“Sophie, you aren’t alone now,” Sebastian said quietly.
“Actually, I spent the time thinking of you and how you had warned me. You warned me and married me to keep me safe and all I did was ignore you.” Her moist hazel eyes met his.
“Stop! You could not have foreseen this,” he told her.
Sophie sniffed. “When he was done, we left the building and parted ways. But before we did, he said he would contact me again when and if he needed me.”
Sebastian was not surprised.
“I yelled at him! He had said it would be at an end once he had found the papers he needed. But he said no, it was just a beginning. He said we could find much information and he could bring Paris to heel. I told him there was no ‘we’ and that I would not help him. He told me I had no choice.”
Sophie’s story came to an end and Sebastian remained kneeling at her feet for several moments before he cupped her face and kissed her on the lips.
“You are no longer alone,” he told her. “Give me the address of the printer and the inspector’s lodgings.
Sophie was about to argue but her husband was up and moving through the adjoining door of their rooms.
Sophie sifted through her papers and found the address to Alain’s lodgings and wrote the printer’s address underneath it while her husband was quickly dressing.
“Here it is.” She handed him the paper.
“Good.”
“What are you going to do, Sebastian?” she asked, following him around the room as he looked for his hose and shoes.
“Right now, Inspector Vennard has all the power. The balance of power must be shifted in our favor. I aim to do just that.”
“How?” she asked.
“You’ll see.” He kissed her lightly on the lips and moved to depart the room. He glanced back and saw his wife watching him intently in her white shift, with her auburn hair falling down her back. He came back to her, pulling her into his arms and kissing her again. This time he lingered, smelling her hair and hating the inspector for causing her such grief.
“Trust me, Sophie. I will protect you.”
“I do trust you.”
“I will return.”
***
Etienne eyed Sebastian distastefully but continued to pull on his breeches and hose.
“What an ungodly hour to wake a man,” he complained, but continued to dress.
Sebastian ignored his friend’s protests and handed him the garments he requested. “Since when did I become your valet?”
“Since you decided to wake me up at the crack of dawn with no explanations and not even a crust of bread for an empty stomach.”
Sebastian slapped his friend on the back as they headed out the door. “There’s time enough for that later.”
***
The printer’s shop was not hard to find. The door was locked and the press was quiet but he banged on the door nonetheless. The printer finally emerged in a long white dressing gown, looking bleary-eyed and irritable.
Etienne looked in a similar state as the printer and Sebastian exchanged words.
“My wife has written several items for you and I require them back,” he said, placing several coins into the man’s hand.
The printer, normally a man of words and freedom of expression, was apt to argue but sleep deprivation and the heavy coins changed his mind. He allowed the two men access to his shop, waving his hand to the wooden shelves in the back.
“Over there. I keep all my originals in the back,” he muttered before returning upstairs to his bed.
Etienne was at a loss for words but Sebastian showed him Sophie’s writing and told him to look for anything similar. Many of the sheets were filled with cramped handwriting, not his wife’s elegant work, but before long they discovered her other writings and took them in hand, with Sebastian carefully placing the items into his coat pocket.
They left the shop with Etienne complaining about his lack of breakfast. Sebastian took pity on him and purchased them both meat pies from a street vendor before they made their next stop.
“What is all this about?” Etienne asked.
Sebastian sat across from him in the carriage in a stony silence as they made their way to the inspector’s lodgings.
Finally he took a deep breath and relayed everything to his friend as he had been told by Sophie. He laid the facts out plainly and told Etienne that their current mission was to secure all the items that would lead the inspector back to Sophie as the pamphlet writer.
They had achieved part of that mission at the printer’s. Now they needed to visit the lodgings of the inspector and take back the two items he held over Sophie’s head.
“With pleasure!” Etienne exclaimed as the carriage continued its course and Sebastian finished his story. “My God, Bash! To blackmail a respectable young woman like that and to have her break into her own father’s office. The man’s a scoundrel!”