The River Maid

by Gemma Holden

  She left in a flurry of silk. He pulled the stack of newspapers toward him. Leafing through them, he scanned the pages. In one paper, they described Adrianna as having long claws and razor sharp teeth. Another had a drawing of her with scales covering her entire body. They were making her out to be some kind of monster. Disgusted, he pushed them away.

  Elise made him wait nearly an hour before she finally returned dressed in a pale pink walking dress. He took the cloak from her butler and placed it around her shoulders and then offered her his arm. “Madame.” She smiled and placed her hand on his arm and he escorted her outside.

  He handed her into the carriage before taking the seat opposite her. As they neared the Tuileries, the carriage slowed. A crowd had gathered outside the palace and the soldiers were struggling to keep them back.

  “It looks like the whole of Paris has come to see the creature,” Elise said as she peered out of the window.

  “She’s not a creature,” Christian replied.

  Elise raised a brow at his remark, but said nothing.

  Elise’s driver had brought them as close to the palace as he could, but the carriage could go no further. Christian helped Elise down and then forced a way through the crush of people. Panic rose inside him as people pressed in all around him.

  Elise squeezed his arm, bringing him back to the present. “You’re safe, Your Highness,” she whispered. There was understanding in her eyes. He nodded to her and kept close as they made their way through the crowd.

  The soldiers guarding the palace let them pass. Inside, the rooms were packed full of people as anyone of any importance in Paris had come to see the mermaid. Christian guided Elise to the ballroom. He spotted Napoleon’s brother talking to the Empress and other dignitaries from across Europe. The ballroom thronged with people. If they hadn’t been wearing day dress, he would have thought the guests were still here from last night.

  Adrianna’s tank had been moved to the very centre of the room. He was still shocked by the sight of her tail. Adrianna shrank back as people crowded round. She seemed so small and helpless in the tank. Unable to watch, he averted his eyes. He was glad they couldn’t get any closer.

  Gaspard stood by himself on one side of the room. Christian left Elise and made his way over to him. Soldiers were everywhere, dotted around the room and in the gallery above them, their muskets ready.

  “I have to speak to her,” Gaspard said. “But I don’t know how.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Christian said, keeping his voice low. “There are too many people here. You will never get close enough.”

  “I have to try.”

  Fearing he would attract attention standing there, Christian left Gaspard and went back to join Elise. Elise gazed at the tank, a wistful smile touching her lips.

  “You don’t seem shocked by her,” he said. She hadn’t behaved like everyone else, fighting to get close to the mermaid.

  She looked up at him. “I saw so many horrors during the revolution. It’s impossible to think that she could be real, but it would be so wonderful if she was. To think that mermaids exist somewhere in the world. How many other wonders are out there that we don’t know about?”

  For a moment, he tried to look at Adrianna through Elise’s eyes, not as a girl, but as a mermaid. If she was real, it would be incredible.

  “Would you like to come to dinner this evening, Your Highness?” Elise asked.

  “Only if you will call me Christian.”

  There was something about Elise that put him at ease. It could be that she reminded him of his mother. They left Gaspard at the palace and Elise dropped him off at his lodgings. Gaspard had still not returned when he arrived for dinner that evening. Elise was a charming hostess. She regaled him with stories about Versailles and life in France before the revolution.

  “I would never have placed Gaspard as a tutor,” she said after they had retired to the drawing room, leaving the servants to clear away the plates. “But then, we all did what we had to in order to survive.”

  “Who was he before the revolution?” Christian asked.

  Elise’s brow arched. “He hasn’t told you?”

  “No.”

  Elise shook her head, making her ringlets bounce. “It’s not my story to tell, but perhaps it’s a story you should know. Gaspard must know I would tell you if you asked and he hasn’t forbidden me to speak of it. You know that he had a wife and child once?”

  “Yes,” Christian said. “Although he rarely speaks of them. I guessed that he was at Versailles.”

