It was uncanny. A kind of déjà vu.
Léon turned and faced me and the strange feeling vanished. He bowed with his customary graciousness and remarked that it was an excellent day for a ride.
That summer Dickon visited us again. He came unexpectedly and caught me completely off my guard. With characteristic aplomb he expected to be warmly welcomed. I told him that he should have warned us but he really was behaving as though my father’s château was one of the family homes. ‘Anywhere you are I think of as my home,’ he said.
I told him he was ridiculous and I should have to make his excuses to my father.
My father, however, had taken quite a fancy to him. It was not surprising. When my father had been young he must have been a little like Dickon. They both possessed an overwhelming masculinity and therefore perhaps irresistible charm for the opposite sex; deeply rooted in this was an assurance that they would be welcome wherever they went.
Dickon told me that he had two reasons for coming to France. One he need not explain because it was obvious: Myself. The other was that France was becoming the most interesting country in Europe and the eyes of the rest of the continent were fixed on it asking, What is going to happen next? Wildly conflicting stories were circulated about the Queen’s diamond necklace and the whole of Europe was agog for news. Some reports said it had been a gigantic swindle to discredit the Queen, but her enemies were sure that she had been involved in the conspiracy. The French exchequer was in a dire state and everywhere the Queen was blamed for her extravagance. The necklace was just another excuse to denigrate her. She was becoming known as Madame Deficit. In Paris there were demonstrations against her.
Dickon was very interested to meet Leon Blanchard. He regarded him intently and said: ‘I have heard your praises sung throughout the household, Monsieur. I understand the boys profit from your excellent tuition. I have two myself so you will forgive me if I am a trifle envious. We have tutors who never seem to be able to endure my sons for more than a few months. What is your special secret?’
‘I think,’ answered Léon, ‘it is to make the lessons interesting, to understand the young and to treat them as individuals.’
‘Monsieur Blanchard certainly has the gift,’ said my father warmly.
It was obvious even at the first meal that Dickon was eager to find out all he could about what was happening in France.
‘What do you think of this necklace affair?’ he asked.
Leon Blanchard said: ‘The Queen does not understand the state of the country and the effect her extravagances are having on the people.’
Armand put in: ‘The people will never be satisfied. The Court has to preserve its dignity. It is quite clear that the Queen has been cheated over this matter of the necklace and rogues and vagabonds have sought to commit a great fraud and have used her name to bring it about.’
‘That certainly seems to be the decision of the courts,’ said my father.
‘The people are rising against her,’ added Léon. ‘They blame her for everything.’
‘They have to have a scapegoat,’ replied Armand. ‘I am for harsher punishment for the rioters. We shall track them down eventually.’
‘Have you had any luck in discovering who the people are who are causing all this dissension?’ asked Dickon.
‘It’s organized,’ said Armand. ‘That much we know. We don’t so much want to catch members of the mob as the people who are inciting them. That is our motive.’
‘But what are you doing about it?’ insisted Dickon.
‘Don’t imagine we are standing aside and letting them ruin this country,’ cried Armand. ‘We are going to find these people, I tell you. We are very busy doing just that.’
Léon Blanchard said: ‘The Vicomte is deeply concerned with what is happening and has formed a band of men who share his opinions. I am happy to be one of them. We are doing very good work. I, alas, cannot be of as much use as I would wish. I have my work to consider … ’
‘You are doing excellent work with us,’ said Armand.
I watched Sophie while Léon was speaking. I was surprised that she had joined us as we had a visitor. Dickon had not shown by a flicker of his eyelids that he was surprised by her presence; he had talked to her naturally and although she was a little quiet she appeared to be at ease. In fact she looked pretty in a gown of pale lavender and a hood to match. I noticed how often her eyes rested on Léon Blanchard and although I was glad to see her changed and happier, I did feel a certain apprehension as to what the future held for her. Was it really possible that he would marry her? If he would, some of the happiness she had known during her engagement to Charles might be brought back to her.
Armand was talking enthusiastically about the work he and his band were doing, gathering together noblemen from the outlying districts. ‘We’ll get these agitators,’ he cried. ‘They’ll get their just deserts and that will hit at the root of the trouble.’
When we left the table Dickon said he wanted to take a walk round the ramparts and asked if I would join him.
I said I would. I took a wrap and we went to the top of the tower and walked round the path, pausing now and then to lean on the stone between the battlements and look out over the countryside.
Dickon said: ‘It looks deceptively peaceful, doesn’t it?’
I agreed.
He put an arm round me. ‘You shouldn’t stay here, you know. It’s going to blow up at any minute.’
‘You have been saying that for a very long time.’
‘It has been simmering for a long time.’
‘Then perhaps it will go on for a little while yet.’
‘But not too long a while, and when it comes the deluge will be terrible. Marry me, Lottie. That is what you should do.’
‘And come to England?’
‘Of course. Eversleigh awaits you and the children. My mother hopes every time I come to France that when I return you will be with me … you and the children to grow up with mine. Of course, I can’t promise you such a paragon of a tutor as Monsieur Blanchard appears to be. Who is that man, by the way? He is a very distinctive character.’
