The chapel is a chamber of white stone and stained glass. When the light is right, the bright red of Saint Jerome’s robes and the cerulean blue of the Holy Virgin’s cloak will fall on a distant panel of wall or a square block of floor and one can step inside a pool of color and pray in color, as though wrapped in the Virgin’s own linen. At the altar, the Dauphin, swathed in dark velvet, kneels, waiting to receive the body of Christ.

At Joan’s side: a whisper into her ear, and le Maçon murmurs, on tiptoe, “Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims, confidant of His Majesty.” Then he grumbles, “Present chancellor of France.” By which he means: the highest-ranking judicial officer in the kingdom. By which he means: it is not a hereditary office, so it can be bestowed and it can be taken away at the Dauphin’s whim, and whoever occupies it is bound to be a favorite of the King.

She sees the Archbishop, a lean man weighted down in robes. Such men rarely smile. He bends and places the wafer on the tip of the Dauphin’s tongue. A moment, and the body of Christ disappears into the body of the French King.

She half-expects a small puff of the chest, a surge of confidence, as Christ’s spirit moves through royal limbs and is absorbed into royal blood. Instead, the Dauphin seems to deflate. Shoulders hunched, he prays, as though to be heard by God requires an act of concentrated will. One must focus as the prayer floats higher and higher through the strata of the heavens to His divine hand.

Prayer finished, he rises slowly to his feet. A nod to the Archbishop, a final genuflection to the altar, and then he turns. He is not alone. Courtiers emerge like black beetles from behind the chapel’s columns. One stands out in particular, an especially large and bulbous beetle dressed in rich layers of purple, who trails close behind.

“Georges de La Trémoille,” le Maçon says. She hears something else in his voice: bitterness, jealousy? “Court favorite.” He coughs. “And the Archbishop’s personal friend. Both are thorns in my side.

“Any moment now,” he says. He is watching the Dauphin closely. “Any moment now His Majesty will look up. I informed him we would be here today, so be ready to kneel when I tell you to.”