Chapter 4: Trouble at the Jacobin Club

Mireille was awakened by the two children, Caroline and Jerome, running into her and Elisa's room. Elisa was already up and dressed. "Mireille, come play with us!" they shouted. They dragged her out of bed and into the parlor, before she had time to change out of her nightclothes. Then they pranced around her. "Mireille, our hero!" shouted Caroline.

"Mireille killed the monster!" yelled Jerome. "Stabbed him in the bathtub! Yes!" Mireille turned white and swallowed back tears.

Elisa came into the room with a smile on her face. "You have two hero-worshippers, I see," she said. She gently tore the children away from Mireille and gave her a hug. "Don't be upset," she told her. "They're only children. They don't know any better."

"I understand," said Mireille. To the children, she said, "Let me get dressed, and we can play later."

"Yes!" they yelled. "Our Mireille!"

After she got dressed, Mireille played with the children until the family sat down to breakfast. To her surprise, she found she enjoyed it. Until now, she had never felt entirely comfortable around children, except for her own son. She remembered when she and Valentine used to walk in the Pyrenees and into the little mountain villages near Montglane. Valentine had made friends with all the children in the villages, but Mireille had always kept herself at a distance. But now she felt happy with the two Bonaparte children, as if she had a little sister and brother. She looked forward to playing with her son, when he got to be Jerome's age. But then it hit her. Her son had a murderer for a mother. What child deserved that? She knew what Elisa had told her the night before was right, and she shouldn't feel the way she did, but her guilt had not gone away. She didn't think it ever would. All she could do was learn to live with herself, however difficult it would be.

Soon the family sat down to a breakfast of omelets and croissants. Joseph had joined them, after spending a late night with the Clary family. The others had told him about Marat, and he was very proud of Mireille. Napoleon seemed in a hurry. "Don't mind him," Joseph said to Mireille. "He always eats quickly, and never lingers over meals. If Maman weren't here, he would have left the table after ten minutes! I'm sure he wants to see Désirée as soon as possible." Mireille nodded. Napoleon had been like that on Corsica, before he had even met Désirée. Whether he had been in pursuit of his sweetheart there, or whether he had been anxious to join his regiment, Mireille didn't know. She supposed it was just his nature, to eat quickly.

Letizia had seen Mireille playing with the children, and smiled at her in approval. "Mireille, I hope you don't mind my asking you a huge favor, but while you're here, however long that is-and you're welcome to stay as long as you want, of course-would you mind helping the children with their lessons? Their education has been sadly neglected, and you are a young woman of great intelligence. So is Elisa, of course, and she does her best to help them, but I see they look up to you in a way they don't look up to their own sister. I would understand if I'm asking too much."

"No, it's not too much at all," said Mireille. "I would be glad to help them with their lessons." And it would distract her mind from what she'd done, she thought.

And so, over the next week, Mireille helped Caroline and Jerome with their lessons, and even Louis and Pauline who, even though they were fifteen and thirteen, were very ignorant for their age. Caroline and Jerome were quick to learn, she noticed, even though they kept asking her to tell them about what it was like to kill Marat, and they didn't understand when she didn't want to say much about it. Louis was rather a slow learner. He did have a taste for poetry, but not much else. And all Pauline wanted was for Mireille to write her love letters for her. "Oh, you write so much better than Elisa!" she exclaimed. "And you know what it's like to be with a man. Elisa doesn't."

"Not true. Elisa has Felix, and he's a very fine man."

"No, I mean you know what it's like to lie with a man. Do I have to say it any more clearly? Elisa hasn't done that yet, even with Felix," Pauline giggled.

"Actually, I only spent one night with a man, and I don't remember much about it. I was too distraught over Valentine's death."

"But you enjoyed it, I know."

