Fretwork

Chapter 2: A Visitor

Hotel de Clermont. Paris. Spring 1735.

Philippe retired to his study to review the latest letter from Freyja. She appeared quite content with living in Stockholm. His daughter was originally from Sweden, but this was the longest amount of time she'd spent there since being reborn. She'd become close friends with Queen Christina. Both liked to wear men's clothes and were avid patrons of the arts. The theater was flourishing. He'd heard Christina liked to take part in productions. Bryn would have no shortage of work.

Freyja asked if he needed her at Versailles, but Philippe saw no reason for her to relocate. France was at peace. Louis XV appeared to chiefly occupy himself with keeping his wife, Queen Marie Leczinska, in a continuous state of pregnancy. Cardinal de Fleury ran the government. Philippe disliked his religious intolerance and abuse of forced labor, but he kept the country out of wars, something France had rarely experienced under Louis XIV.

Ysabeau stepped into the room and took a seat opposite his desk. "Gerbert is in town," she said without preamble. "He approached me while I was strolling in the Tuileries Garden."

"I'd heard he was in Paris," Philippe said, proceeding warily. He hadn't spoken with Gerbert since Freyja told him about her subterfuge. "Do you know why he's here?"

"He claims he was interested in Fleury's latest acquisitions for the royal library." She regarded him thoughtfully. "Fleury is quite the bibliophile. Gerbert may hope he somehow acquired the Book of Life."

They maintained a polite but cool relationship with Gerbert. As one of the members of the Congregation, Gerbert had to be tolerated. But ever since he'd been suspected of inciting witch-hunts in England in the previous century, Philippe considered him the enemy of Diana and Matthew. Gerbert was also rumored to have associated with Matthew's renegade son Benjamin, but nothing had been heard about him for over a century. He was likely dead.

He wished he could confide in Ysabeau about Diana and Matthew, but he couldn't. Diana and Matthew had told him that Ysabeau was unaware of Diana's history with Matthew when they met hundreds of years from now. If she somehow found out, history could be altered in unfathomable ways.

"Gerbert also took it upon himself to commiserate with me," she added.

"About what?"

"The frayed tension between you and Freyja over her son, a young Englishman named Jack Blackfriars. He sometimes goes by the name of Jean Blanchet. According to Gerbert, you have refused to acknowledge him."

"Nonsense! Freyja hasn't sired anyone by that name," he said, skirting the border between deflection and falsehood.

"That's what I told him," she said calmly. "I'm puzzled as to why he would invent such a story. I don't understand what he hopes to gain from it."

"Nor do I. Such an awkward attempt to cause ill will in our family is beneath him." He thought quickly. "It could be a feeble attempt at revenge. Freyja exposed his daughter Aurora's plot at Louis XIV's court back in the 1660s."

"An eye for an eye? I suppose that could be his motive, but it doesn't explain how he latched onto the notion."

He'd been waiting for Gerbert to make a move ever since Freyja told him about the assumption Aurora and Domenico made. The question was why now? According to his contacts, Aurora was currently in Paris. Was she stirring the waters? Aurora believed Jack was an ill-used son. Unacknowledged by the family, he'd become Freyja's tool at court.

Philippe had gone along with the deception even though it was uneasily close to the truth. The d'Aurillacs wouldn't have any reason to puzzle over why Freyja extended her patronage to the pup. Did Gerbert believe that by approaching Ysabeau, Freyja would be less likely to employ Jack at Versailles? Now that France was at peace, Matthew was often at court. If Freyja truly wanted to hide Jack from the rest of the family, Versailles would be off-limits. Perhaps Gerbert simply wanted to ensure that Jack would remain in England.