The Demon Lover

Paris under Siege

The peaceful days were over. I was now beset by anxiety because that man had come back into my life.

I talked it over with Nicole. She thought I was worrying unduly.

“Naturally he’s interested in his own son,” she said.

“He just wants to see him and the best way of doing this, as you would not welcome him here, is in the Gardens. What harm is he doing?”

“I know that wherever he is there will be harm. What can I do?”

“Nothing,” replied Nicole calmly.

“You can’t stop the boy going to the Gardens. He’ll want to know why. He’ll be resentful. Let him go. Let him play with the kite there. It’ll be all right.”

“I’m terrified that he will try to take Kendal away from me.”

“He wouldn’t do that. How could he? It would be kidnapping.”

“He is a law unto himself.”

“He wouldn’t do that. Where would he take the child? To Centeville?

"No, of course not. He just wants to see him now and then. “

“Nicole … have you seen him?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“You didn’t tell me.”

“It was only briefly and I thought it would upset you. As a matter of fact, he is concerned about the situation. Everybody is.”

“What situation?”

“We’re on the brink of war. The Emperor is becoming very unpopular.

After what happened to our country at the end of last century we are a sensitive people. “

She managed to subdue my fear for Kendal, but I found it very hard to work while he was out of the house, I arranged that he should go out in the afternoons when I could go with him. In the mornings he should be at his lessons. He was after all nearly five years old.

I knew that he had not seen the Baron for a week. Strangely enough he did not mention him. I had come to realize that children took almost everything for granted. The gentleman was there, he liked to talk to him, he had presented him with a kite . and then he was not there.

That was life, to Kendal.

I was immensely relieved.

But when we had visitors there was continual talk of what they called the uneasy situation.

“How long is the Second Empire going to last?” one of my visitors asked me.

I wondered why he was so intense. I, of course, had not had grandparents who had lived through the Revolution.

“There are people,” I was told, ‘who have felt they were sitting on the edge of a volcano ever since. “

“The Emperor has no right to meddle in Danish and Austro-Prussian wars,” said one.

“The French army is strong and the Emperor himself will lead it.”

“Don’t you believe it,” said another.

“I don’t trust these Prussians.”

I was too concerned with my own affairs to pay much attention, June had been a hot month. It was now over and we were now in what was to prove for France the fatal July of 1870.

Nicole came in one day and breathlessly told me that war between France and Prussia had been declared.

I received a letter that day which completely put thi thought of war out of my mind. It was from Clare and thi news it contained shattered me.

My dear Kate [she wrote], I don’t know how to begin to tell you. This has been a dreadful shock.

Your father is dead. It was so sudden. Of course he was nearing total blindness. Kate, he pretended to come to terms with it, but he never did. He used to go to the studio where you and he had been so happy together and sit there for hours. It was heartbreaking.

He was sleeping badly and I got the doctor to prescribe something for him to take at nights. I thought that was helping him. And then one morning when I went in to waken him . I found him dead.

He looked so peaceful lying there. He looked young. As though he were very happy.

There was an inquest. They were very sympathetic. The coroner said what a tragedy it was that a great artist should be robbed of that which was most necessary to him. Others can lose their sight and accept their fate more easily. But not a man to whom his work had meant so much.

They called it suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed.

But his mind was as clear as ever. He just felt that he could not go on without his eyes.

I don’t know what I am going to do, Kate. I’m in a state of indecision at the moment. I shouldn’t come here if I were you. It would only make you miserable. Everyone is very kind to me. Frances Meadows made me stay at the vicarage, which is where I am now, and Hope has asked me to go and stay with them, which I shall do at the end of this week. By the time you get this letter I shall probably be there.

There is nothing you can do. Perhaps I will come over and see you later on and we can talk about everything.

Your father spoke of you constantly. Only the day before he died he said how happy he was that you were so successful. He talked of the boy too. It was almost as though he felt he could die happily knowing that you would carry on the tradition.

Dear Kate, I know this is the most terrible shock for you. I shall try to make a new life for myself. I feel so desolate and unhappy, but I thank God for my good friends. I don’t know what I shall do. Sell the house, I think, if you are agreeable to that.

He left me the house and what little he had except the miniatures, of course. They are for you. Perhaps I’ll bring them over to Paris sometime . I’m afraid I’ve told you rather clumsily. I’ve written this letter three times. But there is no way of softening the blow, is there?

My love to you, Kate. We must meet soon. There is a good deal to decide. Clare

The letter dropped from my hands.

Nicole came in. She said: “The Emperor is going to lead the forces.

He’ll cross the Rhine and force the German States to become neutral.

"Why . what’s the matter? “

I said: “My father is dead. He has killed himself.”

She stared at me and I thrust the letter into her hands.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

She had a wonderfully sympathetic nature and it always amazed me to see her change from the bright sophisticated worldly woman into the warmhearted and understanding friend.

First of all she made a cup of strong coffee which she insisted that I drink. She talked to me, of my father, of his talent, J of his life’s work . and the sudden cessation of that work. I “It was too much for him to endure,” she said.

“He was ? robbed of his greatest treasure … his eyes. He could never’s have been happy without them. Perhaps he is happy now.” | I felt better talking to Nicole and once again I was grateful for her presence in my life.

I suppose it was really because of what had happened that I could only feel a lukewarm interest in the war about which everyone around me was getting so excited.

When the news came that the French had driven the German detachment out ofSaarbriicken, the Parisians went wild with joy. There was dancing in the streets and the people were singing patriotic songs, shouting Vive la France’ and “A Berlin’. Even the little modistes’ girls with their boxes hanging on their arms were talking excitedly about giving the Prussians a lesson they would never forget.

As for myself I could think of nothing but my father. When I had seen him he had seemed happy-content with his marriage to Clare, happy because I was successful and he thought Kendal vas going to paint too. And all the time he had been keeping his thoughts to himself.

If only he had shared them!

There were times when I was on the point of making arrangements to return to England.

What was the use? said Nicole. What could I do? He was dead and buried. There was nothing I could do. Besides, how could I leave the boy?

How could I indeed. I thought of the Baron, prowling round. What would happen if I were not here?

“Moreover,” went on Nicole, ‘it is not easy to travel in wartime. Stay where you are. Wait awhile. You will get over the shock of it. Let Clare come here. You can talk together and comfort each other. “

It seemed sound advice.

Then things began to change. The spirit of optimism had given way to one of apprehension. The war was not going as well as it had seemed to at first. Saarbriicken was nothing more than a skirmish at which the French had had their only success.

Gloom began to show itself in the streets of Paris. A mercurial people once applauding victory with enthusiasm were now sunk in gloom and asking each other, What next?

