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Edward looked up and saw her. He stopped running and gave her a wave. She waved back and then Anne came and stood beside him and stared up at her. Lisette leaned out. ‘Bonjour, mes enfants,’ she called.
They conferred a moment as if translating what she had said, then Edward looked up again. ‘Bonjour, mademoiselle.’
‘Très bon.’
Hortense came into the room behind her carrying a bowl of hot water. ‘You are awake at last. Will you dress?’
‘Yes. Something plain and easy to walk in. That petticoat dress I wore yesterday will do.’
She washed and scrambled into her underclothes, while Hortense found the gown. ‘Shall I ask for your breakfast to be brought up?’
‘No, I will have it later downstairs. I’m going out into the garden.’
She left Hortense to tidy the room and ran lightly downstairs and out of the main door. To reach the children it was necessary to cross the drawbridge and walk round the outside of the moat. They were still there, but had abandoned the ball and were kneeling beside the moat, peering into the water.
‘What can you see?’ she asked, squatting down beside them.
‘A fish,’ Anne said.
‘An eel,’ Edward added.
‘Une anguille,’ Lisette said, then added when they looked mystified, ‘That is French for eel. Where is it?’
‘There, in the reeds.’ Edward pointed.
‘My goodness, it is a long one. Are they all as big as that in the fens?’
‘Some are. The village men go out in boats and catch them in traps to send to London. Cook sometimes makes eel pie. Do you like eel pie, mademoiselle?’
‘I have never tasted it.’
‘You should,’ said a voice behind them. ‘It is a staple diet in these parts.’
All three twisted round to see Jay standing over them. Lisette scrambled to her feet. ‘Good morning, monsieur.’
‘Good morning, mademoiselle. Did you sleep well?’
‘Exceedingly well. After all the upheaval of recent days, it was so quiet and peaceful, I fell asleep almost at once.’
‘I am glad to hear it. Blackfen Manor has that effect on people. Have you breakfasted?’
‘Not yet. The day was so lovely and I could hear the children so I thought to join them.’
‘Can we take a boat out on the fen and show mademoiselle how eels are caught?’ Edward said. ‘An eel is une anguille, did you know?’
‘I might have learned it a long time ago,’ Jay said with a smile. ‘But I had forgotten it.’ He paused. ‘Would you like Mademoiselle Giradet to teach you French with your cousins?’
‘Does it mean we can stay here with Grandmama and Grandpapa?’ Anne asked.
‘Not all the time, but you will come back for the lessons.’
‘Good,’ the child said with satisfaction. ‘I like it here.’
‘Of course you do, everyone does, but you do have a home, you know, and I have work to do there.’
‘What about going on the mere?’ Edward persisted. ‘I am sure mademoiselle wants to go, don’t you?’ He appealed to Lisette.
‘I think that would be très interessant,’ she said.
Jay laughed. ‘It seems the lessons have already begun.’
‘It is the best way to learn, as you go. It is better than sitting in a classroom, chanting verbs.’
‘Would you like a little excursion on to the fen in a boat?’
‘Very much.’
‘Then let us go and have breakfast first. We will be back for dinner at three o’clock and afterwards I will take the children home and leave you and your father in peace.’
‘The children do not disturb me,’ she said, though she said nothing of the man himself who never failed to set her heart pounding. ‘I love children, especially when they are so well behaved as these are.’
They began to walk back towards the drawbridge. ‘Have you never thought of marrying and having children yourself, mademoiselle?’ Jay asked.
‘Alas, the right man has never come along. Perhaps I am too particular.’ She laughed suddenly. ‘Or perhaps the gentlemen are. I am too tall and thin, which is not at all fashionable. It has been said I could easily be mistaken for my brother.’
‘Whoever said that must be blind,’ he said. She laughed. ‘Thank you for that, kind sir.’
Lord Drymore had already breakfasted and gone about the business of the estate and her ladyship had her breakfast in her room, so Jay and Lisette had joined the children in the kitchen. After enjoying a hearty breakfast, they set off for the narrow tributary of the river which joined the moat to the fen. Here Jay, helped by Edward, pulled a boat out of a boathouse and tied it to a stake while they all they all climbed in. Jay untied the rope, jumped in and picked up the oars to row them into open water.
