Free The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware by Dennis Wheatley Page A

an immense help to him because, as an ex-aristocrat, she had been capable of reigning over his Court with dignity, graciousness and charm.
    At their parting he had not disguised the fact that he was desperately loath to put her from him, and did so only because he could not bring himself to forgo his ambition to form a dynasty. She was to receive a huge pension and live at Malmaison, the beautiful private home that she had nearly ruined him by buying while he was abroad and still only young General Bonaparte.
    Even so, Roger wondered how she would manage to maintain it, for she was boundlessly extravagant. It had been estimated that, during the five years she had been Empress, she had spent the equivalent of a quarter of a million pounds on clothes alone.
    On December 16th, the Senate formally decreed the divorce.
    That night Roger again asked his master for leave to go to the South of France, and it was granted; so having spent the following day tidying up the work on which he had been employed, and drawing a considerable sum fromthe Paymaster’s office, he drove out to Passy in a high good humour.
    During the past seven weeks, his attendance on the Emperor at State functions, gala nights at the Opera and balls given by numerous Ambassadors, had prevented him from being with Georgina as frequently as he would have wished. But he had managed to spend two or three nights a week with her. Realising his situation, she had not complained, but resigned herself to the quiet life, made pleasant by every comfort the good Velots could devise for her, and amused herself by again taking up her hobby of painting.
    Now, on hearing Roger’s news, she joyfully embraced him and cried happily, ‘At last, then, we shall be able to spend all our days together, and soon get back to England!’
    Kissing her fondly, he replied, ‘Yes, my love. We’ll be together; but I have other plans for our immediate future, should you approve them. ’Tis now much too late for us to get home for Christmas and, much as you long to see your Charles, within a few weeks he will be returning to Eton. At this time of year England, with its cold, rain and mud, is a dreary place. Why, therefore, should we hurry to it when, instead, we could enjoy the sunshine at my little chateau near St. Maxime?’
    After considering for a moment, she said, ‘Dear Roger, you are right. ’Twill be a splendid opportunity to enjoy a honeymoon before, instead of after we are married.’
    Next day in Paris he paid farewell visits to Talleyrand and a number of his other friends. He also called on an ex-brother A.D.C., the Comte de Lavelette, who had been made Minister of Posts, and asked him to expedite a letter he had written the previous night. It was to a couple named Dufour who, although he went to his little château very infrequently, he had arranged to have paid a good salary regularly, to keep the place in order forhim. In the letter he said that he would shortly be arriving with his wife, and that everything must be made ready for their reception.
    On the 18th they said good-bye to the Velots and set off in a comfortable travelling coach that Roger had bought the day before. Their route lay through Fontainebleau, Auxerre, Chalons, Lyons, Valence, Avignon and Aix, then by the inland road that ran parallel to the coast in the direction of Nice. The distance was something over five hundred miles, but they travelled by easy stages, so that they had time to visit the buildings of historic interest in the cities through which they passed. The inns at which they stayed were comfortable and, as since the days of Louis XIV the French had been famed for their cooking, Georgina enjoyed for the first time many of the excellent local dishes.
    But there were several occasions on which she was saddened by what was happening in the towns and villages. Moncey’s
gendarmes
, assisted by troops who cordoned off inhabited areas, were ruthlessly hunting