Rosalie had followed him into the room and guessed with a plummeting heart that she had gone. Hélène had run away.

‘Where’s that girl of hers?’ Emile demanded. ‘Let’s get her up here and see what she knows of this.’

Rosalie could have told him that Annette had gone too, but she said nothing other than telling Pierre to send Annette to her in her parlour.

‘It’s better to talk to her in private, Emile,’ she said as she led the way to her room. ‘We don’t want the whole world to know what’s happening.’

‘Hmm,’ grunted Emile. ‘They’ll already know we’ve had to break her door down.’

Pierre was soon back with the news that no one had seen Annette that morning.

‘Well, why not?’ demanded Emile. ‘Where is the girl?’

‘We don’t know, sir.’

‘I imagine she’s gone too,’ Rosalie said.

Emile ordered the house to be searched, but no one really expected either of the missing women to be discovered. Rosalie returned to Hélène’s bedroom and looked through what she had left behind. The cherrywood box was standing on the table. She knew what it usually contained, but when she opened it, it was empty. A sudden dreadful thought struck her. Surely Hélène hadn’t gone to find Rupert Chalfont! He was married to someone else and she was about to be. There was no point in her going to find him. Rosalie was well aware that, despite his desertion, Hélène had never stopped loving Rupert. She had been persuaded to marry Simon, but she would never love him. Her heart, once given, belonged to Rupert. Rosalie sighed and cursed the day that Lucas Barrineau had, on a whim, invited the Englishman to his wedding.

Rosalie went down to find Emile in his study, where he had retreated once the search of the house had proved fruitless.

‘I think we have to accept that she’s run away,’ Rosalie told him. ‘Rather than marry Simon, she’s run away.’ She handed him the engagement ring that she’d found lying on Hélène’s dressing table. ‘She left this. I think the message is clear.’

‘That is ridiculous,’ stated Emile. ‘What’s wrong with her? He’s an excellent match.’

‘He may be an excellent match, but she doesn’t love him!’

‘Love him? What romantic twaddle is that?’

‘Emile, whatever the reason, she’s run away.’

Emile gave an exasperated sigh. ‘But where would she go?’

‘I don’t know,’ replied Rosalie, ‘but she’s gone… and Annette has gone with her.’

‘Well, that girl has been nothing but trouble since you decided to take her in. I told you at the time that was a mistake and so it has proved. Dead babies, and now this!’ He glowered at his wife. ‘And what are we going to tell Barnier, eh? Tell him Hélène has changed her mind and run off somewhere? Do we know that’s what’s happened?’

‘Well, unpleasant as that will be,’ said Rosalie, ‘it seems to be the truth… though perhaps it may not be as bad as we think. Perhaps she just needs a little more time.’