The Josephine B. Trilogy

by Sandra Gulland

  “The only man who has been admitted to my bedchamber of late is my doctor, I’m afraid. Fevers are not conducive to romance.”

  “I must say, you do look frail. Are you even well enough to travel?”

  Early evening—Fontainebleau.

  “Oh!” Aunt Désirée cried out when she saw us. “I wasn’t expecting you. Hortense, look at you, a little lady in that bonnet. And you, Eugène, such a handsome lad. You’re growing like a cabbage.”

  Hortense jabbed her brother in the ribs. Eugene grabbed her wrist and tried to pin her arm behind her back.

  “Children!” I stooped to give my aunt a kiss, glaring at Eugène. “Why don’t you two go out to the stable to make sure the horses are taken care of.”

  “My groom will look after your horses,” Aunt Désirée said, tightening the sash of her squirrel-lined dressing gown.

  “The children need to be outside,” I whispered as they raced for the door. “It’s a long ride from Saint-Germain.” The walls shook as the front door slammed shut. “And besides, there is something I need to talk to you about, Aunt Désirée—privately.” I settled into the armchair next to the sofa.

  My aunt gave me a baleful look over the top of her thick spectacles. “I warn you, Rose, I’m out of salts.”

  “Still?” I paused. “I have to go to Milan.”

  “To Italy? But isn’t that where the fighting is?”

  “I know, Aunt Désirée, it’s just that—”

  “How would you get there? The roads are so perilous. Even between Fontainebleau and Paris, one risks getting robbed. And what about your health? Just look at how pale you are.”

  “I’m needed there, Aunt Désirée, my husband—”

  “A woman belongs with her children. And what about our wedding? The Marquis and I can’t get married without you.” Sniffing.

  I was dismayed. My aunt never used to cry, and now it seemed she was crying all the time. “I have a suggestion to make. Perhaps the priest could marry you and the Marquis before I leave.”

  “When will that be?”

  “Possibly next week,” I said, my voice faint.

  “Next week!” my aunt shrieked. “Father Renard was reluctant to marry us next month even.”

  “Perhaps I could explain the problem to him.” Pay him a goodly sum. Or promise to.

  “But Rose, my gown isn’t finished. It isn’t even begun.”

  I heard the children’s voices in the foyer. I put my finger to my lips, shush!

  “The children don’t know?”

  “What don’t we know?” Hortense asked, pulling off her hat.

  Eugène grinned at his sister. “A mystery,” he hissed.

  “You’re going to have to tell them sometime,” Aunt Désirée said angrily, taking up an embroidery hoop and jabbing a needle into the tautly pulled fabric.

  Not now! But it seemed I had no choice. “I’m going to be making a trip,” I told them reluctantly.

  “Oh?” Hortense looked apprehensive.

  “To Milan,” I said, with an apologetic dip of my head.

  “Where’s Milan?” Hortense asked Eugène.

  “To the war?” Eugène spoke the word with reverence.

  “You’re leaving us, Maman?” Hortense’s straw hat fell to the floor and rolled for several feet before falling over with a soft poof. She backed out the door.

  “Hortense!”

  I was breathless when I got to the park. “Hortense!” I stopped, catching my breath, one hand pressed against the pain in my side. It was growing dark, the shadows disappearing.

  I heard a sob from behind a stone wall. Hortense looked so small sitting in the dirt. I gathered her in my arms. “Sweetheart.” I stroked her hair. She was shaking. “Oh, my big girl,” I whispered, swallowing hard.

  I heard the creaking of wagon wheels, the lazy clip-clop of a horse’s hooves on the cobblestones on the other side of the wall. Hortense took a jagged breath. Then, between sobs, it all came out. I would not see her in the yearend play. All the other parents would come, but who would be there to see her? And, at year end, when all the girls went home, where would she go?

  “But I’ll come back,” I promised her.

  “I don’t believe you!” she sobbed.

  June 20—back home (exhausted). A balmy summer day.

