Part 4 (1/2)

'The tale you've told him', retaliated David, 'but I know your face.'

'As I do,' the red-haired man said as deep laughter began to rumble up from his belly. 'He's not a spy, he's much more than that.'

'Then who is he?' David cried and the red-haired man beckoned him over and whispered in his ear.

'I knew it!' David shouted in exultation, looking at the Doctor with undisguised hatred. 'I'll despatch him now.'

'No,' the red-haired man ordered. 'We can put him to better use.'

'Who is he?' Preslin asked. Before David could answer the red-haired man hushed him and then beckoned Preslin to his side and whispered in his ear. Preslin looked at the Doctor in disbelief and dismay as one man whispered to the next. Then they all drew their swords and stared at the Doctor.

'Whosoever you think I am, I am not,' the Doctor said in exasperation. 'Now kindly allow me to leave as I have an important rendezvous by Notre Dame at Vespers.'

All the men hooted with laughter ad Preslin went over to the Doctor.

'It is one, I fear, you will not keep, my lord,' he said gently but with venom in his voice. 'So pray, be seated.'

The Doctor looked around, took the situation into account and did the only thing possible. He sat down.

4.

Double Trouble In spite of the disagreeable confrontation with Lerans and his companions at the auberge, Simon Duval sat at his desk in the Cardinal's palace and was not dissatisfied with his day's work so far. He had despatched troops to round up the dissident Huguenot apothecaries in accordance with the Abbot of Amboise's orders and he had prepared a brief doc.u.ment for his new master's perusal on the presence of the two strangers he had encountered in the auberge.

But by mid-afternoon his day had taken a turn for the worse. The Captain of the Guard, accompanied by a flabby young man whose name was Roger Colbert, came to report Anne Chaplet's flight and rescue by, of all people, Viscount Lerans. Duval was livid with rage.

'You dolt, you blundering imbecile, to permit him to make a fool of you, of all of us,' he ranted.

'There were too many of them,' the Captain bl.u.s.tered, 'we'd've been killed.'

'Perhaps a better fate than that which may lie in store for you,' Duval snarled, then took a deep breath and spoke with icy calm. 'Why did the wench run away?'

The Captain exchanged a nervous glance with Colbert before clearing his throat. 'It may have been because she overheard something we said.'

'But couldn't possibly have understood, sir,' Colbert hastened to add while rubbing his plump, sweaty hands together.

Duval looked straight through him and said, 'If she didn't why did she run?' He turned back to the Captain and asked him what it was they were discussing that could have frightened her. The Captain shook his head and was at a loss for words.

'Oh my life, I can't say, sir,' he confessed.

' For For your life, try harder,' Duval replied and leant back in his chair, linking his hands and putting his forefingers to his lips. your life, try harder,' Duval replied and leant back in his chair, linking his hands and putting his forefingers to his lips.

'The celebrations?' the Captain half-asked Colbert, glancing at him nervously.

'Yes, yesterday's celebrations,' Colbert mumbled.

'Nothing to frighten the wench there,' Duval tapped his lips gently with his fingertips, 'so you must've said something specific. What was it?'

The Captain rubbed his forehead for several seconds before replying hesitantly: 'One of us may have mentioned Wa.s.sy.'

'I er I remember the er town being er referred to,' Colbert stammered.

'There's nothing to fear in that,' Duval began and stopped abruptly before continuing in measured tones, 'unless, of course, she's a Huguenot.'

The Captain licked his lips and Colbert hung his head.

'Is she?' Duval whispered before exploding. ' Is she Is she?' he roared, jumping to his feet. 'In the Most Ill.u.s.trious Cardinal's palace, a Huguenot wench!'

Both the Captain and Colbert took a step backwards.

'I have never been aware of her religious inclinations, sir,' the Captain burbled.

