Читать книгу Love Me Forever - Barbara Cartland - Страница 1

The coach came to a standstill and a second later the door was opened by a footman. Before the man could speak the words that already moved his lips, the Duke’s voice, curt and authoritative, came from the inside of the coach,

“Why have we stopped?”

“One of the leaders has gone lame, Your Grace.”

“Have him changed immediately with one of the outriders.”

“Very good, Your Grace.”

The man would have withdrawn, but a further order stopped him.

“Let down the steps.”

The footman did as he was commanded and the Duke stepped out on to the roadway.

It was a calm summer evening with only a faint breeze in the air to dispel the heat of the day. The sun had vanished from the sky, the twilight was giving way to the purple of the night and the first evening stars were glittering above the pointed tops of the trees that bordered the road.

There was an unusual bustle and sense of urgency about the coachman and the postilions hurrying to free the leader from the traces. When the Duke gave an order, it was obeyed and with a deftness and speed which bespoke efficiency and a sense of discipline.

The Duke gave a quick glance at the horses. He was an acknowledged judge of horseflesh and the team that drew his coach were not only perfectly matched but outstandingly beautiful.

Their perfection was part of the whole entourage. The coach of deep blue with its panels emblazoned with the Duke’s Coat of Arms, the glittering polish of lamps and crested harness, the liveries of blue and silver and the powdered wigs under the coachmen’s cockaded black hats all commanded admiration.

The horse that had gone lame was now having its leg felt by the experienced fingers of the Duke’s chief coachman but His Grace did not linger to ask what was wrong.

Instead he turned his back on the colourful cavalcade and walked a little way into the wood on the side of the road.

In his embroidered coat of cerise velvet and diamond-buttoned waistcoat, he was a colourful figure himself as he strode away from the light of the carriage lanterns into the shadows of the trees.

It was only when he was a little way from the hustle and bustle of the horses and servants that he turned to look back at them and then to glance down the road and wonder what had happened to the rest of his carriages.

The Duke travelled in style, as befitted his position, but he could never remember that the heavy Berlins, which carried his luggage and the other members of the staff, found it difficult to keep up with the swift pace of his own chosen team of horses and the lighter build of his coach which had been specially designed for speed.

The Duke gave the missing carriages behind him a fleeting thought, but then immediately he returned to what had engaged his mind when the coach had stopped. It was indeed of so much import that he had been preoccupied with it ever since they had left Calais and started on the road for Paris.

Over and over again he had reiterated to himself a conversation he had had with the Prime Minister before he left London.

“It is a difficult and dangerous game, Melyncourt,” William Pitt had said to him, “and I can think of no one more likely to succeed than yourself. There is no reason why they should suspect you. For one thing you have never been a Politician and your reputation for being, well, how shall we put it, interested in the fair sex, should be sufficient excuse for you to pay a pleasurable visit to Paris.”

There had been a smile on William Pitt’s lips and a twinkle in his eyes as he spoke and the Duke had found himself smiling back at this brilliant and extraordinary young man who had taken on the arduous duties of Prime Minister at the age of twenty-four.

Although he was, as William Pitt had indeed said, no Politician, the Duke could appreciate the enormous difficulties of the position in which Pitt had found the country on assuming office.

The Peace of Versailles, signed a year before, had put an end to a desperate War when Britain had stood alone against the world. France, Holland, and Spain had combined against her to aid the American Colonists in their War of Independence. Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia and also Austria had signed a pact of Armed Neutrality and ranged themselves against her.

When William Pitt had come to power, Britain lay exhausted, almost bankrupt and entirely isolated. But in six months he had with his genius for figures begun the uphill task of restoring Britain’s greatness. Already she was selling goods to the U.S.A. and already she had a considerable commercial trade with France. This was just a beginning but, as William Pitt told the Duke, there was a great deal more to be done.

“Spain is ambitious,” he said, “and we have to watch her, Austria and Prussia are ready to spring at each other’s throats and Russia and Sweden are sparring. There will be trouble in the Netherlands and I want a pact of non-aggression between Russia and Turkey. To restore the Balance of Power I have to watch all of them.”

“You have set yourself a somewhat formidable task,” the Duke remarked drily.

“Yes, we have to restore the Balance of Power,” he repeated, almost as though he spoke to himself, then as if he suddenly remembered the Duke’s presence, he continued, “at the moment France is in no mood to be aggressive. The War has cost her fourteen million francs, but her victories in America have given her a taste for blood.

