Pierre Pevel - By The Alchemist in the Shadows Page 0,88

as on a Sunday, as Laincourt explained to her.

'Oh . . . You see how ignorant I am of all these things . . . It will take a long time to make a Parisienne of me, won't it?'

Aude's disappointment saddened Laincourt, who felt a compelling need to console her.

'But we could go to the garden at Les Tuileries,' he heard himself propose.

'Really?'

'Yes! We should definitely go, now that it's been said!'

'But . . . What about madame de Jarville?' whispered the young woman with the tone of an anxious conspirator.

'Let's leave her to her rest.'

The Enclos du Temple was a former residence of the Knights Templar located on the right bank of the Seine, to the north of the Marais neighbourhood. Ceded to the Knights Hospitaller after the dissolution of the Templar Order in 1314, this building was finally sold to the Sisters of Saint Georges during the reign of Francois I. It still belonged to them in 1633 and was still surrounded by a high, crenelated wall, punctuated by turrets, and defended by a massive donjon flanked by four corner towers: the famous Tour du Temple. Visitors entered the premises by means of a drawbridge and inside one found everything necessary for the life of a religious community: a large church; a cloister; a refectory and dormitories; kitchens; granaries and wine cellars; workshops; stables; gardens, vegetable plots and more extensive fields; and even some houses and a lew shops. All of this contained within a mediaeval compound in Paris, on the rue du Temple, near the gate bearing the same name.

*

Having dined at place de Greve, Marciac and Agnes both entered the Enclos, but only the young baronne was admitted to meet the Mother Superior General. They had shared an enjoyable moment together, the Gascon regaling Agnes with comic tales of his trials and tribulations in love. He was aware that she had once been on the point of taking the veil with the Chatelaines, although he didn't know of the circumstances that had prompted her to change paths and later join the Cardinal's Blades. One thing was certain: at present, she no longer held the Sisters of Saint Georges in fond esteem and even seemed to nurture a particular rancour against the current Superior General, the formidable Mere Therese de Vaussambre.

While Marciac waited patiently outside, Agnes was conducted to the ancient chapter hall. The room was immense, broad, high-ceilinged and illuminated by arched windows. At the rear, a long table covered with several white cloths stretched parallel to a wall adorned with a huge mediaeval tapestry representing Saint Georges slaying the dragon. At the centre of this table, back to the wall, beneath the tapestry, sat the Mother Superior General. Tall, thin and stiff-looking, she had the same penetrating gaze as her cousin the cardinal. She was not yet fifty years of age, directed the Sisters of Saint Georges with an iron hand and had made their Order more influential than ever before.

'Approach, Marie-Agnes.'

Her hat held in one hand and the other resting on the pommel of her sword, Agnes de Vaudreuil advanced, saluted and said:

'It's just Agnes, now, mother.'

'Agnes . . . Yes. So it is. You do well to correct me,' replied the Superior General in a tone that implied the exact opposite. 'I have trouble forgetting the novice that you once were. You had so much promise! And what a louve you would have become . . . !'

Cautious, the young baronne de Vaudreuil waited silently.

'But the day will come when you will realise your destiny . . .' added the nun, as if to her herself.

Then she added in a solemn and imperious tone: 'Madame, your services are required at the side of the queen, whose suite you will join as soon as possible. You have been chosen due to your skills, as well as the abilities revealed during the novitiate which you have so unhappily chosen to neglect.

However, we know that we can place our trust in you . . .'

A short while later, in the courtyard of the Hotel de Chev-reuse, Laincourt was helping a delignted Aude de Saint-Avoid to climb into a coach when he felt a glance fall upon the back of his neck.

He turned around but only had time to see, at a window on the first storey of the mansion's main building, a curtain hilling back into place before a thin, pallid face.

The Alchemist released the curtain and turned away from the window just as the duchesse