‘Perhaps, Monsieur Barnier,’ Rosalie said, ‘you would favour me with a few minutes of your time – there is something I should explain to you.’

‘Well, what is it?’

‘I think we might go into my parlour, where we could talk in private?’

With an exaggerated sigh, Simon followed her into her sitting room. Rosalie sat down and invited him to do the same, but he did not. He remained standing, impatiently drumming his fingers on the table.

For a long moment neither of them spoke and then Rosalie, having taken a decision, said, ‘I think this is a case of prewedding nerves. Hélène is afraid of the physical side of marriage.’

Simon made no reply, simply staring at her stony-faced as if daring her to continue.

‘When Hélène was a child…’ Rosalie began and then hesitated. Should she be telling Simon this? He was her fiancé and perhaps he should know, but on the other hand she had kept the secret of Hélène’s abduction from becoming general knowledge when she had been rescued at the end of the siege. She had done so to protect Hélène and to allow the enormity of her experience to fade into the recesses of her mind. The nightmares had continued for several months. The doctor had warned Rosalie that this might be the case. ‘But,’ he had said, ‘given time, her mind will heal and she will forget. Past hurts will be buried if they are allowed to remain unexplored. A wound doesn’t heal if you keep picking at the scab. In my opinion it is the same with the mind. The unpleasant memories will scab over and gradually heal from underneath until the scab falls off of its own accord and they are buried for ever.’

‘When Hélène was a child,’ she began again, ‘she was abducted, and for many days we didn’t know where she was or what had happened to her. The army was besieging the Communards in Paris and Hélène was trapped in the city. She was kidnapped from our house in the Avenue Ste Anne – indeed, one of our servants was killed trying to protect her, but she was carried off by some deserter from the army. He kept her prisoner thinking to sell her on, or to use her for his own pleasure, but she managed to escape.’

‘You mean your daughter is damaged goods,’ Simon said icily, ‘and you tried to foist her on me.’

‘She is no such thing and we did no such thing,’ retorted Rosalie. ‘She was kidnapped by a man and kept prisoner for a few days, but she escaped. Obviously this experience was terrifying and for some time she had nightmares. Gradually these became fewer and fewer until she was only haunted by them very occasionally. Indeed I can’t remember when she last had one, until the night before last, that is, the night after she had been to the Garden House with you, but for years she was afraid of any man she didn’t know. Eventually things faded from her mind and she was able to move quite naturally in society.’ Rosalie got to her feet, so that she could look Simon Barnier in the eye. ‘I don’t know what happened at the Garden House the other day, but I think you must have frightened her in some way, monsieur, and in her fear she has run away.’