in a long time, Elodie found the idea of food appealing. The knowledge that at last, at last, she would be able to stop marking time and get back to Paris, was reviving her vanished appetite. ‘You won’t have to coax me tonight; it sounds delicious. You are joining me, aren’t you? You can tell me all the news.’
While Clara rambled on about her day and her work at the grand hotel where she’d taken employment after her mistress had recovered enough to be left on her own, Elodie edged to the window. Though from this angle, she couldn’t see all the way under the balcony, her surreptitious inspection of the garden indicated that Monsieur Ransleigh had indeed departed.
By now, Clara had the covers off the dishes and was waving her to the small table. ‘Come, eat before the meat pies get cold. Gruber gave me some extra bread from the hotel kitchen. I’m so glad to see your appetite returning! Just in time, as we’ll be able to afford meat more often. Madame Lebruge was so complimentary about your work on the last consignment of embroidery, I told her the next lot would be ten schillings more the piece. She didn’t even protest! I should have asked for twenty.’
Elodie seated herself and waited while the maid attacked her meat pie. ‘I won’t be doing another lot. I’m leaving Vienna.’
Clara’s hands stilled and she looked up, wiping savoury juice from her chin. ‘Leaving? How? I thought you said it would be months before you could save enough to travel.’
‘My plans have changed.’ Omitting any mention of threats or the edgy undercurrent between herself and the man, Elodie told Clara about Will Ransleigh’s visit and offer to escort her to Paris.
She should have known the maid would be suspicious. ‘But can you trust this man, madame? How do you know he truly is Monsieur Max Ransleigh’s cousin?’
‘When you see him, you’ll understand; the resemblance between the two men is striking.’
‘Why would he wish to do you the favour of taking you to Paris?’
‘Because I am to do him a favour in return. I promised I would go to England and testify about how I embroiled his cousin in St Arnaud’s plot.’
‘Gott im Himmel, madame! Is that wise? Is it safe?’
Though she was nearly certain Ransleigh was gone, a well-developed instinct for caution impelled her to lean close and drop her voice to a whisper. ‘I have no intention of actually going to London. Once we get to Paris, I shall elude him.’
Clara clapped her hands. ‘Ah, yes, and I am sure you shall, now that you’ve finally recovered your strength! But … should I not go with you as far as Paris? I do not like the idea of you travelling alone with this man about whom we know so little.’
‘Thank you, dear friend, but you should stay here. Vienna is your home. You’ve already done more for me than I ever expected, more than I can ever repay.’
The maid waved a hand dismissively. ‘How could I do less, when you were so kind to me? Taking on an untried girl as your dresser, you who had to appear with the cream of society before all Vienna! Nor could I have obtained my present position without all I learned serving you.’
‘You’ve returned many times over any favour I did you.’
‘In any case, my lady, you shouldn’t travel alone.’
‘That might be true … if I were travelling as a “lady”. But I shall not be, nor is the journey likely to be comfortable. Perhaps not even safe. I don’t know if the watchers will be pleased when they discover I’ve left Vienna and you’ve already faced enough danger for me. I must go alone.’
‘You are certain?’ the maid asked, studying her face.
‘Yes,’ she replied, clasping Clara’s hand. Even if she’d planned to travel as a lady of substance, she wouldn’t have allowed Clara to accompany her. Escaping swiftly, drawing out of Vienna whatever forces still kept surveillance over her, was the best way to ensure the safety of the woman who had taken her in and nursed her back to health after she’d been brutalised and abandoned.
‘So, no more embroidery,’ Elodie said. ‘But I’m not completely without resources yet.’ Rising, she went to the linen press and extracted two bundles neatly wrapped in muslin. Bringing them to Clara, she said, ‘The first is a ball gown I never had a chance to wear; it should fetch a good price. The other is the fanciest of my dinner gowns; I’ve already re-embroidered it and changed the trimming, so Madame Lebruge should be able easily to resell that as well.’
‘Shouldn’t you have the money, madame? Especially if you mean to travel. I could take these to her tomorrow. She’s been so pleased with all the other gowns you’ve done, I’m sure I could press her for a truly handsome sum.’
‘Press her as hard as you like, but keep the money for yourself. It’s little enough beside my debt to you. I’ve something else, too.’
Reaching down to flip up the bottom of her sewing apron, Elodie picked the seam open and extracted a pair of ear-rings. Small diamonds twinkled in the light of the candles. ‘Take these. Sell them if you like, or keep them … as a remembrance of our friendship.’
‘Madame, you mustn’t! They’re too fine! Besides, you might need to sell them yourself, once you get to Paris.’
‘I have a few other pieces left.’ Elodie smiled. ‘One can’t say much good of St Arnaud, but he never begrudged me the funds to dress the part of his hostess. I can’t imagine how I would have survived this year without the jewels and finery we were able to sell.’
The maid spat out a German curse on St Arnaud’s head. ‘If he’d not been in such a rush to leave Vienna and save his own neck, he would probably have taken them.’
Elodie shrugged. ‘Well, I am thankful to have had them, whatever the reason. Now, let me tell you how my departure has been arranged.’
Half an hour later, fully apprised of who she was to meet, when and where, Clara hugged her and walked out. An unnerving silence settled in the rooms after her footsteps faded.
Though she supposed there was no need to work on the gowns the maid had left, from force of habit, Elodie took the top one from the basket and fetched her embroidery silks.
Along with the sale of some gems, the gowns she’d worn as St Arnaud’s hostess, re-embroidered and sold back to the shop from which she’d originally purchased them, had supported her for six months. At that point Madame Lebruge, pleased with the elegance and inventiveness of her work, sent new gowns from her shop for Elodie to embellish.
Letting her fingers form the familiar stitches calmed her as she reviewed what had transpired in the last few hours. Clara was right to be suspicious; she had no way of knowing for sure that Will Ransleigh would actually take her to Paris, rather than murdering her in some alley.
But if he’d wanted to dispose of her, he could have already done so. Nor could one fail to note the fervour in his eyes when he talked of righting the wrong she’d done his cousin. She believed he meant to take her to London—and that she’d convinced him she’d not go there unless they went to Paris first.
She smiled; he’d immediately suspected she meant to escape him there. Just because he was Max Ransleigh’s cousin, and therefore nephew to an earl, it would not do to underestimate his resourcefulness, or think him hopelessly
