“There wasn’t time, Georges Jacques.”
“I think we must take time.” The older man glanced at the sword Juliette still clutched. “Introduce me to the ladies, François.”
“I don’t know their names. We should be on our way while the confusion—”
“Stop hurrying me, François.” Steel layered the softness of the ugly man’s voice. “We have a situation here that may be very dangerous for me and I think you know it.” His gaze switched to Juliette. “Let us introduce ourselves, shall we? I’m Georges Jacques Danton and this fierce young man is François Etchelet.”
“Juliette de Clement. Catherine Vasaro.” Juliette’s gaze narrowed on Danton’s face. “I don’t care how dangerous it is for you. I’m not going to let you take us back there.”
“No? I didn’t say I would turn you over to the tender hands of the Marseilles. Though the possibility does exist.”
“No, Georges Jacques.” François Etchelet shook his head. “It does not exist. We’re taking them back to Paris.”
Danton glanced at him in surprise. “Indeed?”
François looked at Juliette. “The carriage is down the road. Wait for us there.”
Juliette gazed at him suspiciously. Then she turned away and led Catherine in the direction he’d indicated.
François waited until they had vanished from view before he whirled back to face Danton. “You didn’t tell me it would be a slaughter.”
Danton went still. “Was it? I had hoped Dupree would be content with rapine here.”
“He was not. The debauchery and slaughter sickened my very soul.”
“How extraordinary when you’re quite accustomed to violence.”
Etchelet’s eyes were suddenly blazing. “Not like this. I want no part of it.”
“You’re already a part of it. You were eager enough to go to the abbey when I sent you.” Danton smiled grimly. “You were like a hound scenting a stag in the forest.”
“I didn’t realize they would…” Etchelet gestured impatiently with his free hand. “What does it matter? We must get these young women away before Dupree discovers they’ve escaped.”
“You’re upset.” Danton shrugged. “Truly, I did not imagine it would be so bad when I sent you to represent me. Actually, knowing how hot-blooded you are, I hoped to give you enough of a taste of the savagery of these affairs to make you shy away from Marat’s other parties.”
“Parties? There are going to be more?”
Danton nodded. “One at the Abbaye Saint Germain-des-Prés this afternoon and another at the convent of Carmel earlier this evening. There will be others.”
François felt the nausea rise in his throat as he remembered the horrors he had just witnessed. “In the name of God, why?”
“Who knows? Marat claims the aristos and clergy within France are plotting to overthrow the government and hand the country over to the Austrian armies. He calls it a necessary elimination of the royalist scum in the prisons.”
“And that was why thousands of aristos and priests were rounded up last week and thrown into prisons?”
“But if my memory serves me, you made no objection to the arrests, François. Are you becoming softhearted by any chance?”
“No!” François made no attempt to hide the violence in his tone. He drew a deep breath. “A convent is not a prison. Nuns are not aristos.”
“It was Marat’s choice which places would be attacked.” Danton glanced away. “We made a bargain. I would not interfere if he kept his hands off the Girondins in the assembly. You know without the Girondins the assembly would be dangerously unbalanced.”
“I cannot understand you. Why would you sanction this atrocity? I thought—”
“You thought Madame Revolution was all shining virtue?” Danton shook his massive head. “Only her soul is pure. Her body is that of the lowliest whore, passed from man to man and gowned in the tawdriest compromises.”
“I have no use for this particular compromise.”
“Nor do I.” Danton’s gaze went to the turn of the road where the two women had disappeared. “And so I’m willing to give you a sop to your conscience as long as it can be done safely. What excuse is Dupree giving for the massacre of the women of the abbey?”
