Jack Chiltern's Wife (1999) (13 page)

‘Earl of Beauworth?’

‘Jack’s father.’

‘His father is an Earl?’ Kitty gasped.

‘Yes, did you not know?’

‘No, he told me his name was Jack Chiltern.’

‘So it is. Chiltern is the family name. He is Viscount Chiltern. His name is John, but as that is also his father’s name, he is called Jack by the family.’

‘I had no idea,’ Kitty said. So the mysterious Jack Chiltern was of noble birth. Why was she surprised? Shouldn’t she have guessed? She had called him arrogant, but that was how he had been brought up, to command, to lead, to stand no nonsense from those below him and that included her. ‘And is he really your cousin?’

‘Yes, that is true. Mama and his mother are sisters. Aunt Justine went to live in England when the Earl married her. He wasn’t the Earl then, of course, his father was still alive. He inherited the title when Jack was a boy and then Jack, who is an only child, became the Viscount. Is that not the way of English nobility; the son takes his father’s lesser title?’

‘In some cases, yes. But I never heard anyone call Jack …’ she paused to correct herself ‘… his lordship by his title.’

Nanette smiled. ‘It is not a good idea to admit to being an aristocrat in France at this moment, especially an English one. I think you had better forget I told you. It is dangerous knowledge.’

‘I shall certainly say nothing. I would not for the world put him in danger. But if his wife was in England, how did she betray him?’

‘Gabrielle was abducted by someone from our Embassy in London on one occasion when she was visiting her parents. She sometimes used to leave Jack at home on their country estate in Beauworth and stay with them in London. I think she found country life a little dull.’

‘Abducted? But why?’

‘Well, nothing was said officially and I do not think the Revolutionary Government would ever have admitted they had a hand in her disappearance, but I suppose they thought they could hold her hostage to force the
comte
to return to France and stand trial. Naturally, Jack went after her. Papa said they must have freed her on condition she led them to him.’

‘And James saved him. I am very proud of my brother for that. But what happened then?’

Nanette shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Papa deemed it prudent to leave Paris and return home and James came with him. He feared he might be arrested for his part in Jack’s escape and he also wanted to write about the counter-revolutionaries in this part of France. We heard nothing of Jack and assumed he had taken Gabrielle back to England.’

‘No, he told me he thought she was in France. I assumed he was still looking for her.’

‘Oh, then that accounts for him not coming back last night. He would have gone to Malincourt to see if she had gone to her old home. It is only ten kilometres from here. But I should be surprised if he found her there. No one lives there now and the land has been sold off in small lots.’

‘He loved her very much, then?’ The words were wrung out of her, though she could not keep the huskiness from her voice. She tried pretending it was the result of the attempted hanging, but she could not deceive herself.

‘Oh, yes. You should have seen them when they were first married—so close, they had eyes only for each other. He showered her with gifts and even lived in France rather than England because she didn’t like the English climate, but the Revolution changed all that and they had to return to England. How Gabrielle came to fall into the clutches of the man at the Embassy, I do not know.’

Kitty felt wretched. Nanette’s revelations had helped her to understand the man beneath the rough exterior, but left her feeling desolate. His love was for his wife. His careful protection of her on their long journey was no more than a heightened sense of chivalry. When he rescued her from those bloodthirsty women and looked after her, when he warmed her with his own body, when he paid the exorbitant prices demanded for food and lodging for her, he had been doing no more than repay the debt he owed her brother for his life. A life saved for a life saved.

‘He is a wanted man, then?’ she said. ‘No wonder he took such great care to play the
sans-culottes
.’

Nanette laughed. ‘And made you play it too. Oh, Kitty, what adventures you have had. I think you are very brave. I know I should not have been able to do it.’

‘Now we are here, what do you suppose he means to do?’

‘Has he not told you?’

‘No. He has undertaken to reunite me with James, no more. My brother and I have still to leave the country.’

‘True, and it will be even more difficult now. In the last few weeks, there have been even more repressive measures passed by the ruling committees in Lyons. They are so afraid of counter-revolution they have ordered the National Guard to arrest
anyone they consider suspect and that includes anyone without a passport.’