“What is more, she adores intrigue. It is born in her, part of her nature. Her Ministers will say one thing but they will mean something very different. No one could appear on the surface more friendly or more considerate to us than France at the moment, but I want to know what goes on behind closed doors. I want to know what they think about us, what they think of the pretensions of Spain and Holland, where their sympathies lie when the British Ambassador has gone home to bed.”

“You really believe that I can help you?” the Duke asked.

“I am sure of it,” Pitt said with one of the beguiling smiles that had the power of making men willing to serve him at whatever cost to themselves.

The Duke said nothing for a moment and Pitt, watching him, liked his quietness and the air of restraint that he felt was somehow characteristic of the man. He had not been mistaken in his choice, he was sure of that, although there were few in London who would have agreed with him.

At thirty-eight the Duke of Melyncourt had a reputation for being hard and difficult. He had a forceful personality, which made him many friends and assured him an equal number of enemies. He was rich, powerful and had a reputation which, if not unsavoury, was not particularly desirable. It was, however, not surprising, Pitt thought, that women ran after him. He was exceptionally good-looking and the breadth of his shoulders, which well balanced his height, was slightly out of place in the exquisite satin, laces and embroidery of the prevailing fashion. A hard man, a good-looking man, what else?

The Duke looked up then and the eyes of the two men met.

“Tell me exactly what you want me to do,” the Duke asked softly.

In those quiet words Pitt was confirmed in the shrewdness of his judgment.

Here was a man who understood action, a man who could think and move quickly, moreover, a man who could command.

It was of what Pitt had said during that interview which had lasted for nearly an hour that the Duke was thinking as he stood on French soil and heard about him the soft faint noises of a wood at night time.

For a second he attended to what he heard and, as he thought how in the woods at Melyn there would be just such sounds as these, he had a sudden pang of homesickness. If he had not been here, sent on this fantastic mission by a Prime Minister who was almost young enough to be his son, he would have been at home just in from riding, sitting down with a glass of wine, while his valet drew off his boots. Comfortably tired, he would relax and talk to members of his house party of the sport they had enjoyed and of the plans they had made for the evening.

The Duke was well aware that an invitation to Melyn was a prized possession. The house, of great beauty and antiquity, was also comfortable and full with treasures collected by each succeeding generation. He supplied his guests with superlative food and even more superlative wines and the company was chosen not because they were important or famous or even intelligent, but they could each bring some unique and unusual quality to the party.

If Politicians were included, it was not because they had power or influence, but because they themselves were outstanding personalities. That, of course, was the reason why Pitt had stayed at Melyn. He had been Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, a post from which most men would have shrunk had they been twice his age, which was then twenty-three.

“Going to stay at Melyn?” people had questioned him. “I cannot imagine what you will think of Sebastian Melyncourt. He is an extraordinary person, I don’t suppose you will like him.”

But Pitt had liked the Duke. Strangely enough they had found many things in common and perhaps they had each recognised in the other a faith in their own infallibility. Whatever it might have been, the result of that one visit to Melyn was that the Duke now found himself here in France with a mission that was giving him, to say the least of it, a predominance of anxious thought.

The trouble was he had no idea how he was to obtain the information that Pitt said he required. The Prime Minister had in fact been able to be of little help save to give him a broad outline of what he wanted.

“When I was in France last year,” he said, “I was fêted and acclaimed in a manner that was meant to leave me with no apprehension of anything but that France had become, overnight as it were, our staunchest and truest friend. It was perhaps because my reception was so warm and overwhelming, that I am suspicious. I am English enough to suspect people when they are too voluble. I may be wrong in this instance that remains to be seen. But go and find out what you can. I have a feeling that your report will be all the more perceptive because you know none of the intrigues that use up so uselessly the majority of our Ministers’ time.”

That sounded all very well in the Cabinet Room of Number 10 Downing Street, the Duke thought, but it left him in a curious predicament when it came to the point. He had no idea whom to trust. He had no indication as to who might be presumed to be a staunch friend of Britain and who might not.

He had heard Walpole’s eulogies of the beauty, grace and charm of Queen Marie Antoinette. He had heard those who accompanied Pitt on his visit the year before laugh at the gauche clumsiness of Louis XVI. He had heard talk of the extravagance and the immorality of the French Court, but it meant very little to him for the reason that he was not particularly interested.

