Mademoiselle At Arms (18 page)

A derisive snort greeted this passage.

‘I beg your pardon?’ said Gerald.

‘Do not beg my pardon. I know well that you are making a game
with me.’

‘I swear to you, it is the exact truth,’ he protested. ‘You
have no idea how dull the militia is compared to the Army. I had to sell out,
you see, when my father died, for the estate is in my hands.’

‘Estate? But are you not obliged to do this work of the
milice
?’
asked Melusine, her eyes round.

Gerald grinned. ‘Believe it or not, I do it for pleasure. At
least I rather hoped I might spend my time chasing smugglers, which would have
afforded some excitement. But sadly, at Lullingstone we are too far off the
coast to be of use. It would have given me intense satisfaction to have been
able to catch a French spy.’

‘That is what you thought of me.’

‘Yes, but in fact you’ve offered me far more entertainment
than any French spy could have done. And that’s why I’m at your service. Now do
you see?’

Melusine frowned. ‘I do not see at all. It seems to me very
silly.’

‘So did your business about marrying an Englishman seem to
me,’ Gerald returned. ‘Until today.’

‘And why are you not married,’ she demanded suddenly, ‘if it
is that you have land?’

Gerald grimaced. ‘I’ve never found a woman who did not drive
me into a frenzy of boredom.’

‘But what age are you? Do you not require an heir?’ Melusine
asked, her tone shocked.

‘I am nine-and-twenty,’ he answered. ‘As for an heir, I have
Alderley cousins enough.’ He sat up. ‘While we’re on the subject of age, it may
be relevant to your claim to this house. How old are you?’

‘I have nineteen years, and it is quite unimportant. Marthe
has told me that the house comes to my mother, Ma—ry Re—men—ham.’ She
pronounced the name with painstaking accuracy, Gerald noticed. ‘And if not her,
for she is dead, then me. For it cannot be that this Jarvis will leave the
house to my father. That is not reasonable. But there is need for the proof
that I am me, and that is what I look for.’

She jumped up, and moved impatiently to the door. ‘Has this
capitaine
of yours not yet rid us of this Emile? What can he find to say to him?’

‘Don’t be impatient,’ Gerald said, rising too and coming to
draw her away from the door. ‘Keep still, for God’s sake! Hilary will send him
off all right and tight, never fear.’

Melusine shook him off. ‘But do you not see that he will come
again? I think it is better if you, both of you, go and leave me here to find—’
She broke off, looking away.

‘To find what?’ demanded Gerald. ‘What is this proof?’

‘I will not tell you.’

‘Hang it, Melusine!’ Losing patience, Gerald seized her by
the arms. ‘I’ve had enough of this. Haven’t I shown you over and over again
that I mean you no harm? What do I have to do?’

‘You can go away and leave me to my affairs,’ she threw at
him.

‘Left to yourself, my girl, you may not have any affairs. Can’t
you see that Valade is an extremely dangerous man?’

‘Do you think I am afraid of that pig?’

Gerald gave her a little shake. ‘You should be. That he’s
come here at all shows he’ll stop at nothing. The minute he discovers Roding
here, he’ll know something is up. Why would militia be infesting the place? And
he must by now be aware of my interest. He may not know you’re in England, but if he has the smallest knowledge of your character, he must surely be
expecting you. How long do you think it will take him to put two and two
together?’

‘
Eh bien
, then if he will try to harm me, I will kill
him.’

‘You may not get the chance.’ He let her go. ‘Now be
sensible, Melusine, and let me help you.’

She tossed her head. ‘Me, I do not need the help of anyone.’

‘Oh, don’t you?’ Gerald said grimly. ‘Do you think because
you’ve managed to pull a gun on me—not to mention several daggers and a vicious
little knife—that you can get away with it against a man who means business?’

‘Do you think that the trigger I would not have pulled, or stuck
the dagger into you, if you had not been as you are?’ she countered.

Gerald’s temper flared. ‘You little fool! I’m a trained
soldier with ten years experience at my back. I’ve more than twice your
strength and at least ten times your cunning, when it’s needed. If I’d meant
it, my girl, you’d be dead meat.’

‘That is what you think? Let us try!’

‘Don’t be idiotic!’

She was backing from him, reaching through one of the slits
she had carefully manufactured in her petticoat. ‘I can take care of myself,
bête
.’

Exasperated, Gerald glared at her. ‘You obstinate little
devil. I’m minded to take a whip and beat some sense into you.’

‘Pah!’ scoffed Melusine. ‘I have told you, a whip it is
nothing. The nuns, they were very good with a whip. You do not make me afraid
like this.’

The dagger was in her hand. Gerald lost his head.

‘Then mayhap this will persuade you!’

With a scrape of steel, he drew his sword from its scabbard. Melusine
cast one swift glance at it, and her eyes, flashing magnificently, came back to
his face. But whatever she may have said was lost as Gerald pinned her to the
wall, the point of the sword at her throat.

‘I’ll play you at your own game,’ he growled, holding the
foreshortened foil in place with rigid control.

Melusine’s eyes blazed into his. Then her fingers moved. Pain
sliced into Gerald’s hand and his sword arm jerked. The sharp point of the
sword at the girl’s throat bit sideways. A thin line of red appeared in the
white neck.

‘Oh, my God,’ burst from Gerald. He jumped back, wrenching
the sword away. It fell with a clatter to the floor.

He heard Melusine cry out, but his attention was all for the
nick he had made in her neck. Diving towards it, he tried to press against the
rivulet that was seeping from it, hampered mightily by Melusine’s fingers,
which were grasping at his other hand.

‘For God’s sake, let go my hand,’ he begged. ‘I must get a
handkerchief.’

‘But you are bleeding like a pig,’ came the frantic response.

Gerald glanced down and saw her dash at a spread of blood on
his own hand, only now realising that her dagger had found its mark. Lord
above, had they wounded each other? But Melusine’s need was paramount with
Gerald and he tried to shake off her clinging fingers.

‘Will you let be?’

Instead she grasped his hand tighter. ‘
Laisse-moi
!’

Impatience swamped him. ‘You’re only making things worse, you
little idiot.’

‘
Parbleu
, it is I who am the
idiot
?’ she
scolded furiously, removing one hand and digging it into her sleeve. ‘Who has
begun this but you?’

Gerald barely heard her. ‘Melusine, if you don’t let go my
hand—’ He broke off as she dragged a pocket handkerchief from her sleeve. ‘Give
me that!’

He took his finger away from her neck and made a grab at the
handkerchief.

‘No!’ Melusine snapped as he tugged at the thing. ‘Leave it,
imbecile
.’

‘Damn you, I should have beaten you,’ Gerald swore, holding
fast to his corner of the little square of linen. ‘Only you made me lose my temper,
and—’

‘I made you do so? Pah!’

Gerald at last succeeded in ripping the handkerchief from her
grasp, and swiftly held it to her neck, oblivious to her now bloodied fingers
clawing at his hand.

‘What in God’s name is going on?’

Glancing swiftly towards the doorway, Gerald saw his friend’s
disbelieving face and burst out, speaking over the top of Melusine as she made
another grab for the little square of linen.

‘This idiotic female—’

‘This
imbecile
has made me—’

‘—made me lose my temper, and I—’

‘—cut him with my dagger, and he is—’

‘—damn near slit her throat!’

‘—bleeding like a pig!’

‘Whoa, whoa!’ stormed the captain, starting forward.

Next instant, Gerald felt his wrist seized in an iron grip. It
was wrenched away from Melusine’s clutching hands.

‘Gad, what a mess!’

Gerald pulled free, and Melusine broke back, staring at him. Her
neck was smeared with red and remorse flooded him.

‘Oh, my God, Melusine, what have I done?’

Melusine shook her head. ‘No. It is what I have done.’

‘Don’t start arguing again, for God’s sake,’ snapped Roding
irritably, dragging out his own large pocket-handkerchief. ‘If ever I met such
a pair of lunatics!’