The Emperor was with the army; the Empress had taken up residence in Paris as Regent; and that first belief that it would soon be over and the Prussians taught a lesson began to fade. The French army was not what it had been thought to be. On the other hand the Prussians were disciplined, well ordered and determined on victory.

Everyone was talking about the war. It was a momentary setback, said some. It was not possible that a great country like France could be humiliated by little Prussia.

Even when sittings began to be cancelled and some of my clients were leaving Paris for the country, I went on thinking of my father and imagining what his thoughts must have been when he made his final and fateful decision. It was not until I heard that the Prussians were closing in on Metz and that the Emperor’s army was in disorderly retreat blocking the roads and stopping the movement of supplies to the front, that I began to see that we were facing real disaster.

Then came the news of the dire calamity at Sedan and that the Emperor, with eighty thousand French troops, was a prisoner of war in the hands of the Prussians.

“What now?” asked Nicole.

“What can we do but wait and see?” I asked.

There was fury in the streets. Those who had been proclaiming the Emperor and crying A Berlin were now fuming against him.

The Empress had fled to England.

September had come. Who would have believed that there could be such changes in so short a time.

Those few days seemed endless.

“They’ll make peace,” said Nicole.

“We shall have to agree to conditions. Then everything will settle down to normal.”

Two days after the fall of Sedan the Baron came to see us.

I was coming down to the salon when I heard voices. A visitor, I thought.

I opened the door and gasped with astonishment, for the Baron came swiftly towards me and taking my hand kissed it. I withdrew it quickly and looked reproachfully at Nicole. I had the impression that she had invited him here.

But this was not so and he dispelled that suspicion immediately.

“I came to warn you,” he said.

“You know what is happening.” He did not wait for a comment from us.

“It’s … debacle,” he went on.

“We have allowed a fool to govern France.”

“He did some good,” Nicole defended the Emperor.

“He is just not a soldier.”

“If he is not a soldier he should not go to war. He misled the country into thinking it had an army which could fight. It was unprepared .. untrained … There was not a chance against the Germans. However, we waste time and God knows we have little of it to spare.”

“The Baron is suggesting that we leave Paris,” said Nicole.

“Leave Paris? To go where?”

“He is offering us the shelter of his chateau until we can make our plans.”

I said: “I have no intention of going to Centeville.”

“Do you understand the situation?” he demanded.

“I have been following the news. I know there has been disaster at Sedan and the Emperor taken prisoner.”

“And that does not give you cause for alarm?”

I said: “Nothing would make me come to your castle. I have been there before.”

“The situation is grim, Kate,” said Nicole.

“I know. But I shall stay here. It’s my home now, and if it were impossible to live here I suppose I could go to England.”

“You will not find travelling easy in wartime.”

I looked at him steadily and I could not shut out the memory of him in that turret room with triumph in his eyes and the determination to enforce his will.

“I shall stay here,” I said firmly.

“You’re being foolish. You don’t understand what it means to have an occupying enemy in your country.”

“And what of you? You are in the same country.”

“The Prussians will not come to my chateau.”

“Why not?”

“I shall not allow it.”

“You … you’re going to stand out against the Prussian armies?”

“We’re wasting time,” he said.

“You should prepare to leave at once.”

I looked at Nicole and said: “You go if you want to. I shall stay here.”

“Kate.. it’s not safe.”

“There is a choice of two evils. I choose this one.”

The Baron was regarding me with that quizzical look which I had seen before.

“Go, Nicole,” I said.

“You believe him. I don’t.”

He raised his shoulders in a helpless gesture.

Nicole said: “You know I won’t leave you and Kendal.”

The Baron shrugged his shoulders.

“Then there is nothing more I can do. Adieu, ladies. And may you have better luck than you have good sense.”

With that he was gone.

Nicole sat down and stared in front other.

“You should have gone with him,” I said.

She shook her head.

“No … I’ll stay here. This is my home. You and the boy are my family.”

“But you think I’m wrong.”

She lifted her shoulders rather as he had done a few moments before.

“It remains to be seen,” she said.

Those September days were strangely unreal hazy in the mornings and when the sun rose the city seemed to be touched with a golden light.

There was tension on the streets as the people waited for news.

The whole of Paris was in revolt against the Emperor whom they declared had betrayed them. It seemed such a short while ago that they had cheered him and his beautiful Empress. Now they despised them. It had been the same with the kings, they said. The Bonapartes behaved as though they were kings and Paris had rejected those flamboyant rulers eighty years before.

I caught a glimpse during those days of what it must have been like in Paris before the Revolution burst upon the city.

When France declared herself to be a Republic once more, there was excitement in the streets. No more kings. No more emperors. This was the people’s land.

But this could not hold back the German advance, and as September neared its end came the final blow. Strasbourg, one of the last strongholds of the French, capitulated to the Germans, whose armies were now marching on Paris.

Then came the terrifying information. The King of Prussia was actually in the Palace of Versailles.

We had for some time begun to feel the strain. Food was fast disappearing from the shops. Nicole had said we must get together what we could. If we had plenty of flour we could at least make bread. And as long as we could we went on buying.

There came a day which I shall never forget. Nicole went out to see what she could buy and while she was gone the bombardment started.

I heard the explosion and wondered what it was. I thought there must be fighting near the outskirts of the city. I was worried about Kendal. I thought then that I should have listened to the Baron. He was right. We should have left Paris.

There was just that one explosion.

Kendal was in the studio doing his lessons with Jeanne. He was using the studio now as I had had no clients for weeks.

I was thinking that Nicole seemed to have been away a long time when I heard the concierge calling me.

I ran down. A boy was there.

“Madame Collison,” he said, ‘will you come at once to the Hopital St. Jacques. A lady there is asking for you. “

“A… lady?”

“Madame St. Giles … She has been hurt. These cursed Germans ..”

I felt sick with fear. The explosion! They were bombarding Paris and I had to go there as fast as I could, but I thought of Kendal.

I said: “Give me a moment. I must tell them I am leaving.”

I called to Jeanne.

“Madame St. Giles has been hurt,” I said briefly.

“I’m going to the hospital. Take care of Kendal while I’m away.”

Jeanne nodded. I could trust her.

Fortunately the hospital was only a few streets away and within a few minutes I was there.

Nicole almost unrecognizable was lying in a bed. She was wrapped in a white robe and there were bloodstains on it.

I threw myself on to my knees and gazed at her.

She recognized me, but I think only just.

“Kate,” she whispered.

“I’m here, Nicole. I came as soon as I could.”

“They’re bombarding Paris. They’re all round us… I was hurrying home to tell you …”

“Should you talk?”

“I must talk, Kate.”

“No,” I said.

“You shouldn’t. Are you all right here? Is there anything I can do? Are you in pain?”