‘Oh, but I have one of those.’ Kitty laughed in spite of her low spirits. ‘In the name of citizeness Kitty Faucon. Jack keeps it with his.’

Nanette stared at her with her mouth open in surprise, then she laughed delightedly. ‘Oh, how clever of him! But it is doubtless forged?’

‘Yes, but it served me well whenever we were asked for it.’

‘You had Jack with you then.’

‘Yes, but James will be with me on the return journey.’ Although she spoke with confidence, she knew James was not Jack and his French was only a little better than hers. Without Jack the journey would be doubly difficult. Without Jack she would be miserable, even if there were no danger at all.

‘Yes, Jamie must go with you.’ Nanette’s voice was wistful.

‘Oh, you must think me very selfish,’ Kitty said, taking Nanette’s arm, as they picked their way over fallen pine needles. ‘Of course, you do not want him to leave.’

‘Oh, I do. And he must,’ Nanette cried. ‘I think he has become very involved with politics here and that could be very dangerous. There are counter-revolutionaries plotting to overthrow the regime and restore the monarchy and he goes to their meetings.’

‘Is that where he was going when he left here?’

‘Yes, I think so. He says it is only so that he can write it all down to make a book, but no one is going to believe that. If they catch him, they will say he is spying. I am very afraid for him. You must make sure he leaves with you.’

‘You could come with us.’

‘I would not leave my parents. We are in no danger as long as we do as we are told. Papa has been forced to give nearly all his money to the poor and waived his seigneural dues. He is accepted as a good patriot.’

‘Poor Nanette,’ Kitty said softly. ‘You are torn between them, aren’t you?’

‘Yes, but I know where my duty lies. And I have always been a dutiful daughter.’

Kitty laughed suddenly. ‘And I have not. And look what has happened to me.’

‘I did not mean that as a criticism of you, Kitty. You have no parents living and we are very different in character, are we not? I have not half your courage and independence.’

‘Nonsense. You have not yet been tested, that is all.’

‘Then I hope I never am.’ She paused. ‘Now, I think we have gone far enough, don’t you? Let us turn for home. Perhaps they will both be back.’

Jack returned in the middle of the afternoon without James. He looked tired and was not in the best of tempers. ‘The silly young fool has gone off to rally the other sections and communes to join the federalists,’ he told Kitty and Nanette. They had seen him coming from an upper window and had gone down to the hall to meet him. ‘He is asking for trouble. They will never unite, they differ too much about what they want to achieve.’

‘Someone ought to let the world know what is going on,’ Kitty said. ‘If he wants to write about it, then he needs to be in among them. It doesn’t make him a conspirator.’

‘Write about it!’ he scoffed. He had been riding hard and his scuffed boots and long coat were covered in caked mud. He had been looking forward to a bath and was not in the mood to be cross-examined. ‘Stirring up the populace with rumour and plots and inciting them to rise against their elected rulers will achieve nothing and will only bring the wrath of the National Assembly down on them.’

‘Is that what he is doing?’ she asked, becoming alarmed for her brother’s safety.

‘So I am led to believe. They are too disorganised to succeed and it will only result in the chaos we have seen in Paris.’

‘I am surprised at you,’ Kitty said, a little waspishly. ‘If they need organising, why are you not doing it? People listen to you. You are—’

‘I am an Englishman and it is not my business,’ he interrupted her. Better she should think him indifferent than know the truth. The less she knew, the safer she was. ‘Nor should it be your brother’s. He is interfering in what does not concern him.’

‘I do not understand you,’ she said. ‘When we were in Paris, I was sure you were a Royalist, now I begin to wonder …’

‘The King is dead, that is a fact. And the country must be brought to peace. James has been in the country less than a year, how can he understand? This is not England. It is nothing like England and it is useless to try and impose English thinking on French people who have been sorely tried over a great many years. And they are afraid.’

