Birds flew past the window, free and fleet of wing, heading across the gardens to the forested hunting grounds. Louis looked back at Bontemps. Bontemps could see the change of heart in the King’s face. “Do as you must,” he said.

And Bontemps, with new energy, concern, and resolve, raced from the room, the pain in his head forgotten.

The chambermaid hurried along the town square of Versailles, a basket of bread on her hip, going about her business but her mind on the baby. On having seen what she did not want to see, on knowing what she did not want to know. And certain her life was in danger.

“Hello!” came a voice from behind. She spun about, fearful to see a pistol at her head. But it was only Chevalier, Monsieur’s friend. She relaxed a fraction.

Chevalier smiled. “Have you any money?”

The maid shook her head.

“I have lots of money. And I was thinking that perhaps I might give some to you. Then you could spend it getting to Saint-Cloud to join your mother. Would you like that?”

“Oh, yes, please!”

Chevalier’s nose twitched. “Then tell me what you saw outside the birthing room, and you shall have it.”

The maid glanced about and hesitated. This, she thought, could be my only chance. So she said, “Money first.”

Chevalier shook his purse, peered inside, and then showed her it was empty. “Wait here,” he said. He walked off, and in that moment the maid realized she had been betrayed.

Marie-Therese continued to suffer, her coloring splotchy, her breathing irregular. One of the ladies sat by the bed, reading Aesop’s Fables in Spanish, though the Queen did not seem to hear it. In a corner of the room Masson and his daughter engaged in a whispered quarrel as to the Queen’s care.

“She’s not recovered,” said Claudine.

“What’s done is done. Are our bags packed? We must be ready to leave.”

Claudine took her father’s arm. “Stop this thinking, Father, or it will be the end.”

“Of both you and me, child, unless we take measures.”

Masson picked up a candle and gestured toward the door. “We saw what we saw, and we cannot un-see. And they will kill us for it.”

But Claudine took the candle and slammed it back on the table, refusing to go.

Behind the servants’ quarters, at the rear of the royal hunting lodge, was a storage barn filled with water barrels, grains, and supplies. Mice scurried in the walls and swallows fluttered in the rafters. In one dusty stall, Fabien and Laurene stood before a barrel filled with murky water. Laurene held the infant girl in her arms.

Fabien pointed at the water. “Baptize it. Thoroughly.”

Laurene only then realized their reason for being there.

“Now.”

Laurene held the baby over the water. The child began to cry pitifully. “I…can’t,” Laurene said.