He had been to France often enough before the War. He had gone over nearly every year for boar hunting. He had stayed in Paris and visited Versailles when first Madame de Pompadour and then Madame du Barry had reigned over the vacillating heart of Louis XV. But now he felt that all he knew of France was as ephemeral as a glass of champagne.

He had gone to Paris in the past only to amuse himself.

This journey was so very different and yet he was determined to succeed. It was not only because he liked Pitt and because the young Prime Minister had chosen him.

It was not only because he wished to be successful in anything he undertook, it was something deeper than that. It was perhaps the sudden-realisation that in a life in which previously he had sought only pleasure and amusement here was something that he could do for the country he belonged to, the country that he was deeply and sincerely fond of.

The Duke looked towards the road. The horses were ready, the postilion’s mount had been placed in the traces vacated by the leader, the lame horse was standing on the grass verge and one of the grooms was kneeling to extricate something from its hoof. He walked over the uneven ground which lay between him and the coach and, as he did so, noticed for the first time on the far side of the road there stood a great wall.

It lay back from the road and he had not perceived it in the darkness. Now a young moon was rising over the trees and by its light he could see the wall, grey and austere, silhouetted against the paler sky.

For a moment he wondered what it was and then above it he saw the roofs mounting one above the other surmounted by a tapering spire and he knew it to be a Convent or a Monastery.

“A shoe has worked loose, Your Grace,” the footman said at his elbow.

“That is what I thought,” the Duke replied.

“There is but five miles to Chantilly where we spend the night, Your Grace. If there is a blacksmith by the roadside, the groom will call him up.”

“Tell him to bring the animal along gently.”

“Very good, Your Grace.”

The Duke stepped into the coach.

“And tell the coachman to hurry.”

“Very good, Your Grace.”

The door was closed and the coach moved off. The Duke sank back against the padded seats. He was tired of travelling and he allowed himself to reflect that he was also hungry. He preferred riding to being driven, but he knew that the Parisians would expect him to arrive in style and it would be a mistake to disappoint their expectations.

He had already sent his cousin, Hugo Waltham, ahead to engage a mansion where he would stay while he was in Paris and to make every possible arrangement for his convenience.

Hugo would see to it that all Paris was apprised of the distinction of the man who was about to pay the City a visit.

The Duke smiled a little. Quiet and unobtrusive in many ways Hugo managed to get things done with an efficiency that was entirely commendable.

The Duke yawned suddenly, thank goodness he would be in Paris tomorrow night. He found that travelling by coach invariably tried his patience. He stretched out his legs and, as he did so, he had a curious feeling that he was not alone.

Some sixth sense, some intuition he could not entirely account for, made him suddenly on his guard.

He felt his muscles tighten and almost without his being aware of it his hand went towards the pocket of his velvet coat in which reposed a pistol. Then at that moment there came a sound, a sound hardly articulate, but strangled at its very birth and yet nevertheless a sound.

Incredulous the Duke looked round the coach. A candle, flickering in the silver lantern, showed him the satin-covered seats empty save for himself, but on the floor there was a pile of rugs. Far too hot for them to be necessary this evening, there were, however, times on every journey when the occupant of a coach was glad of them. The Duke looked closely.

There was no doubt of it, the rugs appeared bulkier than they had done earlier in the day.

He drew his pistol from his pocket. It was primed and so ready for use for the Duke knew of old that on journeys such as this highwaymen and robbers were likely to appear when least expected.

Holding the pistol in his right hand, the Duke bent forward and with a swift, almost savage, gesture drew the sable rug from the floor onto the seat. For a moment he thought he was mistaken and that there was no one there and then there was a movement.

Slowly a figure wearing a black cloak raised itself from the floor.

The Duke put out his hand. His grasp was strong and merciless and there was a sudden cry of pain.

“Who are you?” the Duke asked. “What are you doing here?”

In answer the figure on the floor, twisting a little beneath the hand that gripped so mercilessly, a small soft shoulder, threw back the hood that obscured her identity.

For a moment the Duke could only stare at what the light from the lantern revealed.

A small white face was turned towards him, two very large, rather frightened eyes looked up into his and, as the dark hood fell further from the wearer’s head, it revealed a mass of soft red-gold hair, which glittered and shone in the candlelight.

