Preparations made, she did not undress, but lay fully clothed on her bed. Her fur coat remained in the wardrobe – it was far too conspicuous – but she had set her plain black winter coat, her hat and bag ready on the chair. Once she drifted off to sleep, but the nightmare pounced and she struggled to force herself awake again, shivering, the cold sweat of fear lying on her skin. She dared not close her eyes again, simply waited for Annette’s tap on the door. As she lay there she wondered what they were going to do for money. Annette said she had money for their tickets and she had her few francs, but that wouldn’t last them long. She thought of the inheritance that she would have had on her marriage, received from her grandmother’s will. She would never marry now, so she would never inherit. She was going to have to make her own way in life, cut off from her family, at least for the foreseeable future. Her heart ached at leaving with no goodbye, no explanation except the obvious one, but now all she wanted was to get away, to vanish into thin air and never see Simon again.

At last she heard the faintest of knocks and went to open the door. Annette slipped inside, closing the door behind her.

‘Ready?’ she murmured.

‘Ready,’ replied Hélène, and putting on her coat and hat, she picked up her bag.

They doused the lamp and waited a moment for their eyes to adjust to the darkness before they stepped out onto the landing, locking the door behind them and keeping the key. Annette took Hélène’s hand and led her along the landing towards the back stairs. As they passed Emile’s door there was a long burst of coughing from within, and for a moment they froze. Hélène realised there was a line of light under the door; was her father awake? Annette gave Hélène’s hand a sharp jerk and they set off again along the landing. Once down the stairs they felt safer. It was unlikely any of the family would see them now and even the servants wouldn’t be down this early. They had decided that Madame Sauze must not be involved in their actual escape, so that when it was discovered she could say with perfect truth that she had heard nothing during the night.

Once through the kitchen, Annette unlocked the back door and they hurried across the stable yard to the field gate, where Pierre was waiting. Neither of them looked back at the dark windows of the house, neither of them saw the face at a bedroom window, where Louise, awakened by the need to use the chamber pot, thought she saw two shadows in the yard. No more than moving shapes in the darkness, they disappeared and were gone. She rubbed her eyes, but could now see nothing and, unsure she had really seen anything, she decided it must have been a trick of the light. A pale moon sailed out from behind a cloud and lit the empty stable yard. Shivering, Louise went back to bed and back to sleep, thinking no more of what she might have seen until the morning.