‘At least James is trying.’ She didn’t know why she was arguing with him when in many ways she agreed with him. It was not what she wanted to do. She wanted … she wanted him. She loved a man who loved his wife and loved his duty even more; there was no place in his life for her. England and home suddenly seemed very desirable and very far away.

‘Very trying,’ he said laconically.

‘You are in a very disagreeable mood,’ Nanette said. ‘Have you been to Malincourt?’

He looked at her sharply. ‘What made you say that?’

‘I thought you might have gone there to look for Gabrielle and that has made you miserable.’

‘Gabrielle.’ There was a ragged tone to his voice which betrayed his emotion; he was not as cold and hard as he would have them believe. ‘She is not at Malincourt. Now, if you will excuse me, I must change.’ He bowed to both girls and left them looking at each other in bewilderment.

‘I told you, didn’t I?’ Nanette said, as soon as he had gone. ‘Jamie is involved with the counter-revolutionaries. Oh, I wish he would come back, then Jack would persuade him to leave.’

‘And what about Gabrielle? Would Jack go without her?’

‘I don’t know. If he has no idea where she is …’

‘In that case he must be worried to death,’ Kitty said.

Jack’s worries had nothing to do with his wife, they were for Kitty. He sat in the hip bath which had been brought up to his room and took stock of a situation which was rapidly getting out of hand.

He was half-French, half-English, and he hated this war, but not so much as he loathed the despots who had taken over his beloved France and made it into a place of fear and reprisal. When he told Nanette and Kitty that he wanted peace, he had been telling the truth, but not peace at any price, not if it meant destroying everything that was great and good.

He had been instructed to see that James returned to England before he clumsily upset everything, but obeying that was secondary to his orders to scout out the strength of the Royalist faction, to find out what they needed and which of the leading men could be relied upon to welcome British intervention, if it were offered.

Admiral Hood was in the Mediterranean with the British fleet and he was successfully blockading the port of Toulon and preventing essential food stuffs, including the desperately needed grain, from reaching the people. How far were they prepared to go to obtain those supplies? Would they welcome an invasion for bread to put in their children’s mouths?

And he had no orders at all about Miss Kitty Harston. Kitty. She was rapidly undermining his ability to think dispassionately, to function as an agent. What should have been his last concern had become his first. He loved her.

In spite of his promise to himself never to let another woman rule his heart, to stick rigidly to what he conceived to be his duty, he had succumbed to those deep violet eyes and inviting mouth. But, more than that, he loved the person she was, bright, independent and thoroughly infuriating.

When he first met her, he had thought of her only as a spoiled child, used to having her own way, protected from the evils of the world to such an extent she could not recognise danger even when it was thrust under her nose. To a degree that was right, but she was far from unintelligent and she had learned quickly. Now he knew he could trust her in a tight situation and she would not panic; there had been enough sticky moments on their journey to convince him of that.

And every day he had grown closer to her, admired her more, chided her less, and every day he had been tempted to tell her that he loved her. But he could not. Once the words were out of his mouth, she would change, just as Gabrielle had changed. She would become the tyrant and he would be like clay in her hands. He could not afford to lose control. If she were arrested and let it be known, however inadvertently, that he loved her, they might use it, use it as bait as they had used Gabrielle. Except his wife had co-operated willingly.

On the other hand, could he rely on James to take Kitty safely home? James would turn aside whenever the opportunity for fresh adventure showed itself. His presence among the counter-revolutionaries proved that. Did James think he led a charmed life and nothing could touch him? He was in for a rude awakening if he did. He might very well forfeit his life. And Kitty’s.

The bath water was becoming cold and he heaved himself out of it and towelled himself dry. He must finish his business, find James and take them both south to Toulon. There were allied sympathisers there who would help them to join the British fleet.

Dressed once more in respectable breeches and stockings, a clean white shirt and neckcloth and striped waistcoat, he
shrugged himself into a frockcoat and went down to join the ladies. Kitty was alone in the withdrawing room.

‘Nanette not here?’ he queried.

‘No, my lord …’

‘Oh, it’s my lord now, is it? What happened to Jack?’