Brilliance (7 page)

‘Where shall you be?’

‘Just on the ground here nearby.’

She seemed reassured. He released Prince from the cart and tethered him to a tree on the grass verge. Then he took a red and blue striped bag from the back of the cart and took out a blanket and also a cushion, which he normally used as a pillow, and handed both to her. Afterwards he spread another blanket on the grass and lay down. Sleep always came easily to him and in a matter of seconds his eyes were closed.

It was different for Lisette, although the leather seat was padded and the cushion was soft. She felt as wide-awake again as she had done when going from the château to wander in the grounds with such a disastrous result. Earlier, before dozing, she had formed a plan for her immediate future and now she reviewed the situation. She knew that as soon as her disappearance was discovered, together with a valise and belongings gone, Isabelle would be frantic. An extensive search would be set in motion. It would not be out of Isabelle’s concern for her stepdaughter’s well-being, but because she would be terrified of the scandal that would result if the runaway bride failed to return within the week that remained before the wedding. As for Philippe, he would be bewildered, unable to understand why she should have taken such an unprecedented action. Yet she was certain that later, when she failed to return, he would become furious, his male ego deeply affronted, for as a jilted bridegroom he could become a laughing-stock among friends and enemies alike.

She remembered the time when her father had clearly regarded Philippe as someone lacking finer feelings and had warned her quite sharply not to waste any sympathy on him. What else had her father known or suspected? Joanna had never said anything against Philippe, but she had never been enthusiastic about him either.

Lisette remembered now how once in a corner at a party she had come across Philippe quietly settling a gaming debt with a friend, who pocketed the notes while advising him good-humouredly to know in future when a game had turned against him for the night.

‘You’re too reckless, Philippe. Remember that many a château has fallen to the turn of a card.’

Philippe had not known that she had overheard and, in any case, she had thought nothing of it then, for all the young men she knew enjoyed gaming. Yet now she wondered if the fact that she was eventually to inherit substantially had influenced him in his courtship of her? He enjoyed money and living a life of leisure. Then there was his long-standing affair with Isabelle. How they must have congratulated themselves! No doubt they had been confident that the innocent simpleton he was shortly to take as his wife would eventually accept Isabelle as his mistress and all would be well.

Anger seared inside her and she wanted to fuel it with more and more thoughts of Philippe’s deviousness, for she feared that when the onslaught of it faded into despair she would not be able to bear the agonizing heartache that he had inflicted on her.

She kept her thoughts busy. It was likely that after a day or two Isabelle would concoct a story that her stepdaughter was ill, which would give more time for her to be found. Neither Isabelle nor Philippe would have any idea at first as to why she had disappeared. Last minute nervousness would probably be blamed. But perhaps with time it would finally dawn on both of them what she had discovered.

Her allowance from her late father’s estate, which he had arranged for her after she left school, could be drawn from any branch of her bank and would keep her in modest comfort, but she realized now that for some time to come she could not draw on it in case her whereabouts should be traced that way and neither could she send for any of her possessions. If her whereabouts were discovered Isabelle had the legal power to drag her back under the château’s roof at any time until she came of age.

Only on that special twenty-first birthday would she be free to finally return to Lyon and the house that she had loved so much. She would go back there now if it were possible, but it was one of the areas where Isabelle would think she was likely to be found. That was why she could not contact Joanna or any other friends she felt she could trust, at least for a while. She would not let them have to lie as to her whereabouts if questioned.

Raising herself on an elbow, Lisette looked down at the sleeping lanternist. She had taken a great risk in riding away with this complete stranger. He could have robbed, raped or even murdered her if he had been so inclined. So obviously he was just an ordinary hard-working man and she had nothing to fear on the rest of the journey. She smiled. He did not know it yet, but he was not going to get rid of her in the morning.

Once again she settled her head on the cushion and this time she slept soundly.

