‘So what has happened to her?’ demanded Jeannot. ‘If he’s harmed a hair of her head…’ Jeannot glared at Pierre as if it were his fault. ‘You tell me where I can find this Barnier bloke and he’ll never frighten anyone ever again.’

‘She’s safe,’ Pierre assured him. ‘We finally persuaded her to run away. We got her to Paris and she’s at a safe address where he won’t find her.’

‘How d’you know he won’t? Sounds pretty ruthless to me. You asked if someone had been watching this place? Well, perhaps they have, but she hasn’t been here, has she?’

‘No, she hasn’t, but he may still be having the house watched in case she turns up, thinking that he’s no longer looking for her.’

Jeannot thought for a moment. ‘What does she think he’s going to do to her if he does find her? I mean, she ain’t married to him, so he’s got no claim on her. Law can’t make her marry him, can it?’

‘As I said, there’s money involved.’ Pierre explained about the inheritance. ‘Everyone knows that the St Clair girls all come into money from their grandmother on their marriage. He may still decide he wants to marry her to get his hands on that. And because of the scandal she has already caused, she’s afraid her father may say it’s her duty to keep her promise and try to force her. Monsieur St Clair wants to ensure that the whole episode is quickly forgotten and his family can be restored to its place in society.’

‘Well, as long as she’s safe now,’ Jeannot said thoughtfully, ‘we must do what we can to protect her.’

Pierre told him the address of Agathe’s apartment. ‘No one knows of this place except Agathe herself, Annette and me. Hélène is quite safe there for the present. They’re making a little money doing piecework sewing for a dressmaker nearby. Not a lot, but it all helps and it’s something Hélène can do at home, out of sight.’

‘I see.’ Jeannot nodded. ‘Well, if your girl wants to make herself a franc or two she can work on one of my stalls in the market. Tell her to go to the outside market at St Eustache and look for Benny Bonnet, sells eggs and chickens. I’ll tell him to expect her, she can help with the plucking an’ that.’

As Jeannot let himself out of the stable yard, he thought back to how he’d managed to rescue Hélène from the clutches of the army deserter named Gaston who had abducted her all those years ago. She was his to protect and he wasn’t going to let some toff called Barnier terrify her as Gaston had done. He went to find his two henchmen, Paul and the Monkey. Together they would make some arrangements. Jeannot had a wide network of people working for him these days, many of them young lads as he had been during the siege, bright and eager to do without question whatever he required of them, for which they were always well rewarded. He would call on some of these now, while he used his information network to discover all he could about a toff called Simon Barnier.