The General's Mistress Read Online Free PDF Page A

me!” she said, and rolled over in her bed, her back to me. “You’re just like Leo.”
    I stood up. “Good night, Mother,” I said. I don’t know why I even came, I thought. It always hurts to no purpose.

Temptations

    S pring arrived as it always did, warm and temperate. One of the men associated with the liberal parties was holding an elaborate fête at his country house not far from Brussels. Jan had been unable to wangle an invitation; but as this gentleman, M. van der Sleijden, was a distant relation of mine, a cousin in the third degree, Jan felt that if we simply arrived he would feel that we had some claim upon his hospitality. Not only were the leading men of the liberal party to attend, as well as many of the revolutionaries who had led the rebellion in Brussels a few years past, but also there should be the celebrated French general Pichegru and other military men.
    I looked forward to the party and the lively company. I did, however, feel some discomfort with Jan’s assumption that we would be welcome because of my tenuous claims of blood with M. van der Sleijden, a man whom I had met perhaps once in my life and could not have picked out of a room full of strangers. Still, Jan was not to be deterred. I smoothed over the awkwardness of our arrival as best I could.
    Jan’s latest passion was public education, the radical notion that the state should pay for rudimentary schooling for all boys, regardless of their fathers’ positions in life. He was attempting to make it his great issue, and we made admirable props. I came in with the children while Jan and the gentlemen were drinking port in the library, knocking politely before I entered. Klaas held my hand, and the nurse followed with Francis in her arms.He was prettily attired in a white dress with blue embroidery around the neck.
    “My dear husband,” I said, “I hope that you will permit me and your sons to say good night before we retire?” I bobbed a polite curtsy to the gentlemen. The simple white lawn with blue ribbons I wore was becoming and matched the boys’ clothes.
    “My dear!” Jan rose and led me forward. “Monsieur de Boers, General Moreau, Monsieur van Flecht, allow me to present my wife. Elzelina, these gentlemen are engaged in the great work of assuring liberty for all mankind.”
    “Charming,” said M. van Flecht, bending over my hand. He was the only one wearing a wig, and perspiration showed along the edge of his forehead in the summer warmth.
    “What lovely children,” M. de Boers said politely. “My felicitations. You have a beautiful family. I can see what inspires you to work so assiduously on behalf of the youth of our fair nation.”
    “Indeed,” agreed M. van Flecht ponderously. “All of our boys should learn to read and write, and to make such mathematical transactions as are necessary for the preservation and enhancement of trade.”
    I smiled sweetly at him. “And our daughters as well, of course. Don’t you agree?”
    Jan stepped forward and took my hand from his. “Elzelina, dearest, don’t bore the gentlemen with your views on female education.” He squeezed my hand rather too tightly. “My wife feels the ardent fires of revolution with the same passion that I do. Only, as is to be expected, it is pure emotion untempered by reason.”
    “Indeed,” said the Frenchman. He looked at me over Jan’s shoulder and gave me a sardonic smile. “Is that not the way of women? But in this lies their charm—the ardor of their feelings.”
    I glanced at him, startled. He was not a tall man, perhaps Jan’s height, and perhaps five years older, soberly dressed, with dark hair tied back with a black ribbon. He had been introduced as a general, but he was not in uniform. His black coat was finely made but far from ostentatious.
    “Indeed?” I said coolly. “Do you believe the fair sex incapable of reason, then?”
    Moreau made a perfunctory bow over my hand. “Perhaps I find reason unworthy of the fair