The Gents depended on Aldric to navigate treacherous waters. Henri, specifically, was depending on that now. This time, though, the pull of ruthless tides threatened to simply tear them all apart.
Chapter Nineteen
Céleste was beginning to suspectthere would be no end to the ways in which Jean-François would cause her misery. And danger. And he never seemed overly bothered by it.
Adèle had been crying off and on since shortly after they’d fled Fleur-de-la-Forêt. Céleste had worried a little that Aldric would be frustrated or snap at the poor girl. She ought to have known better. He could be standoffish and intimidating, but he hadn’t actually shown himself to be unkind, especially to children. As they’d driven on, he’d smiled at Adèle whenever their gazes happened to meet. He’d even offered Céleste a few words of reassurance.
This was the side of Aldric Benick she’d fallen in love with all those years ago and had hoped to see at Norwood during the house party. And it was the compassionate part of him every bit as much as the reliable and focused aspect of his character that she was relying on now.
“How familiar are you with the inns in this area?” he asked midmorning as he tooled the cart around a bend in the road.
“The only ones I know are on the road to the south of Fleur-de-la-Forêt.” But they were going north.
His nod was clipped and tense. “As much as I would like to get as far as possible from your home, journeying blindly isn’t wise. A stop at an inn would let Adèle rest and allow us to discover where exactly we are and how to get wherever it is we decide to go.”
“I want to go home, tante Céleste,” Adèle whimpered against her. “I want to go home.”
Céleste held her more tightly, rocking slowly back and forth. “I know,ma poupette.I know, but we need to make a journey just now.”
“I want to go home.”
Céleste closed her eyes and breathed. She might have echoed Adèle’s sentiment, but there was no place that truly felt like home to her.
“How easily recognized are you and Adèle in the area around Fleur-de-la-Forêt?” Aldric asked.
She didn’t really know how to answer that. “There are not very many families of our social class near Jean-François’s home. Even away from theimmediate vicinity, process of elimination would likely identify us to anyone paying attention.”
It was a bit of quandary. Adèle could not endure much more. But even in their very simple cart with a horse more favored for its endurance than flash, their very appearance placed them in the upper echelon of Society. That was a dangerous thing just then.
Aldric’s brow drew in a fiercely contemplative expression. “Then we likely should try to travel farther than I would prefer before stopping our journey. It will be hard on Adèle, but fire-wielding mobs are not to be taken lightly.”
“I want to go home.” It was the only thing Adèle had said, and she had said it over and over again. It was all she wanted, and Céleste couldn’t offer it to her. Even the doll her nurse had provided for her was not offering comfort. They needed to get her somewhere she could rest.
Not far off the road was a stone house surrounded by fields. A woman was outside, laundry off a clothesline.
“Aldric, I need to talk with that woman.”
He looked at her, surprised. “Do you know her?”
“No. And let us hope she doesn’t know me.”
To her surprise, Aldric immediately directed the cart down the lane leading to the farmhouse without further questions. Did he trust her so much? Her own father and Jean-François never had. Henri did, generally speaking, but he didn’t always listen.
“Do you need me to go with you when you speak with her?” Aldric asked as he stopped the cart near the house.
Céleste shook her head. She shifted Adèle into his arms. “I won’t be long.”
She carefully climbed out of the cart and made her way to where the woman stood watching her.
“Pardon me,” Céleste said, adjusting her voice so she sounded more working class than aristocratic. She not only needed to hide as many clues as she could as to their actual identity, but she also knew there was a great deal of distrust in the countryside toward those of her station. “Would you be willing to make a trade with me and my family?” She motioned back to Aldric in the cart, holding Adèle, who appeared to have calmed entirely in his arms.
“What is it you want to trade?” the woman asked.
“There is so much anger in the area just now. We’ve heard that a manor house was burned this morning.”
The woman nodded. “I’ve heardtwohave been burned.”
Two. Had the mob actually set fire to Fleur-de-la-Forêt, then? Had the servants escaped? Were they safe?
