Simon glanced at Suzanne, who gave a small nod. “We will welcome your assistance here,” he said.
Looking pleased, Morel continued, “I would like to meet Philippe Duval when he has the opportunity to come to Saint-Denis.”
“I’ll tell him that,” Simon said. “I’m sure he’d like to meet you also.”
With the prospect of Philippe becoming an important client, Morel asked, “How was he raised? What has he been doing all these years?”
“His mother’s family raised him on a farm in the general area of Château Chambron,” Suzanne replied. “He was well educated for a farmer’s son. He went to war several years ago.”
“As one does,” Simon said dryly. “He was an officer in an infantry regiment.”
“What of his wife? What is her background?”
In other words, would Marie be an appropriate wife? “Marie is from Lorraine,” Suzanne said. “Her father was also a man of the law, but anavocat, not anotaire. She is intelligent, practical, and she and her husband are devoted to each other.”
“Good, all good,” Morel murmured. His voice became brisk. “What I’ve given you today is an overview of your situation, but I must prepare official documents for your signatures and get the most up-to-date figures for the bank accounts. Can you return in two days so all that might be finalized?”
“Of course. Can you draw up two copies of everything? I’d like to have them in separate places if we should chance to be stopped at road barriers on our way back to Brussels.”
Thenotairegrimaced. “That’s a wise precaution, but I’ll need another day.”
Suzanne said innocently, “That will give us time to see a little of Paris. It’s been so long since either of us has been here.” She would enjoy seeing the sights, and Simon could observe troop movement and perhaps gather other information. “Monsieur Morel, can you suggest a hotel in Paris that might be a good place to stay? Convenient and not too grand.”
Thenotaireconsidered. “The city is full to the brim with all the, mmm . . . political excitement, but one of these hotels should be able to accommodate you.” He wrote down several names and addresses and handed them to Simon. Rising, he said, “Then I shall see you in three days, and let me say it has been a pleasure to meet with you both.”
He shook Simon’s hand, then bowed to Suzanne. “Now if you’ll excuse me . . .” He rang for the clerk, who escorted them out.
As they stepped outside, Simon asked quietly, “If you’d known you had a fortune, would you have accepted my proposal of marriage?”
Suzanne was silent as they waited for a wagon to pass before they crossed the street. “No,” she said at last. “I felt too damaged to marry again. I would have refused you.” She turned her head to gaze up into his gray eyes, cool to mask his feelings. “And that would have been the greatest mistake of my life.”
Chapter 30
Suzanne felt as if they were on a second honeymoon, one very different from the blissful peace they’d enjoyed at White Horse Manor. They found a room at one of Monsieur Morel’s suggested hostelries, a small inn on a side street not far from the Tuileries, the great sprawling imperial palace where Bonaparte was rebuilding his empire. Paris buzzed with energy, marching troops, and an undercurrent of danger.
Like any couple on a honeymoon, they admired the sights of a great city in springtime, and as Suzanne had predicted, no one took much notice of them. She’d actually spent a good deal of time in Paris because Jean-Louis had preferred it to the country, but she’d seen only the narrow aristocratic society inhabited by her husband. Though she’d made friends among the women and had lived well, she’d never walked the teeming streets with an interesting, protective man at her side.
They crossed the bridges over the Seine to the Left Bank and back again, then visited the glittering jewel box of Sainte-Chapelle, which was surely the most beautiful chapel in France and quite possibly the world. They ate food from street vendors and looked into some of the most fashionable shops in Europe. They even walked by the grand mansion where Suzanne had lived with Jean-Louis, but she felt no connection or nostalgia for it. The girl she’d been and that life she’d lived felt infinitely far away.
Suzanne’s favorite place was the glorious Cathedral of Notre-Dame, where they admired the stained glass windows and lit candles for the people they’d loved and lost. She even lit one for Jean-Louis, her thoughts bittersweet. He hadn’t been a particularly good husband, but she would never forget how entranced she’d been by the handsome, charming man she’d wed when she was only a child. A different lifetime.
Simon knew the city at street level and he enjoyed showing her around, but even he couldn’t identify all the different kinds of troops they saw marching in the streets. Most were infantry, but there were also cavalry units in flamboyant uniforms and once a procession of horse artillery, the wheels of the gun carriages making a deafening clatter on the cobblestone streets.
On the second day, they’d been strolling in the Tuileries Gardens when they saw a group of colorfully garbed soldiers leaving the palace. In the center of the group was a handsome, impatient man with dark red hair. Soldiers began bringing out horses. The redhead mounted his and waited for his aides to do the same.
Simon drew Suzanne back to the edge of the gardens as they watched the soldiers. “That is Marshal Ney,” he said softly. “He was called the Bravest of the Brave by Napoleon himself. A cavalry leader and one of the best soldiers in Europe, though perhaps a little too impetuous, which is not always a good thing in a subordinate.”
Fascinated, she said, “Isn’t he the one who became a commander for King Louis XVIII and vowed he’d bring Napoleon back to Paris in an iron cage when the emperor escaped Elba and returned to France?”
“The very one,” Simon agreed. “When he and his troops encountered Napoleon, his men began shouting,‘Vive le emperor,’and the whole force put itself under the emperor’s command. Led by Ney.”
She frowned. “How could he betray his vows to the king so easily?”
“He changed his mind,” Simon said dryly. “I’m not sure it was done easily, but it’s hard to look at the face of a man with whom you’ve ridden into battle and order your soldiers to shoot him down.”
She shivered as she tried to imagine doing such a thing. “Do you think the emperor ever considers what his actions cost everyone around him?”
“If he did, he would never be able to do the things he’s done.”
