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Back Dangerous Remedy
Chapters (86)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Contents
  7. Paris, June 1794
  8. PART ONE
  9. 1
  10. 2
  11. 3
  12. 4
  13. 5
  14. 6
  15. 7
  16. PART TWO
  17. 1
  18. 2
  19. 3
  20. 4
  21. 5
  22. 6
  23. 7
  24. 8
  25. 9
  26. 10
  27. 11
  28. 12
  29. PART THREE
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. 6
  36. 7
  37. 8
  38. 9
  39. 10
  40. 11
  41. 12
  42. 13
  43. 14
  44. 15
  45. 16
  46. 17
  47. PART FOUR
  48. 1
  49. 2
  50. 3
  51. 4
  52. 5
  53. 6
  54. 7
  55. 8
  56. 9
  57. 10
  58. 11
  59. PART FIVE
  60. 1
  61. 2
  62. 3
  63. 4
  64. 5
  65. 6
  66. 7
  67. PART SIX
  68. 1
  69. 2
  70. 3
  71. 4
  72. 5
  73. 6
  74. 7
  75. 8
  76. 9
  77. 10
  78. 11
  79. 12
  80. 13
  81. 14
  82. Postscript
  83. A Ship in Le Havre Port
  84. Acknowledgements
  85. About the Author
  86. About Zephyr

‘No. I’m not.’

5

The Crypt

Ada watched Olympe sleep. She was buried under a heap of jackets, dead to the world. Al had disappeared some time during the night. She didn’t know where. For a brief, unexpected moment, she was alone.

From the pocket tied under her skirts, she pulled out the letter from her father that Bisset the bookseller had passed to her. The money that had come with it had been half-spent already. Part of her wished the letter had burned in the fire. But it hadn’t, and the game continued. To read or not to read.

She turned it over in her hand. It was a small square of paper, folded over on itself and sealed shut with a hastily applied blob of wax. The ink showed through from the inside in an illegible backwards scrawl. She eased a nail along a fold, sliding her finger under the paper and like that, the seal cracked open.

Well, then. The choice was out of her hands.

To read, it was.

My dear Adalaide,

I am sorry you were so upset by our last meeting. Please believe me when I say that all I’ve ever done is care for you. Perhaps it’s impossible to understand the choices our parents make, but whatever else you think of me, never doubt that I want the best for you.

Come back again in a few days and I’ll do what I can to leave some more money with Bisset. You know you can ask me for anything you need.

She crumpled it without reading further and stuffed it back in her pocket.

Sick of being cooped up, she fished out a shawl from their stashed supplies and went to get some air.

Then stopped dead at the top of the stairs.

James and Camille were together. Their arms wrapped around each other. Then James was pressing a kiss to Camille’s mouth as she tilted her chin to meet him. He slid his fingers into her hair and held her close.

They looked so familiar with each other – Ada remembered that, of course, they were.

Camille was crying, Ada realised. Camille never let anyone see her cry.

For a moment she wanted to go back downstairs and pretend this had never happened.

But Camille had spotted her over James’s shoulder and was disentangling herself.

‘Ada, it’s not what it looks like—’

Ada didn’t give her time to finish the sentence.

Pulling her shawl bitingly tight around her, she marched past them and let herself out into the alley behind the charnel house. Sheer, caustic jealousy flooded through her.