Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran Read Free Book Online Page A

Camille is so upset? They wish to humiliate us!”
    “But Curtius told me yesterday that they are giving us greater representation. They are doubling the number of deputies who represent the Third Estate to a thousand.”
    “That’s right. They can dress our deputies in sackcloth, but this meeting of the Estates-General is going to change everything. It has to change everything.” Her dark eyes suddenly fill with tears. This is about more than representation for her. This is about whether she will be able to marry the man of her choosing. Though I have never asked, I doubt that her father knows she sneaks away with Camille. They have been coming to us for only a year, but it has been seven months since they first vowed to marry. And now that Camille has passed the first round of elections to be made a deputy of the Third Estate, perhaps it will come to pass.
    “Will your father consent to the marriage if Camille can distinguish himself somehow?” I ask.
    Lucile looks over her shoulder to see if he is listening, then leans closer to me. “Yes, there will certainly be a better chance. There are a hundred thousand livres waiting for the man who claims my hand. Camille is only a lawyer, and my father has already turned him away once.” She blinks rapidly, to stop the tears from falling. “He is a brilliant writer. There are great thoughts in his head.”
    “And I am sure he will make an impression at Versailles.”
    This relieves her greatly. “Do you think so?”
    I look across the table at her intended. He is so engaged in what he is saying that he has lost his stutter entirely. “Yes,” I reply, although I don’t add what sort of impression. There is no room for passion like his at court. I think of the king’s recent visit, and the quiet reverence with which his family treated him. I doubt that any man has ever been allowed to grow red-faced with rage in His Majesty’s presence.
    “Wealthy men have asked for my hand,” she says. “Men who could improve our family’s standing.”
    “And your father has turned them down?”
    “I have, and now my father has given me a year to decide. It must all happen within a year.” There is panic in her voice, and for the first time, I am thankful that I am not the daughter of a wealthy man. I reach out and squeeze her hand. “What about you?” she asks. “Isn’t there anyone you care for?”
    “I have an exhibition to care for,” I reply. “And there are options open to an unmarried woman with ambition. Look at Rose Bertin. From an ordinary seamstress to the milliner of the queen. She is the wealthiest self-made woman in France!”
    “But whom does she come home to?”
    I am surprised at Lucile’s naïveté. A woman like Rose may come home to any man she chooses. “I am sure Rose is not lonely. Money means that there are always people around you.”
    After I leave to help my mother clear the table and serve the coffee, I watch Camille and Lucile from the kitchen. She is whispering something in his ear to make him blush. If Camille becomes a deputy, it will be his responsibility to take his city’s cahiers to Versailles. I have heard that there are more than fifty thousand cahiers being drafted, and that these lists of grievances are long. The people are demanding that all citizens be equal before the law. They are declaring that it is not right for the First and Second Estates to be free from taxes. Some of the cahiers request the abolishment of censorship in journalism. But nearly all demand that the lettres de cachet be abolished. The people live in fear of these lettres , which allow anyone to be arrested, so long as the king has signed the document. For jealousy and vengeance, husbands have imprisoned their spouses, then taken up with mistresses. Parents have imprisoned unruly sons and sent away daughters who have refused good marriages. And though he has issued more than ten thousand, there is evidence that the king does not read these lettres , that he