‘I suppose.’ Annette sounded reluctant.

‘You don’t seem very sure,’ Pierre teased.

‘If it was you, of course I would,’ she said, her face breaking into a smile, ‘but I just think Hélène’s had enough to put up with. Suppose he has changed his mind? Or if he’s engaged to someone else now.’

‘This could be her chance of happiness, you know,’ Pierre pointed out. ‘Who are we to judge? We should leave it up to him. We should tell him that she hasn’t married Simon Barnier and that she’s living in Paris and see what happens. If he writes to her, then he’ll have made his decision and she can make hers.’

‘I’ll think about it,’ Annette said. ‘Even if I do write back to him, he may never get the letter.’

‘That’s a risk we’ll have to take,’ Pierre said. ‘But if someone has been stealing his post they’ve probably stopped now, believing there’s no further need.’

‘I’ll think about it,’ repeated Annette, ‘and in the meantime I shall say absolutely nothing of this to Hélène. And,’ she added, ‘I shan’t tell her that you’re all going back to Belair, either, in case she tries to visit her mother again before you go.’

‘Certainly she mustn’t do that,’ Pierre agreed, ‘especially as her father is in the house, but if you think about what she did the other day, how much she needed to go home, we have to accept that she can’t stay hidden here indefinitely… and nor can you.’

‘If Jeannot hadn’t been there…’

‘He was and kept her safe, but this has to be resolved one way or another. I think you should write back and tell Rupert her situation.’

Later that evening, when Hélène had gone to bed, Annette gave great thought to what Pierre had said about making other people’s decisions for them and reluctantly came to the conclusion that he was right. How would she feel if someone willingly kept her away from Pierre? She had never loved or been loved as she was now. Pierre was her rock. Could she stand between Rupert and Hélène? With a sigh she took pen and paper and wrote a short note to Rupert, addressing it to him at Pilgrim’s Oak as before. If they heard no more from him, she decided, at least it wouldn’t be her fault and Hélène would never know she’d tried. She discarded several efforts before she was happy with what she had written. The letter she put in her pocket, ready to post in the morning; the discards she burned. There should be no trace of any letters to England. Sleep didn’t come easily that night as she lay in bed wondering if they would ever hear from him again.

Chapter 46

When Rupert received Annette’s letter he could hardly believe what he was reading. Not only was Hélène not married to Simon Barnier, but she was in hiding from him. How could she be so afraid that she couldn’t even live with her own family? Surely they hadn’t disowned her because she had refused to marry him at the last minute? He pictured Rosalie, a charming and sensible woman who loved all her children and had seemed particularly protective of Hélène. He must go to her at once. Annette had not given him an address but had suggested that, if he wanted to reply, he write care of Pierre as he had before. The words reminded him yet again of the mysterious disappearance of letters, both in and out of Pilgrim’s Oak.