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Chevalier was awake as well, his hair tousled and falling over his shoulders. He looked like an angel who’d mistakenly tumbled down to the mortal realm. No man should look so handsome upon just rising.
Catching her looking at him, he smiled. “Good morning.”
“Not so far.”
She climbed down the ladder, listening to Hastings tell Chevalier that she was always surly in the morning. “I am not,” she protested. “Only when somenitwitkicks me in the head. Wait until I shove my boot up your arse, Tony,” she called.
“See!” Dewhurst said, opening the barn door to admit Nicole Daudier. “She is all sweetness and light. Mistress, you are too kind.”
The smell of coffee and fresh bread did wonders for Alex’s mood, and after she had gone outside to take care of her private needs, she returned and drank the strong brew gratefully. “You haven’t slept at all,” she chided the woman. “You didn’t need to provide us with food to break our fast.”
“But we’re glad you did,” Dewhurst said around a mouthful of bread.
“It is the least I can do,” Nicole said. “I can never repay your kindness to me.”
Alex gave the woman a hug. “You needn’t ever repay us. We set a wrong to rights.”
Nicole wiped a tear away and took her leave. The next few minutes were spent gathering the little they had brought with them and then the party split into two groups. Hastings and the abbé took two horses from the carriage, leaving the conveyance and the other horses behind. Dewhurst, Chevalier, and Alex started back toward Paris on foot. Alex would have liked to ride the horses back, but it would have been too conspicuous and drawn attention.
By midday, Alex could not feel her face. The breeze was chilly and damp, and they were forced to walk directly into it. The sun had yet to make an appearance, though she supposed she should be grateful it was not raining.
“Is no one else traveling to Paris today?” she lamented. They had yet to spot a single cart traveling in their direction, although to be fair, they had stayed off the main road for the most part.
“It’s not market day,” Dewhurst told her.
“If we have to walk the entire way—”
“Have either of you noticed we are being followed?” Chevalier said quietly.
Alex looked over her shoulder but saw nothing. “What do you mean?”
He nodded his head toward the trees in the little woods not far from the road where they walked. “Four men, perhaps five, have been keeping pace with us.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this before?” Dewhurst pulled out his pistol and Alex did the same.
“I wanted to be certain.”
The men must have known they’d been discovered because they emerged from the trees just then, their own weapons—mostly farm implements but at least one man had a rifle—pointed toward Alex and Dewhurst.
Despite Chevalier’s hiss that they were outnumbered, Alex did not lower her pistol.
“Bonjourcitoyens,” the man in the center called. He was tall and the best dressed with a warm coat over his trousers, where the others were in thin shirts and threadbare coats. They were peasants, in their trousers and sabots, and though the violence in the provinces had not been as widespread as that in Paris, she did not trust these armed men.
Dewhurst nodded his head in response. “Bonjour. A cold day for travel, is it not?” he asked in his flawless French. “We are for Paris. And you?”
“Saint-Germain-en-Laye,” their leader answered. “You had better come with us.”
“You will forgive us, citoyens,” Alex said sweetly. “But Saint-Germain-en-Laye is not on the road to Paris.”
“And you will forgive us, citoyenne,” the leader said, moving closer, “if we insist on delaying you. Our mayor would speak with any strangers in the area. We are looking for the Scarlet Pimpernel and his accomplices.”
Dewhurst laughed. “The Scarlet Pimpernel? He is a myth. No Englishman could possibly evade our brave French forces for so long. Impossible!”
Alex considered Dewhurst might have made a career for himself on the stage. He was quite convincing. Several of the peasants even nodded their agreement.
But not the leader.
“Be that as it may, citoyen, you will come with us. I will take your weapons and return them to you after your interview with the mayor.”
