'No.' Joseph's voice wavered. 'It seems I'm to stay here.'
'We're not going together? There must be some mistake.They can't separate us.' Napoleon gripped his brother's hand. 'I don't want to be alone.' The sudden thought of being so far from his home and his family, and even then denied the reassuring presence of his brother's company, filled Napoleon with dread. 'I don't want to be alone,' he repeated softly.
Joseph opened his mouth to reply, but no words came at first. What comfort was there to offer? He tried to make himself sound persuasive. 'I don't want you to leave me either. But this is for the best. Father wants to give you a chance to become a soldier. Brienne's the place for you. I… I'll stay here and study for the Church.'
Napoleon felt a lump in his throat as he refolded the letter and handed it back to his brother. He coughed and then tried to speak steadily. 'You will write to me?'
'Of course!' Joseph put his arm round his brother's shoulder again, and this time he felt Napoleon lean in towards him. Soon, Napoleon realised, there would be no human comfort for either of them to ease the pain of homesickness. Each would be forced to endure life as an outsider in an unfamiliar culture. He felt a surge of fondness for his older brother and reached for his hand.
'I want to go home.'
'I know. Me too.'
'Do you think, if we wrote to Father, that we could persuade him to take us home?'
Joseph was Corsican enough to wince at the prospect of being thought of as weak-spirited. 'No. He won't stand for it.'
Napoleon struggled to hold back the tears. He knew his brother spoke the truth and he felt torn by hatred for his father's cold determination and by the bitter contempt he felt for himself for being prey to such unworthy emotions. If only they had never left Ajaccio.
'Joseph? What is to become of us?'
'I have no idea,' the older boy replied miserably. 'I just don't know.'
Napoleon shut his eyes tightly and murmured, 'I'm afraid.'
Carlos Buona Parte came to visit his sons at the end of April. At first father and sons had been overjoyed to see each other again. Then, as it quickly became apparent how miserable Joseph and Napoleon were and how much they wanted to return home, Carlos's manner towards them cooled, and became dismissive and angry. They were ungrateful, he said. Ungrateful of all the sacrifices that he and Letizia had made in order to make sure that the two boys had futures the family could be proud of. Given all that had been done for them, the least that Joseph and Napoleon could do was make something of the opportunities that they had been given.
They stood before him, heads hung in shame and despair, and for a moment Carlos's resolve weakened and he placed his hands on their shoulders.
'Come now, it can't be as bad as that.' He forced himself to laugh. 'When I was your age I'd have thought this would be an exciting adventure. A chance to travel, see more of the world, learn from the best teachers that can be found. You particularly, Naboleone.'
'They call me Napoleon here,' the small boy said softly.
'Napoleon?' Carlos frowned for an instant before he gave a shrug. 'Well, why not? It sounds more French.'
'But I'm Corsican, Father.'
'Of course you are. And you should be proud of it.'
'I am!' the boy replied fiercely.
'That's fine. But don't let it become an excuse for others to tease you,' he added shrewdly. 'I spoke to Abbot Chardon before I came to find you. He says there have been some… incidents.'
'They started it! But I paid them back.'
Carlos could not suppress a laugh. 'I'm sure you did. As a Corsican, I applaud your spirit. But as a father, I worry for you. I don't want you to make life hard for yourself. So behave.' Carlos lifted his son's chin so that their eyes met. 'Promise me.'
Napoleon kept his silence and merely nodded.
'I'll take that as a promise, then.' Carlos ruffled the boy's lank dark hair. 'Anyway, I'm sure you'll appreciate the change of scene. Brienne's one of the royal military colleges. That place will make a man of you, and if you do well you might win a place at the Royal Military School in Paris. Then one day you'll be Colonel Buona Parte, with a regiment of fine soldiers to command. Wouldn't that be grand?'
The boy stared at him, mind racing. It was true, he wanted everything his father had mentioned, and for a moment a small selfish part of him wanted to embrace it all. But then there was the awful prospect of being alone at Brienne. The past three months at Autun had been bad enough, so how much worse would it be without Joseph for company?
He swallowed and looked at his father nervously. 'Can Joseph come too?'
Carlos shook his head. 'Brienne only had one scholarship available and I was lucky to secure that for you.'
The small boy turned back to him and met his gaze in silence for a moment, before nodding faintly. Carlos smiled and cupped his hand round Napoleon's cheek. 'There's a good boy. Now you must go and pack your trunk, while I talk with your brother.'
An hour later the hired cart rattled out of the school gate and on to the rutted track.While his father stared stiffly ahead Napoleon turned his head and looked back at the school, at once fixing his eyes on the solitary figure of Joseph standing to one side of the gatehouse. Joseph raised his hand and waved slowly. His younger brother returned the wave as Abbot Chardon stepped into view, laid a gentle hand on Joseph's shoulder and led him back through the gatehouse and out of sight.
Chapter 15
The military college was on the outskirts of the small market town of Brienne. The college was comprised of functional buildings neatly laid out around a quadrangle. It was designed, Carlos told his son, to accommodate one hundred and twenty cadets, half of whom were scholarship boys like Napoleon. So he should not feel unduly out of place.As the cart passed through the quadrangle and made for the coach house and stables at the rear of the main building, Napoleon stared keenly about him.
While one of the college grooms took charge of the cart, a porter scurried over to unload Napoleon's trunk, then led Carlos and his son to the administrative section at the heart of the college. Inside, a hall stretched the length of the building and the varnished parquet gleamed in the light slanting through tall shuttered windows that stretched along the side of the hall opposite the offices.The tang of polish filled the air and the sound of their shoes echoed off smooth plastered walls.
'Over here, sir.' The porter indicated a door to one side. A neatly painted sign indicated that this was the office of the director of the institution. A plain bench ran along the wall beyond the door.
Carlos bowed his head. 'Thank you.'
'I'll take the young gentleman's trunk to his cell, sir.'
'Very well.'
As the porter, burdened down by the luggage, tramped off down the corridor, Carlos and his son exchanged brief looks. Carlos flashed a quick smile and whispered, 'Well, here we are, Napoleon.'
He raised his hand to knock on the polished wooden panel, paused to take a deep breath, then rapped sharply.
There was a muffled cough from inside and then a thin, reedy voice called out, 'Enter!'
Carlos pressed the handle down and pushed the door open. It was heavier than he expected and resisted his efforts with a faint squeak from the hinges before it gave. Inside was a large office, lined with bookcases along which gleamed the gilded spines of books so regimented that it seemed that they were rarely, if ever, taken from their places.The office was bathed in light from a large window that looked out over the quadrangle. In front of the window was a modest walnut desk. Sitting behind it was a thin man in a plain black frock coat and powdered wig. He wore a pair of glasses that made his eyes look far larger than they really were, and Napoleon felt them bore into him as the man subjected him to intense scrutiny. There was a moment's stillness before Carlos coughed nervously and gently pressed his son forward.