MADAME POMPADOUR’S BLADE
by Tom Purdom
This story was selected for Black Cat Weekly
by World Fantasy Award-winning editor
Darrell Schweitzer, the former editor of
Weird Tales and Worlds of Fantasy & Horror.
They passed the carriage about an hour after they left Paris, as Geveaux had expected. It was a cool, sunny morning in early April. Even the peasants driving geese and pigs toward the city behaved as if they might be momentarily satisfied with their lot. Geveaux rode past the carriage on the left, with Francois behind him. He glanced at the windows but they were covered with dust. He would just have to assume Mademoiselle Arlette was seated inside. They were overtaking the carriage at the right point and it matched the description he had received from the spy at the Hotel Rousset:
