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thing.  How could you think it?’
                  ‘Because I’ve seen men like that one before.  Mon Dieu!  Think what you are doing child.  That one is dangerous.  He wants something from you or he would not still be here.’
                  ‘Yes, I think he may want something.  I do not know what he wants, but I shall be careful, Heloise.  You should not worry about me.’
                  ‘I have nowhere else to go,’ the old woman said. ‘You could go anywhere.  I think the comtesse is dead.  Take her things.  We could find a small cottage somewhere and live in peace.’
                  ‘Yes, I know that is what you need,’ Constance said.  ‘If the money were mine I would find you a home of your own – but it belongs to the comtesse.  I must not leave or she will have nothing when she returns.  If the comte’s cousin had reason to believe that I was not her he would take everything.’
                  ‘Well, I suppose you will do as you please – but be careful of that one downstairs.  He has helped himself to the comte’s things as calm as you like.  If I’d known he was in the house I should not have slept a wink.’
                  ‘I think you were safe enough.  He had seen you earlier but meant you no harm.’
                  Heloise sniffed.  ‘It’s not me I’m thinking of.  Watch yourself, my lady, or he will have the clothes off your back before you know where you are.’
                  Constance laughed and her friend went away scowling.  Heloise was right to be wary of him, of course – but her instincts were telling her to trust him.  He had said that he might be able to help the nuns and that was worth taking a personal risk.  He wouldn’t be the first rake that had tried to seduce her since she’d taken on Madeline’s identity.  Besides, if he wanted to stay here there wasn’t much Constance could do to stop him.
                  Having drunk her chocolate and eaten her rolls, she got out of bed.  There was cold water in the jug on her washstand, but she wasn’t going downstairs to fetch warm water, as she usually did, in her nightrail.  She would use the cold and dress before she ventured downstairs in search of her guest.
                  As she fastened her gown at the front, then tied her hair into a knot at the back, she was thinking about the man who had broken into her house and forced her to allow him to stay in her dressing room.  Just who was he – and why hadn’t he denounced her as a thief to the beadle?  His reputation was hardly that of a gallant gentleman so why had he said he might help the children?  It hardly fitted with what was whispered of him – and something in his manner had told her she could trust him the previous night, even though she’d been angry with him.
                  He had mocked her and spoken of her joining him on the bed, but he’d made no attempt to force himself on her.  Constance knew how badly her mistress had suffered at her husband’s hands.  The comte’s cruelty to his young wife had at times been unspeakable.  Madeline had spoken of beatings, rape and worse, her spirit almost broken by the time she ran away.  Knowing that they were alone in the house, apart from Heloise, who did not hear well and usually read people’s lips, he could have done whatever he pleased with Constance.  She would have fought him, but his strength would have overcome her.
                  A little smile touched her mouth as she left her room and went down to the kitchen.  From what Heloise had told her, she would find him eating breakfast there.  The smell of freshly-brewed coffee told her that she was not wrong and she walked in to see that he had demolished most of the ham she had recently bought and was eating her home made pickles with evident