She was being wiser than he was.
Aldric figuratively squared his shoulders and firmed his resolve.Henri’s sister.Adèle’s aunt. A lady I am charged with seeing safely out of danger.He needed to focus on those things.
He stood as well. They each grabbed a few of the things they’d set out for this pause in their journey and walked to the cart.
“Before we left the inn this morning,” she whispered, “I overheard some of the patrons at the inn discussing what they’d heard of Paris.”
She didn’t sound comforted.
“A militia has been established,” she said. “The French Guard is in mutiny. The people have seized control of Les Invalides and the Bastille.”
It sounded like chaos. Violence. Mob rule. And Henri and Nicolette were still there. Were they safe?
“The men also spoke of the need for similar uprisings in the countryside.” Céleste kept her voice quiet; thus far, Adèle hadn’t seemed to pay their conversation much heed. “They cited ‘the happenings at Fleur-de-la-Forêt’ as a good example of what is needed.”
“It is being spoken of this far from the estate?” Aldric shook his head. “That is reason for caution.”
“But we also weren’t recognized,” Céleste added. “Our disguises and playacting must be sufficient.”
He resisted the urge to take her hand again. “Playing your violin seems to help you feel more at ease.”
“It does. I don’t get to play it as often as I wish I could.”
“We’ll make certain you do this evening at L’Auberge du Chêne Vert. It won’t fix everything, but it might help a little.”
“I think it would.”
Aldric tipped his head toward the cart. “We’d likely best be on our way.”
She turned back toward the blanket, still laid out with Adèle atop it. “Time to be going,ma poupette.”
Adèle hopped up and skipped to them.
“Up you go,ma petite douce,” Aldric said.
The little girl smiled broadly at him as he lifted her up to sit with Céleste. He grabbed the blanket they’d been using and, folding it quickly, set it in the cart as well.
“Is your nephew as fond of you as she is?” Céleste asked as Aldric took his place on the cart bench. “I don’t know how you manage it.”
“Play your violin for him, and I suspect he will be as enthralled as Adèle was while dancing last night.”
“If I go to England, I think I will try that.”
“Are you considering going to England?” His heart flipped at the thought.
“I am, though I suspect it won’t actually prove possible. Henri and I are both essentially penniless now. Jean-François will, without a doubt, cut both of us off for defying him. Even if that weren’t true, I don’t know that I could leave Adèle.”
Quick as that, his heart dropped once more. He flicked the reins and set the cart in motion, reminding himself that he had a duty to see to and needed to focus on it.
“Jean-François will be particularly keen to either require that I live in misery in his household or marry someone who will be of benefit to him, which I think would likely be even worse. That was my mother’s experience, at least.”
“Mine as well,” Aldric said.
“I don’t have a great many memories of my mother. Her face is very vague to me, but I cannot picture her without tears in her eyes. It breaks my heart that she was always miserable.”
He could hardly imagine how much it would hurt if he didn’t have some memories of his mother smiling and happy.
“My mother was often unhappy,” he said. “It is one of my regrets that I was so unable to assuage more of that sorrow.”
