The man hesitated a little.
“What if we added to the trade?” Céleste asked. “We’ll include two portmanteaus: clothing, pomades, various grooming items.”
Twoportmanteaus. They were traveling with three.
“I’ll accept that trade.”
Céleste turned to Aldric while the groom left to, apparently, prepare the wagon they had just obtained.
“Take out of your bag anything you cannot do without. I’ll do the same for myself and Adèle and consolidate everything into one bag.”
It would not only secure them a less recognizable conveyance but would also lighten their load. Quick thinking on her part.
Céleste Fortier would never stop amazing him. A lifetime spent in the ballrooms of Society ill-prepared a person for this kind of situation, yet she was navigating it with the brilliance of an actual general.
Aldric set their remaining bag into the back of the wagon the groom prepared for them, atop a layer of hay that filled it. He placed Céleste’s violin there as well, tucking it safely against the side. The blankets he draped over the bench; they would want those. The horse was hitched and ready to go. He climbed onto the bench seat once Céleste and Adèle were situated there, and they were nearly on their way.
The groom hung a lit lantern on a hook at the front of the wagon. Céleste turned her face a little away.
“Left at the branch in the road?” she asked the groom.
“Left. That’ll take you to Le Havre.”
“Thank you.”
Aldric began at a very slow pace, not wanting to make noise. Who knew what was happening behind them in the inn or how quickly their pursuer would be near enough to see them. Traveling with a lit lantern increased their risk of being seen, but without it, they had no hope of navigating the roads.
Only after the inn was no longer visible behind them did either of them break the silence.
“At the fork in the road,” she said, “we need to go to the right.”
“The groom said to go left.”
“And should whoever was looking for us at that inn get from him information about our destination, the groom will tell him we are on our way to Le Havre and will be sent in the wrong direction.”
“Brilliant, Céleste Fortier. Absolutely brilliant.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I don’t think I cankeep driving safely,” Aldric said in tense tones.
Céleste had been expecting him to say as much for some time now. He’d now and then caught himself tugging unknowingly on a rein as he fought sleep and inadvertently telling the horse to veer in one direction or another. As a result, he’d been driving slower and slower and growing increasingly more tense.
“I’m struggling to stay alert,” he said. “We can go farther if you drive for a time.”
Her heart dropped. Aldric was exhausted. It had been at least two hours since they’d left the inn, and he hadn’t slept before their departure as she had. What he was asking was so reasonable.
“I can’t.”
“Even for just a little while?” he pressed. “If I could close my eyes for even just thirty minutes ...” With the lantern hanging near him, she couldn’t make him out through the bursts of light. But the way the sentence trailed off told her he’d looked at her and realized she couldn’t offer him even the small bit of help he was requesting. “We’ll pull off the road as soon as I find a good place to stop for the night.”
“I’m sorry, Aldric. I really am.”
He set his hand on hers, where it rested on Adèle’s back. The little girl was sleeping, lying across their laps. “We’re all worn to a thread, Céleste. No need to apologize for that.”
Again, she was being given consideration for something that wasn’t actually the case. She wasn’t as deprived of sleep and rest as he was, and yet she was being excused. He’d not been upset when she’d confessed to the ruse involving her health in Paris. Surely he would be kind in the matter of her vision if she explained it.
Why she hadn’t told anyone, she couldn’t really say. Embarrassment, she supposed, was a significant part of her motivation. The way Society punished people for imperfections was as well.
