‘I’m making a decision. We’re not handing Olympe over – to anyone. None of you saw what they’d done to her. They had her sewn into her own dress and gloves and an iron mask around her face. Welded shut. Like armour – no, like a cage. Not to protect her. To protect them. Do any of us have any idea what that means she went through?’
Ada curled her arm around her waist for support. She smelled of the river water and damp and the rosewater she kept in a tiny bottle by their bed.
‘She’s obviously … different,’ continued Camille. ‘I know that.’
Al levelled a look across the table. ‘She’s not human, Cam.’
‘She’s a girl who’s been used all her life and doesn’t know who to trust,’ said Guil from beside Olympe’s empty chair. ‘Seems quite human to me.’
Ada nodded. ‘Perhaps not exactly the same type of human, but for all her strange appearance, I don’t think she’s a threat.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ Al leaned forwards, his elbow in a patch of sauce. Guil gave a long-suffering sigh and set down his coffee, backing out of the crossfire. ‘You saw what she could do. How is that not a threat? I can’t believe I’m the only one objecting here. She’s dangerous at best, a devil sent from hell at worst, and I don’t think it’s worth sticking around to find out which!’
‘Enough.’ Camille slammed her fist on the table. ‘I’m not interested in superstitious nonsense. I don’t claim to understand her, but I don’t understand half the scientific discoveries out there either, so I’m not about to stop on that account. Ada does know what she’s talking about, so if she says this makes sense then I believe her.’ Camille chewed her nail. ‘I don’t know what the Revolutionaries want with her, but I don’t feel inclined to give them a person to use as a toy.’
‘So give her to the duc.’
‘No. He’s a fraud. He doesn’t get to just have everything he wants with no consequences.’
Al rolled his eyes. ‘If we don’t, we’ll be the ones dealing with the consequences. Hand over the girl, and all of this goes away.’
‘Who says? They weren’t honest about who they were sending us in to get, why would they be honest about anything else? For all we know the duc is planning to get rid of us if we know too much.’
Outside the rain had left a smear of clouds across the sky, the same smudged grey as Olympe’s cheeks.
‘Do you have another plan?’ asked Al.
‘We tell the Royalists the job was a bust, and get Olympe to safety.’
Al snorted.
‘Let me know where you find, I’ll take a holiday there.’
‘I’m serious.’
‘Oh, I know you are. If there was somewhere safe, don’t you think I’d have begged my family to take me back already and run to Switzerland with them? There’s nowhere safe for people like us. For people who are different.’
‘It’s not like a normal job where the person we rescue has family waiting over the border in Germany or Switzerland to take them in,’ said Ada. ‘Maybe we could send her to the New World. I don’t think they’d bother trying to follow her all the way there.’
‘You really think she’d survive a long Atlantic crossing on her own?’ scoffed Al. ‘Seems unlikely. This is what you need convents for. Best place to send your unruly womenfolk.’
Ada gave him such a glare he almost looked apologetic.
‘Or Belgium,’ he added. ‘I hear that’s equally depressing.’
‘We’re not handing her over,’ snapped Camille. ‘That’s final. I’ll think of something else.’
Al set his glass down loudly and glared at her. ‘You’re doing this because your pride was hurt. Stop trying to sell it to me as a good deed. We got her out of prison, isn’t that good deed enough?’
Camille fixed him with a sharp look in return, as the tension tightened between them. ‘If anyone here wants to trade Olympe’s freedom for cash, raise your hand.’
No one moved.
After a beat, Al slumped, a muscle flickering in his jaw.
‘You have my support,’ said Guil quietly. ‘Whatever difficult consequences it may bring.’
‘And mine,’ said Ada, squeezing her hand.
