Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran

Author:Michelle Moran [Moran, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical, General, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781410437068
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

JULY 16, 1789

My brother, the Comte, is the most enlightened of advisers. His judgment on men and things is seldom mistaken.

—MEMOIRS OF MADAME ÉLISABETH

AS THE CARRIAGE PULLS UP TO MADAME ÉLISABETH’S CHTEAU, I look at the brightly painted shutters, the rolling hills, and the sculpted trees in their pale marble urns. The air has a light, wild smell that belongs only to Montreuil and Versailles. The hills don’t care that there is no bread in Paris. The flowers still bloom whether the Bastille stands or falls. I can see now why the queen built her expensive Hameau. There, nothing else exists. The cows will welcome her whether or not she’s beloved in France. The water mill will keep churning even if the people have forgotten about their dauphin. All of the world’s troubles cease to exist in Nature. The bees, the flowers, the trickling stream, they simply carry on.

I step from the carriage, and the Marquise de Bombelles comes out to greet me. I search behind her for the pack of greyhounds and the golden figure of Madame Élisabeth.

“The princesse is at Versailles,” she tells me. She is even thinner, gaunt. These weeks have changed her. “She would like us to begin in the workshop without her.” As we enter the workshop and put on our aprons, she confides in me, “It is a disaster. Two nights ago the king asked the Duc de Liancourt if Paris was in revolt. Liancourt told him it is no revolt. It is a Revolution.” She studies me from across the worktable. “We listen to the servants whispering in the halls and beg the guards for information. Is it really a Revolution?” she asks me.

“Yes,” I say quietly. “The National Assembly is pushing for a constitutional monarchy.” I think of Lafayette and Robespierre. “Some would like to do away with the monarchy altogether and replace it with a Constitution, like they have in America.”

Her hands begin to tremble. “All he’s ever wanted is the best for his people. And Madame Élisabeth …” She shakes her head. “She will be beside herself.”

The door to the workshop opens, and Madame Élisabeth appears in a long muslin gaulle belted with a sash of rose-colored gauze. Immediately, I curtsy. She takes a seat on the nearest stool, and tears roll down her cheeks. The marquise hurries to her friend and wraps the princesse in a tight embrace.

“They are leaving,” she says. “My brother and his wife, the Comtesse d’Artois, are leaving for Turin. They are to stay with our uncle, the King of Sardinia. And the Polignacs are leaving for Switzerland tonight.” She looks up at me. “The queen is to lose her dearest friend. Gabrielle de Polignac has been at Versailles for fourteen years. She is Governess to the Royal Children. What if we never see them again?”

The marquise looks nervously at me. “Why should that be? The king is here. You are here. What about the Comte de Provence?”

“He is staying.”

“You see? You have two brothers in France, and one of them still wears the crown.

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