"Oh, yes, very much." But, even though she didn't let Pauline know it, it broke Mireille's heart to spend time with her. Very often she, Elisa, and Pauline would spend the days taking walks by the docks, watching the sun sparkle on the sea, and Pauline would flirt with every man in sight. Just like Valentine used to do, thought Mireille. Although they were very different in appearance, Pauline and Valentine were so alike in spirit. Mireille wondered if they would have become close, if they'd known each other, the way she and Elisa had, and tears came to her eyes when she thought of it.

But Pauline didn't understand. "You don't like me much, do you?" she asked Mireille.

Mireille was startled. "What gave you that impression? I like you very much. It's just that you remind me of my cousin."

"Valentine? The one who was murdered?"

"Yes. She was so much like you. Full of life, and she loved to flirt with every man she saw." Mireille burst into tears.

Pauline put an arm around her shoulders. "I'm so sorry! I know you loved her more than anyone in the world, and you still miss her terribly. But you avenged her death."

"Yes, as Elisa always reminds me. Valentine's spirit is at rest now. It doesn't make me feel any better about what I did, though."

Pauline shook her head, not able to understand why Mireille felt bad about ridding the world of the monster who had killed her beloved cousin.

Mireille also had long talks with Joseph, when he wasn't with his sweetheart Julie Clary. He was always kind to her, and he understood what she was going through, after his experiences in battle, even though he didn't like to talk about it any more than Mireille liked to talk about what she had done.

During her stay with the Bonapartes, she found herself spending more and more time with Lucien. When she wasn't with Elisa and the children, Lucien escorted her around the city, and they often stood together, looking out over the sparkling waters of the Bay of Marseille, as he pointed out the islands of the Frioul Archipelago to her. There were four islands in the archipelago, and on one of them stood the forbidding fortress of the Château d'If. He told her that prisoners had been locked away there for years, never to be seen again. Mireille shuddered at the sight of it, then began thinking that she deserved to be in such a place. But when she expressed ber thoughts to Lucien, he told her she was being silly.

Hesitantly at first, he asked her to read his play about Charlemagne, which she did. She enjoyed it very much, and offered him her advice on it, which he was glad to take. They also found themselves reading the plays of Corneille and Racine together, in the volume Elisa had bought at the bookseller's stand the day they had run into each other, but they only read the comedies. Mireille felt she couldn't handle the tragedies yet.

Slowly she began to wonder if she had feelings for him. She had always known how he felt about her, but she had been in love with Talleyrand. But it had been almost a year since she had seen Talleyrand, and he was far away, in England. Mireille meant to go there as soon as she could, because he didn't know of the danger Catherine Grand, the White Queen, posed to him. But she didn't fully understand that herself. What if the worst happened, and the White Queen got to Talleyrand before Mireille could? Her son, Charlot, would be without a father, and would have a murderer for a mother. What kind of life would that be? Lucien was good to his younger siblings, Mireille noticed. He would be an excellent father to Charlot, if anything happened to Talleyrand.

Deep down inside her, Mireille knew she wanted what Elisa had with Felix, and what Joseph and Napoleon had with their sweethearts, Julie and Désirée, and she knew that was not what she had with Talleyrand. For as long as she'd known him, she'd thought he was in love with Valentine, not her, and then, the one night they'd spent together, she was too much in shock after Valentine's death to know how she truly felt, or even remember much. And here was Lucien, who loved her just as Felix loved Elisa. But could she return his feelings? Mireille was beginning to think she could. And if she did? Wouldn't that be a betrayal of Talleyrand? She shook her head, confused by all the feelings trapped inside her. She and Lucien held hands as they walked back to the house one night, and she noticed Elisa smiling at her in approval. Elisa wanted her and Lucien to become sweethearts, and probably more one day, she knew. But what would Talleyrand think if she married another man?

The next morning at breakfast, Lucien received a message. His face turned pale as he read it. "It's from my friend Laplace from the Jacobin Club," he told the others. "He says, 'Come to the Jacobin Club meeting this afternoon. It's urgent.'"

