The Heiress by Evelyn Anthony

Author:Evelyn Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

Six

The evening reception in the Œuil de Bœuf was as crowded as usual; the warm weather increased the discomfort of those who had spent all day hurrying from one part of the Palace to another and following the tireless King’s hunt for the whole afternoon. Everyone was hot and ill-tempered and the plight of the women in their heavy head-dresses and enormous, swaying gowns was pitiful. Even the prettiest were scarlet faced and limp. The Baroness de Vitale, usually so cool and elegant, was fighting her way through the press of people, her face drawn and white with fatigue.

‘The Comte de Tallieu,’ she demanded, again and again. ‘Have you seen him?’ At last someone obliged her; the Comte was in a corner by one of the enormous windows all of which were tightly closed against the dangers of fresh air. Louise saw him leaning against the wall, fanning himself wearily and talking to the Duchesse de Luynes. He saw Louise coming without appearing to take his eyes off the illustrious lady to whom he was speaking, and he noted her extreme pallor and the shadows under her eyes and decided they had nothing to do with the foul atmosphere and the hot weather. Louise, as he often spitefully remarked, had the constitution of a horse and the energy of a man. Something was wrong. She endured a few moments of agony while the Duchesse, ignoring her existence, continued to talk to de Tallieu and finish her assault on a mutual friend’s reputation. The Duchesse enjoyed the sinister creature’s company in much the same way as she was amused by a pair of grotesquely deformed little pages. Both were perverted by nature, both possessed intelligence of a high degree. Their innate malice made them the best companions in the world when one was bored.

‘Ah,’ the Comte said at last, ‘my dear Louise; how disarranged you look! Isn’t this place infernal? I don’t know why one puts up with it, year after year,’ and he sighed and fanned himself.

‘I must speak to you,’ Louise said. ‘I’ve been looking for you since this afternoon when that damned hunt was finished. Something terrible has happened. Can’t we go out into the corridors; it’s impossible to speak a word here without being overheard!’

Together they pushed their way through the crowds, edging along the side of the salon until they reached the doors and there still remained the Salles de Venus and de Diane which were as crowded as the Salon Œuil de Bœuf itself.

At last they were in the corridors, and there were recesses there where it was possible to speak in private; by the great marble Ambassadors’ Staircase there were places more private still, covered by curtains and furnished with a couch for the convenience of lovers who needed a half-hour or so alone. There had even been instances of rape carried out in these niches. As its devotees said, everything one needed in the world to be amused was at Versailles.

‘Now,’ de Tallieu said.

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