Free My Brother's Crown by Mindy Starns Clark Page B

would.”
    A horse plodded through the square, towing a wagon. The driver stopped it at the door of the church as six men carried out the casket.
    Catherine pulled her grandmother close. Her uncle would be the first in three generations of the family not to be buried in the simple Protestant graveyard outside of town. “Are you going to the cemetery?”
    Grand-Mère lifted her veil, revealing her silver hair, and peered intently at her son’s casket. “There is no reason. He is gone.”
    Catherine nodded. “Which is why Amelie no longer has to stay in the convent.”
    â€œShh.” Her grandmother led Catherine to the side of the cathedral, back toward the garden. Once they were alone, Grand-Mère said, “Do not speak of it now. You do not know who may be listening.”
    â€œBut how could they not let her out for her own father’s funeral? That is unconscionable.”
    â€œ Oui . I agree.”
    â€œSomeone needs to go and get her, as soon as possible. And then we need to come up with a plan of escape. Obviously Jules is not capable of making a decision.”
    â€œStop,” Grand-Mère whispered. “It’s not just us he is concerned about. Others would suffer too.” Her expression was fierce for a moment before softening again. “We can talk back at the house. You will come home with me.”
    Catherine hesitated, for she had a different destination in mind. “I told Cook I would get bread.”
    â€œThen we will stop at the boulangerie on the way.”
    â€œ Non, ” Catherine said. “I need the fresh air. We’ll speak later.”
    Grand-Mère frowned. “What about the dragoons?”
    Catherine reached up and pulled the veil back down over her face. “I’ll be fine, see? The dragoons will think I am a good Catholic girl on her way home from mass and leave me alone.”
    The dragoons had recently grown in number in Lyon, under order of le Roi Soleil —Louis XIV—and though they were said to be converting Protestants back to Catholicism, they were, in fact, either by personal choice or a covert order, doing far more than that. Often obnoxious and cruel, they sometimes seemed no better than animals as they intimidated, tormented, and even outright tortured the Huguenots they encountered.
    Catherine could not imagine how such behavior was allowed, much less sanctioned, by the king. There were those who claimed Louis’s motives were pure, that he loved his subjects so much he wantedthem to share his faith. Others thought perhaps he just wanted everyone and everything to revolve around him, that because he was Catholic, everyone under his domain should be Catholic as well. Or maybe, as Jules believed, his actions were solely about economics. With loans from the Vatican came pressure to convert the Huguenots. And Louis needed those loans to support his extravagant lifestyle, including his expansion and remodel of the palace of Versailles.
    Whatever the reason, the Sun King’s handling of the situation had become more and more unreasonable, wreaking havoc on Catherine’s friends and family. It was too late for Uncle Edouard, but it was time to bring Amelie home. Then as soon as she was back with them, they all could finally leave the country together and go somewhere new, someplace where they would no longer be at risk of persecution simply because of their faith.

    After helping her grandmother into the family carriage with the assistance of their coachman, Monsieur Roen, Catherine hurried down rue Saint Jean and into a traboule , one of Lyon’s numerous interior pedestrian passageways. Built for foot traffic only, the traboules were paved in stone and mostly narrow, except where they opened up to reveal sunny courtyards here and there along the way.
    First created by silk weavers as a means for transporting fabric to the river quickly and safely even in inclement weather, the corridors bisected