Mademoiselle At Arms, Elizabeth Bailey [bearly read books txt] 📗

said Lucilla, a delight in her voice that grated on Melusine. ‘Both of them so wise after the event. The comtesse always felt Madame Valade to be not of her class, of course. While Lady Bicknacre had never trusted Valade. What a treat to see all the old tabbies taken at fault for once!’

‘You are a dreadful child,’ scolded Mrs Sindlesham, with which Melusine could not but agree, despite the dimple rioting in her great-aunt’s cheek. ‘You see, Melusine, that none of our visitors were as informed as they would wish to be. They know only that the Valades have practised an imposture which affects all society, and some will think your adventures excessively romantic.’

‘Pah! How can it be romantic? That is silly.’

‘People are silly. They cannot imagine the discomforts involved, and they see only mystery in your fight to recover your lost heritage. But the factor of overriding interest is that they have all met and approved the said imposters. I dare say it will be chattered about for weeks.’

The idiocy of it all irritated Melusine. ‘I begin to ask myself why it is that I wish to become of these people.’

‘We are not all of us so empty-headed, Melusine,’ pleaded Miss Froxfield.

A rare moment of amusement lightened Melusine’s mood for a moment. ‘You are extremely empty-headed, Lucy. So says your capitaine.’

Lucy giggled. ‘Hilary is a darling.’

‘This is what you say of him? Me, I find he is growling all the time like a dog.’

As if to bear her out, the door opened at this precise moment to admit Saling, who barely announced Captain Roding before the man himself strode into the room.

His eyes swept the company, and fell upon Melusine with a glare.

‘Ha! Just the person I want. Where the devil have you hidden all those weapons? Don’t tell me you’ve got ’em with you.’

Annoyance sent Melusine leaping to her feet. ‘Certainly I have them with me. But what affair is this of yours?’

But Captain Roding was not attending. Instead, he was bowing to her great-aunt. ‘Beg your pardon, ma’am, but she’s enough to try the patience of a saint.’

‘Eh bien, you are not a saint,’ Melusine snapped.

To her chagrin, he ignored her, and turned a venomous eye on his betrothed. ‘And what the devil do you mean by demanding that I wait on you here? D’you think I haven’t enough to do handling that caper-witted female’s affairs, without dancing attendance on you?’

‘Don’t be cross,’ begged Lucilla, much to Melusine’s disgust.

She watched her friend rise and go towards her affianced husband, a look of mischief in her face.

‘Do you think I could bear to be without you for a moment longer? I am quite jealous of Melusine taking up all your attention.’

It was immediately evident that Lucilla Froxfield was not as silly as Melusine had thought, for the face of her captain immediately changed and he took her hands, a look on his face that caused Melusine an instant pang. Would that a certain major might cast upon her such a look.

‘Didn’t mean it, love. Know that, don’t you?’

‘Of course I know it,’ Lucy told him, and Melusine read the whisper in her mouth of those precious words, ‘I love you.’

Melusine watched with a tightness in her chest as Captain Roding kept hold of Lucy’s hand, even as he turned back to Prudence.

‘Truth is, it’s Gerald who’s put me in the devil’s own temper, ma’am. Gone off, cool as you please, and left me to manage everything.’

‘Gone off?’ repeated Melusine, her wrongs rising up to tear into her chest. ‘To where has he gone off?’

‘No use asking me,’ shrugged the captain. ‘That fellow of yours is a deal better, by the by. Should be home soon.’

The shift threw Melusine’s attention off the errant major for the moment. ‘Jacques? Oh, that is news of the very finest. You saw him? You have been to Remenham House?’

‘Remenham House? I wish I’d been only to Remenham House. Feels as if I’ve been dashing back and forth about the whole country, if you want to know.’

‘But tell,’ demanded Melusine impatiently.

‘Yes, tell us everything at once,’ instructed Lucilla, pushing him towards the sofa she had vacated, and obliging him to sit beside her.

Mrs Sindlesham raised her brows. ‘Dear me. If you two are examples of the modern miss, I don’t know what the world is coming to.’

Noting the twinkle in her great-aunt’s eye, Melusine forebore to comment, grateful to Lucilla for adjuring Captain Roding to give an account of himself. Melusine fetched her stool and plonked it down next to her great-aunt’s chair.

‘Well,’ began Captain Roding, looking at Melusine, ‘you know those nuns of yours took up Valade—I mean, Gosse—and put him to bed to mend his wound, and I posted a guard outside his room so he couldn’t escape, for Gerald told you all that. I went off to round up his wife. What the devil is her name, now we know she isn’t you?’

‘Yolande,’ supplied Melusine. ‘She is a maid only, and I do not believe she has married Emile.’

‘Had a certificate for it,’ argued Roding. ‘Signed by a priest at Le Havre, so it must be true. But it was under false names, so I dare say it ain’t valid. In any event, I brought her to the convent and we had her locked up separately, and told ’em both they’d be taken into custody as soon as Valade was fit to go.’

‘Gosse,’ corrected Lucilla. ‘He isn’t Valade, and the Comtesse de St Erme is absolutely furious.’

‘Never mind the comtesse,’ adjured Prudence.

‘Yes, don’t interrupt me,’ said Captain Roding severely.

‘But you cannot expect that we will any of us remain altogether quiet,’ objected Melusine. ‘And me—’

‘You, mademoiselle, are more trouble than you’re worth, and I’ll thank you to—’

‘Hilary, don’t,’ said Lucy, and Melusine’s rising temper cooled a little.

