Chapter Fourteen
If Céleste had harbored any doubts about her oldest brother’s indifference to her safety and well-being, those doubts would have fled entirely as the hours passed without Jean-Francois or Marguerite returning from the ball.
And she might have been hurt by their apathy if she weren’t so frustrated. And scared.
Now that she was removed a bit from the immediacy of her near abduction, the reality of what had almost happened began sinking in.
If her friends and Henri hadn’t seen her sitting where she’d been and realized she’d disappeared, then Lucas wouldn’t have come near enough to discover what was happening.
And if he hadn’t arrived when he did, whoever had taken hold of her would have—
Céleste didn’t let her thoughts go beyond that point. Again and again she thought over those horrible few moments, but never beyond.
She focused on gathering up the most essential things for leaving Paris.
She filled a small traveling bag and a small trunk with clothing, hairbrushes, and other necessities, and set both near the door of her room.
Beside it, she placed her violin. At Fleur-de-la-Forêt she could play whenever she wished rather than waiting for Jean-Francois to give her permission or for Marguerite to take a rare day off from shopping.
At the country home, Céleste would have her music and her freedom. And she would be safe.
Upon hearing the sounds of her indifferent relatives in the house once more, she squared her shoulders and proceeded into battle. She made her way to the parlor and easily identified Henri, Lucas, Marguerite, and Jean-Francois inside.
The room wasn’t as dim as the ballroom, so the candlelight wasn’t as much of a difficulty. Still, she couldn’t see them well enough from her position in the doorway to make out their expressions.
“We kept waiting for the sky to fall,” Jean-Francois said sarcastically.
“Absolutely nothing of consequence occurred after you left. Your overreaction caused us embarrassment. Céleste knows she’s not to give anyone reason to look askance at our family.
And she knows the consequences of violating that expectation. ”
“Your sister was held against her will and nearly abducted,” Lucas said in tones of shocked disapproval. “How can you say it is an overreaction to leave a situation in which a member of your family was in such obvious danger?”
“I have no doubt she made the situation seem worse than it was,” Jean-Francois said with a wave of his hand.
She didn’t think he actually believed that.
It was simply another moment of him choosing to be hurtful in order to justify his mistreatment of her.
She stayed in the doorway, unseen, and breathed slowly in order to maintain her composure.
If she could prevent Henri from losing his income, she wanted to.
But that meant keeping the peace with their brother.
“The ball really was entirely peaceful and pleasant,” Marguerite said.
“Except that we had such a difficult time explaining to people why Céleste scampered off as she did. Fortunately, most in attendance noticed her vitality has been waning these past months. They simply assumed it was more of the same.”
Céleste stepped into the room. “If so many in Society have noticed what Dr. Mercier has diagnosed, then why is it you are so insistent that his recommendations are misguided or unnecessary? You have told me time and again that there is no evidence supporting what I’ve told you I am feeling, yet now you say quite casually that my frail health is almost universally acknowledged. ”
“Do not be dramatic,” Jean-Francois said.
“I know you don’t care much for me.” She crossed closer to them, and they were easier to see. “You have made that clear for years now. I think I could have actually been stabbed during that ball, and you would have shrugged and told me to quit being ‘dramatic.’”
He looked a little uncomfortable but not truly humbled.
“And every person at the house party at Norwood Manor ended our time together knowing that Jean-Francois Fortier, head of an exalted family, cared even less what happened to his brother than to the sister he is entirely dismissive of. That you are indifferent to the threat uncovered by the Marquis de Lafayette is also not surprising.”
“Be careful where you tread, sister,” Jean-Francois hissed.
“I am quite carefully attempting to sort out why you are so unconcerned about a threat that encompasses more than your siblings but also your wife.” Céleste motioned to Marguerite.
“She is in danger, which means the child she’s carrying is in danger as well.
” Céleste didn’t know if Marguerite’s condition was known by anyone outside the household, but it needed to be taken into consideration.
“So is Adèle. You cannot be so apathetic toward your own daughter.”
“I am doing this for my daughter and for Marguerite and for the child yet to come,” Jean-Francois spat back.
“The Fortier fortunes had been dwindling for half a decade. We were not destitute by any means, but I needed to retrench more than was comfortable. France’s economy has not been robust. Crop failures are straining everyone and everything.
Many of our class are finding themselves struggling as they haven’t before.
I am securing my daughter’s future by supplementing an income that may very soon prove insufficient. ”
“What good will that income do either of your children if they are both dead?” Céleste demanded.
Marguerite looked to Jean-Francois with a growing expression of worry. “Which of them would react this way? Threatening children?”
Henri’s eyes darted between them. “You’re extorting more than one person?”
Jean-Francois ignored the question, which was answer enough. “We have the upper hand in all of this, Marguerite. We need only tug the right strings, and they will all remember what is on the line.”
“Your family is in danger,” Henri said. “It seems to me it is your strings being tugged, not the other way around.”
“I will not be intimidated. Not by any of them and not by you.” What in heaven’s name had he entangled himself in? How deep was he in this foolhardy scheme that he could not imagine stepping away from it, even to secure the safety of himself and his children?
Henri could not remain in Paris with this threat hanging over their heads, but Céleste knew he would never leave so long as she was still there.
“You can remain in Paris as long as you wish,” Céleste said to her oldest brother. “But please allow me to go to Fleur-de-la-Forêt.”
“You don’t go anywhere without my authorization.” He took a menacing step closer to her. “You will stay where I tell you to stay, and you will do what I tell you to do.”