  “Yes, he was at the French court. His wife, Juliette, came from a very old French family. I knew her. We were friends once. Talk of revolution was sweeping the country. It wasn’t only the poor who were swept up by it. Many of the aristocracy believed in it as well, Gaspard most of all. He was there on the tennis courts that day they signed a pledge to write a constitution. Gaspard didn’t know then what was to come. He couldn’t have imagined the bloodshed that was to follow. His wife and child were visiting her parents in Paris when they were arrested.”

  “They died on the guillotine?”

  “No. They died in the chaos following the uprising at the Bastille. Gaspard wasn’t the same afterwards. Their deaths haunted him. He left France and wandered across Europe. He tried to find a way to live with himself. I saw him a few times over the years. And then I received a letter saying he had found a position as a tutor to a young German prince.”

  They were both silent as they reflected on such a terrible tragedy. Gaspard had helped bring about the very revolution that was responsible for taking his wife and child from him. Christian wondered how he had managed to live with such knowledge.

  They both rose as the door opened and a very weary Gaspard entered, a look of dejection on his face. He sank down onto a chair. Elise hurried to the sideboard to pour him a drink. She pressed the glass into his hand.

  “I couldn’t get close enough,” Gaspard said with an exhausted sigh. “There were too many people around the tank. I managed to get near the front, but she didn’t see me. She wouldn’t look up. She just stared at the bottom of the tank.”

  “I still don’t understand how you can know her,” Elise said.

  “I knew her in St Goarshausen,” Gaspard replied, “but she wasn’t a mermaid then. She was just a girl.”

  Elise frowned. “Do you think it could be a trick? They took this poor girl and attached a tail to her legs to make her look like a mermaid.”

  The same thought had occurred to him, but having seen Adrianna in the tank, Christian didn’t believe it was a ruse. Her tail looked too real, plus she could obviously breathe underwater.

  “We’re not sure how she came to be a mermaid,” Christian said. “Something happened to her. The only way to find out is to speak with her.”

  Gaspard went back each day to try and get close enough. Christian was restless now that Ducasse had left, but there was nothing to do but go to court functions where Adrianna was the centre of every event. The Emperor was throwing balls and extravagant parties to show her off, but Christian couldn’t dance with her there. He felt uncomfortable seeing her in the tank and he avoided going to the palace.

  The whole of Paris wanted to see the mermaid. There was talk of building another tank, even bigger than the first, in the very centre of the city, where everyone could come and see her. There would be other exotic animals there and treasures that Napoleon had plundered from across Europe, but she would be the main exhibit. They wanted to display her with the animals, as if she was some sort of animal herself. They couldn’t see the girl underneath.

  With nothing else to occupy him, Christian escorted Elise to her various engagements, grateful to have something to do.

  “Gaspard is at the palace again,” Elise whispered to him during the interval. They were at the opera watching Mozart’s Don Giovanni. “He’s still trying to get close enough to speak to the mermaid. I’m worried he will get himself arrested. They must have noticed how muc
h time he’s spending there.”

  “I will speak to him,” Christian said.

  After the performance, he dropped Elise off and then asked the driver to take him to the palace. Once there, he pushed his way through the crowd of people outside. Inside the palace, another ball was taking place. People crowded around the tank. Adrianna shrank back, but she had nowhere to hide. She was hugging her arms around her chest, staring at the floor and not looking at anyone. Her hair swirled around her face, as if she was trying to hide behind it. Her gaze was fixed on the bottom of the tank, but no matter how hard the crowd banged, she wouldn’t look up. A cheer went up as the soldiers got out the poles and climbed up the steps. Disgusted, he turned away. He looked at her and saw a girl; a frightened, terrified girl. How could they not see it?

  He spotted Gaspard and went over to join him. “You will never be able to speak to her in the day. We will have to try at night.”

  “We?” Gaspard said, turning to face him. “You’re going to help?”

