War Zone

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Rêve had agreed and one of the reasons for her agree ment was that while they were waiting for Armand's arrival the arrangements for her wedding must be held up too. She knew nothing about the Comte de Durieux who had offered for her hand.

To the best of her belief she had never set eyes on him, although the information was conveyed to the Duchess by a friend that he had seen her when she was in Paris and had fallen in love with her. The Duchess was so old, so out of touch with the modern world, that she knew as little about the Count

and his family as did Rêve.

"His grandfather was a handsome man," she said. "I remember dancing with him once at Versailles, but that is all I can recall of the Durieux family. It will be for your half-brother to make the investigations, to discover if they are genuinely wealthy and their breeding unim peachable."

Rêve was well aware that it was expected that she should marry and the marriage would be arranged in the conventional manner of her country. Yet she had been curiously reluctant to take the step, to leave Val mont, to relinquish the home to which she had so re cently returned.

It was therefore with a sense of relief that she real ised that it would take some months to contact her brother in Poland and for him to come to Valmont. It was in fact two months before they had even an

answer to the Duchess's letter. France was in a state of unrest and Napoleon was moving his armies about. There was the war with Russia, and when the mes senger finally returned he had more to say of the trib ulations he had suffered on his journey than about the Marquis d'Augeron and what he was like.

It seemed that the Marquis had made very little im pression on him, although he spoke for some length about a Monsieur de Frémond who had apparently aroused his animosity. Anyway the Duchess's letter had achieved what it had set out to do.

Armand wrote quite pleasantly to say that he under stood the position and would proceed to Valmont with all possible speed. They might expect him within the next two months. But the two months had come and gone and still there was no sign of him.

Instead there was another letter from the Comte de Durieux asking that negotiations be put in hand as speedily as possible and hinting that the Emperor him self was interested in the proposed betrothal.

Rêve had felt a sense of panic rise within her. Who was the Comte de Durieux? What did she know of him? Why was he so insistent?

And now after last night, after meeting the man for whom her heart must have been searching ever since she grew up, she knew she could never marry anyone else.

Standing at the window and looking out on to the lake, she realised how little she knew about Monsieur de Ségury. All that she was certain of was that his name was Armand like her half-brother's, that he came from Normandy and that she loved him.

She knew nothing else, and yet did anything else matter? That was all that was of account that she loved him and he loved her. He might be married for all she knew, he might be penniless or have a price on his head, and yet nothing else was of consequence save that they loved each other. At the mere thought of him she could feel her whole

body tremble. "My love my life-je t'adore!" She could hear his voice deep with emotion, she could feel the throb of her heart beneath his hand.

"Mine... mine!" A note of triumph-man, the conqueror! Yet would she ask anything else of life but to be conquered-by him?

When her half-brother eventually arrived, she would have a very different story to tell him from what had been intended when the Duchess first wrote to Poland. She would tell him that she was in love, that the Comte de Durieux must be told that this suit was in vain and that negotiations must start with the family of Armand de Ségury.

And it must be done quickly! Alone, Rêve blushed to herself as she realised how quickly she wanted these negotiations to proceed. She wanted to be married, she wanted to belong in heart, mind and soul. If ever a marriage was made in heaven, theirs would be.

"Armand de Ségury!" She repeated the name to herself and liked it. Then as she smiled and told herself she would like any thing that he was called, however banal, however or dinary it might be, she gave a little sigh and turned from the window. She must go downstairs, she thought, and take her petit déjeuner in her Great-Aunt's bedchamber as she

was wont to do.

It would be difficult, she thought, to keep her happi ness hidden from the old lady's penetrating eyes, from her shrewdness which guessed at things almost before

one was aware of them oneself. Rêve had half suspicioned that the Duchess had fan

cied something unusual was occurring when Armand

called yesterday. She had said nothing for a few min utes after he had gone from the room. She appeared to be thinking, her eyes fixed reflective

ly on the door through which he had departed; then she said quickly: "A handsome young man indeed! But beneath that attractive visage I sense both character and intelligence.

Do you like him, child?" Rêve had been startled by the question, but with an effort she had made her reply in what she hoped was a disinterested voice.

"I thought him pleasant enough, Madame." "Doubtless he is thinking in the same extravagant phrases about you," the Duchess said sarcastically, a note of dry humour in her voice which told Rêve she was not deceived by her artlessness. "I wish I could remember a little more about his family, for I like the boy. There is something about him, something which makes me sure that he has both breeding and personal ity. There are not many young men like that about in these days when counter-jumpers and scullions ape their betters.

Réve had said nothing for fear she might betray her self, and after a moment the old lady had laid her hand on her shoulder and said quietly: "Hélas! Let us hope that your half-brother will soon

be here and your future arranged." Rêve had been certain then that the Duchess had guessed at her feelings and now she half wished that she had confided in her for if it had been

difficult to keep silent yesterday, it would be even more difficult today.