An Affair of Poisons(18)
“Well, she’s rather charming,” Desgrez says, stepping off the moldering ladder and into the sludge. He takes a large bite of bread as he turns to inspect the tunnel. “This place … not so much.”
“Captain Desgrez?” I snatch a piece of his bread and shove it into my mouth. “Really? You’re the newest member of the Paris Police, only a year on watch.”
“True, but since I’m now the only member of the watch, I’m captain by default.”
I scoff and set off into the suffocating blackness. “Keep up, Captain.”
“Mock me all you’d like, but who’s the dauphin more likely to listen to: Officer Desgrez or Captain Desgrez? Just let me do the talking.”
When we enter the chamber, Anne and Fran?oise push up to their elbows and smile at Desgrez. Before he joined the police, he was a permanent fixture in our escapades, preferring to wreak havoc round the palace with me and the girls instead of assisting his father with Louis’s lessons.
“This is a secure hideaway!” Louis bellows at me. “You cannot bring your rabble-rousing friends—”
“Forgive the intrusion, Your Royal Highness.” Desgrez sketches a perfect bow. “Captain Desgrez of the Paris Police.”
“Captain? How did you of all people rise through the ranks so quickly?”
“My exceptional skills, of course. Skills I wish to lend to you. I’ve come to escort you from this hellhole to safety.”
Louis looks him up and down with a dubious frown.
“I obviously can’t wear my uniform, given the circumstances, but I served directly under the lieutenant general.” Desgrez spouts off a litany of names and titles and eventually Louis nods.
“Very well, go on.”
“We’ve devised a plan to remove you and your sisters from Paris, but it will require your cooperation and assistance.”
Louis crosses his arms. “What do you mean, we’ve devised a plan? Surely you don’t mean him?” He juts his chin at me.
Desgrez shoots me a warning glare and turns back to Louis. “The circumstances are dire. We need every capable man on our side.”
Louis grunts as if to say, Precisely.
I toss my hands into the air. “I saved your life! If it weren’t for me, you’d have burnt to cinders with the palace. You’re the one who’s completely incompetent. I’m beginning to see why Father had to hold your hand so tightly.”
“Silence!” Louis punches the dripping stone wall and then immediately yelps and cradles his fist. It’s abundantly clear he’s never punched anyone or anything, and I can’t help but laugh. Desgrez looks like he wants to strangle me. Marie gapes as if I’m a monster. I’m generally not quite so brazen, but Louis needs to know I won’t be intimidated.
Desgrez grabs me by the shoulder and hauls me behind him, then he fawns and grovels until Louis finally calms down and listens to our plan. “We obviously don’t want you to be anywhere near the explosion—we can’t risk you being injured or seen—so you will collect a cart, which I’ll hide for you near the patisserie. Situate the girls in the back beneath blankets, and then meet Josse and me at the intersection of the rues de Richelieu and Saint-Honoré.”
The chamber is silent as Louis digests the plan. “I don’t like it,” he says at last. “If I leave the city, I may lose it entirely.”
Look around! It’s already lost! I want to shout, but Desgrez glares at me out of the corners of his eyes.
“This is your best option, Your Highness,” Desgrez says. “You’re not gaining any ground hiding in the sewer. You must get out of the city and rouse your allies in Anjou and Brittany and Savoy. Plus your sisters cannot wait much longer.” He glances over at Fran?oise and Anne, tossing and turning in the corner.
The silence stretches and I brace myself for Louis to say something awful, like, We cannot put little girls above the well-being of a nation. They are technically bastards, after all. Not to mention girls. But he grinds his teeth and mutters, “Fine. But if this ends poorly, you are to blame.” He jabs a finger at me. “Father, God rest his soul, would have never supported such a preposterous, dangerous plan.”
Louis’s words wheedle beneath my skin, and I have to shut him up before the guilt seeps in, before Father’s taunting voice crushes me with doubt. I do not care what he would think. I refuse to care. I am going to save my sisters and prove them all wrong.
“Caution got our father killed,” I yell. “He disregarded the majority of his people and they assassinated him. Pardon me for not wanting to follow in his footsteps.”
I turn on my heel, fist the back of Desgrez’s vest, and drag him across the chamber. I need to be free of these stinking tunnels and Louis’s condescending scowl.
“Thought we agreed I’d do the talking,” Desgrez says once we’re out of earshot.
“You were too busy kissing Louis’s feet to say what needed to be said.”
“You’re both impossible. Would it kill you to show him a little respect?”
“Yes,” I say as I charge up the iron steps and burst through the hatch into the patisserie.
Desgrez rolls his eyes and dons his hood, and we slip into the heaving crowd on the rue Saint-Honoré.