Chapter Six
“Are you going to the ball on Wednesday?” Auguste asked.
He’d been waiting for me outside the lesson room. Our walks were a blessed reprieve from our stuffy tutors’ endless drilling on proper behavior. Auguste made me feel less lonely in this strange, unfamiliar place.
We never talked about the almost kiss. I wondered if I should bring it up, but the right time never seemed to come. I wished he would say something, but he didn’t. It stung, but if he wasn’t going to talk about it, then neither was I. Nothing happened, after all, and I wasn’t about to let it ruin our friendship. There will be other boys to kiss, I told myself.
After leaving the lesson room, we followed our usual path through the servants’ corridor and ended up near the Grand Commons’ interior courtyard. Auguste was going to give me a tour of the palace. Papa hadn’t had time yet, and I’d been too nervous to go myself. Lady Françoise was away visiting her relatives in England.
“I wish I could go to the ball. My father says I’m not allowed until I’ve been presented at court. Are you going? You’re the same age as me, aren’t you?”
“I am, yes. But my father is granting me special permission to attend,” he said, tugging at the lacy sleeves of his waistcoat.
“How unfair! I’ve been dreaming of going to a royal ball for months!” It was all Elodie and I talked about, truly.
“I wish you were coming. It would be much more fun with you there,” he said as we meandered down the garden path.
“I wish I was too,” I said. “Where in the palace is the ball being held?”
“The music and dancing will be in the Salon of Mars, the food and other events in the Salon of Venus and . . . maybe Abundance, as well. I know it will be spread out across multiple salons.”
That was perfect. A plan was beginning to form in my mind. Even if Papa wouldn’t let me attend the ball, he might agree to let me remain at Versailles after class. It was a masquerade ball, and if I was masked, maybe I could sneak inside and then I could at least see what all the fuss was about.
Auguste and I made our way into the courtyard. Grouped together by the central fountain were Alexandre and Severine, along with Veronique, Diane, and a few other noble girls from my etiquette class who I didn’t know well.
“I heard that certain ladies of the court have been visiting . . .” Veronique said, lowering her voice and leaning forward. “Enchantresses.”
We slowed to a stop as we passed the fountain. Enchantresses? Marius said he saw an enchantress in the village once, but I’d never heard anyone talk of magic at court. Sorcery was outlawed in France.
“Why would they do that?” Alexandre asked, her blue eyes wide and her mouth agape.
“They want love potions.” Veronique paused and smiled as everyone in the group, including me, waited with bated breath for her to continue.
“Potions?” whispered Auguste. “Poisons is more like it.”
“Shh,” I said. “I want to hear.”
“Potions to ensnare the king!” Veronique, who was rather plain-faced no matter how many beauty marks she painted on her chin, declared triumphantly.
Shocked gasps erupted from the group perched on the fountain. Auguste had been a few steps ahead of me, but he froze at Veronique’s words.
“Ensnare the king?” Alexandre’s voice was shocked. “But the king is married! Oh! So you mean, so they could become his next . . . his next . . .”
“His next mistress,” Veronique said, rubbing her hands together in glee.
More people gasped. A few laughed nervously. I wasn’t sure how to react. As a child, I’d heard Elodie’s mother and Claudine whispering about the king’s many mistresses, but they always ushered me from the room as soon as they noticed me listening.
Auguste did not look intrigued. His face had gone pale, and his hands clenched into fists.
“How do you know all of this?” Severine asked Veronique, much more skeptical than her sister. Severine and Alexandre looked almost identical, but Severine had a crueler mouth, given to twisting in scorn.
“I have a source who knows one of these enchantresses.”
“A source?” Severine demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“A source.” Veronique frowned at Severine and pointedly turned her back on her, focusing on the rest of her onlookers instead. Severine snorted but made no attempt to leave. To be fair, Alexandre, who was sitting next to Veronique on the fountain, looked so enraptured that I don’t think Severine could have dragged her away if she tried.
Auguste looked pale enough to faint, and I shot him a questioning look, but he just shook his head.
“My source said that someone close to the king himself has employed the services of one of these enchantresses.”
Veronique paused again, the air crackling with tension. I stepped closer to the group, almost unconsciously.
“The queen.”
A hush fell over the courtyard. Everyone seemed to freeze in time, the only sound the tinkling of water falling into the fountain’s basin. I realized that I was holding my breath and released it in a rush of air.
“But why would the queen have anything to do with a sorceress?” I asked, my voice ringing out in the silence of the courtyard.
All eyes turned to me, and the spell was broken. Everything felt normal again when Severine fixed me with a snooty glare.
“Shh! You really are from the country, aren’t you?” Veronique said in a low tone, her voice coated in disdain.
I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came. What could I say that wouldn’t make me look even sillier than I already did? I was from the country and clearly knew less about the goings-on at court than the rest of my classmates.
“Don’t be rude, Veronique,” Diane said with a frown. “I was wondering the same thing. If I don’t know, then surely Cendrillon wouldn’t either.”
I shut my mouth and smiled gratefully at Diane. I didn’t know her very well, but she never made fun of me, which is more than I could say for most of the girls in my class.
Veronique snorted and rolled her eyes. “They say the queen wants a sorceress to cast a spell, or perhaps concoct a love potion, that will win back the king’s affections so he’ll banish Madame de Maintenon. Apparently, the queen wasn’t happy when the king replaced his previous mistress, the late Madame de Montespan, with Madame de Maintenon, and thinks magic is the only way to be rid of her.”
Auguste turned away and hurried toward the main gates. I tried to follow, but his legs were longer than mine, and he outpaced me considerably. I started to run after him, but my long skirt complicated matters.