revolt. It was horrible.’
‘Horrible to be their victims … to be in the heart of it, Lottie.’ She covered her face with her hands. ‘I try to shut it out but you can’t shut out memories by shutting your eyes. You see, he was a farmer and he had grain and corn stored in his outhouses. They came …. They pillaged the storehouses … they dragged out the grain. I shall never forget that terrible night, Lottie. The darkness lighted by torches they carried. The shouting … the threats. Jacques ran out to see what they were doing. He tried to stop them. One of them knocked him down. I was at a window with Louis-Charles. I saw him go down and they all fell on him with sticks and rakes and all the implements they had brought with them as weapons. His own workers were doing that … and he had always been good to them. He was a good man, Jacques was. I know he bored me and I longed to escape from him … but he was a good man. They burned down the barns and all that good corn.’
‘They are criminals!’ I cried. ‘They are not interested in giving bread to the poor. They have destroyed the corn wherever they could. How can that help a bad harvest? My poor Lisette, what you have suffered!’
‘I ran away with Louis-Charles to a neighbour’s house, about half a mile away. I stood at one of their windows throughout that night and when dawn came I could still see the smoke rising from what had been my home. So you see, Lottie, I lost my husband and my home and now I have nothing … nothing at all. I was with my neighbour for a few weeks but I could not stay there. Then I thought of you. I thought, I will go to Lottie. I will throw myself on her mercy. I will ask her if she will give me a roof over my head. I could make myself useful with you. I could be a lady’s maid. I could do something … if only you will let me stay here with my little boy.’
There were tears in my eyes as I put my arms round her and held her against me.
‘Don’t say any more, Lisette. Of course you will stay here. I have tried to find you. Tante Berthe wouldn’t help me. But now you are here, there is nothing else to fear. You have come home.’
She was so grateful. She said: ‘I knew you would take me in … but there are others …. You have a new family here.’
‘They must welcome you as I do, Lisette.’
‘You say they must. Can you insist?’
‘I could. But it won’t be necessary. Charles is very easygoing. He asked about you once or twice. And my parents-in-law are very kind … kind and quiet. They never interfere. My father-in-law is an invalid and scarcely ever leaves his apartments now. I have a sister-in-law Amélie who will shortly be married. I think they will be ready to welcome you.’
‘And if they are not?’