Joan Wolf - White Horses

“Is that why you went into the army, to make a career for yourself?”

He frowned. Was this interrogation ever going to end? “Yes,” he said shortly.

She nodded, as if satisfied.

He folded his arms. “Now it is your turn to tell me about yourself. Have you always traveled with the circus?”

“It has been my life for as long as I can remember. Papa had to find something to do when the king fell, and he didn’t want to stay near Paris, where everyone knew he had been the king’s horse master. A traveling equestrian circus seemed to be a good idea, and we have been very successful.”

“And your father was against Napoléon?”

“Papa was a royalist, through and through. He himself was the grandson of a noble, you see.”

“And you are a royalist as well?”

“Not like Papa was,” she said. “I think too many people were poor under the ancien régime. But Napoléon is as bad. How many men did he lose in Russia? Half a million at least. And now his men are all over the country, conscripting a new army to go on fighting. Even the peasants are resisting this conscription—everyone is sick of war. We are sick of Napoléon, if the truth be known. A return of the monarchy would be better than what we have—if the monarchy was like the English one and responsible to a parliament.”

A shock of hair had fallen across his forehead in the breeze and he pushed it back. He was impressed by her intelligence and conviction. “If Louis is restored it will be more of a constitutional monarchy—I’m sure of that.”

“It had better be. To have gone through what France has gone through and to end up as we began—that would be a tragedy.”

He, who had always thought it would be desirable if France returned to the old ways, thought for a minute about what she had said. Then he surprised himself by saying, “Yes, I suppose it would be.”

They had been driving through the main part of Lille as they spoke and people on the sidewalk waved to them and called out greetings.

“I’m surprised you don’t start your tour in Lille,” Leo said.

“We end our tour in Lille,” she explained, waving back to a little boy who was jumping up and down and crying, “Gabrielle! Gabrielle!”

Leo asked, “Do you go to the same places every year?”

“We have several different routes, and we have done the southern route before, so it won’t look strange for us to be traveling toward Spain.”

“That’s good,” Leo said. “The more normal this circus looks, the better.” He looked around. “Where is Colette?”

“Inside the wagon sleeping on the sofa. That’s how she usually travels. I give her a good run before we leave and she runs again when we arrive, otherwise she sleeps.”

“She’s a beautiful dog,” he commented.

She smiled. “Shall I tell you a secret? She’s not really a dog—she’s a princess in disguise.”

He laughed. It was the first time she had heard that sound and she turned her head to look at him. He looked younger when he smiled, she thought.

“How old are you, Leo?” she asked.

All of the amusement left his face. “I should have prepared a letter of introduction for you,” he said.

She gave him an annoyed look. “I am trying to be polite and to make conversation. And I should know how old you are if we’re supposed to be married.”

“I am twenty-eight,” he said evenly. “You seem young to have the responsibility for a circus like this.” He tried to steer the conversation back to her.

“Yes, but I spent many years watching what Papa did. I can handle it.” She looked at him. “That is, I can handle it if we don’t come under suspicion for carrying this gold. Frankly, I think the English government was mad to insist I take a noble’s son along on such a mission.”

“I don’t plan on telling people that I’m a noble’s son,” he said in annoyance.

“There’s something about you…an air of authority…that makes you stand out. That could be dangerous.”

“Nonsense,” he said.

“It isn’t nonsense. You saw the reaction of the rest of the circus members. You don’t fit in.”

He was aware of how clipped his voice had become.

“I am here to make certain that the gold gets delivered to Wellington and I intend to do my job.”

“I know!” she exclaimed, not listening to what he had been saying. She turned to him and her large brown eyes were sparkling. “You can be our ringmaster!”

He looked at her as if she was insane. “I am not going to be a ringmaster—or anything else! I am not here to perform in your circus.”

“But it would be such a clever disguise,” she said excitedly. “You’d make an excellent ringmaster—there’s that air of authority, you know. And it would be a great camouflage. It would make you part of the circus, not just a suspicious addition.”

“I am not going to perform in your circus. You might as well get that through your head,” he said in his coldest voice.

She looked at him with a combination of surprise and disappointment, then turned her head back to face the horses. They continued the journey in silence.

They reached the outskirts of Amiens at about five o’clock, and Vincent, the advance man, was waiting for them at the Coq d’Or inn on the main road. He came over to Gabrielle’s wagon and told her that they had secured the same field as last year.

“Wonderful!” She turned to Leo. “This is Vincent Duplay, our advance man. Vincent, meet my new husband, Leo.”

Vincent looked at Leo in surprise. “I didn’t know that you had remarried, Gabrielle. When did this happen?”

“A few weeks ago,” Leo said smoothly. “We are still newlyweds.”

Gabrielle shot him a glance. His face was perfectly grave.

He is the most humorless man I have ever met, she thought. I wonder if he is like this with people of his own class or is it just us peasants who rate that somber expression.

She looked back at Vincent. “Where have you booked us to stay, Vincent?”

“The same place as last year. Is that all right?”

“Fine,” she reassured him. “It was quite a decent hotel. Have you put notices around town?”

“Yes.”

“Good, then you can help put up the tent.”

“Yes, madame.” He gave her a mock salute. “Nice to have met you,” he said to Leo.

Leo nodded. Soberly.

Gabrielle sighed as she took the reins back from Leo’s hands. “Better let me drive. I know where the field is.”

It was large and flat, sparsely covered by grass and surrounded by trees.

“This is such a perfect place for us,” Gabrielle explained to Leo as they arrived at the field. “There is a stream just inside the woods over there. We can bring the horses to the water instead of always having to drag the water to them.”

She watched as Leo looked around. It looked like an ordinary field to him. “Very nice,” he said.

Gabrielle said briskly, “Well, before we can go to our lodgings we have to make certain the horses are comfortable. Get down, Leo,” she ordered. “There’s work to do.”

All of the wagons had emptied by the time Leo and Gabrielle reached the ground, and all the circus members gathered around her. She issued her orders.

“You know the routine,” she began, looking at each person in the group. “First we have to get the horses settled. Mathieu, Albert, Jean, Cesar, Leo and I can put up the corral. Then we’ll unharness the horses and take them for water. The rest of you can help with the tents.”

Most of the assembly turned and started to walk toward the wagon in which the tents were stored. Gabrielle went to open the back door of her wagon to let Colette out and her brothers and the grooms headed in the direction of the wagon Mathieu had been driving. After a moment’s hesitation, Leo followed them.