‘One or two,’ snorted Al. ‘If you’d not noticed.’
At Olympe’s look of horror, Ada realised she really hadn’t known.
‘Because of the Revolution,’ she explained. ‘The government passed the Law of Suspects that makes it easier for them to sentence to death people they think are conspiring against them.’
‘I don’t understand – what revolution?’
Al paused, pouring coffee. ‘Are you serious?’
Olympe glanced between them and nodded.
Al flopped back into his chair. ‘Someone else has got to field that one, I’m out.’
Ada hesitated, then set down her fork.
‘Five years ago there was a crisis. The country was bankrupt and the old government wouldn’t work with the king any more. Things were … unfair.’ Ada hesitated again. ‘I’m not trying to patronise you, but I don’t know how to explain this simply.’
Guil gathered up some of the pamphlets that littered the tables in the café and handed them to Olympe. ‘Read these, it will go some way to explain things.’
Before she could take them, Al dived across the table and picked out the news-sheets. He looked up to find them all staring at him.
‘What? She can’t have these ones. I’m, uh, still reading them.’ He blushed beetroot red.
Guil put the remaining pamphlets in front of Olympe. ‘Before the Revolutionary government gained control, the aristocracy and the king had too much power, and everyone else had too little. The poorest people paid the most taxes and were starving. So the people abolished the Ancien Régime and a new government announced the Declaration of the Rights of Man – a document that said we were all equal.’
‘Except that it’s never as simple as that,’ cut in Al. ‘You can’t just write “we’re all equal” on a bit of paper and expect everything to be okay. People are selfish and short-sighted and don’t know how to change.’ He wiped the last of his pottage with a crust of bread. ‘I think it really went downhill when they chopped the king and queen’s heads off. The Revolutionaries didn’t know what to do with themselves once they’d killed the bogeyman. So they started turning on each other. Then that despot Robespierre got involved and we’ve been heading for disaster ever since.’
Camille reached for her wine glass and cradled it between her hands. ‘He said the executions were to stop civil war. To protect the Revolution.’
Ada laid her hand on Camille’s knee. ‘You don’t have to talk about them…’
Camille shook her head. ‘No, it’s okay. I won’t hide what happened.’
She drained her glass then turned to Olympe, her eyes flashing. ‘I believed in the Revolution. So did my parents. But then the people they called their friends turned on them and they ended up being executed as traitors. I nearly went with them, but I was acquitted at my trial. The judges called me a naive girl being led by her misguided parents.’ Camille leaned in, the flickering candlelight casting shadows across her face. ‘Do you know what Robespierre calls it – this indiscriminate killing of anyone who might be a threat?La Terreur.The Terror. Violence as a virtue, delivering speedy, severe and inflexible justice. To protect us.’
Olympe’s frown grew deeper and deeper as they spoke. When Camille had finished, she stayed silent for a moment, as if turning things over in her mind. The waiter appeared again, setting a fresh pot of coffee and a dish of biscuits on the table and clearing away the empty plates.
‘You said these people who supported the murdered king, these Royalists, they hired you to kidnap me?’
‘Rescue you,’ said Camille. ‘But I suppose kidnap is more accurate.’
‘And … that is your job? Forgive me for finding it hard to trust you. I am very grateful to be out of that awful place, but I would be a fool to trust you so easily.’
‘We’re hired to do risky or difficult work that it would be … tricky to employ someone to do openly,’ explained Ada.
‘I’m not sure I understand.’
‘She’s being far too demure,’ said Al. ‘We’re noble heroes, rescuing poor innocent people like you from the guillotine.’
‘We’re not heroes,’ corrected Ada. ‘We’re trying to do the right thing. The Terror – these executions are unjust. If we can help set the scales in the other direction, we will.’
Olympe tensed. ‘You side with the Royalists?’
Ada shook her head. ‘No. We side with the people who never asked for this violence. The innocent people caught in the middle.’
‘I created the battalion to rescue people like my parents,’ explained Camille. ‘Innocent people sentenced to death by an inhuman system. I asked Ada and Guil and Al to help me because I’d known them before – Ada and Guil from the political clubs, and my father had been Al’s family’s lawyer. I knew they were people I could trust, and people who would understand why we needed to do whatever we could to help make things right.’
‘As long as they can pay,’ added Al, taking another sip of his drink. ‘I want it on record that I’m only in it for the money. And spite. Not so easy for all my family’s aristocrat friends to pretend I don’t exist when they have to beg me for help.’ He smiled, cold and cat-like.