She shook her head.

“I can’t … feel … much. Something’s happened to me.”

“Oh Nicole!” I said and I was overcome with remorse and shame. She should never have been here. She would have gone away with the Baron but for me.

“Kate …”

“Yes?”

She gave me a crooked smile. There was no colour in her face. She looked dead. apart from her eyes.

“I… I want to tell you …”

“You shouldn’t talk.”

“It’s the end… for me. Strange… Shot in a Paris street. I often wondered what my end would be. Now I know.”

“You should try to sleep.”

She smiled.

“I want you to… understand …”

“I understand, my dear friend, that I could never have got through my troubles but for you.” I felt the tears welling into my eyes.

She blinked. I think she was trying to shake her head.

“Him… Kate.”

“Him?”

“He’s safe in his Norman stronghold,” I said.

“Try Kate … Try to understand. He was the one. It was his house . He wanted to make sure that you were all right…”

What was she trying to tell me?

“Don’t fret,” I said.

“Whatever it was doesn’t matter now.”

“Yes … yes …” she murmured.

“Try to understand him, Kate.

There’s good in him . “

I smiled at her and a certain impatience showed itself in her slurred voice.

“He sent me… to find you, Kate. It wasn’t by chance. He wanted to be sure that you were … looked after.”

“You mean that he knew all the time where I was?”

“It was his house. He looked after everything, Kate … paid for everything … arranged about the birth. He has looked after everything since. He sent the people who came for the portraits. You see… he cared, Kate.”

This was too much. It was one shock following on another. He had watched over me then. He had known where I was all the time. He must have guessed there would be a child. He had sent Nicole to look after me . to feign friendship . Oh no, not that. She had been my true friend. But in the beginning he had sent her. The elegant, comfortable house, with its convenient studio had been provided by him. Nicole had reported to him regularly and in time he had come to see his son in the Gardens.

It was a blinding revelation, but somehow it did not seem important with Nicole lying there . dying. Yes, I knew she was dying. She would never come back to us. That bohemian life others, living in elegant salons as mistress of one of the most powerful men in France had ended in a Paris street and here she was in a hospital for the poor.

“Oh Nicole,” I said.

“Dear Nicole, you must get well. You must come back with us.”

She smiled at me and her eyes were already becoming glazed.

“It’s finished,” she said.

“It’s all over. I’ve been too badly hurt. I know it is the end. I’m glad you came, Kate. I had to speak to you .. before I went. Forgive him. There is good in him. You might find it.”

“Don’t talk of him.”

“I must. I must make you see how it was. I loved him… in my way. He loved me … in his way… the light way. Not as he would love you.

You could put the good in him, Kate. Please try. “

“You shouldn’t be thinking of him, Nicole. Please rest. You’re going to get well. How could we get on without you?”

“You forgive me …”

“What is there to forgive? It is you who should forgive me. I kept you here. I should have made you go with him. You knew that was right… and you wanted to. But I wouldn’t go and because … Oh, Nicole, how can I thank you for all you did for me?”

“He did it.

“No, Nicole, you .. you.”

“Please, Kate.”

She was pleading with me and I knew she was dying.

I nodded my head and saw her expression change. I think then she was at peace.

She closed her eyes. She was breathing with difficulty. I sat on. I fancied my presence comforted her. It must have been half an hour before her breathing changed. She was making rasping noises, trying to get her breath.

I ran out to call someone. I found a nurse and took her to Nicole’s bedside.

Nicole was silent now.

“She was badly hit,” said the nurse.

“She hadn’t a chance.”

Then she closed Nicole’s eyes and put the sheet over her face.

I stumbled out of the hospital. I could not take it in. Nicole dead!

But that morning she had been alive and well. my dearest friend, the one on whom I relied. And now she was gone. and all in an hour or so. Life was harsh, I had reason to know, but that tragedy could come so swiftly had never occurred to me.

“May you have more luck than you have good sense.”

could hear his voice now. He had come for us. He had cared for us . all the time. It had not been friendship which had prompted Nicole to help me in the first place. It had been done on his instructions.

And now Nicole was dead. How could I tell Kendal that he would never see Nicole again? How could I ever forget that but for me she would not have been in Paris. She would be alive at this moment.

The horror of it all burst on me. Shots such as those which had killed Nicole could take any of us at any time. Oh God, I thought. Kendal!

I ran as fast as I could.

The house was still there. I had half expected it to be destroyed.

War. We were at war. I had never thought of being involved in war. Now it had come with all its tragedy, its destruction, its maiming and killings . its breaking up of lives.

I ran into the house calling “Jeanne! Kendal! Quick. Where are you?”

Jeanne came running to me. Her face was white. She was clearly distraught.

“Where is Kendal?” I asked.

She said: “He’s gone … gone to safety. The gentleman in the Gardens”

The room seemed to be spinning round me. I felt sick with apprehension.

“He came just after you’d gone. He said Paris was no place for the boy. He was going to take him away to safety. I tried … but he just took him.”

“And Kendal…”

“He said he wouldn’t go without his mother… but he was picked up carried away …”

I covered my face with my hands. I said: “This can’t be true. He’s taken him to Centeville. I must go after him. Oh Jeanne … Nicole is dead.”

She stared at me.

“I … I’ve been with her,” I stammered.

“And … while I was with her he came and took my son away. Jeanne I must go after him. I know where. Come with me. You can’t stay here. If you could have seen ” How can we get to this place? “

“I don’t know. But we must go at once. Take all the money we can.

There is not a moment to lose. We have to go after him. “

I ran to my room. I gathered together all the money that was in the house. I put on my cloak. Action, desperate action was the best way to live through a situation like this.

I went downstairs. Jeanne was already there.

I cried out: “Come then.”

The door opened and he was standing there the Baron himself, holding Kendal by the hand.

I gave a cry of relief and ran to my son, kneeling and embracing him, clinging to him. He looked bewildered but clearly shared my relief.

“There’s not a moment to lose,” said the Baron.

“You are dressed.

Where is Nicole? Go and tell her. “

I stared at him for a few seconds unable to speak.

“Hurry,” he shouted.

“This city will be under siege in a few hours .. perhaps it is already. Get Nicole … quickly.”

I said: “Nicole is dead. I have just left her.”

“Dead!”

“She is in the hospital. She was hit … by this … bombardment. I stayed with her until she died.”

He was stunned. I had never seen him moved by emotion before.

“Nicole … dead …” I heard him murmur.

“You … you’re sure?”

“I have just left her. That’s where I was. They sent for me …”

I turned away from him.

I heard him say: “She was a good woman … the best…” And then he recovered himself.

“Come on. There’s no time to lose.” He looked at jeanne

“You too. You can’t stay here.”