"But you were expelled from the Jacobin Club! And so was he," said Elisa.

"There's more," said Lucien. "Laplace has been reinstated. He thinks I may be, too. But I have to come today, or be expelled forever, not just from the Jacobin Club of Marseille, but any Jacobin Club anywhere."

"And so what if you are? Who needs them? They made a hero of Marat, after all," Elisa said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Not all of them did. A lot of them hate him just as much as we do. And I happen to believe in liberty, equality, and fraternity. I have many friends in the Jacobin Club, and I would hate to be expelled for life."

"Have it your way," Elisa groaned. "But be careful. You could be walking into danger."

"I've come prepared for that," said Lucien, drawing a pistol from his pocket.

"Lucien! Put that thing away!" said Elisa. "I don't want it going off in your pocket. You could give yourself a terrible wound."

"Oh, I'm much more careful with it than that, as you should know."

When it came time for him to leave, Lucien gave Elisa a kiss on the cheek. She returned his kiss, and held both his hands in hers. "Please be careful, Lucien. I'd hate to lose my favorite brother," Elisa told him.

"Don't be so dramatic! Nothing like that will happen to me." Then he turned to Mireille, and kissed her on the lips.

To her surprise, she felt all warm inside, but still all she could do was kiss him on the cheek. "Be careful. I know even less than Elisa about what goes on at the Jacobin Club, but if you're among Marat's supporters, I'm afraid for you."

"My friends will be there, too."

Then a horrifying thought came to Mireille. "What if they know about me? We've been seen together, all over the city. You could be in terrible danger." She shuddered, realizing for the first time what danger she might have placed him in.

"They know absolutely nothing about you. As far as they know, it was Charlotte Corday who killed Marat. We've been looking at all the newspapers, after all. None of them say a thing about you."

"That could change!" Mireille exclaimed. "Robespierre knows, and so does my uncle Jacques-Louis David. What's to keep them from telling the whole Jacobin Club?"

"Well, if they haven't by now, they never will, I'm sure."

"I only hope you're right." Mireille held his hand for a long time before he took his leave.

Lucien was away for hours. At first the family wasn't too alarmed. After all, meetings of the Jacobin Club tended to be long. But, when it got to be late at night and Lucien still hadn't come home, Elisa became frantic. She paced up and down the room, often running her hands through her hair in frustration. "Where could he be?" she kept saying. "Lucien never stays away this long!"

Mireille was sitting at the table giving a lesson to Louis, who had actually started paying attention, as he never had with Elisa. She hadn't been as worried as Elisa until now. She remembered her uncle Jacques-Louis spending a long time at meetings of the Jacobin Club in Paris. It hadn't been unusual for him to come home late at night. But Elisa shook her head when Mireille pointed this out to her. "No, he never stays this late. Never!"

Louis chimed in, "Perhaps he's out getting drunk with his friends."

"Not Lucien! He never does things like that."

"I wouldn't be so sure. Perhaps your dear Lucien is not as perfect as you think."

Napoleon, who had been listening to the conversation, added, "He's a young man, after all. And young men like to drink."

"Well, of course he enjoys a glass of wine now and then. Everyone does. But he doesn't go out to the taverns to get drunk," said Elisa.

"Perhaps after what he's been through lately, he decided just this once to get drunk. Just like a certain friend of yours when she first arrived in Marseille." Napoleon smiled at Mireille, who felt embarrassed that Napoleon had noticed she had been drinking that day.

"That's true, you know," said Mireille. "He will be back in the morning, I'm sure of it."

But he didn't come back in the morning, or all the next day. Elisa was about to tear her hair out, she was so frightened. And by this time, everyone else was worried, too. Letizia was just as frantic as Elisa, even though she hid it better. "What could have happened to him? Perhaps one of you should go to the Jacobin club and find out?" she asked, looking at Joseph and Napoleon.