'You, the Captain of the Most Ill.u.s.trious Cardinal's personal guard, are not aware of the religious att.i.tudes of his staff. Then I shall tell you. Yes, she is a Huguenot, she must be a Huguenot for why else would Lerans defy you to defend her?' Duval rose from behind his desk, walked to the front of it and prodded the Captain's chest with his forefinger. 'You are dismissed, reduced to the ranks,' he shouted, 'and your first duty as a common soldier will be to provide me by five of the clock this afternoon with a detailed report on the wench, naming any family or relatives and where they may be found. Now, get out, both of you!'

After they had fled the room, Duval walked over to the window and stared down at the courtyard below. The girl had to be located and recaptured, if possible, by the time the Abbot was installed. Then he remembered the landlord at the auberge and, grabbing his jacket, hurried out of the palace.

Antoine-Marc's memory needed a little monetary jogging before it recalled that Anne had been taken by two of Lerans's companions to the Admiral de Coligny's house for safekeeping. Duval was furious, knowing that it would be difficult to prise her out of there, but his rage almost knew no bounds when he returned to his office and learnt that not one dissident Huguenot apothecary had been taken in the afternoon raids. As the Commander put it with a shrug of his shoulders, they had all simply disappeared.

'I send you out to arrest twenty-three men and you come back empty-handed!' Duval shouted. 'Why didn't you bring in their wives or their children as hostages?'

'They'd gone too,' the luckless Commander replied.

Duval threw himself into the chair behind his desk and drummed his fingers on its surface before dismissing the Commander with the wave of a hand. Once he was alone he took stock of the situation. It was not satisfactory, far from it. He would be forced to report that not a single Huguenot apothecary was behind bars and, knowing the Abbot's reputation as a disciplinarian, he directed his thoughts to a matter of much greater importance saving his own skin.

He was still struggling with the problem when at five o'clock the ex-Captain of the Guard reported that Anne Chaplet's only family and this from hearsay among the kitchen staff was a brother, Raoul, and an aunt, name unknown, both of whom lived in Paris.

'Find them and arrest them,' Duval ordered, 'and the sooner the better.' The former Captain of the Guard saluted him and left hurriedly.

Duval buckled on his sword and put on his plumed hat to attend Vespers at Notre Dame where he would meet the Abbot of Amboise. At least, he tried to convince himself, he was going with something favourable, however slight, to report.

Steven had pa.s.sed away the afternoon visiting the Louvre but his pleasure had been marred by a nagging concern for the Doctor. It wasn't anything he could put his finger on and he had tried to push it out of his mind but it was still there as he made his way back across le Grand Pont le Grand Pont amongst the crowd, pus.h.i.+ng and jostling its way towards the Cathedral. A carriage squeezed Steven with a lot of others to one side and inside it he recognised Simon Duval. amongst the crowd, pus.h.i.+ng and jostling its way towards the Cathedral. A carriage squeezed Steven with a lot of others to one side and inside it he recognised Simon Duval.

The Vespers Bell began to clang out its call to prayer and Steven found himself being swept past the auberge towards Notre Dame. He tried to fight against the human tide but it was impossible and he was carried along with it to the square in front of the Cathedral. Soldiers armed with pikes held back the crowd to leave a path along which the carriages of dignitaries attending the service could approach the Cathedral steps.

Trumpeters and heralds stood on either side of the doors and as each carriage drew up at the foot of the steps, the occupant would be greeted with a fanfare befitting his rank. Several drew shouts from the crowd. 'Tavannes,' they cried to one who waved his plumed hat in recognition.

'Guise,' to another, a name which Steven already knew, and then 'Anne, Anne,' to a middle-aged woman whose two handmaidens daintily lifted the front of her full, embroidered skirt so that she would not trip as she mounted the steps.

Steven spotted Duval standing by the doorway with two of the three clergymen he had seen in the Cathedral earlier the rotund priest with the booming voice and the cadaverous one, still clutching his cross, as they inclined their heads to the dignitaries entering the Cathedral.