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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

Dorval, who should have died in the theatre days before. An angry burn puckered the side of his face, as cruel as his smile. Camille’s heart was racing. How was Dorval still alive? How had he found them here?

Molyneux shuddered, eyes widening in shock. Then he coughed, convulsing, as a trickle of red bubbled over his lips.

Dorval pulled the knife from Molyneux’s back and pushed him into her arms. She fell under his sudden weight, knees hitting the ground hard. Over Molyneux’s shoulder she watched Dorval clean his knife on a silk handkerchief.

‘You disappointed us. I told you there would be consequences.’

PART SIX

Dangerous Remedy

1

Île aux Cygnes

20 Prairial Year II

Camille ran.

Blindly, scrambling through stampeding crowds, gasping around the knot in her chest. She was slick with blood – no, she couldn’t, she wouldn’t think about what had just happened. Ada. She needed to find Ada. That was the only thing that mattered now.

Where the Champs de Mars sloped to the river and the Île aux Cygnes, Camille left the crowds and headed into the alleys towards the spot she had planned to meet Ada. Above her, the Périer brothers’ steam mills rose over the scattered buildings, the twelve huge driving wheels churning incessantly, filling the air with a metallic thrum.

There was no one waiting for her.

She sank down by one of the channels of brackish river water that ran through the reclaimed land, wiping her bloody hands on her trousers. Her father’s pistol was still at her belt, but she was careful to avoid touching it.

Ada would come. She had to.

The air was heavy with the odours of offal and lamp oil from the factories and slaughterhouses. Camille felt numb. Neither side had Olympe. They’d won, but why didn’t it feel like it? She was aware of the pain in her lungs. First the river water, then the fire. She could barely catch her breath.

Church bells chimed the afternoon into evening, and still Ada didn’t come.

A hand touched her shoulder and she started, expecting Dorval.

But it was James, easing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her up.

‘Cam, thank god I found you.’ He brushed his palms against her tear-stained cheeks. When had she started crying? ‘Are you okay? Are you hurt?’

‘Molyneux,’ she mumbled. ‘Uncle Georges…’

‘Molyneux did this to you?’

She shook her head. ‘No. James – he’s dead.’

‘What?’

‘Dorval stabbed him. He said – he said there would be consequences.’

James looked away, pushing his hair back from his face. For a moment, he looked so young. Once, when they were children and playing in the river that ran through the Henley house’s garden, they’d tried to catch frogs in kitchen jars. But James had fallen, dropping a jar onto a captive frog and killing it. He’d cried for hours and buried the frog in a flower bed.