Page 57 of The King's Man
‘Baron De Baas.’ She curtsied.
‘Mademoiselle, might I say how radiant you are looking this morning?’
De Baas grasped her fingers and held them to his lips in a lingering kiss, his beard and moustache rasping her skin. Thamsine extricated her hand and surreptitiously wiped it on her skirts.
‘You are too kind, Baron,’ she responded.
‘Mistress Skippon’s music lessons are progressing?’
‘Very well.’
‘Good, good.’ De Baas looked distracted.
‘You wanted something, Baron?’
The Baron took a step towards her and clasped her hand again.
‘My dear Mademoiselle, I should be most obliged if you could attend my apartment for a little supper tonight. I require assistance with some music I wish to perform at the nextsoiree.’
A shudder ran down Thamsine’s spine. Everything in her screamed out to refuse, but then she remembered who she was and why she was there.Use your charms, Kit had told her.
She gave a nervous laugh. ‘My dear Baron, I’m not sure … ’
He raised a hand, a look of pain crossing his face. ‘Please do not be alarmed, mademoiselle, it will be quite …innocente. I wish merely to share some music with you and perhaps some talk. I have been rather … ’ He frowned as if searching for the word. ‘Rather lonely since I have been in England.’
Thamsine bit her tongue and replied sweetly. ‘I’m so sorry to hear that, Baron. Very well, what time?’
An eager light sprang into his eyes. ‘Shall we say seven in the evening?’
Thamsine nodded. ‘Until tonight, Baron.’
A door was flung open with a crash and Bordeaux stood brandishing a piece of paper.
‘De Baas, you fool!’ he exclaimed in French. ‘What game are you playing?’
‘My dear Bordeaux, what do you mean?’ De Baas replied, also in French.
‘You have been sending correspondence directly to Mazarin without my consent.’
‘I do not need your consent.’
‘You do when the matter affects the relationship with this country.’
Thamsine affected a bemused stare, looking from one to the other.
‘My dear Ambassador,’ de Baas remembered Thamsine’s presence and gave her a reassuring smile, continuing in French. ‘I think this conversation is one best conducted in private.’
‘Then in here, now!’ Bordeaux stood aside to let De Baas pass into the room beyond.
De Baas bowed to Thamsine. ‘Until tonight, mademoiselle,’ he said in English.
Thamsine waited until the door closed behind them, and was on the verge of pressing her ear to the door when a servant entered, carrying her cloak and hat.
She walked slowly back to the Ship, lost in thoughts of how best to avoid the Baron’s roving hands while extricating useful information from him.
‘Thamsine!’ She jumped at the sound of her name.
Kit stood on the corner of the street, hunched into his cloak. He had a pinched look, as if he had been waiting a while in the cold. She hadn’t seen him since their vitriolic conversation of the previous day.