We went into the streets. There was hardly anyone about. The bombardment had sent them all scurrying into their houses.

He said: “I have horses nearby. We’ll get away from here as fast as we can. Come now. Every minute is important.”

We were at the top of the street when I heard the second explosion of the day.

I think that was the worst moment of my life. A building beside us had been struck. Time appeared to slow down. I saw it stagger like a drunken man; then it started to crumble . slowly, and the facade seemed to slither to the ground. I saw . disaster. Kendal was staring up at it as though mesmerized. I heard the Baron shout at him.

The boy turned but was too late to move before there was a violent rumbling and the air was full of blinding dust.

Kendal was sprawling on the ground. I knew that that pile of bricks and rubble was about to fall on him. I ran . but the Baron was ahead of me. It was too late to pick up the boy . so he threw himself on top of him for protection.

I screamed. I could see nothing for a second or so because of the blinding dust.

“Kendal,” I called desperately.

Then I was kneeling beside them tearing off the rubble.

There was blood on the Baron’s leg. I kept calling Kendal.

Kendal crawled out and stood before me. I felt a crazy joy because he appeared to be unhurt.

But the Baron was lying there among the bricks and the dust. still and silent.

Jeanne, Kendal and I knelt down in the dust beside the Baron. His leg seemed to be twisted under him. He was unconscious and I thought that he was dead. Strange emotions swept over me. I had seen death once that morning. But it could not happen to the Baron. Never the Baron. He was indestructible.

“We must get help at once,” I said to Jeanne.

Jeanne stood up. People were now coming out of their houses to see what damage had been done. We called to them and soon there was a little group around us. I could not take my eyes from him lying there, inert, blood on his clothes, his usually fresh coloured face deathly pale, his eyes closed. I was conscious of a terrible emptiness.

Nicole, my dear friend had gone for ever and that was a sadness which would haunt my life. But I could not imagine a life without the Baron, to remember, to revile, to hate.

Someone had brought out a ladder and they put him on it using it as a stretcher. They could take him to the hospital they said.

I replied on impulse: “Bring him to my house. I can look after him there. And go and get a doctor … quickly … quickly …”

He was carried into the house. Kendal clung to my hand.

“Is he dead?” he asked.

“No,” I answered fiercely.

“No… he can’t be dead. Not the Baron.”

That was the beginning of the siege of Paris, the most tragic and humiliating period of that great city’s history.

I gave little thought to the war during the next day. My mind was solely on my patient. The doctor had come. Part of the bone in the Baron’s right leg had been crushed. He might be able to walk again perhaps with the aid of a stick. His vital organs were undamaged and strong and the loss of blood and the shock had not been too great for him; he would recover and be able to resume a restricted way of life.

I sat by his bed throughout that first night. He was unconscious then and we were at that time uncertain how much damage had been done. I was glad they had not taken him into the hospital. They had other victims of the bombardments there and were preparing for a rush of casualties so there was no pressure to send him. I said I could nurse him with the help of jeanne and the doctor was only too glad that I should do so.

He showed me how to dress the leg. The wound appalled me. There was considerable pain, I knew, but the Baron bore that with the fortitude I would expect of him.

I had, with Jeanne's help, moved the beds down so that we were all on one floor and not too far from each other. I had a terrible fear that I might be separated from Kendal.

Every sound made us start for we feared that the bombardment would begin again, but it did not and the streets were quiet.

It was a strange night that first one sitting by his bed. I could not believe that only the night before I had slept in my bed with Nicole in her room and Kendal safe in his.

My great fear was for Kendal. I lived again and again that terrible moment when I had thought the building was going to collapse on him.

And, if the Baron had not thrown himself upon him, if he had not protected him . my small child would surely have been crushed to death.

It was strange what I owed this man. All my humiliation, my subjection and now. my son’s life.

I kept hearing Nicole’s voice.

“There is good in him. You can find it.

Yes, I had found something good already. He had come to take us away . risking his life to do so, as it was now proved. He had saved my son’s life.

I sat there through the darkness of the night. I did not light a candle. Nicole had said some days before that we must preserve the candles . we must preserve everything. There was certain to be a shortage.

So I sat there and watched the dawn come while I looked down on the contours of his sleeping face. A certain colour had returned to it and it no longer had that look of death on it. He was breathing more easily. I knew that he would live and I felt a great gladness in my heart.

I closed my eyes and I thought: Too much is happening in too short a time. Death is always close, I suppose, but at times like this it comes nearer. Nicole had always seemed so alive . and then suddenly, walking along a street, she is struck down . and that is the end. And the Baron! It could so easily have happened to him.

It was war. I had brushed it aside, shown little interest in it.

Stupid wars which men fought to amuse themselves, for no one ever came well out of war. And people died . one’s loved ones went into the street and that was the end.

I opened my eyes. He was looking at me.

“Kate,” he said.

I leaned over him.

“How do you feel?”

“Strange,” he said.

“Very strange …”

“It was the bombardment. A wall fell on you.”

“I remember.” Then quickly: “The boy?”

“He’s unharmed.”

“Thank God.”

“Thank you, too,” I said.

A smile touched his lips and he closed his eyes.

I felt the tears in my own. I thought: He will get well. Yes, he is indestructible.

I was glad he was with us. Even lying in a bed more dead than alive he brought a feeling of security.

Kendal had slipped into the room. I held out my hand and he ran to me.

“Is he asleep?”

I nodded.

“Is he very hurt?”

“I think he might be.”

“Do you think he would like to come to the Gardens and fly my oriflamme kite tomorrow?”

“Not tomorrow,” I said.

“But perhaps … one day.”

There was an unreality about the days which followed. My thoughts were entirely taken up with nursing the Baron, which was the main preoccupation of our days. It was a great relief when the bombardment stopped and the days were quiet, though ominously so. The Baron spent most of those first days in sleep. The doctor had given me something to make him do so and he had taught me how to dress the wound. He was an earnest young man, very concerned about the situation.

“We were expecting a rush of casualties,” he said, ‘but I think the enemy realizes those sort of tactics don’t work so well. They can batter the town but Paris is a big place and if the people see their city attacked they become stubborn. These Prussians know how to conduct a war and my view is that they will try to starve us into surrender. “

“A grim prospect.”

“For Paris … yes. Those Bonapartes have a great deal to answer for.”

He was a stern republican but I couldn’t care about politics, and I was grateful for what he did for me.

Jeanne was a wonderful help. She went out every morning to see what she could buy and it was the excitement of the day to look through her shopping basket when she returned. We had a considerable amount of flour in the house so we were able to bake bread which would keep us going for some time if everything else failed.