  Aunt Désirée and the dear old Marquis are married at last. (“Kiss me,” she yelled, making the sign of the cross over him, “I’m your wife!”) Now I must attend to the passports, the financing, a wardrobe. I’ll try to see my doctor today, and the apothecary. I’ll leave instructions with my manservant to look after the beggar families that come to our gate. I should talk to my lawyer to make sure that my will is in order. I must talk to Joseph Bonaparte soon too—today, if possible. He and Junot will be travelling with us. I must find someone to take my horses; they should be exercised daily. I can’t decide what to do about my cow.

  Oh—the post-woman just arrived with the mail. Please, let there not be another awful letter from Bonaparte!

  May 4, 1796, La Pagerie, Martinico

  Madame Bonaparte,

  Your mother has asked me to write on her behalf. She can no longer hold a quill for the Rheumatism has greatly inflamed her joints.

  Your mother wishes you well in your marriage. She prays that your husband is a Christian man and that he is of the King’s party.

  However, she declines your offer to come live in France with you. She has used the money you sent to purchase the slave Mimi’s freedom, as you specified. We will send her to you as soon as we receive money for passage.

  I regret to say that there was no income from the plantation last year.

  Your mother has asked me to pray for you and your children.

  In the service of the Eternal Lord, Father Droppet

  I’ve read Father Droppet’s letter many times over. It has been a very long time since I’ve had news of home, and this small token only makes me miserable. I’ll send word not to send Mimi until I’ve returned from Italy. What a blessing it would be to have her with me once again! I’m so relieved she is willing to come.

  June 21.

  “So is it true, darling?” Madame de Crény asked, playing a card. “Are you really going to Italy?”

  “Over the Alps,” Thérèse informed the Glories, rolling her eyes. (She’d been upset initially—she didn’t think I’d actually do it.)

  “The Alps? Mon Dieu.”

  “It’s faster than going around,” I explained.

  “I didn’t think it was even possible.”

  “Bonaparte opened up the route.”

  “Route de Josephine they’re calling it,” Thérèse said.

  “My husband said he’d move mountains for me, but your husband has actually done it.” Minerva looked pleased with her jest.

  “Just the thought of those towering precipices makes me sick.”

  “Not to mention the banditti.”

  “Did you hear about—”

  “Don’t tell her!”

  “Tell me what?”

  “Nothing, darling. Nothing! You’ll be fine.”

  Evening.

  “Bonaparte’s brother Joseph can’t leave for six days,” I informed Barras.

  “Did he tell you why?” he smirked, rummaging around in his papers. “He’s taking a mercury cure.”

  I raised my eyebrows. Mercury is used to cure syphilis.

  “Having a bit too much fun in town—research for the romantic novel he claims to be writing, no doubt. But can you manage it in six days? You’ll need to put together a wardrobe—hoops and the rest of it. The Italians are quite provincial.”

  “Hoops? You can’t be serious.”

  “Servile, tradition-bound, ignorant, superstitious. Dig out your old corsets. And a bustle.”

  I groaned. I’d had my bustles made into pillows long ago.

  “And don’t forget, Madame Bonaparte, ma belle merveilleuse,”* he lectured, pointing a letter opener at me, “always put your hand
kerchief in your wineglass—only juice for the ladies.” I made a face. “And no playing billiards with the men, either, no talking with them about finance and politics.” He opened a drawer, riffled through it and then sat back with a puzzled expression. “What am I looking for?”

  “Something to do with Italy?”

  “Ah, yes!” He took out a file. “I’m to get passports for you, Joseph Bonaparte, Colonel Junot and…who else? Oh, that aide-de-camp, the funny little fellow Thérèse calls Wide-Awake. The financial agent—you know who I mean. All the ladies are mad about him.”

  “Captain Charles?” I was hoping the captain would be able to join us. “He’s a financial agent?”

  “Oh dear, you didn’t know? I wonder if it’s supposed to be confidential. I can’t remember who told me. He’s affiliated with the Bodin Company, apparently. It’s hard to imagine—he’s so young…and so very, very drôle.”

  Drôle, indeed! “At least Fortuné won’t bite him. Even my dog finds him amusing.”

