The Gents’ fiercely boldLe Capitainewas not cowed in the least.
“There are a few others walking about in the groves just now,” the marquis said in lowered tones that somehow still were not the sort to draw notice.
“Will we have warning if anyone is drawing close?” Nicolette asked.
The marquis indicated they would. Aldric didn’t know exactly what that meant, but both Henri and Nicolette seemed to. Interesting.
Lafayette addressed his next remarks to both Henri and Céleste. “Your family is the focus of a great deal of attention just now.”
As the only person present not directly connected to that family, Aldric felt he was intruding. “I would be happy to step away if that would be preferred.”
Henri immediately insisted he stay. Lafayette did as well. That was unexpected.
“Even before you told me of the letters,” the marquis said to Nicolette, “I had been concerned about Jean-François. He has made some powerful enemies in Paris.”
“Enemies?” Céleste pressed. “He’s not overly liked, and he hasn’t many friends, but I hadn’t thought he was despised.”
“I’ve not been able to ascertain all the details, but he has been involved in a scheme of extortion. Whispers, circulating in various coffeehouses and alehouses and corners of Paris where the criminally inclined frequent, indicate that whoever is the focus of his scheme is someone he likely ought not to have tangled with.”
Aldric didn’t like the sound of that at all. “This is someone with the ability to do harm?”
“It would seem so,” the marquis said. “The fact that Jean-François is already receiving threats that reference a desire for retribution and intention to cause pain only further solidifies the concerning whispers I’m hearing.”
“Jean-François is petty and not as kind as he should be,” Céleste said, “but he’s not actually a fool. To engage in so risky a scheme against someone who can cause significant harm seems a horrific misstep.”
“But it has been a very enriching one,” Lafayette said pointedly.
Aldric eyed the Fortier siblings and found they looked as uneasy as he felt.
“He has built up his coffers significantly of late,” Céleste acknowledged. “And he did reference that when telling Marguerite that he wouldn’t bend to the demands of the letter writer.”
Henri released a tense breath. “He has been miserly with the funds I am rightfully owed and, I suspect, with any money spent on Céleste’s behalf, and all the while, he has been growing rich through an extortionate endeavor that is now endangering the very family he is neglecting.”
“How are we to guard against threats that are not specific enough to identify?” Nicolette might have been asking the question of any of them. And no one seemed to have a clear answer.
“The Fortiers will be safer away from Paris,” Lafayette said. “At the moment, the threats are occurring and centered here. Being away from the city would distance your brother from the focus of his schemes and, we can hope, calm the anger of the one he is extorting.”
Henri paled a little but was otherwise holding up quite well. Where he looked contemplative and concerned, Céleste looked somewhere between livid and afraid.
“Jean-François will never agree to it,” she said. “He has always been very attached to Paris, a preference I shared with him until recently.”
“Anyone with sense is growing wary of Paris.” The marquis’s declaration was foreboding. “The instability has increased of late, and predicting what will come of that is growing more difficult.”
Aldric felt in those words more than a general sense of uncertainty. The marquis knew the pulse of this city and of France. He listened and watched and evaluated, and this hero of war sensed a battle coming. That was not reassuring at all.
“Paris is unsteady, and the Fortiers are in danger.” Nicolette’s mouth pulled tight. “Surely a plea to safeguard his family would convince Jean-François toleave for a time.” She spoke with little conviction, and Aldric saw even less on the faces of the others in the shrubbery nook.
Céleste was pacing. She would wear herself to a thread if she kept at it for long. But Aldric suspected Henri was too distracted by these revelations to bear that in mind. Aldric glanced about, hoping to find a place for her to rest.
“If you think doing so would help,” Lafayette said, “you can tell him that I reached out to you with concern. You needn’t reveal that you told me of his letters. He might be willing to listen to me even if he feels inclined to ignore his family.”
“We could also emphasize thatheis in danger,” Henri said. “That might motivate him.”
It was a sad commentary on Jean-François’s lack of compassion that appealing to his self-preservation was the only thing that gave his siblings any hope he would do the right thing.
“Tell us if you hear anything more,” Nicolette said to the marquis. “I will keep you abreast of what, if anything, we manage to convince Jean-François to do.”
Lafayette seemed satisfied with that. “Nicolette and Henri, there is a matter I would like to discuss with you privately.”