I took Kendal for a walk in the afternoons while Jeanne remained at home in case the Baron wanted anything. I never went far from the house and I would not let Kendal out of my sight.

I explained to him what had happened to Nicole. He was an extremely intelligent child and once again I was amazed by the manner in which children adapt themselves to circumstances. He seemed to grasp the fact that there had been a war which the French had lost and because of this we were now living in a besieged city.

There was pitifully little to see in the shops. Quite a lot of the produce sold in Paris came from the surrounding villages. We had often heard them trundling in in the early hours of the morning on the way to Les Halles. They had come from all directions. Now no one came into Paris and no one went out.

The days had settled into a routine which seemed particularly quiet.

It was an ominous monotony because nothing stays still for long in a siege.

The Baron was regaining his strength. His leg was still in a sorry state but his constitution was just about as strong as a man’s could be and he was fast recovering from the shock and loss of blood.

Now he could sit up. I propped his leg up with pillows and I found a stick which he could use when he hobbled about. But even the shortest walk was such an effort at first that he would collapse exhausted after a few minutes.

It was strange to see him stripped of that strength which had been so much a part of him.

“You’re like Samson,” I told him, ‘shorn of his locks. “

“Remember,” he said, ‘his hair grew again. “

“Yes. And you will regain your strength.”

“And be a cripple?”

“You’re fortunate. It could have been worse.”

“It might have been better too,” he added ironically.

“You are thinking that if I had not stubbornly refused to leave Paris when you first asked, this would not have happened to you. Nicole would be here …” My voice broke and he said: “We all make mistakes sometimes.”

“Even you,” I said, with a flash of the old enmity.

“Yes,” he said, ‘alas, even I. “

Our relationship had changed. That was inevitable. He was the patient; I was the nurse; and we were living in a situation charged with danger. We did not know from one moment to the next when death would come to claim us.

My great hope was that I should not be left and that if death came it would take me and not Kendal or the Baron. I used to lie awake and think: If I were taken he would look after Kendal. He cares for him.

He saved his life. I should hate to think of my son’s being brought up to be such another as he is, but he would save him and he loves him.

So please God, don’t take them and leave me.

There were no servants now. They had left before Nicole died. Some of them had had the wisdom to get out of the city. They were country girls who had homes to go to. So there were just myself, Kendal, the Baron and Jeanne. The concierge and his wife were in their apartments, but they kept very much to themselves.

I spent a great deal of time with the Baron. When I came into the room where he lay I noticed the pleasure which showed in his eyes.

Sometimes he said: “You’ve been a long time.”

Then I would reply: “You don’t need constant care now. You’re getting better. I have other things to do, you know.”

I spoke to him like that, with a touch of asperity just as I used to.

I don’t think he wanted it to change and nor did I. “Sit down there,” he would say.

“Talk to me. Tell me what the madmen are doing now.”

Then I would tell him what I had learned of the war, that the Prussians were surrounding Paris and even penetrating the north of the country.

“They’ll take the towns,” he said.

“They won’t bother about places like Centeville.”

Then I told him goods had almost disappeared from the shops and it was going to be difficult to feed ourselves if it went on like this.

“And you have saddled yourself with another mouth to feed.”

“I owe you that,” I said, ‘and I like to pay my debts. “

“So the balance has changed. You are on the debit side now.”

“No,” I replied.

“But you saved my son’s life and for that I will look after you until you are well enough to stand on your own feet.”

He tried to take my hand but I withdrew it.

“And that other little misdemeanour?” he asked.

“That act of savagery? No, that is still outstanding.”

“I will try to earn a remission of my sins,” he said humbly. That was how our conversation was-much as it had always been, although now and then a light and bantering note would break in.

He was getting better. The leg was healing and he could spend longer walking about the house without exhausting himself. But in the afternoons I used to insist on his resting while I took Kendal out for a walk, leaving Jeanne in charge. He was always watching the door for my return.

“I wish you wouldn’t take those afternoon rambles,” he said.

“We have to go out sometimes. I never go far from the house.”

“I am in a state of anxiety until you return and that is not good for me. Every nurse worthy of the name knows that patients should not be subjected to anxiety. It impedes recovery.”

“I’m sorry you don’t think I’m worthy to be a nurse.”

“Kate,” he said, ‘come and sit down. I think you are worthy to be anything you want to be. I’m going to tell you something extraordinary. Do you know . here I am incapacitated, probably about to be crippled for life, in a besieged city, lying in a room with death looking in at the window, now knowing from one moment to the next what dire tragedy will descend on me . and I’m happy. I think I am happier than I have ever been in my life. “

“Then yours must have been a very wretched existence.”

“Not wretched … worthless. That’s it.”

“And you think this is worthwhile … lying here … recuperating . doing nothing but eating when we can get something to eat… and talking to me.”

“That’s just the point. It’s talking to you … having you near .. watching over me like a guardian angel … not allowing me to stay up too long … bringing my gruel … this is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me.”

“Such situations have not been frequent in my life either.”

“Kate, it means something.”

“Oh?”

“That I’m happy… happier than I’ve ever been… being here with you.”

“If you were well enough,” I reminded him, ‘you would get yourself a horse and be out of the city in an hour. “

“It would take a little longer than that. And there won’t be any horses left soon. They’ll be eating them.”

I shivered.

“They have to eat something,” he went on.

“But what were we saying?

I’d be out of this city with you and the boy. and we should take Jeanne, of course. But these days . there has been something very precious about them for me. “

“Well, you have realized that you’ll be able to walk again one day.”

“Dragging one foot behind me, perhaps.”

“Better that than not walking at all.”

“I know all this and yet it’s the happiest time of my life. How can you explain that?”

“I don’t think it needs an explanation because it’s not true. The happiest times of your life were when you were triumphing over your enemies.”

“My enemy now is the pain in this accursed leg.”

“And you are triumphing over that,” I said.

“Then why am I so contented with life?”

“Because you believe you are the great man and that no harm can possibly come to you. The gods of your Norse ancestors are seeing to that. If anyone attempted to harm you, old Thor would flash his thunder at them or throw his hammer and if that couldn’t save you Odin, the All-Father, would say, ” Here comes one of our chosen heroes.

Let’s warm up Valhalla for him. “

“Do you know, Kate, you are so often right that I cease to marvel every time you display your understanding.”

“Good. Shall I dress your leg?”

“No, not yet. Sit down and talk.”

I sat down and looked at him.

“How strange,” he said, ‘when you think of our being together in that tower bedroom. Oh, what a time that was. What an exhilarating adventure. “

“It was something less than that for me.”

“I have never forgotten it.”

“Nor,” I said pointedly, ‘have I. “

“Kate.”

“Yes?”