“Who are you?” The Duke asked the question again, but this time his voice was less peremptory.

“Pardon, monsieur. I am so sorry. I hoped you would not find me for I meant only to travel with you as far as Chantilly.”

“How did you know that is where I am going?” the Duke enquired.

“I heard your men say so and, while they were seeing to the lame horse, I slipped into the coach. The door was open and there was no one to stop me.”

Her voice was soft and low and she spoke, the Duke noticed, this strange young woman who had hidden herself beneath his rugs, in a very correct and educated manner.

Slowly the Duke took his hand from her shoulder and then he removed the rug from where he had tossed it and indicated the seat beside him.

“Will you sit down?” he invited her.

Nervously and yet with a grace that was not very easy in a moving swaying coach, the girl rose to her feet and sat herself on the seat beside him.

It was easier now to see her more clearly. She was very young and very lovely. There was too something aristocratic and well-bred about the exquisite outline of her features and the long slim fingers that clutched a little nervously at the front of her dark cloak.

“I am delighted,” the Duke said suavely, “if I can be of assistance to you, mademoiselle. If you wish to travel to Chantilly, my coach is at your disposal, but surely you need not put yourself to such discomfort? It cannot have been very pleasant beneath those hot rugs.”

His words brought a flush to her cheeks and then a faint smile to her lips.

“Merci, monsieur, you are very kind. But you must think me a little – well – unconventional.”

“It is not for me to question your method of travel,” the Duke replied, “although I admit I am somewhat curious.”

The stranger gave a little sigh and glanced out of the window. But there was little to see save trees and they were travelling rather swiftly.

“Perhaps I should explain,” she said softly. “I have run away from the Convent.”

As she spoke, the candle in the lantern flickered low and went out.

The Duke gave an exclamation of annoyance, but, as he moved to call for a footman, he felt a hand on his arm.

“Pray do not trouble about the light. It is best that you should not see me too closely, so that, if you are asked to describe me, you can truthfully say you don’t know what I am like.”

“You imagine then that they will come in pursuit of you?” the Duke quizzed her.

“I expect so,” was the calm reply.

“In which case it would be best for us to introduce ourselves. I, mam’selle, am the Duke of Melyncourt, at your service.”

“Enchantée, Monseigneur. And I am Amé.”

There was a pause.

“A pretty name,” the Duke said at length, “and an unusual one, but is that all you intend to tell me?”

“That is all I know.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said it is all I know. I was christened Amé, which means ‘soul’. I am called Amé because it is easy to pronounce. It is the only name I have. Voila tout!”

“I see.”

“You are puzzled, Monseigneur, but it is quite simple. I was left at the Convent when I was just a baby. My mother pinned a note on my robe. It read, my daughter is christened Amé, because in giving her to God, I give also my own soul and my last hope of Heaven.”

There was a throb in the girl’s voice as she spoke, a sound that somehow seemed to him to be strangely moving.

There was a sudden silence and then at length, almost as if he was embarrassed by it, the Duke said,

“And you have remained at the Convent ever since?”

“Mais oui. I have lived there all my life.”

“And you are not happy there?”

“I have been very happy, but something happened today that made me decide to run away.”

“I would like to ask what it was that drove you into taking such a desperate course. But if you would rather not tell me, I shall, of course, understand.”

“It is easy to tell you things, Monseigneur. I don’t know why, I have never been alone with a man before.”

“Never?”

“No, of course not. The only men we see at the Convent are the Priests and the fathers of the novices who come occasionally to visit them.”

“So there are other young girls at your Convent?”

“Oh, yes. They talk about taking the veil, but really they come to the Convent to be educated. There are six girls of my age there at the moment and, of course, there are many nuns. They are very kind and sweet and I love them very much.”

“And yet something has happened to make you run away?”

“Yes, something that made me angry – very very angry.”

There was a touch of impetuosity in the young voice now.

“Will you tell me what it was?” the Duke enquired.

“It is perhaps a great sin for me to be so angry,” was the reply, “and yet, even now, sitting here with you. Monseigneur, I think I am right. I will tell you about it and you must promise me to say whether you think I am right or wrong in what I have done. I am sure that most people would say I am wrong, but you – you are an Englishman.”

“How do you know that?” the Duke interrupted.

“I heard your servants talking. One of them said, ‘these Frenchies make me sick. Danged if I knows why ’is Nibs, don’t stay where ’e belongs.”

