White Horses. Joan Wolf

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СКАЧАТЬ all, Mathieu, and the Cirque Barent has an English clown. It will be all right. Now, can we go into the house instead of standing here in the front yard?”

      Leo had to duck his head as he went through the front door. The room that he found himself in was the main living room of the farmhouse. It was furnished with heavy oak furniture and on the walls were a series of rural landscapes. As if on cue, a fawn-colored greyhound came racing up to Gabrielle. She bent to caress the beautiful, deerlike head. “Colette, my darling. How are you? Did you miss me?”

      The dog sniffed her clothes and her hands.

      “She was a lost soul without you,” Mathieu said. “You have her so spoiled, Gabrielle, that she just pines away when you are gone.”

      “Poor little girl,” Gabrielle crooned. “I missed you, too.”

      Leo loved dogs. “What a beautiful animal,” he said. The dog turned her head as if she had understood him. He snapped his fingers and she came to him, allowing him to caress her with royal grace. Then she returned to Gabrielle.

      There was a rush at the door and more dogs came dashing in. “Mes enfants!” Emma cried. “Here you are!”

      Leo looked at the six small terriers that were leaping around Emma. “Good heavens,” he said.

      Emma smiled at him. “These are my trained dogs. You will see them in action when we perform.”

      The room was very crowded with dogs. Emma said to Gabrielle, “I will take them outside and then upstairs to my room.” She held the door open and the dogs scampered out, followed by Emma.

      Gabrielle turned to her brother. “Where is Albert?”

      “He went down to the barn to check on the horses. He’ll be back soon,” Mathieu said.

      “Albert is your other brother?” Leo asked.

      “Yes. He is two years younger than Mathieu.”

      “And how old are you, Mathieu?” Leo asked.

      “Nineteen,” the boy replied.

      Leo’s eyes went to Gabrielle, who was standing with one hand resting on her dog’s head. “Who owns the circus?” he asked. “I thought it was you.”

      “My brothers and I own it together,” she replied, “but Papa put me in charge because I am the eldest.”

      “How old are you?” Leo asked curiously.

      “Twenty-two,” she replied.

      Emma said, “Here is Albert now.”

      A young boy who looked like Mathieu, but whose hair was several shades lighter, came into the room.

      “Gabrielle!” He went to hug her. “Everything went all right?”

      “Yes. Albert, this is Leo, my new husband.”

      The brown eyes that fixed themselves on Leo’s face were a lighter shade than Mathieu’s and Gabrielle’s. “Hello,” he said. “You are the English colonel?”

      “That’s right.” Leo held out his hand. “I am pleased to meet you, Albert. But call me Leo.”

      “The horses are all right?” Gabrielle said.

      Albert nodded.

      “Good. Now, is there any food in the kitchen? We pushed on to make it here this evening and we missed dinner.”

      “I think there’s some cold meat and bread,” Mathieu said.

      “I’ll go and fix something,” Gabrielle said. “In the meanwhile, you boys can show Leo to his room.”

      Both boys looked at her. Albert said, “Which room is his? There is no extra room.”

      “He’s going to stay in my room,” Gabrielle said. “It would look distinctly odd if he did not.”

      Both boys frowned and looked at Leo.

      “Your sister will be perfectly safe,” Leo said. “The only consequence she might suffer from this masquerade is a little embarrassment.”

      “I am never embarrassed,” Gabrielle said. “Go along now and take him upstairs.”

      The two boys and Leo, who was carrying his portmanteau, went up the stairs with obedient alacrity.

      Gabrielle fixed a plate of cold roast beef and sliced bread, which she set on the kitchen table. Emma was already sitting at the table when the boys and Leo joined them. Mathieu and Albert had already eaten, but they sat at the table, anyway, clearly wanting to hear whatever the conversation was going to be.

      Gabrielle sat down and put some meat on her plate. She looked at her two brothers, then she looked at Leo. He was piling roast beef on his plain, slightly chipped white plate.

      He looks down on us, she thought. He is an English colonel and we are just circus folk. I foresee an uncomfortable four weeks ahead.

      Leo looked up from his meal. “Has the gold been loaded?”

      Gabrielle looked at Mathieu. “Yes,” he said. “Monsieur Rothschild’s men came three days ago and transferred it into our wagons. No one saw them. The rest of the wagons only came yesterday.”

      “I would like to see the gold myself,” Leo said.

      Gabrielle was insulted. “Do you think we would lie to you?”

      “Not at all. But since I have been charged with getting it safely to Portugal, I must see it.”

      He doesn’t trust us, she thought. She said coolly, “Better to look tomorrow morning, when we are loading up to go. It will look strange to the rest of them if you start poking around the wagons now.”

      He looked annoyed. “Of course,” he said in a clipped voice.

      She pressed on. “As I believe I told you, my family, Emma and Gerard are the only ones who know about the gold. We don’t want to do anything to raise suspicion in the others.”

      “I said I agreed with you.” His annoyance showed in his voice. “I’ll wait until tomorrow to check it.”

      Gabrielle was pleased. She had gotten under his guard. She rewarded him with a smile.

      He stared back, his face impassive. He was the first man she had ever met who did not respond to her smile. The smile died away from her lips and she regarded him thoughtfully. Did he never smile himself? She could not remember seeing him smile once during that long dull ride from Brussels to Lille—he had not even smiled when they were buying clothes and he had looked so funny in the jacket he had tried on.

      Was he always like this, or was it just because he was with people he thought were beneath him?

      Don’t brood about it, Gabrielle, she told herself. You only have to put up with him for four weeks and then your duty will be done and he will go back СКАЧАТЬ