"Yes, Maman, we will go at once," said Napoleon.

An hour or so later, he and Joseph came back, and from the looks on their faces everyone knew things had not gone well. Napoleon said, "It's terrible news! Lucien's been kidnapped!"

Letizia and Elisa grew white as a sheet from shock. "Kidnapped!" exclaimed Letizia. "What? How?"

"Someone set an ambush for him. You see, he never was reinstated at the Jacobin Club. That note was sent to lure him there. The only people present at the club were Marat's supporters. As soon as Lucien arrived, three men in masks and black cloaks came out of the corners and hauled him off. There was an uproar, and in the confusion no one actually saw where they took him."

"No!" exclaimed Elisa. "What could they have done with him?" Tears poured from her eyes. Mireille put an arm around her, trying to comfort her.

"Didn't he fight back?" asked Louis. "He had his pistol with him."

"One of the men took the pistol out of his pocket before Lucien even noticed."

"Didn't anyone see in which direction they went?" asked Mireille. Although she tried to keep calm so she wouldn't upset Elisa, the news of Lucien's kidnapping had hit her hard. She knew now that she had feelings for him. What those feelings were, she couldn't say. But she was determined to find him, and not just for Elisa's sake.

"Not that I know of. Everything was in chaos at the club."

Elisa had a thought. "What about his friend Laplace, who sent him the note? What does he have to say? Could he be one of the kidnappers? I trusted him more than that! I always thought he was a good man."

"I didn't see Laplace there. But think you will find the note was not really from him."

"Well, I'm going to find out!"

"So will I," added Mireille. "Let's go find this Laplace and see what he has to say."

Elisa nodded. "Yes, Mireille. You and I can go together."

"I'll go with you. Two girls shouldn't be going out on their own."

Elisa rolled her eyes. "Since when? Mireille and I rescued the White King of the Montglane Service on our own. And Mireille killed Marat on her own. We will find Lucien, without any help from you! You'll see!"

"All that is true, of course. But two girls, among rough men..."

Letizia interrupted her favorite son. "Napoleon, I think Elisa is right this time. She and Mireille are more than capable of finding him, as they've shown before."

"Oh, very well. But if you find you need help from a man..."

"We won't!" said Elisa. "Come on, Mireille. Let's find out what Laplace has to say for himself."

They set off through the city, towards the docks, where Mireille had gotten off the ship from Paris. Soon she noticed Elisa was leading her towards the very same inn she had visited that day, where she had drunk the strong wine and read the newspapers about Marat's death. "Elisa, why are you taking me here?" she asked.

"This is Laplace's inn. Didn't I tell you he's an innkeeper?"

"No, you didn't." Mireille felt butterflies turning in her stomach. So the innkeeper had been a Jacobin. She wondered if he had noticed her reaction to reading the newspaper accounts of Marat's assassination. Could he have possibly guessed the truth? "Elisa, this is the inn where I went when I got off the ship. He will remember me!"
"I'd forgotten about that!" Elisa slapped her forehead. "How stupid I am. I was so upset about Lucien, I wasn't thinking straight. But he will be glad to see you, I'm sure. If he's as good as man as I thought he was, of course. Now I have my doubts about that. But let's go and see."

They went into the inn, and Laplace came towards them with a smile on his face. "Citoyenne Bonaparte! What a pleasure to see you again," he said. "And your friend, too." He looked at Mireille. "You're the young woman who got off the ship from Paris and asked to see the newspapers about Marat's assassination, aren't you? I didn't know you were a friend of Citoyenne Bonaparte."

"Yes, this is my good friend Mireille de Remy," said Elisa. "She's like another sister to me, and to all my family. Citoyen Laplace, we need your help. Lucien's been kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped?" Laplace's face turned red. "When? How?"

