Napoleon turned to smile at her. ‘Not for the present, at least.’ Then his head rolled back on to the smooth flesh of her breast and he nuzzled her nipple as he gazed into the flames. ‘Besides, I am needed here. It seems that the Austrian Emperor has taken advantage of my absence to push his forces right up to the borders of our territories on the Danube. He must be persuaded to draw back, before he provokes a war.’

‘More war?’ Josephine stopped stroking his hair.‘Are we never to see an end to war, my love, so that we can grow old together?’

Napoleon took her hand and gently kissed the palm. ‘There will be peace.’

‘I hope so. With all my heart. As do so many others. I do not know how a nation can endure war as long as France has. There must be an end to it soon.’

Napoleon was silent for a moment. At length, in a gentle tone, he said, ‘Now that sounds like Talleyrand speaking.’

‘I suppose it does.’ Josephine smiled. ‘Well, he has certainly been making no secret of his desire for peace recently.You know, for one of your most respected advisers, he certainly seems to share very few of your views. I don’t know how you can tolerate it.’

‘No. I sometimes wonder why I do,’ Napoleon mused.‘Perhaps when he resigned as foreign minister I should have stripped him of all his offices. I doubt it will surprise you to hear that Talleyrand has been plotting to overthrow me. Plotting with Fouché and Murat.’

He sensed her stiffen, and quickly eased himself up and turned so that he was facing her. Josephine’s eyes met his for a moment and then wavered before fixing on the flames over his shoulder. ‘I had no idea it was as serious as that,’ she said.

‘But you had some idea of what he was plotting?’

‘No. Not really. He talks a lot, but that’s just the way it is.You never know how much to take seriously with Talleyrand. But plotting to overthrow you? Are you certain?’

‘I have enough evidence to send him to the guillotine.’

Josephine was silent for a moment before she spoke again. ‘And will you?’

‘I don’t know. He may yet be of some use to me, and I doubt the royal courts of Europe would thank me for extinguishing one of their brightest lights. But that is no reason to spare him, especially if there is any more to his treachery than I have already discovered.The difficulty is that Talleyrand and Fouché are my creatures. I raised them up. If I tear them down, that is to publicly admit that my initial judgement of their loyalty was flawed. That would be embarrassing. I will have to think about the matter before I decide their fate.’