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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

He hooked one hand around the edge of the hole. The force of the water was pushing him away, but he held on. Ada followed him and held onto the other side of the wall.

Al hesitated, then plunged into the water with a muttered, ‘Blaze of glory.’

‘Wait until the water has filled most of the room,’ said Ada as the water lapped her chin. ‘There should be less of a current to swim against then.’

They bobbed with the water as it rose, holding on to the wall, taking shallow, gulping breaths. Finally, when there was only a hand-span’s worth of air left in the room, Guil took a breath and ducked under the water. Al snapped a jaunty salute and followed him.

Ada was alone, struggling to tread water as the sodden skirts of her dress bunched around her legs. For a moment, she considered diving and searching for her pins. She could try the lock again – but she knew she wouldn’t be able to pull the door open against the weight of the water.

There was only one way out.

In the last moments of air, she ripped at her skirts, pulling them off so her legs were free to kick. She thought about Camille eating strawberries in the Jardin du Luxembourg, the juice staining her lips as red as the sunburn on her forehead. She thought about her father lining up all his fossils for her to play with. Her mother fanning herself on the porch of their house in Martinique, stretching her bare feet.

She’d survived the sickness that had taken her mother. Survived running away from her father. Survived the Revolution. She could survive this. They were the Battalion of the Dead. There was no fate, no destiny. Everything was a choice.

Gulping a lungful of air, Ada launched herself into the water and swam into the river.

Today she chose to live.

PART TWO

Who Shall Hang the Bell about the Cat’s Neck?

1

Headquarters of the Bataillon des Morts

15 Prairial Year II

The first fingers of dusk had swallowed the higgledy roofline of the city in a thick swathe of grey and pink, and still Camille had not come home from the Conciergerie job. Ada was curled in a window seat in the parlour, resting her forehead against the grimy glass to watch each figure passing through the street below. Outside, lamps were being lit and the ornate facade of the Palais du Luxembourg was sketched as several monolithic, featureless shadows speckled with light from the windows.