"Kill me," said a voice from ahead of them.
D'Avaux and Eliza, still clamped together side by side, arm in arm, had reached the ancient double doors at the back of the chapel, and gone through. It looked entirely different now. Eliza half supposed they had come into the wrong room. The sun had gone down, so no light came through the windows; but hundreds of candles were now burning on scores of silver candelabras. Their light gleamed on the polished backs of many gilded chairs, which in lieu of pews had been arranged on the stone floor—no, on a Persian carpet laid over the floor. The altar was covered in a white silk cloth encrusted with gold brocade, though this was difficult to see, as the front half of the chapel had been turned into a fragrant jungle of white flowers. Eliza's first thought, oddly, was, Where the hell did those come from at this time of the year? but the answer must have been some nobleman's stifling Orangerie.
Étienne de Lavardac d'Arcachon, attired in full-dress cavalry colonel's uniform, was sprawled on the carpet at the base of the altar, posed like an artist's model. Resting on the carpet before him, at the head of the aisle, were two shiny objects: a serpentine dagger, and a golden ring.
D'Avaux had stiffened up so violently that Eliza half hoped he was undergoing a stroke. But his grip on her arm slackened, and he began to retreat.
Étienne was having none of that; he jumped to his feet. "Stay! If you please, Monsieur le comte. Your presence here is fortuitous and most welcome. For it were improper for me to meet with Mademoiselle la comtesse without some chaperon; which, as I have lain here awaiting her, has been troubling me more than words have power to express."
"I am at your service, monseigneur," said d'Avaux, watching beneath a creviced brow as the nimble young Arcachon collapsed to the floor, and resumed his former pose.
"Kill me, mademoiselle!"
"I beg your pardon, monsieur?"
"My suffering is unendurable. Please end it by taking up yon flamboyant dagger, and plunging it into my breast."
"But I have no wish to kill you, Monsieur de Lavardac," said Eliza, and threw d'Avaux a vicious glare; but d'Avaux was far too profoundly taken aback to notice.
"Then there is only one other way in which my suffering can be ended; but it is too much to hope for," said Étienne. And his eyes fell on the band of gold.
"Your discourse is fascinating—but strangely clouded," said Eliza. She was moving cautiously up the aisle toward Étienne. D'Avaux, trapped, stood at attention in the back.
"I would be more direct, but such a magnificent being are you, and such a base Vagabond am I, that even to give voice to my desire is unforgivably rude."
"I have comments. First, you may be over-praising me, but I forgive you. Second, I know something of Vagabonds, and you are not one. Third, if you must be rude in order to say what is on your mind, then please be rude. For considering what it is that you appear to be asking—"
The chapel door whacked open and in stormed an officer, dressed in the same regimental colors as Étienne, but of less plumage. He stopped in the aisle and turned white as a freshly picked orchid, and was unable to speak.
But everyone knew what he was going to say. Eliza came out with it first. "Monsieur, you have news of Monsieur le duc?"
"Forgive me, mademoiselle—yes—if you please—his carriage has been sighted, coming on at great velocity—he shall be here in an hour."
"Has word of this been sent to the Palais du Louvre?" asked Étienne.
"Just as you directed, monsieur."
"Very well. You are dismissed."
The officer was more than glad to be dismissed. He took a last beady look around, then bowed, and backed down the aisle. As he was going arse-first out the door, he rammed someone who was attempting to come in. There was an exchange of abject apologies back in the shadows; then in stalked a robed and hooded figure, looking like Death without the scythe. He pulled back the hood to reveal the pale face, the dark eyes, and the carefully managed facial hair of Father Édouard de Gex; and the look on his face proved that he was as surprised, not to say alarmed, by all of this as anyone else.
"I say, was this all planned?" demanded Eliza.
"I received an anonymous note suggesting that I should be ready to perform the sacrament of marriage on short notice," said de Gex, "but—"
"You had better be ready to perform the sacrament of extreme unction, if the young Arcachon does not untie his tongue, or hide that dagger," said Eliza, "and as to short notice—well—a lady requires a little more time!" And she stomped out of the chapel.
"My lady!" called de Gex several times as he pursued her down a gallery; but she had not the slightest intention of being called back in there, and so she ignored him until she was a safe distance removed from the chapel, and had reached a more frequented part of the house. By that point, de Gex had caught up with her. "My lady!"
"I'm not going back."
"It is not my design to coax you back. You are the person I wished to see. For when Monsieur Rossignol and I made inquiries as to your whereabouts, they said you had gone to the chapel. It was never my intention to interrupt a—"
"You interrupted nothing. Why were you with Monsieur Rossignol?"
"He has got some new messages from the Esphahnians."
"The who?"
"The Armenians. Come. Please. I pray you. It's important."
FATHER ÉDOUARD DE GEX ESCORTED Eliza to the library as fast as he could walk, which meant that he kept edging ahead. The most direct route took them through the grand ballroom of the Hôtel Arcachon. Here, though, he faltered, and fell behind. Eliza wheeled about. De Gex was gazing up at the ceiling. This was understandable, for the de Lavardacs had hired Le Brun himself to paint it, and he had only recently finished. It was a colossal tableau featuring Apollo (always a stand-in for Louis XIV) gathering the Virtues about him in the bright center while exiling the Vices to the gloomy corners. The Virtues were not sufficiently numerous to fill the space, and so the Muses were there, too, singing songs, composing poetry, &c. about how great the Virtues were. Along the edges of the piece, diverse earthly humans (courtiers on one side, peasants on the next, then soldiers, then churchmen) listened adoringly to, or gazed rapturously at, the Virtue-promoting works of the Muses whilst generally turning their backs to, or aiming scornful glares at, all of those Vices crowded into the corners. Just to make it sporting, though, you might see, if you looked carefully enough, a Soldier succumbing to Cowardice, a Priest to Gluttony, a Courtier to Lust, or a Peasant to Sloth.
So everyone who came in here looked at the ceiling; but the expression on the face of de Gex was most peculiar. Rather than being dazzled by the splendour of the work, he looked as if he were expecting the ceiling to fall in on them.
He finally directed his dark eyes at Eliza. "Do you know what happened here, mademoiselle?"
"A fabulously expensive remodeling campaign that took forever and is only just finished."
"But do you know why?"
"Le Brun is always engaged at Versailles, except when le Roi leaves off building it so that he can go fight a war. And so only since war broke out has any progress been made here."
"No. I meant, do you know why they remodelled?"
"From the looks of it I should say it was de Maintenon."
"De Maintenon?!" De Gex's reaction told Eliza that her answer had been emphatically wrong.