“When I was lying here in the beginning, I watched you. I pretended to be unaware …”

“I would expect such subterfuge from you.”

“You seemed to watch over me … tenderly.”

“You were hurt.”

“Yes, but I thought I detected a special caring… a special involvement. Did I?”

“I remembered that you saved my son’s life.”

“Our son, Kate.”

I was silent for a while and he went on: “I’m in love with you.”

“You … in love! That’s not possible-unless it is with yourself, of course, but that is a love-affair of such long standing that it calls for no special mention. In fact it is superfluous to comment on it.”

“I love to be with you, Kate. I love the way you slap me down all the time. I enjoy it. It stimulates me. You are different from anyone I have ever known. Kate, the great artist who is so eager that I should know she pretends to despise me. Pretends… that is the whole point. In your heart, you know you like me … quite a lot.”

“I am grateful that you saved Kendal, as I have told you many times. I appreciate the fact that you came to take him out of the city.”

“To take you too. I shouldn’t have gone without you. I could have got clear of the city … if I had not waited for you.”

“You came for the boy.”

“I came for you both. You don’t think I would have taken him and left you. I just want you to know that I could not have done that.”

I was silent.

“You worry a great deal about that boy, don’t you?”

I nodded.

“He’s a natural survivor. He’s my son. He’ll come through … as we all shall.”

“I fear that something will happen to me. Yes, I fear that terribly.

What would become of him then? It is my main worry. What is happening to the children of those who have been killed . or die of starvation? ”

“There is no need to worry about Kendal. I have made arrangements.”

“What arrangements?”

“I have made provision for him.”

“When did you do that?”

“When I saw him, when I assured myself that he was my son, I arranged that he should be well provided for whatever happened.”

“What of this country? What will happen to it? What happens when countries are overrun by their enemies? Will what you hzve done be worth anything if France is a beaten nation?”

“I have made arrangements both in Paris and in London. After all, he is half English.”

“You have really done this!”

“You look at me as though you regard me as some sort of magician. I may be in your eyes, Kate, but these arrangements are commonplace.

They can be made by any man of business. I have seen the way things were going here. I had made plans to leave for a while, but I wanted to take you and the boy with me. However, that failed. But at least. if the boy were left without either of us, there would be people in London who would find him and he would be looked after. “

I could not speak. Even lying there he exuded power. I had the feeling that while he was there all would be well with us.

“You are pleased with me,” he said.

“It was good of you … kind of you.”

“Oh, come, Kate, my own son! I always wanted a boy like that. He satisfies me… completely, as you do.”

“I am glad you have some regard for him.”

“One day he may be a great artist. He will get that from you. From me he will get his handsome looks …” He paused waiting for comment, but I gave none. I was too moved to speak.

“His handsome looks,” he went on, ‘and his determination to get what he needs . his force, his strength of purpose. “

“None of which qualities could come from anywhere else,” I said with a mockery tinged with gentleness. He had lifted a great burden from my shoulders.

He said: “Had you been here when I came I would have got you out of Paris. I had planned to take us all… you, the boy’ Nicole . and of course the governess. Poor Nicole …”

I said: “You loved her.”

“She was a good woman … a good friend to me. We understood each other. It is hard to believe that she is dead.”

“You have known her a long time.”

“Since she was eighteen. My father did not want me to marry young. He chose a mistress for me. He wanted to make sure that I made the right marriage. He put great store in the calibre of the offspring.”

“Like breeding horses?”

“You could say that. All the same, the principle applies.”

“Nicole, I presume, had not the necessary points?”

“Nicole was a beautiful and clever woman. She had been married to a bank clerk. My parents arranged the meeting with her mother. We liked each other and it turned out to be a very satisfactory relationship.”

“Satisfactory for you and your calculating family, perhaps. What of ” She never gave any sign that she was not satisfied with the arrangement. It is the way things are managed in France in families like ours. The necessity of a mistress was understood and one was provided. It was marriage which was the serious question. “

“So that is how to make a perfect marriage. It didn’t work in your case, did it?”

“It’s something you learn as you get older. You can make plans but you forget that when you are dealing with people you can go wrong.”

“So you have learned that at last.”

“Yes, at last I have learned it.”

“You thought the blood of princes would enhance the family strain.” I laughed.

“It’s a matter of opinion, of course. And you are clearly not satisfied with your marriage … royal blood though there is.”

“I am completely dissatisfied with my marriage. I think often of how I can end it. Lying here, I have been thinking a great deal about that.

If ever I get out of this place, I shall do something. I shall not spend the rest of my life shackled.

"Don’t you agree that I should be a fool to let things stay as they are? ”

“I can’t see how you can do anything else. You planned and your plans went wrong. You thought your Princesse was a puppet to be picked up and put in a certain place at your will. Her duty was to supply a little blue blood to the great Centeville stream .. though I should have thought—in your opinion at least-no royal blood could compare in worth with that of barbarian Norsemen. However, you picked her and put her where you wanted her-and lo, you have discovered that she is not a puppet. She is a warm, living human being who, having no wish to make the donation of royal blood her mission in life, turned to someone else who pleased her better than the barbarian Baron. There is only one thing to be done now. As we say in England: You have made your bed. Now you must lie on it.”

“That is not my way. You should know that well enough by now.”

“If things don’t please you the way they are, you set about changing them. That is it, is it?”

“Yes, Kate.”

“Well then, what will you do? There would have to be a dispensation, wouldn’t there, to annul the marriage?”

“On the grounds other adultery it should be easy.”

I burst out laughing.

“I am glad I amuse you,” he said.

“Oh, you do. Her adultery. You must admit that is very funny. Besides, is it adultery? She had her lover before her marriage. She did though in a more human, civilized manner what you have done many times, I am sure. And you talk about divorcing her for adultery. You see why you make me laugh.”

He was silent for a while. Then he said: “Kate … if we could go back to that time when we were together .. do you know what I would do? I would marry you.”

I laughed, but I was inwardly pleased, though I would not let him know it if I could help it.

“How?” I said.

“You can’t exactly force a woman to take marriage vows.

It isn’t as easy as rape, you know. That’s just a matter of physical strength. “

“You would have agreed.”

“I should never have agreed.”

“I sometimes think of it. In fact, lying here, I’ve thought of it a great deal. Married to Kate! That boy acknowledged as my son! We’d have others too, Kate. I see what I ought to have done.”

“They would not have had the blue blood which you were after.”

“They would have been part of you … and part of me. That’s what I dream of. That’s what I want more than anything in the world.” I stood up and he went on: “What do you say? Where are you going?”

I said: “It is time to dress your leg and I am going to get the dressing.”

He looked at me with his head on one side. He was laughing at me, but somehow I knew that he had meant what he had said I felt suddenly very nappy.

