Page 77 of The Rebellious Countess
“You once told me not to come between you and your son, and now you’ve attacked me…with my own weapon.” Legrand grinned as if the pain he was experiencing was nothing new.
His mother twirled the pipe in her hand. “I did. I now understand why you sometimes choose to ride into battle with this pipe in your hand.”
“I give it to you with my blessing,” Legrand bowed slightly.
Ignoring his gesture, she asked, “Why did you come here?”
“Your barmaid, Louise,spoke of an English woman traveling with a very attractive pirate, bound for Mont-Saint-Michel. I followed my hunch that your persuasive seduction wasn’t because of my charms, but to delay me from doing my duty.”
His mother snorted. “You went through my things, found the letter, and then followed my son here.”
“I swear on my honour, I did not know of any letter, nor did I know he was your son until he identified himself as the grandson ofMaximilien de Danton. You know I am a man of my word, I killed my own hussar for not honouring it to your son’s wife.”
His mother nodded as if she would not question it.
“Yet you must understand that I cannot let him help the Earl of Astley escape.”
His mother shrugged as if what Elias had been doing was inconsequential. “All I see is a mother and son on pilgrimage to a holy place. A place the emperor has desecrated with the blood of holy men.”
Legrand shrugged, his attention no longer on him, and Elias felt as if he were interrupting something very intimate.
Legrand’s expression sobered. “Your father will be out for blood.”
“He is a blood-thirsty man. The only time he was not, was when Elias was but a child.”
“You are not safe in France. He will hang you for treason.”
His mother shook her head as if she was not guilty of any crimes. “I have only helped people caught in the middle of this miserable war.”
“I will take her back to England with me,” Elias interjected.
His mother bristled and looked at him as if his head was addled. “They will hang me in England as the daughter of the France’s Minister of War. Your uncle said as much.That’s why I did not go with you.”
“Bastard.” Elias swore. “This entire time he led me to believe you chose France over me.”
“That is why…”Something in Hag’s voice broke. “You never answered my letters.”
“I never received any letters from you until after I came back to France on business.” Elias hadn’t realized how devious his uncle had been. There were many of the French nobility who had escaped France with their heads intact, his mother could have traveled to England among them after his father was killed.
“If your uncle wasn’t dead, I would kill him.”
“You’d have to wait until after I did.”
“She must go this time,” Legrand said, his entreaty spoken in a soft, but firm tone.
Elias agreed. “I will not leave her behind even if I have to truss her up and carry her kicking and screaming aboard my ship.” His mother was going home with him, and Hag would disappear, never to be seen on French soil again.
All three turned at the sound of footsteps racing toward the piazza. Elias pointed his saber in the direction of the new threat, his mother stepped up beside him, wielding her pipe, and Legrand dipped back into the shadows as if he were a hidden weapon—broken wrist and all.
A figure stopped at the top of the steps and bent over. His chest heaving, his breath labored. He looked up, startled to see someone standing in front of him.
“Elias. Thank the Lord. We must hurry.” The priest eyed his mother and swallowed an audible gulp of air. “Is your wife…”
“Charles,” Elias said, purposely dropping his religious honorific. “This is Hag. Did you find what you were looking for?”
Father Charles shook his head, still eyeing his mother who refused to acknowledge their relationship. “He’s not here, but there is someone else I must evacuate.”
Legrand stepped forward, and Father Charles took a step backward, clearly shocked by Legrand’s presence and that he’d been purposely hiding in the shadows. Elias could see the monk’s suspicions rise as his gaze darted between the three of them.
