‘Too late? Can’t you—’ began Pierre.

‘I can’t deliver a baby, Pierre,’ Agathe said, a break in her voice. ‘We have to get help… now. Please, there’s no time to waste.’

Pierre got to his feet. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll take Magic and cut across the fields. He’s quite strong enough to carry both of us back. Tell Annette I’ve gone for help.’

Agathe clasped his hand. ‘Thank you, Pierre.’

‘Though what the master will say when he hears I’ve been gallivanting off into the night on one of his horses without a word or a by-your-leave, I don’t know.’ He grinned down at her. ‘Still,’ he said, ‘we’ll worry about that when the time comes.’

Moments later he was clattering out of the yard on Magic, heading into the night in search of the midwife. He didn’t mind going. He’d quite taken to Annette. She was a pretty little thing, and though he didn’t for one moment believe the story of the dead husband, he thought her brave the way she coped with her situation, for whichever way you looked at it the baby had no father and she was going to have to manage on her own.

Agathe returned indoors knowing she had done all she could with regard to the midwife. She hurried up the stairs to the bedroom, where she found the cook had managed to get Annette into her nightdress and into her bed.

The look of relief on Annette’s face when she came in through the door was heart-rending.

She’s relying on us to see her through, Agathe thought in panic. How are we going to cope if Madame Leclerc doesn’t get here in time?

She pasted a smile onto her face and said, ‘How are you feeling, Annette? Pierre’s on his way to fetch Madame Leclerc. He’s taken a horse and they’ll be back as soon as they can.’

At that moment Annette was overtaken by another sharp contraction and couldn’t suppress a cry of pain. Agathe was at her side at once, grasping her hand as she fought the griping in her belly.

When the contraction had passed, Annette collapsed back onto the bed, breathing heavily. Agathe turned to Adele and said, ‘We’ll need some clean towels. Will you wait with her while I go and find some? Then perhaps you could go down to the kitchen and set some water to boil.’

It was as she gathered towels from the linen cupboard that Rosalie appeared at the head of the stairs.

‘Madame Sauze,’ she said, ‘Hélène said there was some kind of trouble, some problem?’

‘Oh. Madame, I didn’t want her to trouble you. I should not have spoken to her.’

‘Well, you did,’ replied Rosalie briskly. ‘So, what is the problem?’

‘It’s Annette, madame. She has gone into labour and…’’

Rosalie closed her eyes. Today of all days! Still, there was nothing they could do about that now. ‘Where is she?’

‘In our room, madame.’ Agathe drew a deep breath and added, ‘I took the liberty of sending Pierre for the midwife.’