The winter was on us and it seemed particularly severe. We had plenty of wood to make a fire but we watched it carefully, rationing ourselves every day. The cold was more bearable than the lack of food.

We were able to wrap ourselves in fur rugs and bed coverings and we all huddled together in that room in which the Baron lay. He needed to rest his leg a good deal. It was impossible to get medical attention.

I did not see the doctor now. He had ceased to come and I wondered what had happened to him.

There was rioting occasionally in the streets and I did not go out.

The Baron begged me not to and I did not want to icave Kendal nor take him with me. I was terrified of what might happen to him.

He was a wonderfully intelligent child and he understood that we were besieged and what that meant. The Baron had explained to him. The boy would sit on the bed and listen not only to an explanation of the present situation but to tales of the past glories of marauding Norsemen. He loved such stories and would eagerly ask questions, and when some of the stories were repeated-for he often asked for them again and again-if there was a divergence from the first version, he would immediately point it out. They were very happy together, those two.

Later when I heard what was happening in the city I realized how fortunate we were. Jeanne was a wonderful asset to the household. She would go out occasionally and sometimes come back with a little food . some potatoes or other vegetables . some wine . We still had some flour left. How I had reason to bless Nicole’s careful housekeeping! She had been interested in the kitchen, for she had loved entertaining and had always seen that there was a good supply in the larders of the sort of food which could be kept. Thus, although we scarcely had a haven of plenty, we did have something to eat during those first three months.

There was no way out of the city and no way in. The frontiers were guarded, and the only communication with the rest of the country was done by means of carrier pigeons, Jeanne told me.

She was brave, and I think she undertook her forages into the city in an adventuous spirit.

So we passed through those months.

December came and as far as we knew there was no sign of the breaking of the siege. The winter lay before us. The days were dark. Through the windows we saw the snow falling and there was hushed silence everywhere.

Jeanne came back one day with a piece of salted pork.

“In the Ananas Inn,” she told us. I remembered the place with the pineapple sign outside. It was only a few streets from the house.

The innkeeper had been a friend of hers, she explained. Occasionally at a high cost he let her have something. The Baron had plently of money but the irony of it was that people did not want money nowadays.

What they wanted was food.

We would have the pork on Christmas Day, I said. We should have a real feast. After living on bread and wine for several weeks that would indeed be a treat.

That Christmas will stand out forever in my mind. A cold dark day.

Jeanne lighted the fire early as a special treat and we gathered in the Baron’s room.

I am sure food had never-or ever has since-tasted so good to me as that hard salt pork. It is indeed true that hunger seasons all dishes.

We talked and Kendal recalled last Christmas Eve when we had had a party with a lot of guests. He had got out of bed and watched. The ladies all had pretty dresses and they had all laughed and danced and there was music.

“Well,” said the Baron.

“Paris was not under siege then.”

“How long will it be?” asked Kendal.

“Ah, that is a question I cannot answer. It can’t last, though. Soon we shall all be rejoicing. There’ll be bonfires in the streets.”

We looked at the poor little wood fire struggling in the grate.

“Last year we gave presents to each other,” said Kendal.

“We’ll give presents to each other this year,” the Baron replied.

“Can we?” cried Kendal excitedly.

“Well, just see them … in your mind’s eyes. How would that do?”

“Oh yes, let’s,” cried Kendal.

“What will you give me, Baron?”

“Guess.”

He tried to think and the Baron said: “All right. I’ll tell. It’s a pony … a pony of your own. A white pony.”

“Where shall I ride him?”

“In the fields.”

“There aren’t any fields here.”

“Then we’ll go where there are fields.”

“Shall I just sit on it?”

“Just at first you’ll have to have a leading rein.”

“What’s that?”

The Baron told him.

“What’s his name?” asked Kendal.

“Ponies have to have names, don’t they?”

“You will choose his name.”

Kendal thought for a while. Then he leaned towards the Baron and putting his arms round his neck whispered in his ear.

“Would that do?” he asked.

“I think it might do very well.”

“After all,” said Kendal, ‘you gave it to me and that’s your real name, isn’t it? “

“It is, and now it is the pony’s. Ha, Rollo! The best and most beautiful pony in France.”

Kendal smiled blissfully. I knew he could see himself galloping through fields.

He stopped suddenly and said: “You haven’t given the others anything.”

“No. We were so taken up with your pony. Well.. Jeanne … what shall I give her?”

Kendal whispered to him.

“Yes, that will do very well. Come here, Jeanne. I shall pin it on your bodice.”

“It’s a beautiful brooch,” cried Kendal.

“Of course it is,” said the Baron.

“It’s made of diamonds and emeralds. That will suit jeanne very well.”

“Thank you. Thank you,” said jeanne playing the game to perfection.

“I never thought to have such a brooch in all my days. “

“And now Maman,” said Kendal.

“What have you got for her? It should be something very nice.”

“Oh, it is,” said the Baron. He took my hand and went through the motions of putting a ring on my finger.

“There!” he said.

“Isn’t that magnificent. That’s a family heirloom.”

“Is it real gold?” asked Kendal.

“As real as can be. And the blue stone … that is a sapphire. The finest sapphire in the world. The others are diamonds. The ring has been in my family for generations. It is handed down through the years.”

“Do they give it to the brides?” asked Kendal.

“That’s right,” cried the Baron as though in wonder.

“How did you know?”

“I just did, ” said Kendal, looking wise.

“Does that make my Maman .. “

He was looking at the Baron eagerly. No one spoke for a few seconds.

Kendal went on: “Then,” he said rather shyly, ‘you’d be my father. I’m glad. I never had a father. Other boys seem to. I would like having a father. “

I wanted to get up and go out of the room. I was overcome by my emotions.

I forced myself to say: “It’s my turn to give the presents.”

We played guessing games after that-chiefly the old one of thinking of something and making the rest of the party guess what it was . a never-failing favourite with Kendal.

Then as a special treat we had a little more of the salt pork though prudence told me it would have been wiser to have saved it for another day.

But this was Christmas Day . the strangest I had ever spent, and yet in spite of everything I was not unhappy.

There was a change after Christmas Day, and two days later the bombardment started again. It seemed that the enemy was concentrating on the forts rather than the centre of the city and a great deal of damage was done to those of Vanves and Issy.

There was no more salt pork or any luxuries. The Baron confessed to me that the innkeeper at the Ananas had held the food for him which he had stocked there just in case something like this should happen.

“I thought I should get you away in time,” he said ‘but in case I did not—as it turned out— I made a little preparation. I gave the innkeeper permission to take half of the food himself. It would have been too much of a temptation to have it there in the midst of his starving family. I was surprised that he did not take the lot. Even in these circumstances he was afraid of Monsieur Ie Baron. “

He had reported the last with a certain pride and I thought: He has not really changed. He only seems to have mellowed because of these strange days through which we are living. If ever his life becomes normal again, he will be just the same as he ever was.

