Chapter 10: Kidnapped

Several dances later, Louis is dancing with the wife of a town councillor, and Rebecca is dancing with her father. I haven’t seen Eloise for over half an hour. I politely decline an English businessman’s offer of a dance, and I go to find Madame d’Arles or the Comte. I see them both in a side room talking with the mayor of Fort Royal. One of Vichy’s men is hovering in the background.

I wait until they have finished talking to the mayor, before I go up to them and ask about Eloise’s whereabouts. Neither seems to know, but they don’t seem to be concerned. I’m not so easily put off and go looking for her. I soon establish she’s not in any of the rooms downstairs, so I go up the grand staircase to the next level. All the doors on this floor are closed but I can hear hushed laughter and noises from behind the various doors.

Suddenly it dawns on me what’s going on behind these doors. Surely Eloise hasn’t taken a man into a bedroom for sex? That might explain her disappearance and why her parents don’t seem concerned. But a niggling feeling makes me discard that possibility. I turn around and reach the top of the stairs when I meet one of Vichy’s men. I’m about to pass him when he reaches out and stops me. Suddenly I realise he’s got a knife pointing at my chest.

“One sound and you die, little Miss Busybody”.

I’m too shocked to make a sound, and I meekly allow the man to guide me along the corridor to the servants’ stairs at the other end. This can’t be happening to me! We go all the way down the stairs into the basement where the laundry and kitchen are located. Only there are no servants about. Just Vichy, three of his henchmen, Yvette and Eloise.

“What are you doing with her, JeanPaul?” asks Vichy, clearly annoyed at what appears to be an unexpected change of plan.

“The Beaufoy girl is leaving with her father so we can’t get to her. This one’s a Thibert, so she’ll have to do instead.”

What! I’ve saved Rebecca only to have them replace her with me.

“Hmm. Good thinking, JeanPaul. Right, let’s get going.”

Before I can say anything a gag is put in my mouth and my hands tied behind my back.

“I’m so sorry, Andrea. I really am, but they forced me,” says Eloise, making a move towards the stairs.

But Vichy stops her. Before she can say anything she is bound and gagged like me. From her reaction this is isn’t what she thought was going to happen. She struggles but it’s to no avail.

Within a minute we are bundled into a carriage and we set off at speed. So far I don’t think we’ve been missed from the party, and I’ve no idea where we are heading. It is the smell of fish and the noises of the harbour that tell me where we are when we finally stop. The carriage door opens and before either Eloise or I can do anything we are carried inside. Despite the dark I recognise this as Yvette’s house.