‘The major thinks she’s worth it,’ put in Prudence quietly.

Melusine’s heart jumped and she felt heat rising into her cheeks. She tried for her usual confident tone, but only succeeded in sounding gruff, even to her own ears.

‘I have not asked for this trouble from anyone. Always I have said I will take care of myself, and I have done so.’

To her surprise, Captain Roding backtracked. ‘Didn’t mean to say that. Only I’m so incensed with that crazy fool Gerald that—oh, well, never mind.’

‘Get on, Hilary, do,’ begged Lucilla.

He frowned. ‘Where was I? Oh yes. Well, I was all for dragging in Bow Street there and then, and getting the pair of those fraudsters thrown in gaol. But Gerald wouldn’t hear of it. Made me fetch up Trodger and a couple more men, and together we searched his luggage and got hold of every single paper the man possessed. Gerald, meanwhile, was off hunting up these lawyers, together with your son, ma’am—’ turning to Mrs Sindlesham ‘—and you know the outcome of that. Fellows are drawing up the necessary papers, but gave Gerald a letter of authorisation for you, mademoiselle, to use in the interim.’

‘But where then is Gosse?’ demanded Melusine. ‘Do not tell me he has escaped.’

‘I’m coming to that. Gerald went through all the papers in front of Gosse and that woman of his, one by one. His French is better than mine, so he knew exactly what he was handling. Gather he found stuff belonging to the real Valade, and the vicomte, as well as your own letter. He kept that, but the rest...’

He paused, but Melusine caught the inference.

‘He destroyed the papers?’

‘That’s right,’ Roding said, throwing her a glance of frowning surprise, as if he had not rated her intelligence so high. ‘Burned them, one by one, right before that fellow’s eyes. Gosse cursed him finely, of course, but there was nothing he could do. Our men had him fast, held down in a chair.’

‘Bon,’ exclaimed Melusine, triumph soaring. ‘I find this was excessively clever of Gérard.’

‘Then what?’ demanded Lucilla in a hushed tone.

Hilary threw up his eyes. ‘Then he went stark staring crazy, if you ask me. Gave me a purse, and told me to take both of ’em up to Harwich and put them on a packet for Holland.’

‘He let them go?’ asked Miss Froxfield incredulously.

Melusine was silent, revolving this outcome in her mind as she stared at Roding, who was frowning at her in a puzzled way. But her great-aunt was nodding, as if this was what she had expected. Lucilla broke across Melusine’s thoughts.

‘Melusine, don’t sit there. Say something.’

‘Ain’t you in a rage?’ asked the captain. ‘Rather thought I’d have to disarm you when you heard of it. That’s why I wanted your weapons. Looked all over that dratted convent of yours—or at least Trodger and the men did so—but no sign of them.’

‘I fetched them with my clothes when the son of madame took me to see Marthe,’ Melusine admitted. She drew a breath, and sighed it out. ‘I am not in the least in a rage. On the contrary, I am altogether satisfied.’

The couple on the sofa stared at her blankly. Prudence twinkled at them, and reached out to pat Melusine’s hand.

‘Well said, my dear. Now tell them why.’

Melusine shifted her shoulders. ‘As to Gérard, I do not know why he does this.’ She closed her mind on the possibility of finding out, and went on, ‘But me, I have been in a war, and I have won. Gosse would have killed me, and perhaps in the fight I might kill him. But to make an arrest to be like a revenge? No, a thousand times.’

‘But what of justice?’ asked Lucilla, evidently dazed.

‘I have justice. I have Remenham House which is my right. It is known that I am Melusine Charvill, which is also my right.’ Her breath tightened and she was obliged to control an inner ferocity. ‘Do you think I would do to him as he made a threat to do to me? No. This is not honourable.’

This was Leonardo’s philosophy. Those who lived outside the law might squabble among themselves, even unto death, Leonardo told her. But never would any so dishonour himself as to hand a fellow rogue over to the authorities.

‘I rather suspect,’ added Prudence, ‘that Major Alderley’s motives were somewhat different. A trial always brings those involved into public notice, and I dare say he feels there will be scandal enough without adding to it. A nine days’ wonder is soon forgotten. But with Gosse and the woman in prison here, there is always the chance that the whole affair may be raked up all over again.’

There was sense in what she said, Melusine was obliged to concede. But next moment, Captain Roding put up her back.

‘You’ve cause to be grateful to Gerald, then.’

‘Grateful? Certainly I am grateful,’ Melusine snapped, knowing full well she sounded anything but gratified. ‘Still more would I be so if he had come himself to tell me this.’

‘How could he when he didn’t even handle it himself? Went off, I told you, and left it all to me. I’d to go to Remenham House as well, and show Pottiswick your letter of authorisation. And, incidentally, check on that unfortunate young fellow Kimble.’

‘But where? Where has he gone? Always he goes off, and he says no word to anyone. I shall know what to say to him when he comes.’

The door opened and Saling entered again.

‘Major Alderley, ma’am, and General Lord Charvill.’

Melusine’s heart leapt, and as swiftly clattered into dead stillness as the implication of the second name hit home. She flew up from her stool and faced the door. The figure she had longed to see came into her line of vision, but at this crucial moment of hideous realisation, Melusine barely took it in, her eyes fixing blankly on the man behind. An old man with a bent back who limped in, slow and stiff, leaning heavily on a cane.