He was close to the end of the colonnade when he saw a slight shape hunched against the base of a cold stone pediment. It was a small street girl, asleep as she sat leaning against the stone. Her face was tilted up and to the side, and the moonlight gave her a cold, blue ethereal beauty that arrested Napoleon’s attention so that he stopped and stared. She was quite stunning, he realised. Her hair, long and dark and wavy, hung in tresses over a dull grey cape. She had full lips and high cheekbones, and fine eyebrows above long lashes. He felt a sudden yearning for her in the pit of his stomach that caught him by surprise. Disturbed by the spontaneous sensation Napoleon was about to tear his gaze from her and walk away when her eyes flickered open and she ran the tip of her tongue delicately across her lips to moisten them. As she became fully conscious, she immediately noticed the slight figure of the artillery officer staring at her from a short distance away, and smiled.
‘Hello, handsome,’ she lisped. ‘Looking for somebody?’
‘Me?’ Napoleon stammered. ‘No. No, I’m just walking.’
‘Really?’ She laughed, revealing good teeth. ‘I thought people moved when they walked.’
Napoleon blushed, but he drew a quick breath and recovered his poise. ‘I had just stopped to admire—’
‘Me.You were admiring me.’ She jumped up and approached him quickly, pointing her finger. ‘Go on, admit it!’
She laughed, a light trilling sound that was so infectious that after a moment Napoleon could not help joining in.
‘All right then, I give in. I was looking at you.’
‘I bet.’ She assessed him shrewdly. ‘Would you like some company, sir?’
‘My name is Napoleon.’
‘Napoleon,’ she nodded.‘And what would you like to call me?’
Napoleon looked puzzled for an instant before he replied, ‘I’d like to call you by your name.’
She shrugged. ‘As you wish. Annabelle.’
‘Annabelle. Pleased to make your acquaintance.’ He held out his hand, and she took it with a grin. Napoleon formally shook her hand, but she held on after his grip relaxed and refused to let go.
‘So where are you taking me then, Napoleon?’
‘Taking you? Why, I hadn’t thought—’
‘I’m hungry. And you look like you need some company. Let’s go and find something to eat first.’
‘I don’t know if I can afford it.’
‘That’s all right. I know somewhere that’s very reasonable.’ She slipped her hand under his arm and smiled at him. ‘After that . . . well, we’ll just have to see.’
As the first grey smears of dawn spread across the room Napoleon woke with a start. He was naked. He felt it at once. He also felt the warm flesh of another curled up in the crook of his body and his forearm rested on her hip. At first the shocking unfamiliarity of the situation frightened him, and then the full details of the night before flooded back into his mind. The cheap meal he had bought them at a small inn.The lightness of the conversation and the fact that she had made him laugh, then little by little drawn out his ambitions to which she listened with avid attention - or seemed to, he reflected. Afterwards they had walked arm in arm back to his hotel, their laughter and high-spirited talk echoing along the dark streets. Then, in this room, by the light of a single candle, they had undressed in awkward silence before Napoleon held his breath at the vision of a naked female body standing before him.Then she had shivered and dived into the bed. After a brief hesitation he had followed her under the blanket and then flinched as she wrapped herself around him.
‘It’s your first time, isn’t it?’ she had said softly.
‘No.’
‘If you say so. Come on then, you great lover. Let’s see what you’re made of . . .’
He smiled at the memory of the lovemaking; tender and nervous at first, before he gave in to the rush of animal pleasure that flowed through his body until the ecstatic burst of nerve-tingling energy of the climax, and the warm relaxing glow of oblivion afterwards. Then sleep, curled across her, his head resting on the soft smooth flesh between her shoulder and her breast.
She stirred, opened her mouth and yawned. Then she ran her tongue over her dry lips and her eyes blinked open.
‘I’m hungry. Got anything to eat?’
‘Some bread, over there.’ Napoleon gestured towards the room’s only table, under the window. Outside the morning was clear and bright and a pale shaft lay across the table, illuminating the wooden box Napoleon kept his food in to protect it from the rats. ‘There’s a sweet pastry as well. I’ll get them for you.’
‘I’ll go.’ She slid from the covers and padded across to the table as Napoleon stared at her. She ate the pastry first, hungrily. Then she finished off the bread and reached for her clothes, hanging over the back of the chair.
‘Where are you going?’ Napoleon propped himself up on an elbow.
‘Home. I have to get home. My man gets worried if I don’t come back in the morning.’
‘You’re married?’
‘As good as,’ she replied, smoothing down her heavily worn slip. ‘We’re to have a blessing in a few weeks.’
Napoleon was horrified. ‘Does he know about . . . this?’
‘Lord, yes.’
‘But doesn’t he object?’ Napoleon glanced away from her. ‘I know I would, if you were mine.’
She paused and smiled at him. ‘Bless you, Lieutenant.That was a kind thing to say. But then it’s easy for you. My man was a silk weaver, and that trade’s in trouble. He lost his job over a year ago and we had to come to Paris to try and find work. There’s not much work to be had here. One of us had to earn money so . . .’ she shrugged, ‘here I am.’
