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“I imagine he’ll go hunting.” Sir Percy had removed his gloves to sip his tea, and she noted his gold ring had been carved with a small flower. It reminded her of a necklace she had, but which had now been lost to the fire in her château. Her mother had given it to her, and it was made of small gold plates with carved roses on them, supposed to depict the white and red roses that symbolized the houses of Plantagenet and Lancaster.
“Is that a rose on your ring, Sir Percy?” she asked.
He glanced down at it. “Lud, no. It is a pimpernel, nothing more than a humble wayside flower.”
“And why do you wear it?”
“It grows in abundance near my estate, and I’m rather partial to it. Bright red when it blooms, you see, and I’ve always been partial to scarlet.”
The man was altogether rather silly. Or, perhaps, like the military uniform, that was an act. But he had managed to save her. And he had said he might as well do something between visits to the theater. Perhaps he could make certain the de Mervilles left Paris safely. Perhaps he might help her brother-in-law escape as well.
Angelette suddenly lowered her cup of coffee. The saucer rattled so that everyone in the room turned to look at her. Her hand trembled, but she dared not lift the cup and saucer to set it on the table. She feared she would dump the contents on her skirts. She swallowed. “Sir Percy, when you first met us, you mentioned the trouble with acquiring documents. Have you done that before? My friends”—she gestured to the de Mervilles—“will need passports in Calais.”
He shrugged. “Easily done, madame. I have a friend who is quite good with reproductions.”
A polite way of saying he knew a forger,she thought.
“And you say you have helped others escape the country?”
“A few here and there. Innocent men and women who found themselves in prison for no apparent reason.”
“You broke into a prison?” Hugh sputtered.
“Sink me! I would hardly characterize it that way. I merely walked in one way and walked out another. It’s not as if the jailors were paying attention, and for the price of a few sous, they can be easily distracted.”
Angelette nodded, but Hugh was already shaking his head. “I can see what you’re thinking, and it’s a bad idea.”
“Why?” she demanded. “Someone has to help, why not me? Why not us?” She gestured, encompassing all of them. “The situation here will only grow worse. I have funds as well as jewels safe with my solicitor and Sir Percy obviously has a knack for extricating people from difficult situations.”
“Even after all you saw today, you won’t think of leaving for London?” Hugh asked.
Angelette swallowed. “I can’t run away when people need me. Once the Bastille falls, the so-called bourgeois militia will seek other targets of tyranny.”
“Exactly why you should be far away in London.”
“But that’s just what will keep me shielded. I’m half English. I can claim English citizenship. The peasants want to punishFrenchnobility.”
Hugh stood. “Are you forgetting you were married to a French nobleman and carry that title?”
“No, but I don’t have to use it. Sir Percy could acquire papers for me.”
“I could—”
“Stay out of this.” Hugh pointed to Blakeney before rising and crossing to her. “Angelette, you must see now that it’s too dangerous to stay.”
“I have to agree,” Sir Percy said, rising. “If the king does not act after the fall of the Bastille, even I may be forced to return to England for a few weeks. In the meantime, allow me to arrange coaches for you. I will return in the morning to see you off.”
Angelette rose as well. “Thank you, Sir Percy.”
He took her hand and bent to kiss it, but his gaze remained fixed on hers. “I am at your service, madame.”
Angelette nodded. She understood him perfectly.
***
ANGELETTE SAT WITHHugh and her friends in the de Mervilles’ shuttered drawing room listening to the sounds of cannon fire. The Vicomtesse de Merville finally had to lie down. She shook so with nerves each time the cannons fired.
But Angelette found the silence that descended sometime between half past five and six even worse than the sound of the cannons. Was the siege over? Who had won? An hour passed or maybe more. The chef came to ask when they would like to eat, but no one had any appetite. Finally, Daventry could sit no longer. He went to the shuttered window overlooking the street and pulled it open. The vicomte soon joined him, both men staring out at the deserted street, looking for answers that were not there.
