'No, not now. It is all right.'
'The Emperor?'
'The Emperor,' Marianne agreed, suppressing a twinge at this fresh lie. She did not want to tell Fortunee about her meeting with her godfather and what had followed.
She had given her word not to talk about her dreadful situation, about the child that was coming and the marriage to which she had been obliged to consent, and ultimately it was better so. Fortunee would not have understood. Her religious feelings were superficial, not far removed from paganism. She was a Creole, careless and shameless, and she would have flaunted an army of bastards in the world's eyes without a blink if nature had not decreed otherwise. Marianne knew that she would have opposed the cardinal's plans with all her strength and it was not difficult to guess what her advice would be. She would counsel her friend to tell Napoleon of the coming event and let him marry her off to the first man who was fool enough to take her – and then console herself with all the lovers she could get her claws in. But not even to save her honour and her child's would Marianne consent to give her hand to a man motivated by base self-interest. There was nothing base about Jason and she knew her godfather well enough to be sure that any man chosen by him would not marry her for the sake of any such calculations. From every point of view it was better to say nothing to her friend. There would be time enough afterwards – or at least when Jason had come, if he came…
Lost in her own melancholy, Marianne had not noticed the silence that had fallen between them, or the scrutiny to which Fortunee was subjecting her, until her friend said abruptly: 'Something is troubling you, isn't it? Is it your husband?'
'He?' Marianne uttered a short laugh. 'He was arrested but it appears that he escaped three days later.'
'Escaped? Where from?'
'From Vincennes.'
'Vincennes!' Fortunee exclaimed. 'Nonsense! No one escapes from Vincennes. If he got away from there, then he was helped. And it takes the devil of a lot of influence to arrange that. Have you any ideas?'
'N-no.'
'Oh yes you have. And not only that, but you have the same idea as I have. This escape had been kept very quiet and I'll wager the Emperor knows nothing of it, as he probably knew nothing of the original arrest. Now, will you tell me who is powerful enough to arrange the escape of an English spy from Vincennes without anyone knowing and without the newspapers getting wind of it?'
'Well – there are the warders, the governor —'
'Would you be willing to bet that if we went to the prison we would meet nothing but faces shining with innocence and the most complete denials? No one would know what we were talking about. No, to my mind, the matter is clear, but what I do not understand is Fouche's reason for letting slip an enemy.'
'Yes, but you do not know it all.' Swiftly Marianne recounted to her friend the events which had taken place in the waxworks and Black Fish's appalling revelations. Fortunee heard her attentively and when it was over she sighed.
'This is ghastly. I hope for his own sake Fouche is not aware of all this.'
'How could he fail to be aware of it? Do you think Black Fish would have concealed it?'
'It is possible that he has not seen the minister since the arrest. Fouche might be at Compiegne or on his own estates at Ferrieres. Certainly he was in no hurry to investigate the arrest – which might have proved embarrassing. Our minister is a cunning fox, but I shall find out if he knows about this Englishman's hunting exploits, I promise you.'
'How will you do that?'
'That is my business. Just as I shall find out why there has been this curious leniency towards an English spy.'
'Arcadius says that Fouche has been negotiating with the English behind the Emperor's back, by means of the bankers Labouchere, Baring – and Ouvrard.'
Madame Hamelin's dark eyes gleamed suddenly.
'Well, well! That might explain a lot of things, my darling. I had noticed some very odd goings-on around the Hotel de Juigne recently, and in the vicinity of our friend Ouvrard's bank as well. If Jolival is right, and I trust his judgement, there must be a great deal of money in it for those gentlemen – quite apart from the benefit to France, which is no doubt a minor consideration. Well, I am inquisitive by nature and I shall bring this little business out into the open.'
'How will you do that?' Marianne asked, alarmed at the thought of her friend engaging in this dangerous form of warfare.
Fortunee rose and dropped a motherly kiss on Marianne's brow.
'Don't you bother your pretty head with all this complicated stuff. Let me deal with it in my own way. I promise you we will have a good laugh and that neither Ouvrard nor Fouche will get away with it. Now run and get dressed and come out with me.'
'Where to?' Marianne seemed to shrink back in her chair, as though daring her friend to drag her out of it.
'To do a little shopping. It is a beautiful day. And in spite of what I said, you look dreadful. It will do you a world of good to take a little fresh air.'
Marianne pouted obstinately. She was sure that if she went out for so much as a minute, Gracchus was bound to arrive.
'Come along,' Fortunee persisted. 'I am giving a little supper party tomorrow night and I must go to Cheret in the Palais-Royal and see if they have any oysters. Come with me, it will give you something else to think about. It is not good for you to stay cooped up like this, brooding, and frightening yourself. You are frightened, aren't you?'
'Put yourself in my place. Wouldn't you be frightened?'
'I? I should be terrified, but I think that would make me all the more inclined to go out. It is much better to be in a crowd than all alone within four walls. Besides, what is it you fear from your Englishman? Do you think he will kill you?'
'He swore to be revenged on me —' Marianne stammered.
'Very well. But there are different kinds of revenge. You say he is intelligent —'
'More than that! He is a devil.'
'Then he is not going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. That would be too simple, too easy, too quick and, above all, unalterable. He would have every reason to suppose, moreover, that the Emperor would use every means to find out your murderer. No, I think he is much more likely to try and revenge himself by making your life a misery, perhaps even to the point of driving you to make an end of yourself, but he will not come and murder you in cold blood. The man is a monster, but he is not an idiot. Think of the money he could still get from you.'
As she spoke, Marianne's doubts began to fade before the logic of what she was saying. Fortunee was right. It was the loss of a huge sum of money, so easily come by, which had driven Francis to madness at the moment of his arrest, not the loss of his freedom. The man was too sure of himself to be daunted by prisons or gaolers. But gold, the gold that he hungered for, that was more vital to him than breathing. Marianne got to her feet.
'I will come,' she said finally, 'but don't ask me to come to your supper party, for I should not accept.'
'Well, as to that, I have not invited you. It is a supper
'Ah, I see. You are expecting your hussar to come back.'
This suggestion struck Madame Hamelin as so irresistibly funny that she broke into a peal of laughter, or rather her own particular cooing chuckle.
'You are wrong there! To the devil with Fournier. If you want to know, it is another hussar I am expecting.'
'But – who then?' Marianne could not help feeling slightly taken aback to hear that Fortunee, having arrived spitting fire and fury, could now talk so calmly about having supper the next day with another man. The Creole only laughed more than ever.
'Who? Why Dupont, Fournier's eternal adversary, the man who pinked him so prettily in the shoulder the
