Charlotte: The Practical Education of a Distressed Gentlewoman (27 page)

“
Monsieur Pigne, I'm sorry for the
fuss. We, Katherine and I.”

“
Speak for yourself
Simon.”

“
Katherine, I thought we could
finally have a honeymoon. This part of Normandy is beautiful,
especially in June.”

M. Pigne also remembered 'Henri' as
a decent sort of bloke, one of the few farmers who would fight over
the honor of his wife. Too many Norman farmers were inclined to
take any offered money and look the other way. Gendarmes didn't
make many, if any, close friends who weren't other gendarmes, but
he'd liked Henri.

“
Henri, Simon, Mr. Bates,” he
began, “It's clear there's been a terrible mistake. These warrants
should have been voided with the fall of the empire. I'll have to
apply to Paris.”

Katherine asked, “How long will
that take?”

“
Dear, We don't want to cause a
diplomatic incident. Monsieur Pigne, I can give you my parole for a
couple of weeks, but then we really must move on to
Bruxelles.”

“
Your Parole?”

“
My word as an officer, I won't
leave Boulongne without your permission.”

“
But Henri, you fled in the past.
Why should I believe that you'd honor your parole now?”

Simon could see that Katherine was
beginning to lose patience with the proceedings, which could only
complicate matters. He turned to her and said, “Katherine, why
don't you see that our luggage arrives at
L'Hotel
d'estrangers
? I'll meet you there, this won't take
long.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Absolutely, If I'm not there for
supper, you can come and bail me out.”

“
Don't hold your breath, I'll wait
at least until after supper or maybe tomorrow morning. If I decide
to come for you at all.”

After Katherine left, Simon turned
to M. Pigne. “Look, it's very simple. I'm traveling with a
diplomatic passport, so it would only take a short message to the
local English consul to have a company of soldiers come and remove
me from your custody. But this would be embarrassing, both for you
and for me.”

“
Oui
, it would
be.”

“
Also it's unnecessary. Now I'd
like to spend a week or two here, have a walk on the beach in the
sunset with my wife, visit the countryside, try the cider, do some
of the normal things that visiting English used to do before the
war.”

“
Ah? And”

“
It would undermine your authority
to just let me go wouldn't it?”

“
Yes it would, so if I accept your
parole?”

“
Then in a few days, after some
'further investigation' you can dismiss the charges and everyone's
happy.”

Pigne thought for a short while,
trying to add up the pluses and minuses of Simon's seductive
argument. Simon added, “I'll stand you a drink, dinner, you and
your good wife?”

That settled it, dinner with a
knight and his lady would improve his family's social standing no
end, so he agreed to accept, very reluctantly accept, Simon's
parole.

A few days later, Katherine brought
the exciting news to her husband, “I've found your
Marie.”

Simon was enjoying his enforced
rest on parole by staying in the town and systematically sampling
the local wine, cheese and cider. Katherine took advantage of his
diversions to arrange a carriage tour of the surrounding
countryside.

No fool, she, early in their
marriage, had wormed enough of the story about Marie from Simon to
be upset with him. So in the end, he told her the whole story,
which wasn't nearly as bad as her imaginings had made it. After
all, she'd just thrown wine in his face, called him a puppy and
trounced out of his life, refusing even to read his letters. While
undercover in Normandy, Simon pretended to be married to Marie to
free her from the forced draft to work the army brothels or
les
Musikos
. Eventually, inexorably, pretending led to practice,
and practice had its consequences. While his actions were
deplorable, they were at least excusable. Once Katherine met Marie,
they were even understandable.

Katherine continued, “She runs
Lion D'argent
in Baincthun.”

“
Good thing we stayed
L'Hotel
d'estrangers
then.” Baincthun was a few kilometers outside of
Boulogne.

“
I've also met your daughter.
She's the image of our Alice.”

David, Alice, Jane, and Peter now
had an older half-sister.

Katherine continued, a bit stiffly,
for some old wounds never completely heal, “She told me that she
was sure she'd have a child from an English Mi'Lor. In any case,
they're coming to visit you tomorrow.”

“
Oh God.”

“
She's a Madame LeBrun by the way.
Married a Thomas LeBrun, late owner of the Silver Lion, and is now
widowed.”

“
So this girl? Is she?”

“
Nominally she's legitimate,
apparently LeBrun didn't mind.”

“
Well, at least that's something.”
There was no way to legally make an illegitimate child legitimate,
and while a male bastard could haunt the outskirts of society with
his father's support, no amount of effort could rehabilitate a
natural daughter.

Time had not treated Mme. Marie
LeBrun well. While the traces of her beauty could still be seen
beneath the wrinkles, the sun and difficulty of managing an inn had
prematurely left her an old and frail woman. Losing her husband and
father within a few months of each other had not helped either. To
Simon's eyes, there was something else wrong as well, a sort of
withdrawal from life. She seemed to have a catch in her breath, as
if it hurt. The spark of vitality that had so animated her as a
younger woman, and which was such a part of her allure, was
missing. Her daughter, Henriette, was pretty enough for a eleven
year old. Unfortunately, she was also very quiet and subdued. This
was either due to natural shyness, fear of these English strangers
or both. Despite her travails, Marie had done well enough
materially, Henriette was well-dressed, wearing a white silk dress
and a silver chain necklace that complimented her clear blue eyes
and striking auburn hair.

The meeting was awkward. Marie and
Katherine verbally danced around each other, sparing for wind and
wanting to talk about things that the presence of a husband and his
daughter made difficult. “Marie, Katherine,” Simon finally
interjected, “I'll take Henriette for a walk, down to the harbor,
maybe pick up a sweet.”

