The walls of her room seemed to cave inwards, the colour darker than it had been, the windows further away. It was happening all over again, only this time it was all of them who were in the firing line of hatred—the target of a madman.
She needed to travel to London to warn Summer of Guy Bernard’s plans. She needed to find him because all this was her fault, her doing.
A knock on the door had her standing and she was surprised when her grandmother waited there.
‘May I come in, Celeste?’
Short of being rude, there was nothing else for it but to invite her in and wait until she was seated on the leather wing chair by the window.
‘My daughter was a weak woman and my son has shaped up to be exactly the same, but I think you are a strong one. I am glad of it, for I can see the shadows in your eyes and the ghosts that roam in your head. Your father was careless with his political beliefs and I was too forceful with my demands. Between the three of us, I do not think we served you well and I am sorry for it. More sorry than you could ever imagine.’
Speechless, Celeste watched her, uncertain for once of what to say.
‘I want you and your child to stay here. I want you to be safe, but I can see already that I have lost you to whatever was contained in that letter, and that you will leave. But I promise I will do everything in my power to help you come home again.Everything, Celeste, without fail.’
‘I am not who you think I am, Grandmère. The innocent and arrogant girl you knew is long gone and I have done things, been things, that you could not like.’
‘In order to live?’
‘To survive. There is a difference.’
‘When your mother found life tough she gave up. I am glad you are not like her in that way. At least you fight for your existence.’
‘I was a spy in Paris as part of an underground and covert organisation. It was not a job for the timid or for the overly moral. It was neither a kind nor a gentle occupation.’
Celeste tipped up her head as she said this, no hesitation in it. If her grandmother would banish her now, then she would not argue. All she wanted finally between them was the truth.
‘I sent people to find you so many times in France. I had reports about your father and about his situation, but there was never anything of you. You disappeared from the face of the earth.’
‘I became someone else after Papa died.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I had to.’
‘And now?’
Celeste took in a breath. ‘Now I need a carriage to take me to London, Grandmère, and I need some lad’s clothes, trousers, a shirt and jacket and a hat. Things a serving boy might wear off-duty.’
‘A disguise, then?’
‘Yes.’
‘To deal with the person who brought the letter.’
‘No. To try to save a person mentioned in it.’
‘And you think you can? Save him, I mean?’
She nodded. ‘If I don’t, everything will have been for nothing.’
‘Then I will summon the butler to aid us. What else do you require?’
Celeste’s mind ran across other necessities, but she had some money and she had good weapons. With the element of surprise that might very well be enough.
‘Luck,’ she said quietly. ‘And your prayers.’
‘You have them. I don’t know what this is all about, but I hope you will come back safe and sound. I would like to name Loring as the next heir of Langley. My son is not likely to make old bones and the place is entailed.’
