Rupert felt a stab of guilt at this comment. How had everyone noticed the decline in his father’s health when he had not? Because he’d stayed away too long; because he’d assumed it was due to Justin’s death. Why hadn’t Justin told him? Or Fran? Then he thought back to the letters he had received from them while he was in St Etienne and he remembered Fran had mentioned something about Papa not being well. He found her letter again now and reread it. Yes, there it was;

Papa has not been well lately and Mama is relying on me more and more about household matters. They’re suddenly older, Rupert. Don’t leave it too long before you come home again.

Fran had mentioned that her father was not well and suggested that he come home, but there had seemed no urgency in this. He read the letter again. He should have understood that she was worried. He should have come home, if only for a visit, and seen for himself, but he hadn’t wanted to. He hadn’t wanted to leave Hélène, leave her to the likes of Simon Barnier. He had put his own wishes before those of his family. He’d thought there was plenty of time, that he and Hélène had their whole lives before them, and now everything had changed. Now he was needed at Pilgrim’s Oak.

That evening he sat down and wrote back to Hélène. She was probably already in Paris and so as she had suggested he would send the letter there. He was pleased that she and her mother were going there – it removed Hélène from St Etienne and from Simon Barnier.

My darling girl…

Chapter 32

Hélène and Annette accompanied Rosalie to Paris the following day. They were both pleased to be going, Hélène because she was missing Rupert too much at Belair and Annette because she wanted Hélène safely away from Simon Barnier. They travelled up by train, but Emile had sent Pierre with them so that he could drive them in the light chaise that they kept in town, and the first few days were spent shopping and visiting friends.

Pierre was delighted to be able to spend time back in his loft above the stables. Over the ten years he had worked for the St Clairs it had become entirely his place, and he felt far more at home there than in a similar loft above the stables at Belair. It was there that the street urchin, Jeannot, would visit him whenever he heard that Pierre was back in the city. Pierre never knew how Jeannot learned of his arrival so quickly, but he clearly had his sources, as Pierre could be sure of seeing his grinning face looking round the stable door within a day or two of his arrival.

Jeannot had prospered after the Communard siege. Having removed fifteen francs from Emile’s desk when the house had been left empty for a while, he’d used his new-found capital to start his own business. He employed street boys like his former self and had a booming trade in pickpocketed goods and, even more lucrative, information. Jeannot was now a main man, respected in the Paris underworld, a man to be reckoned with.