She spoke the last words in English with a note of laughter in her voice.

“So you speak my language?” the Duke exclaimed in the same tongue.

“Certainement! I can speak English,” Amé replied, “as well Italian, German and Spanish. The Reverend Mother was very particular that we should be fluent in all languages, but I found English the easiest to learn.”

“You speak it very well.”

“Merci bien, Monseigneur! The nun, who taught me, Sister Margaret, is English. More than once she said to me, ‘Amé, you must have English blood in you for no one could learn a language so quickly unless it came naturally to them.”

“And have you?” the Duke enquired. “No, that is a useless question, for you don’t know the answer.”

“I only know that I am Amé.”

“And you have still not told me why you are running away.”

“I was coming to that when you ‒ interrupted me.”

“I must apologise.” The Duke said with a faint smile.

“It does not matter,” she assured him quite seriously. “But I was about to tell you what happened. You must understand, Monseigneur, that I have lived at the Convent for over seventeen years. I have always known it to be my home. I have always been happy with the nuns. They have never made me feel I was any different from anyone else. Most of the other novices stay until they are educated, then they leave. There have been one or two who have decided that they had no desire to return to the world. They have asked that they might remain in the Convent and take the veil.”

She paused for a moment to catch her breath before she went on,

“No one has been allowed to take their vows until after their eighteenth birthday, the Reverend Mother Prioress has always insisted upon this. Even when a novice has begged and pleaded with her, she would not give permission. Hélas! It is a very serious step, you comprehend, to give up one’s life to God.”

“Of course,” the Duke murmured.

“Always the Mother Prioress has said to us that one must consider the matter very deeply that one must be quite certain that one will have no regrets. I shall not be eighteen for three months, but constantly I have thought of what I should do. I have talked about it with the nuns, I have discussed it with my Confessor and always they have said, ‘wait and see. Don’t be in a hurry, Amé. If God wants you, some sign will be given to you’.”

She paused again and then resumed her story

“And then today, when I was walking in the Cloisters, one of the nuns came to tell me that I was wanted by the Mother Prioress. I went to her at once and found, when I reached her room, that she was not alone. There were two Priests there – two strange Priests I had never seen before – and I thought when the Mother Prioress, greeted me that she looked perturbed and worried. There seemed to be an expression in her eyes that I had never seen before.”

The Duke was listening to her intently now as she continued,

“She took me by the hand as if to give me some reassurance, turned to the two Priests and said, ‘this, gentlemen, is Amé’. One of them, a frighteningly stern man it seemed to me, told me that it was the wish of the Cardinal that I should take my vows immediately.”

She looked apprehensive,

“I was so surprised and astonished at what he had to say that I think they were a little impatient with me. Both Priests impressed on me that it was a command, a command I must obey. All the time they were speaking the Mother Prioress said nothing, but I had the feeling that she did not agree with them. Something one of the Priests said made me feel that she had argued with them before I had appeared. But they were very arrogant. Then when they had told me what I had to do ‒ I was dismissed from their presence.”

Amé stopped speaking.

The Duke could not see her, but he knew her breath was coming a little quickly, her small breasts were heaving as if the telling of the story had quickened her anger into flame.

“So you ran away!” he said at length.

“Tiens! I don’t know how I dared to do such a thing,” Amé replied, “but I felt rebellious. The look on the Priest’s face seemed to tell me how unimportant and insignificant I was. The Cardinal gave an order and what the Cardinal commanded must be done, whatever the cost to me.”

“Do you know which Cardinal gave such an instruction?” the Duke enquired.

“But, of course, Cardinal de Rohan – Prince Louis de Rohan.”

“Have you ever seen him?”

“No, never! But our Confessor visits him from time to time.”

“You think that he has spoken about you to the Cardinal?”

“Je ne sais pas, perhaps so, but I cannot really believe that he asked for me to be admitted sooner than anyone else, for always Father Pierre has been the one who has told me to wait, not to be in a hurry, to be quite certain before I make my final decision.”

“It certainly seems very strange,” the Duke agreed.

“I know now exactly what I intend to do,” Amé replied. “I am going out into the world for a little while. I am going to see things I have never seen, things I have only heard the other girls talk about. I am going to live like an ordinary person and then if after that I decide that it is right for me to take my vows, I shall return to the Convent.”

