Page 38 of Linenfold (The Alice Chronicles #4)

I n the accounts room, Honorine, now changed back into her dried clothes, rises from her stool. Alice closes the door. She is finding that with practice, French is coming back to her. ‘You will need this while you are in here,’ she says, holding out a blanket.

Honorine huddles into it. She remains subdued, passive. The bright, willing girl is crushed under more than her panicked flight, her detention. She looks up. ‘Louise? Is she found?’

Alice perches on the table. ‘I think we both know that Louise is in truth Lewis.’

Honorine does not answer immediately. Then, ‘We thought to find more sympathy as two women. We wished only to reach our brethren in London.’

‘That’s not true, is it?’

Honorine’s head comes up. ‘Le Duc de Buckingham has said we shall be safe. Himself, he assured us of his protection.’

‘I’m sure he did, since he believes you work for him.’

‘I do not work for Le Duc de Buckingham!’

‘Let’s not split hairs, Honorine. Lewis is certainly Buckingham’s agent, and you work with Lewis, which makes you also the duke’s agent. But where will his protection be when he knows who you are really working for?’

‘We work for no one. We flee the persecution.’

‘No, you weren’t fleeing anything, Honorine. You were working together to find something of value carried by Lord Hardcastle, and take it to your master.’

‘Master? We have no master!’

‘Honorine, your true master is Louis of France. And that goes for Lewis as well.’

‘Never! We are Huguenot.’

‘Then what are you doing with a chapelet ?’ Delving into her pocket Alice brings out a string of pebble-like beads.

‘This rosary was discovered concealed under the mattress after you changed your clothes. You must have hidden it when Grandmother’s back was turned for a moment.

You had it in that little pocket of yours, I think, when you arrived here.

’ She points. ‘Now I see that pocket is empty.’

Honorine stares and stares. Then, ‘What is it that will happen to me?’

‘That is for the new Lord Hardcastle to say. You have been involved in a very serious crime, Honorine. Between the two of you, you have killed a man.’

‘No!’

‘The consequences could be severe. You knew this, and yet you continued to stay here, because of the prize you sought. Lewis will be found soon also.’

‘He is ingénieux . He will escape.’

‘What is Lewis to you, Honorine? Why are you so loyal to him?’

Honorine shrugs. ‘Are you not loyal to those friends you are working with? The young Milord, that Justice?’

‘Your friend has left you to pay the price for killing Lord Hardcastle.’

‘I did not kill him!’

‘I believe you, I don’t think you are capable of it. But do you think the judge will care? You had better pray that Lewis is found because if he is not, you will suffer the punishment. Do you know what they will do to you?’

Honorine’s head comes up. ‘I am not afraid of the axe!’

‘They won’t use the axe. That’s only for those of high rank. Your death will be much slower.’ Alice counts off on her fingers. ‘You’re a woman, you’re Catholic, a man is murdered, a man of high rank. They will not be merciful, Honorine. You will suffer a horrible death by fire.’

‘I did not kill milord!’ Honorine cries again.

‘What were the two of you doing when His Lordship came downstairs and surprised you?’

Honorine lifts her hands and lets them fall. She plumps down in the chair. At last, ‘We looked in the boxes. We could not search them during the crossing, it was too rough.’

‘What did you seek?’

‘A treasure? Money? I don’t know, but I think Lewis knew.’ Already, Honorine is distancing herself from Lewis. ‘He said we would take it to King Louis. When I found things that seemed of value he only said, no, keep looking.’

‘Why doesn’t he trust you? Why didn’t he tell you what he sought?’

Honorine shrugs.

‘Tell me one more thing. Was Lewis carrying something for Queen Henrietta Maria?’

Honorine regards Alice in grim satisfaction.

‘What think you? He had to carry something, he was her courier . Le Duc thinks Lewis works for him. He made a reason for Lewis to be sent to Paris. But the Queen had already said to Lewis that she would send him to look for a treasure for her brother . Le Duc was seeking le tr é sor also. He said his agents told him it would be carried by Milord Hardcastle and we must join his household. So Lewis came to France, to me, and we became Huguenot women.’

‘How did the Queen know that there was a treasure?’

At last Honorine smiles, wan but sardonic, a flicker of amusement.

‘You English. You think there is no possibility that King Louis can send a message to his sister to despatch her agent. You surround her with all Le Duc’s family and they watch her by day and by night but still the messages they travel this way and that way and the Buckingham ladies they know nothing of it. ’

‘So the Queen sent Lewis to collect her gold fruit trenchers.’

‘If you already knew, why did you ask me? How did you know?’

Alice smiles in her turn. ‘You French, you think we do not know what is going on? Whose idea was it that he collect the trenchers?’

She shrugs. ‘The Buckingham ladies believe they persuaded her to send for them, but she had already agreed it with Lewis. All along, la famille Buckingham they have played into our hands.’

‘I suppose Lewis sewed the trenchers into his skirts to conceal them.’

‘I sewed them. He cannot use the needle.’

‘The trenchers will need to be delivered to Her Majesty, and by the right people, or Her Majesty could be in very serious trouble. If there is any connection with Lewis now, she could be accused of treason. And that will mean the axe for her.’

‘He will disappear. He will not be her courier again.’

‘Where are the trenchers now?’ Alice asks, to see how much Honorine knows.

‘He said he put them in one of the boxes in case we were searched, or our chamber, but when we opened the box last night they were not there. He looked surprised but now I think he did not want me to know where he has put them.’

‘And you work as friends, yet he does not share this with you. Does he mean to sell them for money?’

‘No, he would not.’ But it is said haltingly.

The seeds of doubt have been sown. Despite herself, Honorine’s allegiance to Lewis is showing cracks.

Alice leaves her in ignorance of their true location under Jack’s hand at Freemans.

It is time Honorine realised how she has been used. Alice reverts once more.

‘Why was Lewis instructed to seek a treasure in France? Why not a French agent?’

‘We knew we might not find the trésor while we were on French soil, that we might have to come to England. Lewis speaks perfect French and English. He can mix with people of high rank but they do not see him. He is pageboy in England, courier in Paris, Huguenot in the west. He can be a man in the morning and a woman in the evening, different voices, different gestures, and you would not know the two were the same.’

‘Is that why he would not approach Master Cranley in the hall that day?’

‘We were some days in the Paris house before milord arrived. Every time we were in the same room as Monsieur Cranley the risk was greater. He did not like us. I think he would have betrayed us if he knew. Now it is too late. You will never find Lewis. A woman escaped from here but a man will escape to France.’

‘Not in the clothes he left in the woods. The russet red garments and the brown cloak. We have those in safe keeping.’

For a moment Honorine is nonplussed. Then, ‘He will find clothes.’

‘Let us hope he does not kill again in the process.’