The House of the Wolf

21

"But how could they have just taken her?" exclaimed Dubois. He and his wife were sitting in the near-empty hotel lobby with Manon and the two youths, the women huddled in their wraps.

"I do not know," said Raoul. "I should have known better than to let her out of my sight, even for an instant. I promised to protect her, and I have failed."

"The Lapierres are cunning," said Angélique. "Too cunning for an honest soul like you, Raoul. The child was the bait, to lure Chantal from your side."

"Honoré!"

They all looked up as Hyacinthe and Suzette came rushing across the lobby. "We talked to the staff in the Palm Room, and one of them said he saw an unconscious girl being carried out of the Salon Rose earlier this evening by a young man," said Suzette.

"Sacre! I spoke with hotel management earlier," said Dubois. "They told me the Boisverts rented the Salon Rose tonight. The hotel will not disclose where their private rooms are, of course."

"Then we must go have a talk with them before they leave the Salon Rose," growled Ti-Jacques, getting up.

"We looked inside it," Hyacinthe told him. "They are not there now: it is empty. The Boisverts are back in the ballroom."

"All of them?" asked Dubois.

"All except the little girl: I think her mother took her up to bed, but Genevieve is back in the ballroom now. There is only one Lapierre brother with them, though. The other is nowhere to be seen."

"Yves?" asked Manon.

Hyacinthe shook her head. "No, it is Jules who is gone."

Dubois groaned. "Did your staff person speak to this young man who was carrying the girl?"

"He just asked if medical attention was needed," Suzette told him, "and the boy said no."

Manon looked doubtful. "But are you sure that this girl was Chantal? It's not unusual for women to faint at this event, with the heavy costumes, and exhaustion from dancing – "

"So the staff person said; that's why he didn't think anything of it. But he said it was a young girl with dark hair, in a white dress that had a big skirt. That sounds like her!" Hyacinthe was close to tears.

There was a ringing sound. Dubois reached into a pocket and took out a cell phone, the sleek plastic device looking incongruous in his lace-cuffed hand. "That might be the staffer now," Suzette said. "I gave him your cell number and told him to let us know if he learned anything else."

"Âllo?" said Dubois, and fell silent as he listened to the voice at the other end. The others loups garous craned forward in the effort to overhear, wishing they had the keener ears of their wolf-forms. Dubois's face was grave, even alarmed. "Bien," he said a last. "Merci beaucoup."

He switched the phone off and they crowded around him.

"What?" said Ti-Jacques. "What has happened?"

"This staff member says another colleague saw them, perhaps twenty minutes ago. He said it just looked as though girl needed fresh air; she was conscious, and walked out a side door with the dark-haired boy – Jules. The side door: that must mean he was taking her to the chemin du loup. But why? Why help her to escape from her family?"

He tapped out another number on the phone. "Noah? Is Mademoiselle Boisvert there by any chance? No?" He turned to them. "Noah tells me Chantal has not shown up at the house. But it should not have taken her so long to get through the tunnel." His face creased with worry, he stood up.