Jane Feather - Charade, Unknown [great novels to read TXT] 📗

that I am safe and his spies will by now have told him ofyour safety. He will be content to watch and wait, assuming that wewill use

la Manche

and thewar as our protection. We will strike nowwhile the cobra watches another prey."

"Danny, St. Estephe is mine." Justin's eyes met hers in the dressermirror as he fastened an emerald pendant around her neck.

"Very well," she agreed. "Yours or mine, depending how the hand isplayed. But I come with you, it is agreed?"

"And Nicky?"

"You know there is no choice." Her son would be safe, well lookedafter, with grandparents, cousins,

and friends to see him to maturity.She could not allow her husband to go alone into a danger that theyboth shared.

"It is agreed then." Justin yielded without the fight that wouldachieve nothing in the long run.

"We must bring Jules and the others with us." Danielle stood up,patting down her skirts with a femininity quite at odds with theirdiscussion. "This is not something the two of us can accomplish aloneand we work well together."

"You and they," said Justin. "How will the five of you manage with asixth?"

"Quite easily," Danielle responded, fastening an emerald braceletaround her wrist. "As long as you follow orders,

tu comprends, mon mari?"

Justin caught her by the tiny waist and threw her, skirts, petticoats,emeralds and all, facedown on the bed. Planting a knee firmly in thesmall of her back, he demanded, "Say that again. I did not quite hearyou."

"I do not remember what I said," Danny mumbled into the coverlet. "Butit was of no importance."

"You are quite sure?"

"Quite sure."

"It is not, perhaps, something you may remember to say on a futureoccasion?" His voice was deceptively soft as he slid a hand beneath herpetticoats.

"No!" Danny squawked. "It is quite expunged from my memory."

"That is most fortunate." He removed both hand and knee and Dannystruggled upright, her face pink with laughing indignation. But she hadprovoked the attack and was not one to protest the consequences of heractions. They went down to dinner in smiling accord.

Jules and the others, who had eschewed the pleasures of the LondonSeason this winter, preferring the simplicity of Cornwall after theiradventures, heard the proposal with a considerable degree of enthusiasm.

"We have been waiting for you to decide when to make the move and solong as you are around, Justin, to keep a rein on Danny, you have myheartfelt support," Jules declared. "I am sure I speak for us all?" Helooked inquiringly around the table and, while Danny splutteredindignantly, everyone pledged their support in the matter of St.Estephe.

Four days later,

Dream Girl

set sail again for the Brittany coast.Danielle, her hair again cropped much

to Justin's resigned annoyance,was back in her britches and full of strategies. There was no capaciousmaster cabin on the small yacht and for the three day voyage Justingained true insight into the close-quarters living of these five. Heand his wife became simply partners, exchanging bunks automatically asthe rested one went up on deck, taking turns at the wheel, putting towhen sails needed reefing or unfurling. No one, least of all Jake; paidany attention to Danny's sex and she asked for no especialconsideration.

When they made landfall, she was as wet as the rest, and as heedless ofdiscomfort as they climbed the steep path to the cliff top. In theLegrands' farm house they explained their return, their needs, andheard the story of subsequent events afterthey had fired Betrand Ville's barn and the

comte

had returned in afearsome rage to find his plans in ruins and his victim fled.

"As we expected, then," Danielle said thoughtfully. "The

comte

returnedalmost immediately to Paris and no one has disturbed our friends since.They know little of what is happening in the country but will lend ushorses again, and anything else we may need. The carts are still here,but I think we need only take one."

"How do we enter Paris this time?" Philip asked. "It will not be aseasy."

"

Comme d'habitude

—in the usualway." Danielle shrugged. "It is how weleave that will present difficulties."

They made the journey to Paris exactly as they had done in the past.The countryside was alive with rumor now but no one questioned thepassage of five ragged sans-culottes and a scrubby lad whose command ofthe insults left them torn between laughter and annoyance. The boy'scompanions appeared to do what they could to control his excesses andthose who had seen the urchin were not those who saw the coquettishpeasant girl in a grubby blouse and torn skirt who made flirtatiousplay with the guards at the various posts now sprung up along the roadto Paris.

The five men kept their hands on their pistols at each

barriere

butnever had reason to use them as Danielle danced them through and Justindecided, like Jules, that she had missed her vocation. On stage, shewould have been superb. They were through St. Antoine on the eveningof the third day and, to their horror, found themselves caught up in agrim procession as the last tumbrils of the day moved through

thecrowds to Place de la Revolution. It was impossible, in the wildlyyelling throng, to turn the cart in another direction, just as it wasimpossible for them to allow their revulsion to show. Danny hissedsuddenly to Justin, "I will meet you in Les Halles." Before he couldreact, she had leaped from the cart and vanished as if she had neverbeen.

"No," Jules whispered, seeing his cousin prepared to go after her."You'll never find her; she's as slippery as an eel andknows all the back streets, besides you will draw attention to us all."

Justin swore viciously, but there was nothing he could do but wait in aspiral of anxiety until the day's grisly business had ended and thelast head rolled into the blood-soaked basket. The crowds thinnedgradually as the spectators, exhausted by their day of shouting,jeering,