Page 59 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
“Have you still the one maid?” Gus asked, and turned to Kane to explain. “Monsieur Bonnet retained one very fine young woman when I was here last.”
Kane understood she wished to clarify who was in the house to overhear any of their discussion.
“Only Nancy,oui,” Bonnet assured her. “Her hearing has turned for the worse, poor girl. Come, do not worry over her. You know, I gather, that Madame St. Antoine is not here?”
“We hoped she might be here, but doubted,” Gus said.
“I am delighted to see you, but not without my madame.” Bonnet looked gutted. “I have not seen her… Not for weeks.”
“So shewashere?” she said in triumph.
“She came at the end of April. She knocked at the door of the servants’ entrance to the kitchen late at night. Our kitchen maid was up and let her in. She awakened me, and I went to tend to her.”
Bonnet sniffed, distraught at his tale. “Madameapologized for disturbing the household and said she came for only a few minutes to leave me funds to continue to run the house. She went up to her rooms to change her clothes. She left instructions that I was to burn what she left. I did that the hour after she departed.”
“And her plans? Did she say?” Gus asked.
“She said only she had left Paris for good reason and would not return. She was very nervous—agitated, I would say. I dared to ask if she would tell me where she planned to go, but she said it best if I did not know. Vaillancourt was after her. She would not allow him to have her. ‘He hated that I loved and married Monsieur St. Antoine, and he seeks to take his revenge. I will not allow it, Bonnet,’ she said.
“Madameis no fool, Monsieur Whittington. Did you meet her before she left Paris?”
“No,” Kane said. “I had not yet arrived in the city.”
“You do not know her, then. But she is smart. What’s more,monsieur, she loved my master. He loved her. He was just not young enough or healthy enough to protect her from this Vaillancourt.”
Kane was distressed by all the butler had revealed. “Thank you, Bonnet. That’s helpful.”
“Bonnet,” Gus said, her tone anguished, “we need to find her. Did she give you any indication of where she would go after she left here?”
“No,mademoiselle.”
Gus worried her lower lip. “When she left that night, how did she go?”
“On foot,mademoiselle.”
“Astonishing,” Kane murmured, and sat forward. “Where in the city would she find help or a friend or…?”
“Pere Josef,” Gus said, her eyes alight. “A priest who’d been canon years ago at the cathedral,” she explained. “If he is still in the city. Do you know if he is, Bonnet?”
“I have not seen him in many weeks,mademoiselle. When one disappears for a long while, you begin to feel they have gone forever.”
Gus inhaled, frustrated.
Bonnet looked at Kane. “You know,monsieur, that the archbishop fled the city after the royal family were seized in Varennes and taken to the temple. The archbishop has not returned. The cathedral is closed for services, but a pack of lawyers have moved in. Only one priest, this Josef, lives here in the city with us. But he is not out and about with us. He is afraid to be taken. Still, he does say the mass for a few in private homes. We never know where or when. It is a surprise, and word comes by mouth only within hours of the little priest’s mass. The government, you know, still does not approve of the church.”
But Kane knew this priest as their best hope here in town. “How might one find where the mass is said?”
“It is difficult,monsieur.” Bonnet shook his head. “I know not where to find him. We speculate he lives with different families who hide him in their cellars. One must wait to hear the word of a day and time.”
Kane accepted they were at an end with the priest.
Gus glanced to the hall and the stairs. “May I go upstairs, Monsieur Bonnet? You know Amber and I always left little gifts for each other. I dare to hope she did not forget.”
“Of course you do,mademoiselle. Please.” He swept a hand toward the stairs. “Do go and search.”
Kane waited as she hurried away.
“Monsieur.” Bonnet indicated Kane should make himself comfortable. “I will have the kitchen maid make your favorite chocolate,monsieur? A few small tarts as well?”