It was already light when Lisette awoke. She sat up, momentarily dazzled by the early sunbeams penetrating the foliage overhead where birds in the branches were in full throat. Then the anguish of yesterday renewed itself with an onslaught that made her wonder why her heart did not stop. How was it possible that she remained so starkly dry eyed?

‘How did you sleep?’ Daniel Shaw had appeared at the side of the cart with his shirtsleeves rolled up above his elbows.

‘Better than I expected,’ she admitted, self-consciously pushing back the flow of her hair, which had tumbled loose from some of its pins in the night.

‘I’ve repaired your bicycle. It was easily done, and so you can take off on it again after we get to town.’ He swung up her valise and dumped it on to the seat beside her. ‘I suppose you need this. It’s half past five now. I’d like to be on the road by six. There’s a stream that you can wash in just through those trees.’ He jerked his head in its direction. ‘I’m going to fry eggs, tomatoes and slices of ham for breakfast over a campfire, which I’ve already started, so be as quick as you can.’

When she opened her valise it was her first chance to check if she had cracked the glass of her grandmother’s photograph when she had banged it in temper against the cart. There had been no tell-tale tinkle when she had shaken it afterwards, but she was still relieved to find it intact. Taking her washbag and a hairbrush she went to the stream, which was icy cold but refreshing.

She had heard of the English fried breakfast, but she had never expected to eat one with such relish, being much hungrier than she realized. She ate three slices of thick bread with it. Even his coffee was good and she drank it appreciatively from a white, slightly chipped enamel mug.

When they were on the road again she told him what she had decided. ‘If you would oblige me a little more, I’d like to continue travelling with you for a while longer. Two weeks at least. Maybe three if you would allow it. That should completely cover my tracks.’ Then she added quickly, ‘I’d pay all my own expenses, of course.’

He shook his head. ‘As soon as we get to town you must make your own arrangements from there. I don’t intend to be arrested for abduction or to be accused of any other crime that your family might fling at me.’

‘Whatever do you mean?’

He glanced cynically at her. ‘How old are you? Eighteen?’ He could tell by her silence that he had guessed correctly. ‘You’re not wearing a wedding ring and so that means you are still under parental control. You are elegantly clothed, well spoken and – as I know from your attendance at the performance last night – you are normally chaperoned. I also saw some of your contemporaries and none was short of a franc or two. I thought at first that you and your amorous beau had made some botch up of a plan to elope, but now your talk of staying on with me has made it clear that it must have been another reason altogether to made you take flight in such a ham-fisted way.’

She frowned at his bluntness. ‘That was because I had to leave home on an instant decision, but I could never tell you why. As for being accused of kidnapping me or anything else, you need not fear that! My stepmother will go to any lengths to save a scandal. Although she will probably set a horde of private detectives in search of me, only one other person will be informed that I have gone.’

‘Who’s that? Your father?’

‘No, he died last year. It was somebody I was going to marry in six days’ time.’

‘So it was just a lovers’ tiff.’ He shook his head dismissively. ‘The sooner you return home the better. You and he will have forgotten all about it tomorrow.’

‘Never!’ she declared so fiercely that he looked at her again.

‘Was it that bad?’ he asked more sympathetically, seeing how white-faced she had become on recalling whatever it was that had happened.

‘Worse than anything you could imagine. It has split us apart for ever.’

There was silence between them for a while. She was in too much anguish to speak any more, an image of the two in the summerhouse all too vivid in her mind. There should have been balm in the peace of the sunny morning and the vistas of ripening corn and flower-sprinkled meadows spreading out on either side of the dusty road, but torment continued to tear at her. Another half an hour had passed when Daniel broke into her thoughts.

‘Have you any other relative or a friend who would give you a roof over your head for the time being?’

‘No,’ she answered bleakly. ‘This is something I have to do on my own without involving anybody else.’

‘Did you leave any clues as to your intention to find me?’

‘No. That’s why I retrieved my bicycle from the bushes. If it had been found it could have set someone on my trail.’