‘Did you think so? You have only seen him at dinner.’
‘He’s the sort of man who makes his presence felt. He seems to have changed the whole household. Not you perhaps. I hope your thralldom is for one only.’
I did enjoy Dickon’s company. I liked the way he could be light-hearted when discussing the most serious subjects.
‘I am in thrall to no one, Dickon,’ I answered. ‘You should know that.’
‘To my sadness, yes. But why don’t you come to England? Get away from this cauldron of discontent.’
‘Which you have said several times is on the point of boiling over.’
‘It will be no joke when it does. Some will be sadly scalded. But not my Lottie. I shall not permit that. It would be much easier though if you summoned up your good sense and left while it is easy to do so.’
‘I can’t go, Dickon. I won’t leave my father.’
‘Eversleigh is a very big house. Don’t underestimate it because you have passed your days in châteaux. Let him come too.’
‘He never would. This is his home, his country.’
‘A country, my dear, from which men such as he is will soon be trying to escape.’
‘He never would and I would not leave him.’
‘You care more for him than for me.’
‘But of course. He loves me. He brought me here to acknowledge me. I have been treated as his daughter. You chose Eversleigh.’
‘Will you never forget that?’
‘How can I? It is there while you are there. You are Eversleigh and I was the one whom you rejected for its sake.’ I laid my hand on his arm. ‘Oh, Dickon, I have forgiven it … if there was anything to forgive. You were just behaving naturally as Nature designed you should. No. What I mean is that it is not important any more. But I won’t come to England while my father lives. You can see h
ow he relies on me. If I went and took the children—and I would never go without them—what would happen to him?’
‘I know his feelings for you. That is obvious. You are the one. Poor Sophie means little to him and he does not like his son overmuch. I see that. I am not surprised. Armand is a fool. What is all this about a band?’
‘It’s some sort of society … an organization. They are trying to scent out agitators.’
‘I gathered that, but with any success?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘But what do they do?
‘They meet and talk … ’
‘And talk and talk,’ said Dickon derisively. ‘That sort of thing should be done in secret. He should not announce his plans at the dinner table.’
‘Well, it is the family.’
‘Not entirely. There is the tutor for one.’
‘Oh, but he is one of them. Armand eventually persuaded him and Monsieur Blanchard is very obliging. He likes to live on good terms with everyone. He did plead too much work at first but eventually he agreed.’
‘Such an obliging man. How did you come by him?’
‘By recommendation. The very best. It was a great stroke of luck when the Duc de Soissonson visited us and the matter of getting a tutor came up. Monsieur Blanchard looks after the Duc’s cousin’s children … or some such relationship. He still does for a few days a week. So we have to share him.’
‘The gentleman seems in great demand. The Duc de Soissonson, did you say?’
‘Yes. Do you know him?’
‘I know of him. He is much talked of in Parisian circles.’
‘I have often wondered, Dickon, how you come to know so much.’
‘I am glad you respect my knowledge.’
‘Why do you come here so often?’
‘Surely you know the answer to that.’
‘No, I don’t. At least I am not sure. Dickon, I have come to the conclusion that there is much about you that I am not sure of.’
‘The mystery makes me more attractive perhaps.’
‘No, it does not. I should like to know more about your motives. Sometimes I think you are rather pleased … perhaps that is not quite the right word … rather gratified about the troubles here.’
‘As an Englishman whose country has suffered a great deal at the hands of the French, what do you expect?’
‘Are you by any chance engaged in work for the government of England?’
He took me by the shoulders and looked into my face. He was laughing. ‘Am I a spy?’ he whispered. ‘Am I here on some secret mission? Why won’t you believe that I have one purpose in my life and that is to win you?’
I hesitated. ‘I know that you would marry me, but I would never be first in your life, would I? There would always be other things … like Eversleigh. Property, possessions which mean power, I suppose. Yes, that would come first with you, Dickon, always.’
‘If I could convince you that nothing else mattered to me, would you alter your determination to stand out against me?’
‘I would never believe it.’
‘There will come a day when I shall convince you.’
He caught me to him and kissed me wildly, passionately, over and over again. I wanted to cling to him, to tell him that I was ready to accept what he could give me, and if it were not all that I wanted, I would take what I could get. I tried to remind myself that I was a widow who had been long without a husband; and I was a woman who needed the love of a man. I had loved Charles in a way; I had missed him sorely; but I knew that what I felt for Dickon went deeper than that. It had its roots in the past when I had been a young idealistic girl, innocent and unworldly, dreaming of perfection. I drew away from him.
‘That will not convince me,’ I said.
‘When I hold you in my arms, when I kiss you, I know that you love me. It is something you cannot hide.’
‘I won’t deny that I could deceive myself, but I won’t, Dickon. I will have everything or nothing. Besides, as I have told you I would never leave my father.’
He sighed and leaned over the parapet.
