Zipporah's Daughter (Knave of Hearts) Read Free Page B

feel as deeply as I said I did because I was too young. I felt no longer a child in his company and that was one of the reasons why I enjoyed being with him so much.
    It was not until we were in France that he told me of his family and whom I should meet. Strangely enough, until that time I had not thought of his having a family. He had talked so much about his life at Court, and I could not imagine him in the heart of domesticity.
    He began: ‘My daughter Sophie would be a year or so older than you. I hope you will be friends.’
    ‘Your daughter!’ I cried as the realization dawned upon me. ‘Why … she is my sister!’
    ‘Half-sister,’ he corrected. ‘Her mother died five years ago. She is a good girl. She will become your friend, I am sure. In fact, I shall insist that she does.’
    ‘A sister …’ I murmured. ‘I do hope she likes me. All your insistence won’t be able to make her if she doesn’t.’
    ‘She has been brought up to obey … a little more strictly, I imagine, than you have been.’
    ‘Sophie,’ I murmured. ‘How interesting. Oh, I do look forward to seeing her.’
    ‘I want you to be prepared for our household. I also have a son, Armand, Vicomte de Graffont. Graffont is a small estate we have in the Dordogne district. Armand will, of course, have my title when I die. He is five years older than Sophie.’
    ‘So … I have a brother, too. How exciting! I wonder how many people have families they don’t know about.’
    ‘Thousands. Life is not always lived to a regular pattern, you know. I suppose almost everyone has a secret tucked away somewhere.’
    ‘It is fascinating. Oh, I do so long to meet them. Will they be at the château or in Paris?’
    ‘Sophie will be at the château with her governess. I cannot speak for Armand. He leads his own life.’
    ‘It sounds so interesting.’
    ‘I trust you will find it so.’
    ‘I am so excited. It grows more fascinating every minute. First a new father … and now a sister and brother. Are there any more relations?’
    ‘Distant ones who won’t concern you. That is all my immediate family circle.’
    I was so excited I scarcely noticed the countryside. We had come to France by way of Le Havre and travelled to Elboeuf and then spent a night at Evreux, the capital of Eure, in which province the Château d’Aubigné was situated.
    When we reached Evreux, the Comte sent two of the grooms on to the château to warn them of our coming, and very soon we were making our way southwards, for, said the Comte, now that he was so near home he had an irresistible urge to be there.
    As we approached, I had my first glimpse of the castle, which was set on a slight incline; built of grey stone it was overpoweringly intimidating with its buttresses and corbelled watch-towers. I gazed in wonder at the imposing edifice with its pepperpot-like roofs on either side of the gatehouse.
    The Comte saw how impressed I was and said: ‘I am gratified. I think you like my château. Of course it is no longer as it was originally. Once it was just a fortress. What you see now is as it became in the sixteenth century, which was when French architecture was at its best.’
    Dusk was falling and in the half light the château looked mysterious, almost forbidding, and excited as I was when I rode into the courtyard, I felt a sudden shiver of apprehension as though I was being warned of a certain menace.
    ‘In the morning I will show you the inside of the chateau myself,’ said the Comte. ‘I am afraid you will find me rather boastful and over-proud.’
    ‘Anyone would be,’ I told him.
    ‘Well, it is your family now, Lottie,’ he replied.
    I stood in the hall with the Comte beside me, his hand on my shoulder while he watched me closely to see the effect his home was having on me. Needless to say, I was overcome with mixed emotions. It was so grand, so redolent of the past; I could believe that I had stepped into another century; there was a pride in my knowledge