‘In that case you shouldn’t have anything to worry about for the time being. I assume by your offer to pay for yourself that you’re financially secure for the foreseeable future. Am I right?’

‘Yes. Eventually I’ll settle somewhere far from Paris and take an apartment.’ She turned eyes full of appeal on him as she voiced her plan for the immediate future. ‘If you’ll agree to my travelling with you I could take the place of any hired assistant. Nobody would see me. I’d be out of sight behind the screen. I’m sure I could soon learn how to do all those sound effects and, if there should be a piano, I could play appropriate music for the sequences.’

He raised a thoughtful eyebrow. Background music would be a novelty. Perhaps as audiences arrived for a performance and when they left again. The idea appealed to his sense of showmanship. He had been hampered at times by taking on local, muddle-headed assistants, whom he hastily trained, and she should be better than any of them, but on the down side of the idea he did not want to be encumbered by a pursued girl who could only bring trouble in her wake.

‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘You could be recognized by chance at any time and anywhere. You’ll take off on your bicycle as soon as we reach town.’

She was not going to give up. ‘But I could wear a hat-veil by day and a mask for the shows! I’ve made them often enough for parties. Then if I happened to be glimpsed in the shadows by the audience it would only add to the magical atmosphere created by your magic lantern. If you’ll agree to my idea I’m willing to buy one of those folding screens normally used against draughts, which would keep me out of sight at a piano. Naturally I wouldn’t expect any wages.’

He cast a deep frown at her. ‘I’d pay you what I normally pay an assistant.’

She caught her breath. ‘Then you’ll let me stay on with you?’

‘I was simply pointing out that I would always deal fairly with anyone I engaged to work for me, however temporary the employment!’

He looked grim. Wisely she did not pursue her plea, but sat in a high state of hope for the rest of the journey. He could feel it emanating from her like an electric current. It would be entirely against his better judgment if he let her remain with him, but the veil and a mask would hide her identity just until she was safe from pursuit.

When they reached the first town along his route it was already astir. Shops were opening, streets being swept and waiters in long white aprons were setting out tables and chairs under faded striped awnings. Daniel stopped only to buy a local newspaper, which he scanned through until finding what he had been looking for on an inside page. It was an advance notice of his forthcoming show in the next town together with complimentary quotes from various reviews, plus his usual advert for a temporary assistant.

When they arrived later in the morning Lisette was interested to see that the venue for his show was a large room above one of the cafes, which was rented out for private parties and other functions. It had its own side entrance and a brightly coloured poster for the show was already pasted up on the wall beside it. Behind the building was a stable into which Daniel, after making himself known to the proprietor, settled Prince. Then he turned to Lisette.

‘I’m here for a week, but it’s time for a parting of the ways. I advise you to take your bicycle on to a train to the destination of your choice, but,’ he cautioned, ‘wherever you go don’t think you can sweep into the best hotels, because if the search for you extends widely those are the first places where private detectives would expect to find you.’

Angry colour gushed into her face. So he thought he could cast her off! She would do the casting off when the time came! A new determination had risen in her since leaving the château, a resolve to make things go her way, and this lanternist should be the first to learn of it! ‘I’m not going anywhere until I travel on again with you! I’ve told you that I’ll work and,’ she added fiercely as if playing a trump card, almost stamping her foot, ‘you promised me the same wage as any other assistant! If you are a gentleman you can’t go back on your word!’

He stared at her incredulously, throwing up his hands in exasperation. ‘I didn’t promise you anything!’ Then his eyes began to dance as his sense of humour overcame him and he threw back his head in a great bellow of laughter, showing a mouthful of white teeth. There was no malice in his laughter, only a highly amused appreciation of her incongruous demand for a worker’s rights. She was taken aback by his mirth, but was not in the least offended, realizing what had caused it. She might have smiled if there had been any smiles left in her, but in her current state of distress her face remained stark as if set in a mould she could not break.