Charles watched him for a moment and said, “I think, monsieur, that I should return another day. I wish you-”
He broke off as the front door opened and shut and voices rose. Callot turned anxiously toward the landing, and the dancing master and Mlle Brion moved apart.
“Mademoiselle,” a deep voice rumbled, “I beg you, calm yourself. It will all come right, I assure you. And now-”
“But if we cannot find it?” It was a girl’s voice, shaking with emotion. “I will have nothing, Monsieur Brion, what will happen to me? No one will want me without money!”
“Ma chere, you forget your faithful Gilles. My son may seem shy in his suit, but I assure you, his heart is yours. But now that you are coming to live in my house, you will have more time to learn that he loves you.”
“No, Monsieur Brion,” the girl said with sudden spirit. “You are very good, but I have told you that I want to stay in my mother’s house. I want to be where she was.”
“Now, ma petite, do not start on that again. You are a minor and must do as I, your guardian, tell you. You will enjoy living with my Isabel, will you not? And as I say, you will come to know Gilles better.”
With an anxious look at Morel, Isabel Brion ran out onto the landing. “Papa,” she called down, “didn’t you find it?”
“We will, ma chere Isabel,” her father called back. “We will! This is only a little setback. I have brought Martine to you to amuse. I am going again to the Chatelet to search. Some disgracefully careless clerk has brought us to this pass, but we will find what we need, never fear, no reason in the world to fear. I don’t know what the Chatelet has come to, it is disgraceful…” The front door opened and shut again, cutting off the stream of words, and feet ran lightly up the stairs.
Frankly curious, Charles moved so that he could see the landing. A weeping girl pushed back her wide black hood and threw herself into Isabel Brion’s open arms. She was so small she hardly reached the other girl’s chin.
Isabel led her into the salon and sat her down in one of the high-backed chairs beside the fire. Murmuring comfort, she untied the girl’s cloak, a heavy black manteau, and pushed it gently back to reveal a front-laced, stiffened bodice and skirt of fine black wool, trimmed with lace like black spiderweb. Callot hurried to his bottle and half filled the glass beside it. Morel came hesitantly forward and bowed to the newcomer.
“Bonjour, Monsieur Morel!” The girl’s voice was high and sweet. She wiped her tears with a matching spiderweb handkerchief and glanced from the young man to her friend. “I am so happy to see you here, monsieur,” she said, smiling a little.
Callot returned and went awkwardly down on one creaking knee beside the chair. “This will do you good, ma petite.” He put the glass into her hand.
Charles was trying not to stare. From her little low-heeled, bronze leather mourning shoes to her black taffeta coif, the girl was breathtaking. Her bright hazel eyes were enormous, her lashes thick and dark. Her brows slanted like little wings. Her skin was milky, and the sun coming through the salon windows made a golden aureole around the ringlets showing under the coif. But even with such beauty, Charles knew that she was right to be afraid for herself if she was without family or finances. Beauty without money was rarely enough, marriage being nearly always made for social or financial advancement, and preferably both. For most people, building up the family fortune was the eleventh commandment.
The girl handed the glass back to Callot. “You are very kind, monsieur.”
“Ah, ma belle Martine, if I were forty years younger, I would be kinder still.” He opened his eyes wide at her, and she laughed in spite of herself.
“Even if-” She looked down and bit her lip. “-if I have no money?”
Callot smote himself on the chest. “On my honor, I would be your faithful knight until the bon Dieu’s stars fall from the sky!”
They both laughed and she touched him playfully on his withered cheek. Mlle Brion, who had perched on the arm of the chair, shook her head impatiently and leaned closer to her friend.
“But, Martine, if you would only marry Gilles, as my father so earnestly wishes you to, you would be safe forever. And we would be sisters!”
Callot snorted. “Gilles. Much use that one would be as a husband.”
Martine turned her head away. “You know that my mother did not wish me to marry your brother, Isabel,” she said softly. “I would be your sister with all my heart, but my mother saw that-well, that Gilles and I would not suit each other.”
“Oh, I know Gilles is not exciting,” the other girl cajoled. “But-” She shrugged expressively. “How many husbands are exciting?”
The dismay on the dancing master’s face made Charles clear his throat in an effort not to laugh. Callot laughed heartily.
Isabel blushed and stood up, seeming suddenly to remember her manners. “Maitre du Luc, forgive me for my discourtesy. This is my dearest friend, Mademoiselle Martine Mynette. The bon Dieu is testing her sorely. As you see, she is in mourning. Her mother, whom we all loved, had been ill for many months, and she died just over a week ago. Martine has no other family, and my father is now her guardian. The trouble is that the paper that assured Martine’s inheritance-drawn up many years ago by my father, who is a notary-is lost. He is trying every day to find it. But so far, he has not and we are very worried.”
Charles frowned in confusion. “But surely children must always inherit something of the family fortune?”
Martine Mynette glanced at her friend and drew herself up in her chair.
Isabel Brion said quickly, “Children of the blood always inherit, yes.” The two friends exchanged another glance. “But Mademoiselle Mynette is an adopted daughter, maitre.”
Charles looked from one to the other, even more confused. “I thought adoption was not legal here in the north. In the south it is, where we still follow Roman law, but-”
Sudden fire flashed in Martine Mynette’s eyes. “Some of our judges say adoption is not legal, but they are stupid, because people do it all the time. You have only to go to a notary like Monsieur Brion and promise to raise and care for the adopted child as though it were your own. And if the notary draws up for you what is called a donation entre vifs, you can give the child whatever you wish. Even if there are blood relatives, they cannot take away what the donation gives you. But the donation Monsieur Brion helped my mother make cannot be found.” Her lips quivered and she put a hand to her mouth.
Feeling increasingly at sea, Charles said, “I have never known a lone woman to adopt a child.”
Both young women looked at him disapprovingly.
“Of course a woman can adopt a child on her own,” Isabel Brion said. “Spinsters and widows without children have done it for ages. Even married women, though they must have their husband’s permission. My father often draws up such papers, though he does say women seem to do it less often now. But it is still perfectly possible. The trouble is that Martine’s mother’s copy of the donation is gone from their house, and my father found that mice had nested in his ledger for that month. And the stupid Chatelet clerks cannot find the original.”
“I see.” Charles offered an arm to M. Callot, who was struggling up from his chivalric pose beside the chair.
“Oof! I thank you, maitre. The knight would suffer all for his lady, though his knees greatly object.” Either the effects of the eau de vie had somewhat worn off or Callot was covering them for Martine Mynette’s benefit. He gazed sorrowfully at the girl. “I will bet anything you like, maitre, on any game you like, that my lazy, useless nephew never even took that original donation to the Chatelet!”
Isabel shook her head angrily. “Of course he did, Uncle Callot, that’s only your eau de vie talking. Some clerk has put the paper in the wrong place, that’s all. The point is, what are we going to do? Shall I come and help you search again, Martine?”
“I have looked and looked in the house,” the girl said, shaking her head hopelessly. “I’ve done little else since the morning my mother died.” She looked at Charles. “As Isabel said, she died on St. Gatien’s Day, exactly a week before Christmas. The donation was not where she’d always kept it, but I was sure I would find it when Monsieur Brion had the inventory done just a few days later. You know how the inventory clerks go through everything. But it has disappeared.”
“Where did you expect to find it, mademoiselle?” Charles asked, and then felt himself blushing at his naked curiosity. “Forgive me, I have no reason to-”