“How are you going to do this?” the Duke asked a little drily, “besides if, as you suspect, they will come in search of you, you will not get very far.”

“Voyons, they have not caught me yet,” Amé replied. “If you will take me as far as Chantilly, perhaps there I shall find someone travelling to Paris, to Rheims or Orleans. It does not matter to me very much where I go.”

“My dear child, you cannot possibly travel about the country like that. You are too pretty for one thing.”

“Pretty? Am I pretty?” Amé asked. “I have never thought about it. The girls have sometimes told me my hair is a dangerous colour. But we are not supposed to think about our appearance.”

“It may not be of consequence in the Convent,” the Duke said, “but it will certainly matter in the world outside.”

“In what way?” Amé enquired.

“In the usual way that the possession of looks or the lack of them affects any woman,” the Duke replied. “You tell me you have been brought up in a Convent. Are you so innocent that you do not know if you are a pretty woman, men, whatever you may think of them, will want to make love to you?”

“I will not listen,” Amé replied, “but if they are troublesome – I am prepared.”

“Prepared?” the Duke questioned in surprise.

“Yes, feel!”

The Duke felt her touch his arm, then he felt the prick of a sharp point through the velvet of his coat.

“What is that?” he enquired.

“It is a dagger,” Amé replied. “And I shall always carry it with me in case anyone should attempt to do things to me that would be wrong. It belonged to an Italian girl. She told me it was very old and had been in her family for many years. People have been killed with it, she said. At first I did not want it when she gave it to me, but it was useful for my embroidery and now I am glad that I have it. So you see, Monseigneur, I am armed, n’est-ce pas!”

“You certainly seem to be able to look after yourself,” the Duke commented gravely.

“I am sure I can,” Amé replied. “The only thing that worries me is that I have no clothes.”

“No clothes?”

“Only the ones I am wearing and they will give me away at once. I have on the white robe of a novice and the dark cape we wear in the choir when it is very cold. I could bring nothing away with me, because I did not know I was coming.”

“Do you mean to tell me that you decided on this fantastic escapade when you saw my coach?” the Duke enquired.

“Vraiment, it is hard to make you understand,” Amé replied. “Imagine, Monseigneur, there is a pear tree in the garden and sometimes when we are very naughty we climb it so that we can look over the wall. I should have been in my room asleep. But I was worried and angry so I slipped out after the curfew had sounded to walk in the garden.

“There was no one to see me and because I was so incensed – it is my red hair that makes me so hot-tempered – I thought I would climb the pear tree and look over the wall. I looked up and there was your coach just drawing up. I don’t know quite what made me do it, except maybe it was Fate or the Devil, but I slipped over the wall and climbed down as close as I could to the coach to listen to what was being said.”

She smiled a nervous smile and went on,

“I saw you get out and walk among the trees. I saw your men start to unharness the lame horse. No one was watching and the door was open. I could hardly believe what I had done until I found myself on the floor with the rugs pulled over me.”

“You are obviously a young lady of impulse,” the Duke said. “I cannot imagine what will happen to you now you are out in the world.”

“While we have been talking, I have been thinking about that. It is quite easy – très facile!”

“What is?” the Duke enquired.

“What I shall do now,” Amé replied.

“And what will you do?” the Duke asked.

“I shall go with you wherever you are going. I shall be quite safe then.”

“That is impossible.”

“Why?”

“But, of course, it is impossible,” the Duke said sharply. “I am going to Paris.”

“But I would like very much to see Paris. Always I have wanted to go to Paris. I would be no trouble, I promise you that.”

“Now, listen,” the Duke said severely. “I am perfectly prepared to give you a lift to Chantilly, there is no harm in that and, if you disappear as soon as we get there, I will swear that I have seen nothing of you, should any questions be asked.”

“But that will be lying,” Amé said reproachfully.

“I don’t think we can worry at this moment about a lie here and there,” the Duke said lightly. “I will also give you money for some clothes. You can then enjoy a little freedom before you return to the Convent. They will find you sooner or later or else you will decide that it will be best for you to return, but that is none of my business. When we reach Chantilly, we will part. I think I shall always have a moment of regret that I shall not know what eventually happens to you.”

“It would be much easier for me to go to Paris with you,” Amé persisted.