But I did not entirely believe this. I had seen him with Kendal and I knew that there was a steady affection between them. Kendal thought him wonderful. That pleased me while it gave rise to a certain apprehension.

I was glad of their relationship now but I often wondered what would happen if ever we moved out of this strange nightmare into which we had been drawn.

We had passed into January. Jeanne reported that people were dying of starvation. They were too weak to riot and were ready to do anything for deliverance.

We had very little to eat now. The Baron said that he had such reserves of strength that he needed little to keep him alive. I discovered that he often gave his share to Kendal. That moved me as much as anything he had done, and I felt thew that I almost loved him, There was a slight change in the weather. The cold wind had dropped and the sun came out. I felt an irresistible urge to step outside. I would not go far and tell no one that I had gone, for they would protest and try to stop me. But the bombardment had stopped now and streets were safe. The Prussians must have realized that the most effective way to make Paris surrender was through starvation.

I wished I had not taken that walk. I would never forget the sight of the child, He was lying against some palings and for a moment I could have thought it was Kendal lying there. The child’s fair hair escaped from a woollen hat and I thought he had fallen. I went forward to help him.

I touched him and he fell backwards so that he was lying there, pale and cold. He was just bones in a red coat and hat. He must have been dead some time . dead . of starvation. There was nothing I could do for him now. If I had had food to give him, it would have been too late.

I turned and ran back to the house. Kendal came towards me.

“Have you been out, Maman?”

“Yes … yes .. Just a little way.”

“The sun’s shining,” he said.

It shone on his face, showing up the pallor, the lacklustre in those eyes which had once been so bright. the pale thin little face.

I turned away because I could not bear to look at him.

“Oh God,” I prayed.

“End this nightmare. Don’t let that happen … not to Kendal.”

The Baron was standing nearby. He limped towards me and taking my hand drew me into his room.

“What happened?” he asked when we were alone.

I fell against him. I was half sobbing.

He said gently: “Tell me, Kate.”

“It was a child … out there … a dead child … a boy … like Kendal.”

He stroked my hair.

“He’ll be all right. This can’t go on. They’ll have to call a halt. It’s coming soon. It must. We’ll survive.”

I stood there clinging to him. He held me very tightly and went on:

“Don’t give way. That wouldn’t be like you. It won’t be long now.”

He comforted me as no one else could have done at that time. I believed him. He would take care of us and he could never fail. What had happened to him would have killed most people. But not the Baron.

Such was the way in which he had built himself up for me. We must be all right while he was there. He had found a means to get us some food. He gave the food which he wanted himself to Kendal. He loved the boy who was his son.

I just stood there leaning against him and he put his lips to my hair.

That scene from the turret room flashed before my eyes and I thought how different this was. I was glad to be held thus and that he was the one who held me.

“Kate,” he said after a while, “I want to talk to you. I’ve had it in my mind for a few days now. This really is going to be over soon.

There’ll be an armistice and then I shall want to get us out of Paris as soon as it is possible. “

“I can’t leave Paris,” I said.

“My work is here. When things are normal …”

“How long do you think it is going to be before things are normal! Who is going to want portraits painted? These people want to eat. They want to recover. And even when the food starts coming into Paris, how long do you think it will take to get enough provisions here? Paris is going to be a sad city for some time to come. We are going to get away just as soon as the frontiers are open.”

Where to? “

“To Centeville for a start.”

“To the castle … no, no.”

“You must come. You’ve got to be nursed back to health. So have I. So will anyone who has lived through this siege … and particularly the boy.”

“I am so frightened for him.”

“No need to be … if you are sensible. Now I know how you feel about the castle. I have a proposition. There is a little place known as La Loge du Chateau. It is just inside the moat and was used by servants at one time. I shall take you there and you can live there with the boy and jeanne until Paris is fit for you to return.”

I was silent.

“You will have to sink your pride if you are going to consider the boy,” he said.

“When have I ever let anything interfere with his wellbeing?” I demanded.

“The answer to that is Never, so you will be sensible now. The child is ill-nourished and has been for three months or more. Thank God he is strong enough to stand it. But he needs good food … fresh air. country life. He needs to be built up. He’s going to have all that, Kate, if I have to kidnap him to give it to him. He needs that more than anything at the moment, and I repeat, he is going to have it.”

I met his eyes steadily.

“I accept your offer,” I told him.

He smiled slowly.

“I knew you would, Kate. It’ll come soon. I know it.

This simply cannot continue. “

“How will you get out of Paris?” I asked.

“What means of transport?”

“I’ll find a way.”

“I can’t see how.”

“But you know I will, eh?”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“I know you will.”

Then he leaned towards me and kissed me swiftly on the forehead.

“You will not be far away from me, Kate,” he said softly “We have grown close, haven’t we … in these months?” I said: “You have been good to us in many ways.”

“Do you expect me not to be … to my own?” I broke away from him. I went into the salon. Grim. Cold.

Deserted. What a travesty of other days. I sat down and covered my face with my hands. I couldn’t help thinking of the little dead boy.

But the Baron had comforted me. I knew he would take care of us and that because of him we were going to come safely through.

The armistice was signed on the twenty-seventh of January. There would have been rejoicing in the streets if the people had not been too weak for it. The next day the city capitulated. The siege of Paris was over.

The Baron seemed to have taken on new strength. He now walked at normal speed, although he dragged his right leg a little, it was true; but it did not seem to inconvenience him very much.

He was gone all day and I began to be worried. I prayed desperately for his safe return; and in the late afternoon he came home.

He was pleased with himself.

“We leave tomorrow,” he said.

“I’m getting horses.”

He took both my hands in his and kissed them; then he drew me to him and held me close, laughing.

“We’re almost there,” he said.

“How did you do it? There are no horses!”

“Coercion. Bribery. It happens, you know, even in the most disciplined armies.”

I caught my breath.

“You mean … the Germans?”

“I’m paying a good price. Money, it seems, is still the key to most things in the world. What a mercy I have a certain amount of that useful commodity.” Then he shouted: “Kendal. Where are you?

Come here. We’re going away. We’re going to the country. We leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Jeanne! Jeanne, where are you? Be ready.

The horses will be here tomorrow morning. I want to get going as soon as it is light. Kate, you and Jeanne will ride together. I’ll take the boy. “

How excited we were! There was a little bread dipped in wine which was all we had for supper. We didn’t care. It was over. Tomorrow we should be on our way. The Baron had said so; and we believed that he could do anything however impossible it might seem.