“What is your name?” Henrietta asked him.
“Remi.”
“Remi, you ask too many questions. Help us aboard.”
Picking up their skirts they took Remi’s hand and stepped into the rowboat. It rocked dangerously and reeked of fish. A net was draped across one seat. “Sit down.” Remi frowned. “Don’t put a hole in that net with your shoes, or my papa will string me up in it.”
Remi untied the boat and took up the oars. He rowed strongly, out into the middle of the fast-flowing river. As they headed up stream something heavy bumped against the boat, freed itself and rushed away.
“What was that?” Verity asked.
Remi shrugged. “A branch of a tree, or a body perhaps.”
“A body!” Henrietta’s voice sounded hollow, an echo bouncing off the buildings each side of the river. She met Verity’s horrified glance and grimaced.
“Keep your voices low. Don’t act like women and scream, whatever you do. You’ll bring trouble down on our heads.”
“We are not fools,” Verity said. “Please concentrate on your rowing.”
“Do you wish to come back with me?”
“Oui. We will have two extra passengers,” Verity said.
Remi stopped rowing. He threw the oars down. “Two more? That wasn’t agreed on. There will be too much weight. It will sink us.”
“No, it won’t,” Henrietta pleaded. “Please keep rowing. We are drifting back again.”
Remi put an oar in the water and the boat turned about. “I cannot risk it. It will be more than my life is worth, if this boat goes to the bottom.”
“We will pay you more. Much more.” Henrietta drew a sapphire and diamond earring from her pocket and dangled it. Even in the misty light the gems gleamed like glow-worms on a dark night.
Remi’s brown eyes grew enormous in his narrow face. “How come you have that? The National Assembly demanded all jewelry be donated to pay for a new army. I know, because Madame Bois gave up her garnet necklace and declared herself a patriot.”
“You need never tell anyone you have it.” Henrietta held it closer. “Keep it for your future.”
“It’s enough to buy me a boat.” He watched as Henrietta shoved it back into her skirts.
“Then it’s yours.Ifyou agree to take us, bring us all back safely, and say nothing about it to anyone. Not even your papa,” Verity said.
“Do hurry, please.” Henrietta bit her lip in frustration. During the negotiation, the boat had drifted back almost to where they’d started.
Remi picked up the oars again. “Where am I to find these two persons?”
“At the Asylum of St Germaine,” Verity said.
Remi raised his head to stare at them. “Don’t tell me. Better I don’t know.” He stroked strongly through the water and said nothing more.
Henrietta tensely listened to the swirl and whoosh of the river, the background noise of the city, and the scuttle of rats along the water’s edge. “How far now?”
“It’s hard to recognize any landmarks in this mist,” Verity said. “Do you know where we are, Remi?”
“It’s not far,” he said. “the mist works in our favor. We see no one and they don’t see us.”
“That’s true,” Henrietta said peering ahead. The mist played with them, drifting down to hide the buildings bordering the river. Remi’s thin voice emerged eerily out of the fog. “We are here.”
A block of deep shadow except for candlelight flickering in one of the windows. The boat scraped against the stone wall which rose above them into the mist.
“There!” Henrietta pointed to an archway where steps lead down to a walkway above the water, just as Jean-Paul had said.
“It must be close to eleven,” Verity murmured. “Can we tie the boat and wait?”
Remi grabbed the rope and nimbly jumped onto the walkway. He secured the boat to a metal ring.
They waited, not daring to speak. The damp seeped through Henrietta’s cloak and her thin gown. She shuddered uncontrollably with cold and apprehension.
Remi lay back with his hands on his chest, looking for all the world like a grandpa enjoying a Sunday nap after luncheon. Verity shuffled about on the hard seat close beside her as nervous and uncomfortable as Henrietta was. They waited.
They sat up at the clang of metal above them. The gate opened, and a man appeared on the steps. Jean-Paul was alone. He raised his hand, turned around and disappeared inside.
The gate closed again.
