Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [118]
Isabelle turned to face him. “It is arranged, then,” she said. “Only leave us one hour to make ready. My house, or rather the spot where it formerly stood, is on the way to the city gate, and I believe your excellent Captain Daspir knows the way.”
In fact it took Isabelle considerably less than an hour to prepare to travel, for the few things she had preserved were already packed in the small leather portmanteau they’d hauled up and down the slope of La Vigie. The balance of the time allowed she divided between finishing a particular bit of needlework and debating with her husband.
“Yes, I know it was I who insisted on staying here,” she said. “Call me inconstant if you must. I will even admit that I was wrong! We have succeeded to save nothing out of it all.”
Cigny grumbled. “They say the plantations on the plain have all been burned as well.”
“I’ll promise you that Héricourt is intact, if Toussaint is in residence there,” she said. “We would find a better shelter for ourselves, and for the children.” She touched her hair and then looked critically at her fingers. “There might even be the chance of a bath.”
“And if Toussaint is not at Héricourt?”
“Then on to Ennery and Habitation Thibodet.” Isabelle smoothed the calico she was sewing over her knees.
“The mountain passes will not be secure, after everything that has just happened,” Cigny said. “No matter what General Leclerc may say.”
“But at the least we are promised a strong escort. I see no better chance to make the journey.”
“I don’t know that I see the point of this journey.”
“Thibodet is so hemmed round with Toussaint’s properties, I do not think that he will let it burn.”
Cigny stood up and kicked a chunk of cracked masonry off the swept tiles into the ash pit. “No more did you think he would let Le Cap burn,” he snapped. “Are you so eager to trust in his protection now?”
With a snap of her teeth, Isabelle bit off her thread. “You do wrong to mock me, though I was mistaken once.” She lowered her voice, which had grown shrill. “We must seek our shelter where we may find it. And I see little enough here.”
“I would go with you, Bertrand,” the doctor said mildly. “As far as Ennery, if it proves possible. I should like to know that Nanon and the children are safe, not to mention my sister and her family.”
“And I also,” Arnaud said. “As far as Acul.”
“My God,” said Isabelle. “To think that we had forgotten Claudine.”
Arnaud’s mouth tightened. “Well,” he said. “She has come through the wars before this one.”
“As we all know,” Isabelle said. “God grant she has saved herself as well this time.” She made the sign of the cross and turned away.
Because he knew something of the terrain, Cyprien was given command of the expedition, with Daspir seconded to him. The escort in sum had a strength of twenty-two. They found the Cigny group prepared when they arrived; the adults all furnished with some sort of mount, a couple of them with mules. The two children doubled on one of the donkeys they had used that morning. Cyprien protested, in Daspir’s ear, that he had not expected to be saddled with these brats, nor yet with so many extraneous adults, when Arnaud alone would have sufficed as a guide. But Daspir told him that the children could hardly be left to their own devices here, when only Michau and the cook were remaining to supervise the shell of the Cigny establishment, and when Isabelle appeared, Cyprien let the subject drop. She had cut and resewn the skirt of her maid’s dress to contrive a costume that let her bestride her mare, and even in this getup she managed to cut an exotically elegant figure.
“So you have fallen in with this crew,” Cyprien said musingly, one eye appreciating Isabelle’s trim figure in the saddle. He and Daspir rode several places back in the group, behind the Cigny party and directly following Placide and Isaac. Their whole column was led by a wedge of five hussars, one of whom carried the flag of France before them.
“You seem to hold some reservation,