Jehanne is beautiful, and Claire wants to cry whenever she looks at her. Claire is only nine years old, yet she knows Jeanette is not like any other girl she has ever seen. The women she knows are wives, widows, nuns, painted saints who died at the hands of pagan men. Jehanne is a maiden, just seventeen, seventeen, say the whispers following her around town. And she is a warrior. She is bright, like the sun shining off the armor she wears. She is going to save all of France like the legend says, say the same whispers.
She is a witch and a whore, say other whispers, and Claire does not know exactly what the second word means, though perhaps she is a witch, for Claire knows that she looks at Jeanette, tiny in her armor with short hair like a boy, she feels like her soul is on fire. Claire is too shy to speak to her and stares at her with wide through their evening meal. She reminds Claire of an angel, although her features are not so delicate and she has cut hair short.
France is at war. France has been at war for dozens of Claire's lifetimes, or so long that war is now the ordinary state of existence and Claire cannot distinguish which aspects of life are caused by the war and which are that of peacetime. And now here comes this shepherd girl from Domrémy arriving in the besieged city, saying that she will free Orleans. Claire sees Jeanette and wants to follow her anywhere.
Her father, Jacques Boucher, a commoner, has brought Jeanette here because she needs a place to stay. Jeanette has arrived in Orlean's unseen, with a horse, and armor, and a small band of men.
"Jehanne will be sleeping in your bed," her father says. This is because Claire's family's house is small lacking an extra bed. Jehanne cannot stay in a room in the local inn both because she has no money, and because young unmarried girls should not stay there alone. Claire knows this, although she does not exactly know why.
She glances at Jehanne, too shy to say anything. The girl had eaten dinner with them and her manner is ordinary. Claire watches her trying to divine any trace of sainthood clinging to her. But Jeanette is different from the stained glass window at the local church. When women appear in the Church's art. it is for bearing some holy son or for them having died after persecution. But Jehanne is neither. She is unmarried and though she is short and small, Claire thinks that she would be hard to kill. She hopes so.
Claire thinks that perhaps Jehanne wears a suit of armor underneath her boys clothes, that it is magic, and it will protect her from the years of men and the arrows and swords of the enemies. If Jehanne does Claire does not see it for as they prepare for bed. Jehanne does not remove her boys clothes and clear things that perhaps these serve as her armor, protecting her as a dress could not. Claire wonders what it feels like to wear clothes like that.
Her nightdress feels flimsy and insignificant in comparison, but she does not think that Jehanne cares about things such as clothes, for she has the salvation of all of France on her mind.
When the lamps in the house are extinguished and she and Jehanne lie in the dark, Claire finally speaks to her saying, "Are you really going to free Orleans?"
"Yes," replies Jehanne and Claire hopes that she is not disturbing her for who knows if Jeanette prays constantly in her mind? "I am going to free Orleans, and see the Dauphin crowned."
"Are you afraid? Claire asks feeling braver now. She has wasted her chance to speak with Jeanette before, but she will get in as many questions as possible before her parents hear her speaking and tell her to be quiet.
"Would you be?" Says Jehanne. It is very dark so Claire cannot see if she is turned on her side with her back to her, or laying with her face up, or even turned toward Claire.
"No," she replies instantly. She wants Jehanne to think of her as brave, and she would not be if she had the power of God and Saints Michael, Catherine, and Margaret behind her, as the adoring whispers say that Jehanne does. "I wish that I could go with you," says Claire. "I want to fight as well." And she will fight, if Jehanne asks her.
"You must pray for our victory over the English and God's hand to deliver France," says Jehanne, and it is not until just before Clair falls asleep that she realizes that Jeanette never answered her question, the one about her being afraid.
Jehanne rose early the next morning, pacing about the city, but Claire's father forbids her to leave their house, because the English outside the walls are restless, knowing of the coming French attack, and it is not safe. On the following Wednesday, the battle begins in earnest, and Claire watches as Jehanne grabs her banner and gallops her horse down the street.
She frees Orleans, but the celebratory crowd is too thick for Claire to reach Jehanne, and she departs. This girl's name is on the lips of the entire country in the coming months. Claire does as Jehanne instructed her and prays for France, although not so much because she wants deliverance for her country, as because Jeanette asked her to and Claire feels that if she neglected these prayers, Jehanne would surely know and feel disappointed in her.
The Dauphin is coronated and Jehanne stands proudly beside him on the altar, the altar where women are forbidden to step. And some rebuke her for this but others the prophecy that their country will be saved by a woman, and say that so what if she stood beside him? She is a saint. Would you refuse to allow the Blessed Virgin to stand at the front of the church? Anyway France has a king now, and she has brought it about. The power of God is with her and she can do wrong.
Claire wonders if perhaps one day in the future she will be called before bishops, as one witness to a saint's life. She will tell them that she had met Jehanne once and that she was the embodiment of holiness.
Claire crys when she hears the news, announced throughout France, that they have burned her instead.
AN: Jehanne= Joan. In the beginning of the battle of Orleans, Joan did stay at Jaques Boucher's house and share a bed with his daughter.