“Is it to ask their opinion that they have been brought here?” I asked quickly.
The uncle coughed again. The little shrimp at the table stammered—“Not at all, not at all. My opinion is very well known to Monsieur de Joigny. I should be honoured.”
I rose to my feet. I knew now just how far matters had gone. They had gone very far indeed! I had no choice. It was necessary to be quite definite. I faced the older man.
“There has been a mistake, your Highness, I do not approve of this marriage.”
Philibert made a jump towards me—an exclamation. I waved him off.
“I have other ideas for my daughter. You must excuse me from explaining what they are. And now I must beg you to let me take this child home. Come Geneviève.” For a moment she hesitated, her poor little face crimson, her eyes filled with tears. I took her hand and drew her with me out of the door.
That night Philibert and I had a terrible scene. I need not go into it in detail. I cannot bear to recall it. It seems incredible now that we should have behaved as we did. Things were said that will rankle for ever, things that would have made it impossible, even if it hadn’t been for the last ghastly episode of Bianca, for us to go on living side by side. I look back with shame to that hour, I must have been beside myself. What was goading me on more than anything else, was the realization that Jinny was against me. She had been shocked by my behaviour. That was how it had struck her. She had been horrified and humiliated. That was all. I saw it in her eyes. She didn’t care to know why I had done what I did. She only hated my having done it. She looked at me with fear and almost, I thought, with a shiver of repulsion.
I refused to give Jinny a penny if he married her off without my approval. He informed me that I could not, by French law, disinherit her and that he would find a way of bringing me to my senses. As for Sam Chilbrook—Philibert dealt with him the next morning, I don’t know what he said to him, but the boy never came back. I never saw him again. It must have been something pretty horrible.