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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

Camille had left his pistol at the Au Petit Suisse. Its weight at her waist no longer gave her comfort.

When the crowd had thinned, she made her way round to the iron gates of the Conciergerie. The same guard who’d let her and Guil in a few days ago was on duty. He didn’t recognise her, and a few coins in his hand had him opening the gate and having her escorted as a visitor to the dank pistole cells.

She found Al under an arch, his hand wrapped round the neck of a bottle of gin. He didn’t look up when she dragged over a stool to sit next to him.

‘This your charitable work for the year?’ he asked after taking a slug. ‘Tell yourself you’re a good person because you came to offer some comfort before they chop my head off.’

The impulse to snap at him brought words to her mouth. But she paused, remembering what Ada had said about the two of them. How similar they were. How her words hurt Al more than he ever let on.

‘I’m here to make sure you’re not going to be totally soaked through with gin when we need your help.’

‘My help? With what, the best recipes for rat on a stick? All the hot intelligence about the prison guards? I’ve got nothing you want any more.’

‘Don’t be dense, we need your help getting you out of here.’

He arched a brow. ‘And how, pray tell, are you going to do that?’

Camille hesitated. ‘The battalion can do a prison break in its sleep. Do you really think you’re such a special case?’

‘I think you’re two men down and have a patchy track record of actually stopping people getting executed.’ Three down, she thought, with Ada gone. ‘Ask your father – oh, wait.’ He gave a hollow laugh. ‘Forgive me if I put a bit more faith in the gin to make me feel better.’

‘What do you want, Al? An apology? Do you want me to say I’m sorry I didn’t know your family was on trial when you never bothered to tell us? That I’m sorry you’re so bad at managing your own feelings you drink and put the rest of us at risk? Because you’ll be waiting a long damn time.’

He knocked back another gulp of alcohol. ‘There’s my girl. Make sure you go for the killer blow, tell me you know how I’m feeling but you didn’t give up and drown yourself.’