Rebellion in Her Touch
Copyright© 2026 by Rachael Jane
Chapter 10: The Truth Between Them
“Yes, we can do that,” says Louis. “I’ll be catching the early morning train tomorrow. We had best spend tonight in Besançon. I presume that will be alright with you?”
Louis has correctly guessed from Yvette’s threadbare attire that she doesn’t have money to fritter away on overnight accommodation, nor on train tickets to Lyon. Financially, Yvette is at Louis’s mercy. Yvette would be willing to meet Louis at the station in the morning, but she doesn’t trust Louis not to simply catch a different train in order to leave her stranded. There’s mutual distrust between them, and Yvette is determined not to make it easy for Louis to disappear.
Louis and Yvette travel together to Besançon and Louis rents a room at the inn he stayed at before. By only renting one room he is placing Yvette in an awkward situation. She knows that sharing a room with Louis will not only encourage his lustful advances, but damage her own reputation.
“What time is the train we are catching in the morning?” asks Yvette, deciding against sharing a room with Louis.
“Eight o’clock,” replies Louis, realising Yvette has baulked at his ruse to discredit her character. “Do you intend to sleep on the street?”
“Let me worry about that,” replies Yvette. “I’ll meet you at the station ten minutes before the train is due.”
Having failed in his attempts to seduce Yvette, Louis switches to his alternative plan. Trying to convince Henri that Jean-Paul is an unsuitable spouse for Colette without providing any evidence will be tricky. However Louis is skilled at spinning believable lies. Catching an earlier train will mean missing breakfast, but he’ll be long gone before Yvette realises that she’s been duped.
Louis arrives at the railway station at six-forty-five in time for the early train to Lyon. Unfortunately his plan falls apart when he realises that Yvette is ready and waiting for him at the station. Yvette may be poor, and lacking an education, but she can detect a cheat and charlatan a mile off. Never being good at improvising, Louis silently concedes defeat and accepts Yvette as his travelling companion. He could refuse to pay for Yvette’s train ticket, but Henri will take a dim view of Louis’s deception. Yvette is a lot smarter than Louis gave her credit, and he is certain Henri will hear from her sooner or later.
Louis takes Yvette directly to Henri’s factory, where he is likely to be at this time of day. Louis is pleased that Jean-Paul is out on an errand, so Louis has a chance to talk with Henri alone. While Louis’s ambitions to seduce Colette are all but abandoned, he is willing to gamble one last throw of the dice to discredit Jean-Paul. He requests a private audience with Henri. Yvette is made to wait in a small room while the two men talk.
Fate has never been kind to Louis’s machinations. His best laid plans invariably fall apart over some minor detail. Perhaps it’s fate’s way of showing disapproval of the lying and cheating that are Louis’s hallmark. Today, fate decides to have Jean-Paul return from his errand, just as Yvette opens the door to the room in which she has been waiting patiently for nearly an hour.
“Yvette! What are you doing here?” says Jeanne, almost letting her disguise as Jean-Paul slip in front of some of the factory workers.
“Um. Jean-Paul?! It’s so good to see you again,” replies Yvette, barely recognising Jeanne in her excellent disguise. “I’m here with Louis D’Aubigny to meet with his uncle. I understand you have gained the affections of Louis’s cousin.”
“Ah! I should have guessed that Henri would want to validate my background. Has Louis been searching for dirt to discredit me?”
“Yes. In between fucking his way through half the countryside if the rumours circulating Besançon are true,” replies Yvette.
“Let’s introduce you to Henri, and we can get this matter settled before Louis causes more mischief.”
A hour later, Louis returns to his office, with his attempted mischief suitably exposed. Henri invites Yvette to spend the night at his house before she returns to Besançon in the morning.
Having vouched for Jean-Paul’s background, Yvette is treated as a guest in Henri’s household. Colette is introduced to Yvette. At first she is unsure what to make of the woman from her lover’s past. At Jeanne’s suggestion, Yvette, Colette and she take a walk along the riverbank. It’s the first time that Yvette can talk to Jeanne as a woman, and her obvious affection for Jeanne adds to Colette’s unease.
Colette’s carefully hidden jealousy isn’t entirely without cause. What Jeanne initially learned about sex and reproduction was from Yvette’s tuition. The pair were close friends in Jeanne’s pre-adolescent years. If Jeanne was being truthful with herself, she would recognise that under her blankets at night, her erotic adolescent dreams involved Yvette tweaking Jeanne’s nipples and nub, and generally touching Jeanne’s erogenous zones. Before Jeanne developed a crush on her friend Estelle, Yvette featured in Jeanne’s mind whenever Jeanne dared to masturbate. Perhaps that should have alerted Jeanne to her preference for lesbian sex, but she was too naïve to understand at the time.
“Now that you have received permission to marry, how do you intend to achieve such a feat?” asks Yvette. “Neither the church nor the civil authorities will allow a same-gender marriage. Surely you don’t intend to keep up your disguise as Jean-Paul.”
“For now that is unavoidable,” replies Jeanne. “Colette and I have discussed simply running away together, but that was before Henri gave his consent for us to marry.”
“And what about you, Colette. Do you envisage living your life with Jeanne or Jean-Paul?”
“While we are in my father’s house, Jeanne’s deception must continue. We shall leave Lyon as soon as we are able, but that may mean faking a marriage first.”
“Unless you tell your father the truth, you will always need to be careful,” advises Yvette. “That rogue of a cousin of yours has his lustful eye on you. If he ever detects that Jeanne is not a man, he’ll cause you all kinds of grief. Blackmail and denouncement are all too easy for Louis in that situation.”
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