  “You’re taking the dog? Mon Dieu, but this is short notice. Why is it I’m always rushing around doing something for Bonaparte? Ah, here’s what I was looking for. It’s a letter from the most beautiful man in the French Republic, our very own General Lazare Hoche. He requests permission to come to Paris.” Barras held the letter up with a gloating expression. “Pity you won’t be in town.”

  “You’ll see to the passports?” I said, standing.

  “You’re flushed! Forgive me?” He kissed my cheeks. “Ah, but you forgive anything, all my little sins.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” I said, tying my hat strings. Remembering to smile.

  June 23.

  “Madame, it’s…it’s…!” My maid was actually tongue-tied. “It’s the famous General Hoche. Himself!”

  “Here? That’s impossible,” I said, throwing off the down coverlet. It was almost noon, but Dr. Cucé had insisted I get constant rest in preparation for the journey. “General Hoche is in the south. He won’t be in Paris until the end of the month.”

  “I’ll go tell him he’s not here.” The excitement had made Lisette giddy.

  “Perhaps there has been a mistake.” Surely there had been a mistake. “Is this gentleman in his late twenties, tall, with a scar?”

  “Broad shoulders, dark eyes,” she said, her hands clutched to her heart.

  “Lisette, please!” I laughed. “Is my morning gown pressed? Can you find my lace shawl—the one with the silk fringe? Oh, mon Dieu, my hair.”

  “Rose,” Lazare said, turning to face me, taking off his hat. He was bronzed from the sun, his scar white in contrast, snaking down from his forehead onto his right cheek.

  “General Hoche.” I extended my hand. Lazare. Lazarro. He seemed taller than I remembered him. Hercules, Barras called him. “What a pleasant surprise.” Joy flooded my heart. “I congratulate you on your recent victories.”* A man of peace, people are hailing him.

  “There is no glory but that of the Republic for which I fight.”

  “Of course.” I smiled. Lazare believed in the Revolution as if it were a religion—and with good cause. Under the Ancien Régime, he had been nothing more than a dog keeper. Under the Republic, he’d risen to become one of the greatest generals in the land—the greatest general, Barras claimed.

  I pushed forward a chair. “Care for a cognac?” There was a pitcher of orange juice from breakfast. “Or a pétépié?”

  “A pétépié would suit the hour,” he said, with a knowing smile.

  I poured out a tall glass of juice and added a good measure of rum and absinthe. “You haven’t forgotten the pleasures of Martinico,” I said, handing him the glass. My hand was trembling slightly; I feared I might spill a drop, feared he might notice.

  “Indeed, they haunt me.” His fingers touched mine.

  The clock on the mantelpiece chimed the hour, echoed a moment later by the clock in my bedchamber. “You have come early to Paris,” I said, my voice quavering slightly.

  “Just as you, I gather, are departing.” He nodded at the open shipping trunk by the door to my bedchamber.

  “Yes, I’m leaving for Milan in three days.”

  “You’re going to northern Italy?” He sat back. “Is that not risky?”

  “I have confidence in my husband, General Hoche.”

  “As you should,” he said, meeting my eyes.

  Oh, Lazare, my precious Lazarro. Memories flooded my heart—memories of the fever heat of passion, of love. I stood, went to the window to the left of the fireplace, pushed it open. I still loved him, I realized. Loved him and respected him, for the honour he lived by, his Republican zeal, his passionate commitment to la liberté.

  “Today is the day of your birth,” I heard him say.

  “And yours is tomorrow, if I remember correctly.” I remembered perfectly.

  Lazare came up behind me. I felt the warmth of his hand on my bare shoulder. “My doctor will be calling shortly,” I said, turning, my heart pounding violently.

  “Are you not well?” he asked with that familiar tenderness that made me weak.

  “I’m getting better,” I whispered, swallowing. Could he not hear my heart?

  “Do you think General Bonaparte would mind if I gave his wife a birthday kiss?” he asked, with a bold and teasing look.

  “Yes, General Hoche,” I said, looking up at him. I touched the tip of my finger to the cleft of his chin. “I do believe he would mind.”