‘Where were you from?’
‘Lyons.’
‘I see.’ Napoleon shifted uncomfortably and pulled the blankets over him more securely. ‘Is there nothing else you can do?’
‘Like what?’ she replied with a helpless gesture.‘I have no skills, apart from being able to please men, and we need food, shelter and that’s before we have to cope with all these tax rises. We barely survive as it is. I don’t expect you’d understand.’
Napoleon was about to protest. After all, he was only here in Paris because his family faced ruin unless the Government could be persuaded to honour its original agreement. But the difficulties faced by the Buona Parte family were leagues apart from the struggle for survival that this girl and her man faced.
She had finished fastening the buttons on her simple dress and completed her attire with a thick shawl that had been hanging around her shoulders last night but which she now fastened securely over her hair. She pulled on and laced up her boots before coming back towards the bed.
‘Lieutenant, you have to pay me now.’
‘Pay you?’ Napoleon blushed. ‘Yes, of course. Excuse me.’
He rose from the bed, wrapping the blanket around him, and crossed over to where his coat lay draped over his travel chest. He fumbled in the pocket until his fingers closed round his purse. He took it out, unclipped the fastener and peered at the coins inside.
‘How much?’
‘Five francs, sir. But any more would be appreciated.’
He nodded and counted out five francs, paused a moment and counted out another five before he approached her and placed the money in her outstretched hand. ‘Annabelle, get out of this city. Go back to Lyons. Go to the country, but get out of Paris. Find somewhere to settle down with your man and give up this life.’
She looked hurt. ‘I thought we’d had a nice time.’
‘We did. I did.The best night I’ve ever had.’ Napoleon reached out to take her hand and the blanket fell away revealing his naked body and his penis, stirring into life once again. He laughed, trying to hide his embarrassment. ‘There’s your proof of my earnestness!’
They both laughed now, and when they had recovered she leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. ‘Farewell, Lieutenant. I wish you well. Maybe one day, we’ll both fi
nd ourselves quiet homes in the country.’
‘Maybe.’ Napoleon nodded. ‘Goodbye.’
She left the room quietly, closed the door and he heard her footsteps softly cross the landing and descend the stairs. He returned to bed and curled up under the blanket until his body had warmed up again.The smell of her was still on the pillow and he shut his eyes and breathed the scent in through his nose and let his mind drift back to the thrill of the previous night.
Chapter 44
Napoleon finally rose and dressed as a bell tolled eleven. He sat down at his table and drafted a letter to the War Minister, Jean-Baptiste de Gribeauval, explaining that he was being obstructed by the Treasury in pursuit of compensation for his family, and therefore needed to apply for another six months’ extension to his leave. He had few illusions that the War Minister would be pleased to grant such a junior officer yet more leave. After all, he had not served with his regiment for over a year already. But it was all Napoleon could do at this stage. In any case, his money would not last much longer and he would be compelled to return to Corsica. He was not looking forward to reporting his lack of success in Paris. His anger at the corruption and inefficiency of the government was fuelled by the wider inequality between the grinding poverty of the masses and the heedless luxury of the aristocrats and their coteries. Something had to change. But what prospect of change was there when the army stood by ready to crush any expression of discontent by the downtrodden and despairing people of France? What could anyone do about the situation?
Once the letter was completed, Napoleon copied it into a more legible form and sealed it. He tucked it inside his coat and set off for the War Ministry offices where the letter was handed in to a clerk, who was given the address of Napoleon’s lodgings for the reply. Then he set off again, walking the streets, deep in thought about the state of the world around him, almost unaware of the fine weather that had embraced Paris and infused most of its inhabitants with better spirits after the cold and damp of previous weeks. When Napoleon looked up he realised that he was passing the street on which Monsieur Cardin had his shop. He pulled up with a start and glanced round, but he recognised no faces in the street around him, and he quickly hurried on.
By the time he had found a cheap inn for his evening meal, Napoleon’s thoughts had returned to the pamphlet he had read two days earlier. The arguments poured through his mind with the irresistible force of a great river. The author, Citizen Schiller, deployed logic as if it were a weapon, and shot down anything in his sights, whether it was the monarchy, the Church or the aristocracy. He must be an interesting man to meet, Napoleon reflected. And he was speaking at Monsieur Cardin’s shop that night. It was the thought of a moment and the decision followed immediately.
As one of the city clocks struck eight Napoleon emerged from the shadows opposite the subscription library and quickly crossed the street, with a last anxious glance round to make sure that he was not being observed. The library was almost in darkness; only a tiny glimmer of light flickered in the depths of the interior.Yet there were already men inside. From across the street he had seen them arrive, singly and in small groups. Napoleon reached for the door handle, but someone had obviously been keeping watch, because the door swung open at his approach.
‘Inside, quickly!’ Monsieur Cardin whispered.
As the door closed behind him, Napoleon could see a small candle guttering at the owner’s desk at the back of the shop. But there was no sign of the men who had entered before him.
