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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

‘But he didn’t come between us, not really. That’s what I’m trying to say. You’re here with me now. And when my world was falling apart, when the Revolutionaries had executed my mother and then my father too – I thought I’d lost everything. But you showed me it was only a small world. It wasn’t the whole universe. And I could have a new world, if I wanted one. With you.’

Their movement had slowed so they were standing face to face, arms closed round each other.

‘I know I don’t talk about it much,’ continued Camille, ‘but I don’t think I would have made it without you. I know it can’t have been easy to leave your father…’

Ada tensed in her arms. ‘After what he did I never want to see him again.’

Camille tilted her head to kiss Ada again, clinging to her like a rock among the waves.

‘Thank you,’ she mumbled against her lips. ‘For everything.’

Ada was so used to Camille the leader of the battalion she sometimes forgot she could look like this, her hair curling at her temples and the edges of her eyes crinkling in a smile. The girl she’d run away for.

‘I meant it,’ said Ada, letting herself sway to the music still filling the air. ‘We can have our own world. When the Revolution is over, we’ll find a way to live. I’ll study – the universities will have to start admitting women – and you, what do you want in your world, Cam? When this is over?’

Camille shrugged. ‘You.’

Ada smiled. ‘You’ll have me. But what else?’

Camille opened her mouth, then shut it again. For a moment, Ada had the unshakable sense that no one had ever asked Camille what she wanted before.

Then the moment passed, and Camille’s arms snaked tighter around her waist.

‘No,’ she murmured. ‘That’s it. Just you. Because in all the huge, unknowable universe, there’s only ever been you that I’ve loved.’

Ada kissed her gently. ‘I love you too.’

As they danced the stars of Paris shone above them.

7

The Parlour, Au Petit Suisse

16 Prairial Year II

Sitting on the rag-rug in front of the cold fireplace, Olympe held her hand over a feather. Feeble daylight streamed through the shutters, picking out stains on the wooden table and threadbare patches on the chairs. It was the morning after the Conciergerie job took an unexpected turn and they’d slept late. Gathered round her were the battalion in mixed states of dress, Ada in a smart cream sprigged muslin day dress, Al still in his voluminous nightshirt, hair like a haystack. Ada had lent Olympe a clean outfit and Camille’s brush for her shorn hair.