  “Yes,” Christian said, watching them raise the poles again. “I’ll help.”

  ~~~~~

  Fists banged on the glass and faces peered in, but Adrianna didn’t respond. She didn’t care anymore if they got out the poles. Bruises covered her back and shoulders, but no matter how hard they struck her, she wouldn’t move for them. She had stopped eating. At night, they dragged her out of the tank and forced a tube down her throat to feed her, but she threw most of the food back up. After the crowds had finally left, Fournier would rant and rage at her, but she didn’t react. She had tried looking at the people and meeting their eyes, hoping they might see past her tail and see her as a girl. She willed them to have some compassion, some pity, but there was none.

  The crowd was getting angry that she wouldn’t move. The soldiers stopped them if they banged too hard, afraid they would break the glass. She wondered what they would do if the glass broke. She had thought about it one night, thinking that she could break the glass herself. She didn’t think she could survive out of the water for long, but at least it would be an end to this. But she didn’t want to die. She was afraid of what would happen to her if she did. The doctors would cut her open and study her and she would end up mounted as a trophy on the Emperor’s wall. Her mother would never know what had become of her. No one in St Goarshausen would.

  A child stared at her with wide eyes. She met the boy’s gaze and smiled. He smiled back before he was pulled away by his mother. A man stood to the side. He had been standing there all day. Unlike the others, he didn’t pound on the glass, or try to get her attention. Finally, she looked over and froze. She knew him, although she didn’t know how. She tried to think, but she hadn't eaten in so long and her mind was hazy. She had known him before she became a mermaid. It was hard to think of that; that there had been a time that she wasn’t a mermaid. That she had once been a girl. She stared at him, trying to remember. Gaspard. His name was Gaspard.

  It couldn’t be him. Gaspard was in St Goarshausen. Her eyes met his. He had the same kindly blue eyes and portly stomach. When she had still been a girl, he had walked with her by the river and told her stories. Gaspard smiled at her and placed his hand against the glass. He mouthed something to her, but she didn’t know what he was saying. He turned and disappeared into the crowd. Frantically, she looked for him, coming up to the glass much to the excitement of the crowd, but she could no longer see him. She must have dreamed it. It was impossible that he could be here in the city. But if he was real, then he had seen her tail. He had seen what she was.

  She spent the rest of the day searching the crowds that came, but she didn’t see him again. Part of her was relieved that Gaspard hadn’t seen her like this.

  After the crowds of people finally left each day, each night, there were balls or the Emperor’s private dinner parties. She didn’t like to sleep underwater so she had to wait until the guests had left and the plates had been cleared away and the last of the servants had gone before she could come up to the surface to sleep. Soldiers came in to check on her throughout the night. They weren’t guarding her to make sure she didn’t escape, but to keep others away from her. The sound of their heavy footfalls brought back nightmares of Fournier’s cellar.

  That evening, the Emperor had another dinner party. She watched them with accusing eyes as they ate, but the guests didn’t seem to notice. When the last of the servants had finally left, she came to the surface. She rested her cheek on the side of the tank and closed her eyes and tried to sleep. It was awkward sleeping like this, but the exhaustion from the lack of food helped. She had just drifted off when she heard a door open and soft footsteps approaching. Fournier often came to visit her at night. She closed her eyes and pretended to sleep, hoping he might leave.

  “Adrianna,” came a voice.

  She opened her eyes. No one called her that; not even Fournier. Adrianna. It was her name, although it had been so long since she had heard it spoken. A shadow climbed up the set of stairs that rested against the tank, grunting with the effort.

  “Monsieur Gaspard.” His name came out as a sob. Her voice was faint and croaky. It was the first words she had spoken since she had been brought to the palace. She couldn’t stop tears streaming down her face and sobs welling in her throat.