‘This way, Lieutenant.’ A hand gently pressed him towards the candle. ‘I hoped you would come.’
‘Only to listen,’ Napoleon replied. ‘I am interested in new ideas. That’s all. I will not become part of a conspiracy.’
‘Of course not. What do you take us for? We are only a small group of freethinkers. Any civilised society would tolerate us. But, alas, we are not living in civilised times. So we must debate in private. This way, Lieutenant. Up the stairs.’
His shadowy arm indicated the first few steps in an alcove behind his desk.
‘Where does this lead?’ Napoleon asked suspiciously.
‘My stockroom and office. It’s surrounded on three sides by the seamstress business. There’s only one window, which is screened so we shall be quite private.’
Napoleon nodded his assent and climbed the narrow stairs. They turned back on themselves and then there was a door, beneath which ran a strip of light from the room on the other side. The door opened, washing the staircase in light, and a man beckoned to him. Napoleon stepped into the room. It was as Monsieur Cardin described it, a plain storeroom. But it was large and seemed to take up the same floor space as the library directly below. Piles of books lined the walls. In one corner there was a small printing press, and piles of cut sheet paper were standing ready to be run through the machine. The centre was taken up with two long tables that had been pushed together, around which seats had been arranged. Nearly all the seats had been taken by well-dressed men, and Napoleon took them for lawyers, bankers and the like.
‘Welcome, Lieutenant,’ said the man who had opened the door and Napoleon turned towards him.
‘I know your face.You must have followed me when I left here two days ago.’
‘Yes,’ he smiled. ‘I’ve been keeping a close eye on you ever since. We had to be sure that you weren’t an informer. It didn’t seem likely that an agent of the King would be so foolhardy as to wear an army uniform. But we had to be sure.’ He thrust out his hand. ‘Allow me to introduce myself, Augustin Duman. Please have a seat. The meeting is about to begin.’
Napoleon sat down near to the door. He could not bring himself to trust men who took such pains to meet in secret, and wanted a quick route out of the room if it became necessary to flee. Monsieur Cardin sat to one side of Napoleon and Duman sat on the other. At the head of the table, clearly illuminated by the candlesticks running the length of the two tables, sat a man with similar facial features to Duman. He wore a powdered wig and had an intelligent, if severe, expression. He clenched his fist and thumped the table. ‘I’m calling the meeting to order.’
The other men fell silent instantly and turned towards the head of the table. The man in the wig nodded. ‘Thank you, citizens.’
He paused and looked towards Napoleon.‘And is this our new man, the artillery lieutenant?’
Monsieur Cardin cleared his throat and leaned forward to have a better view of the man sitting at the end. ‘Citizen Schiller, the lieutenant is here to listen and observe. He has made no commitment to us.’
‘As yet,’ Schiller smiled. ‘But I’m hoping the force of our arguments will convince him to join us soon.’
Napoleon said nothing and kept still.
‘I understand you read my pamphlet?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Schiller smiled. ‘Here we refer to each other as “citizen”. Out there on the streets we are still subjects and have to defer to rank. But here we meet as equals. So Citizen Schiller it is.’
‘I was merely being respectful,’ Napoleon responded.
‘You sounded deferential.There’ll be no deference in the new France, Citizen Buona Parte. Deference will not be tolerated. We can’t afford to tolerate it, lest it drag us back into the past. Back to the rule of the many by the few. Do you understand?’
‘I understand, citizen,’ Napoleon nodded. ‘But surely there are differences between men, measurable differences. That is the natural order.’
‘Agreed. But does that justify the gross inequalities between men, and women, for that matter? If we discount God for the moment, men made society the way it is. They can just as easily make it another way, a better way.You will concede that at least.’
Napoleon nodded. It was a fair point. But just how easily the people of France could be persuaded to discount God was less discernible. A more pragmatic issue then occurred to him. ‘Supposing the old order collapses. What exactly will replace it?’
Augustin Duman leaned forward
and intervened.‘Democracy.’
‘Democracy? And how will this democracy manifest itself, exactly?’
‘As the people desire,’ Duman continued, his voice loud with idealism. ‘An order will arise from their desires and deliberations. An order that will be agreed on and stand as a shining example to the downtrodden of other countries.’
‘I see.’ Napoleon kept his tone neutral. ‘The common people will be rational and will decide on the best form of government.’
‘Exactly.’
Napoleon smiled. ‘I don’t mean to be indelicate, but have you ever met the common people? It’s just that I have doubts about your understanding of what they are like.’
Duman pressed his hand against his breast. ‘They are people, just like us.’
‘Citizen Duman, they are not like us. They are an ignorant herd in need of leadership. There are wiser heads in this world who must be trusted with sound governance. Enlightened governance. Men like those who sit round this table. You sound like an educated man.’
Duman drew himself up a little as he stared back at Napoleon. ‘I am a lawyer.’
Schiller rapped the table with his knuckles. ‘Augustin! Citizen Duman. That is enough. The lieutenant has not taken the oath. You will not impart any confidential details about the members of our society. That includes their professions.’
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