"At the Jacobin Club yesterday. You sent him a note saying he was urgently needed at the Jacobin Club. You'd been reinstated, and you said he might be, too. But there was great danger from Marat's supporters. Well, three men in masks and cloaks jumped out of the corners and kidnapped him! They'd obviously set a trap for him. Napoleon doesn't think the note was really from you, though. Was it?"

Laplace shook his head. "It wasn't. No, I wasn't at the Jacobin Club yesterday. May I see the note?"

Elisa showed it to him, and Laplace shook his head. "That's not my handwriting, even though I admit it's very similar, and Lucien could have mistaken it. Anyway, I have not been reinstated. Not after I said Marat deserved what he got. I believe you're of my opinion, Citoyenne?" he asked Mireille.

She turned pale, and could only mutter, "Yes, of course."

"It's not a popular opinion in some quarters here, but I'll say it to you." He whispered so only the two girls could hear. "Charlotte Corday was a hero."

Yes, she was, but not for the reason you think, Mireille thought, but all she managed to say was, "Yes. I think so, too."

Elisa whispered, "Since you really are Lucien's friend, I'll tell you now, as long as you promise not to repeat it to anyone, and I'm sure you won't. It's Mireille who's the hero."

"You can't mean..."

"Yes, she was the one who killed Marat."

"Elisa!" Mireille exclaimed. "No! How could you?"

Laplace gaped in astonishment. "Well, how can that be?"

"She and Charlotte Corday looked very much alike, and they traded places when Mireille was about to go to the guillotine."

Laplace's eyes lit up in admiration and he said, "I never thought I'd actually meet the person who rid the world of such a monster. You are a true hero. When the world comes to its senses, everyone will realize it. May I kiss your hand?"

Very reluctantly, Mireille allowed him to kiss her hand, but she turned on Elisa. "Elisa, you are not to go around telling everyone I killed Marat!"

"And why shouldn't I? I'm very proud of you."

"It's very dangerous! If the wrong people found out, I could go to the guillotine."

"But Laplace is on our side. And we're alone in here. I don't think anyone else could have heard."

"One of these days, the wrong person will hear! Too many people know already."

"Don't worry, I won't say it in front of anyone who might be an enemy."

"But we don't know who all our enemies are. What about the men who kidnapped Lucien? Who could they be, and where could they have taken him? Citoyen Laplace, do you have any idea?"

"No, I don't. I wasn't there, remember?"

"But you must have some idea how we can find out," said Elisa.

"Don't most kidnappers ask for ransom?" asked Laplace.

"Yes, but these are unusual times. They could have killed him, without bothering to ask for ransom."

"I would ask at the Jacobin Club, but, as two unescorted women, I doubt you will be welcome there. I would go with you, but, as you know, I've been expelled."

"My brothers went there already, and no one knew anything. It was such chaos there, no one saw where they took him."

"Then I suggest you wait for a ransom note. If none arrives within a few days, come back, and we will think of something together."

"Thank you, Citoyen Laplace. We will do that," said Elisa.

Laplace nodded. "And I hope you find him soon. He is a fine young man, and I'm glad to call him my friend." Turning to Mireille, he said, "It has been my great pleasure to meet you." In a whisper, Laplace added, "And I promise I'll keep your secret."

"Thank you. I wish you hadn't found out." Mireille looked angrily at Elisa. "But now that you know, I'm glad of your support."

The two girls walked back without saying a word to each other. When they got home, Mireille turned on her friend. "Elisa, why did you tell him? You might have put me in danger!"

"How many times do I have to say this? I'm proud of you."

"I'm not proud of myself, as you know. And you can't go around putting my life in danger. Promise not to say another word about it, to anyone outside the family."

Elisa nodded.. "I promise. And I'm sorry I talked about it. I was just so proud of you, I couldn't help it, and I wasn't thinking how you would feel, much less that it would put you in danger. Let's not quarrel, Mireille. Will you forgive me?"

"Of course." And the two girls embraced, glad their quarrel had not been too serious.