  Lazare leaned toward me. I felt his tongue, his heart—my own.

  Later, almost ten in the evening.

  Tonight, after a bowl of broth, I went out to the garden and sat on the bench under the lime tree, my arms wrapped around my knees like a child. The moon bathed the landscape in an eerie light. Lazare’s visit had filled me with melancholy. I thought of my mother, so very far away. Was she looking up at the same moon? Did she even think of me? I wondered what had become of them all, my family, the slaves I’d grown up with—my nanny, Da Gertrude and my maid, Mimi. Dear old Sylvester was probably dead. I thought of the graves of my father, my two sisters. I thought of the mound of dirt by the river—the grave of the voodoo priestess. I remembered her terrible words: You will be widowed. You will be Queen.

  Overwhelmed by memory, by feelings of longing and loss, I took the Saint Michael medal that Lazare had given me on parting out of my pocket. Saint Michael the Archangel, sword in hand. Saint Michael the warrior saint, standing victorious over the forces of evil.

  “I want you to have it,” he told me. It had been his mother’s, he said. His mother who had died giving birth to him. His peasant mother who could neither read nor write. He told me it would give me courage.

  “Truly?” Yes, he said, the courage to do the right thing. I puzzled over some words on the back: la liberté ou la mort. “I had it etched on,” he explained, somewhat shyly. I told him I would treasure the medal always.

  Later, turning from the door, he said, “We never really said goodbye.”

  “Is this goodbye then?” I asked him.

  He never answered, I realize now.

  June 26.

  Lisette woke me gently, touching my shoulder. “There are two big coaches out in the courtyard, Madame.”

  I went to the window, pulled back the curtain. One of the men on horseback was Bonaparte’s courier, Moustache—so named for his enormous appendage. He dismounted and said something to Captain Charles and Junot. Bonaparte’s brother Joseph was standing to one side, writing something down in a little book.

  A horse whinnied. At the gate a number of mounted guards appeared—nine? ten? “We have an escort?”

  “It’s a parade!” Lisette said.

  Evening (9:00?)—at Aunt Désirée’s in Fontainebleau.

  “Finally!” Aunt Désirée exclaimed when I arrived. She peered out the window. “Where are all the others?”

  “They’re staying at the inn in town.” I felt gritty from the dusty trip down from Paris.

  “A man has
been waiting over an hour for you to get here. I’ve been trying to entertain him, but between the lace man coming and then the water carriers…” Aunt Désirée led the way into her dark drawing room, the heavy brocade drapes pulled against the afternoon sun. “He doesn’t even play trictrac, only piquet, and he says ‘tyrant’ when he should say ‘king.’ A gentleman, by his dress, but with plain manners.” She made a face. “He blinks.”

  “Is his name Hamelin?” I asked, pulling off my gloves.

  “You do know him.”

  “I’m afraid so.” I had hoped Fortunée Hamelin’s husband would journey to Italy on his own.

  “He’s been most impatient for your arrival. I think he might be a Freemason from the way he stands with his feet stuck out at an angle.”

  “Citoyen Hamelin is the husband of a friend of mine, and yes, a member of Loge Olympique. He’s begged leave to come to Italy with us on business.” The making-money business. The recovering-from-the-devastation-of-the-Revolution business. The recovering-from-a-weakness-for-horse-racing business, I had reason to suspect.

  “I see,” Aunt Désirée said with unconcealed contempt, as if the very word business were beneath her. “He has consumed five small beers,” she hissed in a créole patois, opening the door to the music room.

  “Madame Bonaparte!” Citoyen Hamelin jumped to his feet, blinking rapidly. He was wearing a cutaway tailcoat that stuck out at the back like the wings of a beetle. He took my gloved hand and kissed it, leaving a faint smear of pink rouge. “I was, I confess, beginning to give way to doubt and deliberation. The road is heavy, and one knows the dangers one can encounter, the brigands, the chauffe-pieds!”*

  “Citoyen Hamelin, you understand, there is no room in our carriages—”

  “I will lease a post chaise.”

  I lowered myself into a chair. “What a good idea,” I said weakly.