Simon froze and then gave an awkward laugh. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Haven’t you? Well, never mind, but I’ll deliver the second part of her message anyway. She said something about a dead child? She said to tell you she will keep her mouth shut… if you do. That mean anything to you?’

For a moment Simon gave him a look of pure hatred and then he flung open the door and disappeared down the steps.

Rupert watched him go with a faint smile and thought, Well done, Jeannot.

*

Rupert and Hélène spent that night at Le Coq d’Argent, but the next day they moved into Belair.

‘For what will everyone think,’ asked Rosalie, ‘if you continue to stay there? Let us give the gossips nothing to chew on. And anyway, I’m sure you’d be more comfortable here.’

She was right, and as Emile got used to seeing his daughter and Rupert together every day, he found it more and more difficult to maintain his disapproval.

Once the couple had clearly been accepted at Belair, the Barrineaux, despite some reluctance on the part of Suzanne, followed their example and Hélène was able to be reunited with Clarice and Lucas and meet her brand-new niece, Céleste.

Rupert, remembering his promise to Madame Barrineau senior, took the opportunity to pay her a second visit. When he was shown into her apartment, she was seated by the window. She did not get up, but greeted him with a smile and said, ‘Well, now, I hear you got yourself into another scrape, young man.’

Rupert returned her smile and replied, ‘And got myself out of it again, madame.’

‘So I heard, and a good thing too. Young Hélène St Clair deserved better of you.’ She fixed him with an eagle eye for a moment and added, ‘Let us hope there will be no more scrapes in the future, monsieur.’

‘That I can assure you, madame,’ answered Rupert. ‘My love and my life are hers from now on.’

Recognising he spoke with complete sincerity, Madame Barrineau nodded and replied, ‘Just as it should be. What has gone before will be a nine days’ wonder and soon forgotten.’

The old lady was right, and over the next three weeks Hélène was accepted back into society as the respectable wife of an English baronet. There was, of course, speculation, whispers behind hands, nods and winks, but Hélène behaved with the same dignity as before. She walked into receiving rooms, this time on her husband’s arm, with a smile on her lips, her chin held high, and together they faced down anyone who might suggest that there had been anything improper in her being away. No one mentioned Simon Barnier, who had returned to Paris and not been home since.

Once they had settled in at Belair, Rosalie invited Hélène into her parlour for a long talk. She accepted that Hélène had fled because she was truly afraid, but when she had heard Simon’s description of the apartment where Hélène had lived, she had been horrified.