‘How quietly beautiful it is—the château land. The moonlight makes the river shine like silver where it catches it. Château land …rich land … all the wood of the forest and the farmlands. The Comte must be very proud of his possessions.’
‘He is. They have been his family’s for generations.’
And to think they will go to that fool Armand! He has no notion of how to manage an estate of this size.’
‘There are people to do it for him as you have at Eversleigh when you make your mysterious jaunts to the continent.’
‘Still … a pity. But for him it might come to you.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, you are his daughter and he is very proud of the fact.’
‘Armand is very much alive. And in any case Sophie would come before me.’
‘Sophie! I wouldn’t gamble on that. You are the apple of his eye. I am sure he will want to see you well provided for.’
‘Dickon!’ I cried.
‘Well?’ He smiled at me lazily.
I said: ‘Are you calculating again?’
‘I always calculate.’
‘And you think that my father will make me a rich woman. Oh, now I see why you are so ardent.’
‘I should be ardent if you were a pauper.’
‘But perhaps not for marriage.’
‘If you were a peasant in the field I should still yearn for you.’
‘I know that you have yearned for many women and some of them doubtless of humble station. It is getting cold. I want to go in.’
‘Not until you have listened to me. Why are you so suddenly incensed?’
‘Because for a moment I forgot what you are like. You want to marry me because you have somehow discovered that my father is leaving me something, and although you won Eversleigh and Clavering … and heaven knows what from your wife … you are still looking for more.’
‘You get so angry, Lottie. What a temper you have!’
‘Good night, Dickon. I am going in.’
He took my hand and pulled me towards him. ‘We should not part on bad terms.’
I repeated wearily: ‘Good night.’
Then he held me against him once more and in spite of the fact that I had followed the trend of his thoughts, I was moved to respond to his embrace. He was dangerous. He could catch me unaware.
I wrenched myself free.
‘You have misunderstood,’ he said.
‘No. I understand perfectly. You are following your custom of courting rich women. Well, my father is not dead yet and I pray it will be a long time before he is, but you may be sure that what he leaves me is not going to be added to what you have accumulated through your matrimonial manoeuvrings.’
‘Lottie, I have told you that if you were a peasant gleaning in the field … ’
‘You would want to make love to me, yes. I understand you perfectly, Dickon. And as you believe me to be an heiress you would like to marry me. Once more … Good night.’
I ran off, and I was rather surprised that he did not attempt to follow me.
In my room I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling.
‘Go away, Dickon,’ I murmured. ‘Leave me alone.’
I mistrusted him and yet I longed for him. He was becoming very dangerous and I should have to be wary.
I spent a disturbed night thinking about Dickon, trying all the time to make myself see him as he really was, and to upbraid myself for wanting him in spite of what I knew.
He, too, might have been disturbed by our conversation of the previous night because he went off during the morning on horseback on what I began to think of as his secret missions.
I walked round the gardens with my father in the morning and he told me that Léon Blanchard had taken the boys on a ramble. They were learning something about forestry and botany and finding it very interesting.
‘They wil
l be looking for specimens of various plants,’ said my father. ‘It is good for them to learn these things. Blanchard seems to have some knowledge on every subject.’
I said: ‘Dickon is very concerned about the position here.’
‘Ah yes. Who is not?’
‘He thinks it is getting more dangerous.’
My father smiled. ‘He would like you to return to England with him.’
I was silent.
He insisted: ‘That is what he wants, is it not?’
‘He has suggested it.’
‘And you, Lottie?’
‘I am going to stay here, of course.’
‘Is that what you want?’
‘Yes,’ I said determinedly.
‘He interests me, that man. I have never ceased to be grateful to him, you know. It was due to him that I found you and your mother. If your mother had not been so much afraid of him she would never have written to me and I should never have known of your existence. My feelings towards him are mixed. Your mother always disliked him and was a little afraid of him, I think. But I have to say that I have strong admiration for him. In spite of everything he might well be the man for you, Lottie.’
‘I should have to think a great deal about that!’
‘I have been thinking. You are too young to spend your life here like this. You should marry. You should have more children.’
‘Do you want to be rid of me?’
‘Heaven forbid! What I want is your happiness and if that takes you away from me, then … so be it.’
‘I should never be happy away from you.’
‘God bless you, Lottie,’ he said emotionally. ‘Bless you for the happiness you have brought into my life. I want you to promise me that if you should long to go with him—or to anyone—you will not let any feeling of duty, or whatever you feel towards me, stand in your way. I am old; you are young. Your life is before you. Mine is finished. Remember, that more than anything I want your happiness.’
‘And do you know,’ I said, ‘I want yours.’
He walked away from me for a moment. Then he said: ‘All will be well. This kingdom has stood firm in all the troubles which have beset it through the centuries. France will always be France. There has to be a future for our children. I won’t deny the fact that I want Charlot to inherit Aubigné. Of course, if by any chance Armand has children it would have to go to them first … but that is hardly likely. After Armand, it must be Charlot. I have drawn this up with the lawyers.’
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