Henriette and Simon strolled down
to the harbor. They were both silent within their own thoughts. The
tenor of their thoughts matched the gray sky and drizzling weather.
With the peace, the level of activity in the harbor was rapidly
increasing. Only three months ago there was just a scattering of
fishing boats but now there were several ships unloading cargo and
producing a level of activity that hadn't been seen since before
the revolution. While they were watching the activity, Henriette
turned to Simon and stated simply, “You're not my
father.”

“
I know, Mademoiselle LeBrun, but
your mother and I were good friends. She nursed me when I was sick,
maybe she even saved my life, so I owe something to both of
you.”

“
That might be, but I'm French and
you're English,
un rosbief.
”

“
True.”

“
Mother made me come for this
visit, I didn't want to come here.”

“
I expect so, it's a bit of a bore
isn't it? Do you enjoy life at
Lion D'argent
?”

She replied in a tone that
suggested otherwise, “It's good.”

“
Tell me about it, do you have
friends? Do you go to school?”

“
I did, but.”

“
But?”

“
I finished parish school, and
l'academie
doesn't accept girls.” Henriette clearly was not
happy about that, she liked school.

“
Oh, that's not good, did you know
I can do something about that if you want?”

Henriette brightened for a moment
then added, “Mama needs me.” She was resigned to living at
Lion
D'argent
, even if meant her dreams of better things would
remain dreams.

“
I see, that brings up a question
I wanted to ask you, about your mother.” Simon paused, “Is she
well?”

“
I don't know and she doesn't say
anything to me, but she often visits Dr. Moulin.” Simon knew better
than to probe further. He could always talk to the good doctor
later.

“
Well, Henriette, we should walk
back to the inn. By now Mrs. Bates and Mme. LeBrun will either be
firm friends or they'll appreciate a referee calling
time.”

“
Didn't you promise me a
sweet?”

“
We can stop at the patisserie on
the way.”

“
Bon
, I'd like that,” she
skipped along, staying in front of Simon as they walked back. “Come
on, I'm hungry, hurry up!”

With the weather finally breaking
into a spectacular sunset, Katherine grabbed Simon for a stroll
along the Boulevard Sainte-Beuve, up toward the bluff to the north
of the city. “You've been sitting too long Simon, and we need the
exercise.”

As they left the gray city with the
tidal flats below it extending into the harbor and started the
climb, Simon asked, “Katherine, what did you think of
Marie?”

“
Frightfully common, but nice
enough. I'm glad you showed at least some taste, Simon.”

“
So you didn't fight?”

“
Not at all, she's a farm girl,
runs an inn. We don't have much in common.” Katherine left off the
unspoken, “except you.”

“
That's good, better than what I
expected.”

“
And your daughter Mlle.
LeBrun?”

“
She's a sweet thing, bright, but
destined to be a farmer's wife. Not sure it isn't a bit of a waste,
though.”

“
Simon,” Katherine's tone was
dangerous, “We're not supporting her if,” she paused, “Or at least
not any more than you already do.”

“
You know about that do
you?”

“
Of course, do you think I'm
ignorant of your doings?” Simon had been diverting the occasional
few guineas to Marie's family, using his connections with 'Captain'
John Wolfe of the foreign office and some bank that financed the
sale of wool cloth, nominally to Denmark but in reality to uniform
the
Grande Armee
, to send the funds covertly. Changing the
subject, he added, “Did Marie seem healthy to you?”

“
She's just old, that's
all.”

“
I'm not sure, Mlle. Henriette
said she sees a Dr. Moulin often. I'm going to have to find out
why.”

Katherine was not pleased with this
idea and would have let Simon know, in no uncertain terms, what her
opinion of it was, when they were interrupted. A bedraggled man
dressed in the remains of a French uniform stood in front of them
and pulled an old army pistol from inside his tattered greatcoat.
“Your money. All of it. Give it to me. Now.”

Simon's reactions were swift. With
his cane, one that was not simply fashionable, but fashionable and
weighted with an iron bar, he knocked the pistol out of the man’s
hand and into the field, quickly pushed the cane into the man's
midriff and then gave the poor man a crack on the head that dropped
him. Examining his handiwork, he paused. “I think I know that man.”
He stretched a bit, stiff and sore from the exercise, and said in a
slightly breathless voice, “Katherine, I think I'm getting too old
for this. Time to settle down somewhere in the country, on one of
your estates, maybe. We could raise sheep or something.”

As the object of his handiwork
slowly recovered consciousness, he looked up at his assailant. “Oh
my head, what, who, wait you're Bates, Lieutenant Bates wasn't
it?”

“
Colonel Bates, and you're
Lieutenant O'Reilly late of
Legion Irlandais
, aren't you?”
The man started to nod his head but winced at the pain. “Yes.
Les Battlion D'estrangers.
”

“
You used to be a honest man,
O'Reilly.”

“
I used to have a full
belly.”

Simon thought for a moment,
considering his options, then handed the man a couple pounds worth
of Francs and added, “Get shaved, have a bath, something to eat,
some clean clothes, and meet me tomorrow morning at
L'Hotel
d'estrangers.
”

“
Simon! No! Please, not again.”
Katherine was not overjoyed, this wasn't the first time Simon had
picked up an encumbrance during their travels. It had not always
ended well for the encumbrance. There was a string of graves
through Eastern Europe and Spain from various encumbrances who had
come to bad ends in the service of the British crown.

“
You'll be there O'Reilly, won't
you? Or do I need to talk to the gendarmes?”

“
I will.”

“
Good, now Katherine, let us
continue our perambulation, unmolested. The sunset is especially
beautiful, I'm so glad you convinced me to take this
stroll.”