“I cannot see that there will be anything easy about it,” the Duke replied. “I can hardly arrive in Paris with an escaped nun. They might even say that I had abducted you. It would cause a great scandal and do nobody any good.”

“But I am not a nun, I am only a novice and they would not think that you had abducted me when you have never seen me before,” Amé answered, “and besides, why should anyone know? I can be your maidservant or something like that.”

“It is not my habit to travel with maidservants,” the Duke retorted. “The staff who are accompanying me are all men and any maidservants required will already be engaged when I arrive in Paris.”

“Then that is easy – I must be a man. What sort of man can I be?”

“Now you are being ridiculous,” the Duke said.

“Alors, but I am not! I could be your page. Of course I can be your page. One of the new postulants was telling me how her brother is page to the King. He is not yet fifteen years old and yet he has already been three months at Versailles. Now, if the King can have a page, you can have a page – you are a Duke and surely a Duke is entitled to a page?”

“I already have a page,” the Duke replied sharply.

“Where is he?”

“In a coach that is following me. When we arrive at Chantilly, he will undoubtedly turn up. He is a cousin of mine, a weakly boy who was seasick the whole way across the English Channel and who has complained of feeling ill ever since.”

“Voyons, but he is obviously unfitted for his post,” Amé said firmly. “In which case he must go home and I will take his place.”

The Duke put his hand to his forehead.

“Listen, my child,” he said patiently. “The whole idea is preposterous from beginning to end. I am left in no doubt that your fertile imagination is unsuited to a Convent, but that is not my concern. I will help you in any way I can, but I will not, under any circumstances, take you with me to Paris. Now is that clear?”

“Mais, Monseigneur, you could not be so unkind.”

The words burst forth half-indignantly and half-reproachfully and then suddenly the Duke felt a very small warm hand slipped into his.

“Please help me,” a soft voice pleaded. “Please! Please!”

“I cannot,” the Duke answered. “You must see that it would be utterly impossible.”

“Why should it be? I promise you I will be no trouble to you. I will do anything you say, I will obey you in every way, except to go away from you at Chantilly. Please let me stay, please!”

There was a pause and then, before the Duke could speak, Amé said again,

“I did not know that men could be so hard and cruel. First the Cardinal, then those two Priests giving me orders in a way that made me hate them and now – now – you! I did not think, as I saw you in the light of the lantern that you would be like this somehow.”

“What did you expect me to be?” the Duke asked, curious in spite of himself.

“I thought you looked so strong, like – like someone who would avenge a wrong and – how do you say it – protect those who are weak. I thought too as I looked at you that you were very handsome.”

Quite suddenly the Duke began to laugh. This child, flattering and pleading with him, her hand holding his as they journeyed together, was something that he had not anticipated in his very wildest dreams. He laughed, and even as he laughed he was well aware that her fingers had tightened on his as if she clung to him almost desperately.

He remembered that first quick glance at her as she had risen from the carriage floor, the fear in her eyes, the loveliness of her hair in the candlelight and, even as he thought of her, he recalled the last time he had seen the Cardinal de Rohan.

The Prince had been sitting in the opposite box to him at the Opera. One of the wealthiest Seigneurs of France, the Cardinal’s manly figure was shown to its best in his ecclesiastical clothes. But there was nothing saintly about his witty tongue or indeed about the lines of dissipation beneath his lecherous eyes.

He had been surrounded by several attractive women that evening and the Duke remembered that he had been told that it was a well-established fact that the Cardinal’s mistress often travelled with him disguised as an Abbéss. He knew that he had disliked the Prince Louis de Rohan. There was something sensuous and vicious about him, something that decent men shrank from even if he was dressed in the trappings of Holiness.

But undoubtedly he had great influence, his was a power to be reckoned with, yet Amé, this child without a name, was pitting herself against him. Amé versus Prince Louis de Rohan.

The Duke chuckled.

Quite suddenly the whole scenario appealed to his sense of humour.

He glanced out of the window.

They were nearing Chantilly.

If he was to make a decision, he must make it now and quickly.

“Please help me, please take me with you! Only you can save me.”

Amé was now speaking again and her face was turned up to his, her lips trembling with the intensity of her plea.

The coach was slowing down. The inn lay just ahead of them.

Lights were burning brightly in a dozen windows and the Landlord was hurrying out to welcome his most distinguished guest.

The Duke made up his mind.

“Very well,” he said curtly. “I will take you with me.”