The road was rough, especially at their frantic pace, and the constant lurching and jostling did not help. If only Aimee would sleep! Evelyn feared they had been followed; she was also afraid that her daughter’s cries would cause suspicion and bring undue attention to them even if they had successfully escaped Paris.
But Aimee was frightened—because her mother was frightened. Children could sense such things. But Evelyn was afraid because Aimee was the most important thing in her life, and she would die to keep her safe.
And what if Henri died?
Evelyn D’Orsay hugged her daughter, who had recently turned four, harder. She was seated in the front of the carriage with the driver, Laurent, her husband’s valet, now turned jack-of-all-trades. Her husband was slumped in the backseat, unconscious, seated between Laurent’s wife, Adelaide, and her own ladies’ maid, Bette. She glanced back now, her heart lurching with alarm. Henri remained deathly white.
His health had begun to fail him sometime after Aimee had been born. He had also become consumptive. Was his heart failing him now? Could he survive this mad, frightening dash through the night? Would he survive the Channel crossing? Evelyn knew he needed a doctor, desperately, just as she knew this wild carriage ride could not be helpful to him.
But if they could make it out of France, if they could make it to Britain, they would be safe.
“How far are we?” she whispered. Luckily Aimee had stopped crying; in fact, she had fallen asleep.
“I think we are almost there,” Laurent said. They were speaking French. Evelyn was an Englishwoman, but she had been fluent in French even before she had met the Count D’Orsay, becoming his child bride almost overnight.
The horses were lathered and blowing hard. Fortunately, they did not have much farther to go—or so Laurent thought. And it would soon be dawn. At dawn, they were to disembark with a Belgian smuggler, who was awaiting them even now.
“Will we be late?” she asked, keeping her tone low, which was a bit absurd, as the coach rattled and groaned with the horses’ every stride.
“I think we will have an hour to spare,” Laurent said, “but not much more than that.” He glanced briefly at her, his look a significant one.
She knew what he was thinking now—they were all thinking it. It had been so hard to escape Paris. There would be no going back, not even to their country home in the Loire Valley. They must leave France if they were to survive. Their lives were at stake.
Aimee was sound asleep. Evelyn stroked her soft, dark hair and fought her own need to weep with fear and desperation.
She glanced back at her elderly husband again. Since meeting and marrying Henri, her life had felt so much like a fairy tale. She had been a penniless orphan, subsisting on the charity of her aunt and uncle; now, she was the Countess D’Orsay. He was her dearest friend, and the father of her daughter. She was so grateful to him for all that he had done for her, and all he meant to do for Aimee.
She was so afraid for him now. His chest had been bothering him all day. But he had survived their flight from Paris, and Henri had insisted that they must not delay. Their neighbor had been imprisoned last month for crimes against the state. The Vicomte LeClerc had not committed any crimes—she was sure of it. But he was an aristocrat....
Their usual residence was Henri’s family estate in the Loire Valley. But every spring Henri would pack up the family and they would go to Paris for a few months of theater, shopping and dining. Evelyn had fallen in love with Paris the very first time she had set foot in the city, before the revolution. But the city she had once loved no longer existed, and had they realized how dangerous Paris had become, they wouldn’t have gone for another visit.
In spite of the revolution, Paris remained flooded with unemployed workers, laborers and farmers, who roamed the streets seeking revenge upon anyone who had anything, unless they were striking or rioting. Taking a stroll down the Champs-Élysées was no longer pleasant, nor was riding in the park. There were no more interesting supper parties, no more scintillating operas. Shops catering to the nobility had long since closed their doors.
The fact that her husband, the comte, was a relation of the queen had never been a secret. But the moment a hatmaker had realized the connection, their lives had suddenly and truly changed. Shopkeepers, bakers, prostitutes, sansculottes and even National Guardsmen had kept watch upon her and her family at their townhome. Every time her door was opened, sentinels could be seen standing outside. Every time she left the flat she had been followed. It had become too frightening to venture outside of the apartment. It was as if they were suspected of crimes against the state. And then LeClerc had been arrested.
“Your time will come.” A passerby had leered at her the day their neighbor was taken away in shackles.
And Evelyn had become afraid to go out. She had ceased doing so. From that moment, they had become actual prisoners of the people. She had begun to believe that they would not be allowed to leave the city, if they tried. And then a pair of French officers had called on Henri. Evelyn had been terrified that they were about to arrest him. Instead, they had warned him that he must not leave the city until given permission to do so and that Aimee must remain in Paris with them. And the fact that they had said so—that they even knew about Aimee—had triggered them as nothing else could. They had immediately begun planning their escape.
And it was Henri who had suggested they follow in the wake of the thousands of émigrés now fleeing France for Great Britain. Evelyn had been born and raised in Cornwall, and once she had realized that they were going home, she had been thrilled. She had missed the rocky beaches of Cornwall, the desolate moors, the winter storms, the blunt, outspoken women and the hardworking men. She missed taking tea at the nearby village inn, and the wild celebrations that ensued when a smuggler arrived with his precious cargo. Life in Cornwall could be difficult and harsh, but it had its softer moments. Of course, they would probably reside in London, but she also loved the city. She couldn’t imagine a better—safer—country in which to raise her daughter.
Aimee deserved so much more. And she did not deserve to become another innocent victim of this terrible revolution!
But first they had to get from Brest to the smuggler’s ship, and then they had to get across the Channel. And Henri had to survive.
She felt the surge of panic and she trembled. Henri needed a doctor, and she was tempted to delay their flight to attend him. She could not imagine what she would do if he died. But she also knew he wanted her and Aimee safely out of the country. In the end, she would put her daughter first.
“Has he shown any signs of reviving?” she cried, glancing over her shoulder.
“Non, Comtesse,” Adelaide whispered. “Le comte needs a physician soon!”
If they delayed, in order to attend Henri, they would remain in Brest for another day or perhaps even more. Within hours, or at least by this evening, their disappearance would be noticed. Would they be pursued? It was impossible to know, except that the officials had warned them not to leave the city and they had defied that edict. If there was pursuit, there were two obvious ports to search—Brest and Le Havre were the most frequently used ports of departure.
There was no choice to make. Evelyn clenched her fists, filled with determination. She was not accustomed to making decisions, and especially not important ones, but in another hour they would be safely at sea, and out of reach of their French pursuers, if they did not delay.
They had reached the outskirts of Brest, and were passing many small houses
