The de Vere Inheritance

Chapter Twelve - 9th August 1632

As soon as Elizabeth opened the door she caught sight of her neighbours on the adjacent set of steps. Madame Deschamps appeared incredibly distressed and was attempting weakly to push her husband down the steps. He was resisting with a firm strength, with his booted feet planted firmly on the stop step. He was not entirely dressed yet, with only his boots and breeches and shirt in place. The back of the shirt was untucked and wrinkled as if it had been slept in. When they both became aware of her presence they turned to her sharply as if they were two children that had been caught stealing sweet marzipan from the dinning table.

Elizabeth hid her gasp as she realised that the front of the man's shirt was covered in blood. Elizabeth ascertained that it must be his own for Madame Deschamps appeared clean and uninjured. There was something about the situation that Elizabeth thought rather dire and dangerous. She wanted nothing more than to retreat back inside her own lodgings rather than to try and intervene, but she knew she had to do what was right.

"Can I be of some help?" Elizabeth asked softly. "Is everything alright?"

"None of your damn business is it Madame?" Monsieur Deschamps roared as he used the distraction to grab his wife's wrist. He forced her back through the door and threw a disdainful look at Elizabeth. "Perhaps you should return to your husband Madame so that he may teach you how to keep yourself ensconced within your own affairs!"

Elizabeth stepped down a few steps until she could glimpse Madame Deschamps standing in the stairwell. Her expression was more full of anger than fear but still Elizabeth wanted to ensure the woman felt safe before she left. "Madame?" she pressed. "Do you wish me to fetch help?" Elizabeth's mind was already springing to where she might find a musketeer at such an hour of the morning when the other woman shook her head decidedly.

"Honestly Madame," she called out to her, "There's no trouble here. I appreciate your thought but perhaps my husband is right in saying you should consider your own business and leave us be."

The husband grinned at her snidely and then entered the stairwell of his own lodgings. The door was slammed closed and Elizabeth was left standing on the steps alone. She knew things were not well with her neighbours but she knew not what she could do to help them when they did not wish for her aid. She resigned herself to the fact that they would have to sort their own issues as she was not going to be staying in Paris for that much longer. She was on her way to attend her last meeting with her father's lawyer before she left. Although she was exhausted she knew she needed to try and complete as many errands as she could that day. It would mean that as soon as she found a carriage willing to take her into the country for the right price, she could leave.

The small purse of coins she had buried in her pockets felt extremely light as her motion of walking caused it to bump against her leg repeatedly. Elizabeth was under no illusions that she could very well leave the lawyer's office some time later with her pockets even lighter. She knew there was a high chance that her father had left her nothing and she would still have to pay the lawyer for his time. If that were indeed the case, Elizabeth had resigned herself to the fact that she might have to do what she dreaded and go to Eric and ask him for some money. There was little likelihood that he would give her any.

~

When Elizabeth emerged onto the streets again some hours later, it was with mixed emotions. She was right in that her father had not left her much at all. She had been left a house in the south of France rather than money, which was of little use to her in her position. It would take weeks or months to finalise a sale of such a house and even longer before she saw any of the profits. She simply did not have that kind of time. She knew why her father had made such a choice though. When he had written his will she had still been attached to Eric. Her father had wanted to prevent any money that he did leave her being squandered away quickly so he had left her it in the form of property. He might have thought differently if she had been honest with him about her condition. Thankfully, he had seen fit to leave her husband absolutely nothing. The thought of her father potentially leaving Eric anything at all had been something Elizabeth had found cause to worry about. Eric had caused her father nothing but endless trouble since their marriage and she couldn't bear the thought of her father thinking that his son in law was still owed something.