‘Give me that, Hilary,’ Gerald said at once, ignoring his
remark and reaching out for the handkerchief. ‘She’s still bleeding.’

His friend held it out of the way. ‘So are you.’

‘But—’

‘You’ll get her all over blood again. Let me bind you up, and
then you can attend to her.’

To Gerald’s chagrin, Melusine regarded Hilary with approval.

‘That is very sensible,
mon capitaine
. But I do not
need that Gérard attend. I will be very well without him.’

‘Which is exactly what started us off,’ Gerald said to his
friend with a grin, as he gave up his injured hand to the other’s
ministrations.

‘What started you off, you madman,’ Roding told him frankly,
as he set about tying his handkerchief around the wound, ‘was being born at
all.’

‘That wasn’t my fault.’

‘No, but you’ve made up for it since.’

Gerald laughed. ‘This from a man who calls himself my friend.’

‘Yes, well, I was too young to see it,’ the captain said,
tying a knot in his makeshift bandage. ‘Too late by the time I realised to what
a dunderhead I’d pledged my friendship.’

‘You mean imbecile, don’t you?’ Gerald said, and turned his
head to share the joke with Melusine.

She was no longer there.

Consternation gripped him. ‘Oh, my God, she’s gone!’

Wrenching his hand from his friend’s slackened grasp, he
darted for the door, Roding behind him.

‘How the deuce did she get out without me seeing her?’

‘Took advantage of the distraction, cunning little devil,’
Gerald snapped, racing down the corridor.

‘But you know everything now,’ protested Hilary, keeping pace
as Gerald took the stairs two at a time. ‘Where’s the sense in running away?’

‘Doesn’t trust me,’ Gerald said briefly.

He reached the top floor and ran down the corridor to the
little dressing room at the end where he had lost her before. It was empty. Gerald
kicked the panelled wall in frustration.

‘Damnation! Too late.’

‘Wait!’ Leaning forward, Hilary tapped on the panel. ‘Hollow.’

Triumph leapt in Gerald’s chest. ‘The secret passage!’

It did not take long to find the mechanism of the
candlesconce that opened the door. Gerald studied the darkness beyond the
aperture.

‘Think it’s worth getting some sort of light and following
her down there?’ asked Roding. ‘That is, if she’s gone that way.’

Gerald considered. ‘I doubt it. Though I’ll wager she used
this passage, and we certainly ought to investigate it.’

‘What about the lad?’ said the captain suddenly. ‘Must be
still downstairs.’

‘She will have taken him with her. And it’s no use thinking
he’d stop her. The boy’s besotted.’ He thought Roding gave him an odd look, but
his next question was already in his head. ‘What did you tell Valade?’

‘Well, when I asked him what he wanted, he told me straight
out that he had been told his wife was related to Jarvis Remenham, and he had
come to see whoever lived here now that Jarvis was dead.’

‘So Charvill did tell him,’ Gerald said, once more staring
into the hole in the wall.

‘Looks like it. In any event, I explained that no one lived
here and that we’d been called in because of suspected intruders.’ Roding’s
voice changed. ‘That piece of information seemed to interest him very much.’

Gerald looked round. ‘Did it indeed?’

‘I should think he’s guessed, don’t you?’

‘Without any doubt at all.’

‘Oh, she’ll be safe enough, Gerald. He doesn’t know where she
is, and I told him he’d have to apply to Remenham’s lawyers if he wanted
anything to do with this place.’

Gerald’s jaw tightened. ‘That’s not much comfort. He must
know she’ll be at a convent. Where else could she go?’

‘And there aren’t too many of them around,’ agreed Hilary on
a gloomy note.

‘She hasn’t said so, but I presume Valade had got hold of all
the useful papers,’ Gerald went on. ‘Which means if he goes to the lawyers, he’ll
get in ahead of Melusine. She has no proof—yet.’ He sighed. ‘No, I don’t see
much future in pursuing her down this passage. We’ll have Trodger check it out
later.’