“Unless someone who wants revenge succeeds in abducting her?” Lucas reentered the conversation. “Apparently I need to remind you yet again of what very nearly happened tonight.”
“I will not be intimidated by any of you.” Jean-Francois stormed toward the parlor door.
When Marguerite didn’t immediately follow, he looked back at her. He held her eyes for a long, drawn-out moment and something passed between them. Marguerite hurried after him without a word.
“I cannot stay in Paris,” Céleste said once they were both gone. “He has made it dangerous here, and I don’t think he would do anything to help me should the worst happen.”
“I suspect you’re correct,” Lucas said.
Céleste rubbed her face. “What are we going to do, Henri?”
“Firstly, you are going to sit down. This has been a trying day, and as those at the ball reminded our brother and sister-in-law, you have not been well.”
She was feeling exceptionally weary and allowed herself to be guided to a chair.
Voices sounded in the corridor outside the parlor, which Céleste recognized as Julia’s and Nicolette’s.
“I knew the three of them would make short work of their task,” Henri said.
Three of them. Aldric, then, had arrived as well. Céleste pushed aside the feeling of relief that accompanied that realization. He broke her heart. More than once, for heaven’s sake. She needed to pull herself together.
“What task were they assigned?” she asked.
“They’ve gathered all of our belongings at the rented lodgings and have brought everything here,” Henri said. “None of us intends to leave this house until you are able to do so.”
A moment later, the remaining three members of their group entered the room.
“We explained everything to Aldric,” Nicolette said to Henri as she crossed to him.
To Aldric, Henri said, “Jean-Francois has returned from the ball. He will not be persuaded to leave Paris. And he insists Céleste won’t be permitted to leave either.
And though he was confronted about Adèle’s safety, he couldn’t be bothered to even give an answer one way or the other where his daughter is concerned. ”
Aldric’s gaze shifted to Céleste. He studied her, but in a way that made her feel protected rather than scrutinized.
Some of the worry she had been keeping at bay began creeping up. “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered.
He crossed to her and sat on the chair beside hers. “You have been very careful not to ruffle your oldest brother’s feathers. To escape the danger he has created, you may have to pluck that bird entirely.”
She lowered her voice. “He will beggar Henri if I do. He won’t merely reduce his income back to what it was before the house party; he will cut Henri off entirely. He has made that horribly clear.”
Henri likely would have responded to that if Aldric hadn’t first. “Do you think for a moment any of the Gents would allow him or Nicolette to descend into poverty? We are a resourceful and creative bunch, but we are also fierce. None of us would leave any of the others to suffer.”
“Being dependent on charity is a form of suffering, Aldric.”
“I don’t believe I said anything about charity.
” His back was clearly up, but so was hers.
She had been fighting for Henri for two years.
She had sacrificed her freedom for her brother’s sake, and Aldric acted as though it were nothing, that she would have simply tossed Henri’s welfare to the wind and let him live as a permanent guest of his wealthier friends.
Henri hunched down in front of her chair, looking up at her. “We have reached a point where we have to decide between the comforts of our father’s estate and our literal safety. It’s not the same calculation we were making even yesterday.”
Here was the thoughtful acknowledgment she needed, the recognition that what she had endured hadn’t been in vain or foolhardy. Circumstances were different now, yes, but that didn’t negate all that she had done.
“If I defy him, he will cut you off permanently,” she said. “I will not inflict that on you.”
Henri squeezed her hand. “We’ll get you to Fleur-de-la-Forêt, where you’ll be safe. Should Jean-Francois decide he needs to punish us for having the audacity to value our continued existence”—Henri’s dry tone actually brought a fleeting smile to her face—“then we’ll decide what’s to be done next.”
“He shouldn’t have this much power over us.” Céleste hated that he did.
“What should be and what is are not always the same.”
That was most certainly true. “We cannot leave Adèle here in danger.”
“Of course not,” Henri said. “We’ll find a means of getting her out of the city as well.”
Céleste glanced at Aldric and saw unmistakable determination in his eyes. The General was on their side in this, which significantly increased their odds of success.
“I’ve already packed the most necessary of my things so I can leave Paris as soon as I’m able,” she said. “Finding a means of gathering Adèle’s necessities when her own parents are unlikely to be in favor of her departure from Paris will be more difficult.”
“That is likely where your biggest argument with your brother and sister-in-law will occur,” Aldric said.
“It’s an argument I’m willing to have,” Céleste said. “Adèle can’t simply be abandoned, left to be the next Fortier threatened and snatched away by whoever is doing this to us.”
Aldric nodded. He didn’t mean to question her, it seemed. And he didn’t appear to disagree with her determination.
“You’re the strategist, Aldric,” Lucas said. “How long do you think it would take to have everything in place for a journey to Fleur-de-la-Forêt?”
Aldric gave it a moment’s thought. “I suspect, considering we will have to fight against Jean-Francois and will be leaving with two more people than we had on the journey to Paris, we likely need three days.”
“Three days?” Julia repeated with a pulled expression. “We almost lost Céleste tonight. Three more days in Paris is a risk for her, Henri, and Adèle. Likely for Nicolette as well.”
Céleste swallowed against the emotion in her throat. Almost lost. She didn’t at all want to think about what had nearly happened. She pushed it down, a skill she had perfected over the years.
“We can keep them safe for two or three more days,” Aldric said. “Then all of us are leaving Paris.”