‘Then they will see that they must. Don’t worry. It is wonderful that you have come back. We are going to be happy again. There is so much to talk about. It has been a little dull at times.’
‘What! With such a husband?’
‘He is away now and then. And I have missed you. It will be like the old days.’
‘Except that you have become a wife and I am a widow.’
‘And we have two dear little boys. I do hope they will be friends.’
Lisette and I were in the small chamber which led from the hall when Charles returned to the château. We were talking as we had been doing since her return, almost breathlessly chattering, stopping each other with reminders of something that had happened in the past, questioning each other about our lives since our parting.
Charles stood in the doorway. There were a few seconds of tense silence while he stared at Lisette. She looked at him a little defiantly. Poor Lisette, she is afraid of being turned away, I thought.
I cried: ‘What do you think has happened? Lisette has come.’
Lisette smiled hesitantly; ‘You don’t know me,’ she said.
‘But I do,’ he replied. ‘You were at the fortune-tellers.’
‘You remembered that. You rescued us both.’
‘Terrible things have happened to Lisette,’ I put in. ‘Her husband has been killed and her home burned down. It was the mob … the rioters who took his grain.’
‘How … shocking!’ said Charles.
He seemed to have recovered from his surprise and coming into the room sat down and, looking at Lisette, he said: ‘How did you get here?’
I answered for her. ‘On horseback. She came a long way with just one groom lent to her by her neighbours.’
Charles nodded. ‘The mob,’ he murmured. ‘The mindless mob. Those who have aroused them have a lot to answer for.’
‘Thank Heaven they have quietened down now,’ I said. I added: ‘Lisette has a little boy. He is charming. Such beautiful manners. I am sure Charlot will be pleased when he meets him.’
Charles repeated: ‘A little boy …’
‘He was worn out by the journey,’ I said. ‘He is fast asleep now.’
Charles talked with us for a while, then he said: ‘I will leave you two to continue. You will have much to tell each other. I will see you later.’ He laid his hand on my arm and pressed it and bowed to Lisette.
When we were alone Lisette burst out: ‘I don’t think he will want me to stay here.’
‘Why ever not?’
‘He was remembering that I was the housekeeper’s niece.’
‘Charles wouldn’t care about that.’
She was earnest for a moment and looked angry; her mouth looked square as though she could not control it. ‘Oh yes,’ she said quietly. ‘They care very much.’
‘No, Lisette, you are mistaken. I never thought of it for a moment. Nor did Sophie … in the old days.’
She was smiling now, all bitterness gone. ‘I always knew I had a good friend in you, Lottie,’ she said.
We went on talking, but she was changed, wary. Charles’s coming had alarmed her. I thought she was exhausted and should retire early so I took her to her room just as I would an honoured guest. I wanted to make her happy, make her forget all she had gone through. I wanted to see her merry as she had been in the old days.
I kissed her tenderly when I said goodnight.
‘Dear Lisette,’ I said. ‘I want you to understand that you have come home.’ Then I went to the small bed which had been put up temporarily in her room and in which her son was sleeping.
I gazed at him and said: ‘I am longing to see Charlot’s face when he meets Louis-Charles. That is for tomorrow.’
Then I went to the room I shared with Charles.
He was already there and in a thoughtful mood. He was seated in an armchair and as I entered he said: ‘Lottie, come here.’
I went to him and he seized me and pulled me down until I was sitting across his knees.
‘So,’ he said, ‘your partner in crime has turned up, it seems.’
‘Crime?’ I cried. ‘What crime?’
‘The crime of naughty little girls who disobey orders and sneak out of their homes away from their guardians to visit evil procuresses.’
‘Haven’t you forgotten that?’
‘Forgotten the first moment I saw my love?’
‘Charles,’ I said, ‘I believe you are annoyed.’
‘About what?’
‘Lisette’s being here.’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘What will she do? Will you give her some post? I think she would make a good lady’s maid. She would know the latest fashions, and if not, where to discover them.’
‘I don’t want her to feel like a servant here, Charles.’
‘She is the niece of one.’
‘A very superior one. I don’t think Tante Berthe would relish being called a servant.’
‘Well, isn’t she the femme de charge at Aubigné?’
‘Yes, but she is in a very special position. She is Queen of the Nether Regions and there is strict protocol, I do assure you. People almost have to make appointments to see her. I think that Lisette was always conscious of being not one of us … like Sophie and myself, I mean … while at the same time she was educated with us.’
‘That was a mistake. Education gives people ideas.’
I laughed at him. ‘That is surely what it is meant to do.’
He was silent and I put my arms round his neck. ‘Tell me what is on your mind,’ I said.
‘I wonder,’ he replied. ‘I think she might be a bit of a schemer.’
‘A schemer! What do you mean?’
‘She seems to have bewitched you.’
‘Charles, that’s nonsense. She is my friend. She has been through a terrible ordeal. She has seen her husband murdered before her own eyes.’
‘Don’t get excited,’ he said. ‘Of course she will have to stay here until something is found for her.’
‘Found for her? What do you mean?’
‘Some post perhaps … someone’s lady’s maid, as you don’t want her in that capacity yourself.’
‘Why don’t you like her?’
‘I neither like nor dislike her.’
‘You talk as though you don’t want her here.’
‘My dear Lottie, we are not a hostel for waifs and strays.’
‘Have you some reason for disliking her?’
He drew away from me. ‘Why should I have?’ he said sharply.
‘You seem so … hostile.’
‘My dear Lottie, it matters not to me. I shall not have to see her, shall I? Do you propose to treat her like an honoured guest?’
‘Charles, are you telling me that you don’t want her in your house? Because if you don’t … ’
‘You will take off with her. I know. You will go back to Aubigné … the two of you adventuring together. Lottie, my lovely Lottie, mother of my son and the one who will be with us ere long, I want you to be happy. I want to show you in every way that I love you. Whatever I was before I met you, whatever I am now … Lottie, I am yours.’
‘What a charming speech!’ I kissed him lightly. ‘What on Earth provoked it?’
‘You, my beautiful and fruitful wife. You satisfy me completely.’
‘You are indeed a devoted husband tonight. And what has all this to do with Lisette?’
‘It is quite apart. But what I was trying to say about her was this: Is it wise to have her here?’
‘I can’t see why not, and I want her to feel happy here. I am going to insist that she stays and is made welcome by everybody in this house.’
He drew me towards him and kissed my neck.
‘So be it,’ he said. ‘Madame has spoken.’
I could not sleep that night. Nor, I was sure, could Charles. He was very tender and more than once assured me that he loved me. I think he was trying to make up for his rather cold reception of Lisette, of whom he knew I was very fond. We lay side by side, hands entwined, but silent.