‘Where does he say he has gone to?’
‘A place I never heard of. What was it, Lottie? Paraville. It is a good many leagues south. I trust he comes back soon. I should like to hear from his own lips that this is just wild conjecture.’
‘How do you explain Soissonson’s lack of relatives with children?’
‘Soissonson is vague. It might have been some connection … not exactly related.’
‘He doesn’t appear to have anyone, and he is hand in glove with Orléans who is doing his best to bring this country to revolution.’
‘My dear young man,’ said the Comte, ‘you have worked so hard and I know it is for our good. You must forgive me if I tell you I find it hard to believe that Soissonson would have a hand in murdering the son of an old friend.’
‘When revolution comes old friends become new enemies.’
‘You are very kind to take such an interest in our affairs,’ said my father. ‘I trust you will be staying with us for some little time.’
‘Thank you, but no,’ answered Dickon. ‘I must return to England in a few days.’
He was really quite angry with my father. He had been so excited when he arrived with his news—which I had to admit, like my father, I did not believe—that he found the reception of it a somewhat bitter anticlimax.
He was quite subdued when he dined with us and afterwards when he suggested a walk on the ramparts, I readily agreed because I was sorry for the reception he had had.
He said: ‘The sooner you leave this place the better. People are half asleep. They cannot see what is going on around them and when it is thrust under their noses they turn away and call it melodrama. I tell you this, Lottie: these people deserve what is coming to them. Don’t be as foolish as they are. Come back with me … now. This is no place to be in, I do assure you.’
‘Dickon,’ I said, ‘how can you be sure?’
‘You should go to Paris. You should see the crowds every night at the Palais Royal. The gardens are full of them. They are preaching to the people … and who is behind all this? Orléans … men like Soissonson. Traitors to their own class … and therefore the most dangerous traitors. It is all as clear as crystal. Did it not strike you as fortuitous that Soissonson should arrive just at the time when you needed a tutor and provide one?’
‘But he was such a good tutor!’
‘Of course he was. These people know what they are doing. They are not half asleep. He comes because rumour has reached Orléans and his gang that bands are being formed throughout the country. I take it they have disbanded this little one. You might say that Armand was ineffectual, and I agree wholeheartedly with that, but men such as Orleans are too thorough to allow even the inefficient blunderers to have a little success. I see it all clearly. Blanchard comes to spy out the land. He even joins the band.’
‘He did not want to at first. He had to be persuaded.’
‘Of course he had to be persuaded! He wouldn’t appear eager. His was a secret mission.’
‘It’s too wild.’
‘And what of Armand?’
I was silent and he went on: ‘Yes. Poor foolish Armand, he will never inherit his father’s estates now. I’ll warrant they’ll be for you.’
I looked at him quickly and he went on: ‘For the boy, of course. That would be how the Comte’s mind would work. After all, there are only you and that pathetic Sophie now. She was not considered for a moment.’
I looked at him coldly. ‘At such a time you concern yourself with such matters … ’
‘They are there, Lottie. You cannot ignore what is there.’
I wasn’t listening to him. I was thinking of Armand, going down to the river … a group of armed men springing out on him. But perhaps there was only one.
I felt sick and frightened.
I said: ‘I want to go in.’
‘Think about what I have said, Lottie. Marry me. I’ll take care of you.’
‘And the estate,’ I said, ‘and Chariot’s inheritance … ’
‘I’d take care of everything. You need me, Lottie, as much as I need you.’
‘I don’t feel that need,’ I said. ‘Good night, Dickon.’
He left the castle the next day. He was clearly very displeased with his reception.
Lisette wanted to know what had happened and as she knew something important had, I told her.
‘Blanchard!’ she said. ‘Yes, when you come to think of it, he was too good to be true. He was quite handsome, wasn’t he, in a manly way. Yet he never seemed to look at anyone except Sophie. He never made the slightest attempt to be flirtatious with you, did he, Lottie?’
‘Of course not.’
‘With no one but Sophie. That was a very gallant sort of relationship, wasn’t it? It could have been because he was sorry for her. But what was I saying … handsome and courtly. His manners were of the very best … and such a good tutor, recommended by a noble Duc. It was all so very satisfactory. Tell me what Dickon discovered.’
I told her what I knew of the Duc d’Orléans and the Palais Royal, and Soissonson’s connections with them.
‘Dickon tells a good story. When you come to think about it, as good a one could be made up about him.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, let’s allow our imaginations to run loose, shall we? Dickon wants you … very much he wants you but he would like you even better if you brought something substantial with you. I suppose the Comte’s wealth is vast. Armand would naturally inherit the bulk … but if Armand were no longer there … well, it is likely that Sophie’s being hors de combat, so to say, all that wealth might descend to you.’
‘Stop it,’ I cried. ‘It’s … horrible.’
‘You know what’s coming. If Armand were out of the way, you see … ’
I could not shut out the vivid pictures which came into my mind. Armand going to the river … someone waiting there for him … leaving the horse tethered … dropping the hat by the river … burying the body. Dickon had been out all that day, while Léon Blanchard had spent the morning with the boys in the wood and the afternoon they had sorted out their specimens. Dickon had been out, I remembered. He had come back late.
‘This is nonsense,’ I said.
‘Of course it is. The whole thing is nonsense. You will see Léon Blanchard returning soon and all this suggestion about the Duc de Soissonson will be explained.’
‘There is one thing which cannot be explained,’ I said, ‘and that is Armand’s disappearance … perhaps death.’
‘Yes.’ Lisette looked straight ahead. ‘It may be that one of our theories is right after all.’
Soon after Dickon’s departure the messenger who had come before to see Léon Blanchard arrived at the castle. He did ask to see my father but as he was out at the time left a letter for him.
When my father returned he sent for me and I went to his sitting-room where I found him anxiously awaiting me.
‘Come and look at this,’ he said and gave me the letter which the messenger had brought.
It was from Léon Blanchard and explained that he could not come back to us. He had found his mother very ill indeed when he returned and although she had recovered she was still in a weak condition. He had decided that he could not be so far from her and was most regretfully telling us that he was giving up his posts and was taking something near his mother’s house so that he could live with her and care for her. He thanked us for the happy time he had had in the castle.
He had sent separate notes to the boys telling them that they must work harder, that Louis-Charles must look to his grammar and Charlot to his mathematics. He would be thinking of them and the happy relationship they had enjoyed when he was under the Comte’s roof.
There could not have been more sincerely written letters.
‘And we are to believe that this man was a spy sent to us by Soissonson!’ said my father.
‘Reading those letters it does seem improbable,’ I agreed.