  He put his hand over hers where it rested on the metal frame. “Please, don’t cry, mademoiselle,” he said. But Adrianna couldn’t seem to stop. He patted her hand until she had brought her tears under control.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, when she could talk again. It felt strange to move her lips. She had to remember how to form each word. Her voice sounded foreign to her ears.

  “Looking for you of course.” He smiled as though it was perfectly natural that she should be here in Paris, and that her being a mermaid was nothing out of the ordinary.

  “You were looking for me?” she whispered.

  “Since you were taken.”

  She began to cry again. All this time, she hadn’t been alone. Someone had been looking for her.

  “Although,” he continued gently, “you look somewhat different since I last saw you.”

  She looked down, unable to meet his eyes “It was Lorelei. She stole my legs.” Her voice was a strangled whisper. There was no way he would believe her story.

  “Lorelei? How is that possible?”

  “Lorelei was a mermaid. She lived in the river below the town. She took my legs and left me like this.”

  It was a relief to finally tell someone the truth about what had happened.

  Gaspard shook his head in disbelief. “It’s extraordinary. Almost unbelievable. But why would a mermaid want legs?”

  “She wanted to be with the prince.”

  He sighed heavily. “I should have guessed. Is there a way to undo the spell?”

  “Lorelei is the only one who can undo it and I think she’s dead.”

  “We will find a way.” A noise from outside made Gaspard turn. “I have to go. The guards are coming back.”

  “Please don’t leave me.”

  “I must, for a short time, but I will be back. Have courage, mademoiselle. We will a find a way to get you out of here.”

  “You can’t help me. The Emperor will never let me go.”

  “I won’t leave you here. We will find a way.”

  Gaspard climbed down the steps and disappeared into the shadows. She waited with her breath held for the soldiers to start shouting, but there was only silence. She was afraid that Gaspard would get himself arrested or killed trying to help her escape. It would be even worse, to be trapped here and have his death on her hands. She should have told him to leave her and forget about her.

  Her name was Adrianna. He had given her back who she was. She remembered everything; about her mother and her life in the town. It was worse to remember and to know who she was. Now, she knew that she wasn’t meant to be a mermaid.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Christian stood at the window of the parlou
r in Elise’s house, his back to Gaspard as he tried to absorb what the Frenchman had just told him. That Lorelei had been a mermaid and she had stolen Adrianna’s legs, all so that she could be with him. The idea sounded absurd, like something out of a story. Christian closed his eyes. He knew it was true. It explained everything. No wonder Lorelei had always behaved so strangely. He could imagine her as a mermaid with her vivid violet eyes and long golden hair.

  “It’s all my fault,” he said quietly.

  “It’s not your fault, Christian,” Gaspard replied. “You didn’t ask Lorelei to love you.”

  “Do you think Lorelei is dead?”

  “I don’t know. But if she changed back into a mermaid, that may be why we didn’t find a body.”

  Lorelei was a mermaid. For some reason that seemed easier to believe than Adrianna being one. It was all his fault. Adrianna must hate him.

  “How am I meant to live knowing that I’m to blame for everything that has happened to her?” he asked.

  “You cannot change what has already happened,” Gaspard said. “But you can help Adrianna now.”

  They couldn’t leave her to be stared at and paraded about. If he could save her, he could make it right somehow.

  “We have to get her out of there,” Christian said.

  “It won’t be easy. The Emperor has her well-guarded. Even if we managed to get her out of the palace, we would still have to find a way to get her out of the city.”

  Christian turned to face Gaspard, his forehead creased in thought. “The river Seine runs alongside the Tuileries. If we can get her to the river, she would be free.” He sighed. “But she would still be as she is now. If Lorelei is dead then there might be no way to get her legs back.”

  “We will find a way,” Gaspard vowed. “Perhaps there are others like Lorelei still somewhere in the world. We will rescue Adrianna and then we will find a way to undo what Lorelei did. But there will be consequences.”

  “What do you mean?” Christian asked.

  “Napoleon will send men after her to bring her back. He will never stop looking for her. If you’re seen helping her to escape, your titles and lands could be forfeit.”