“I don’t like the sound of all this,” Calvin said, his voice strained.
“Neither do I,” added Natalie, “but what happened to Seth? Mr. Edwards said that you told him the line went dead.”
“It did,“ her uncle replied, frowning. “Seth called me just after the men left Radcliffe Camera. He was following them at a distance to see where they went. The last thing I heard from the boy was, ‘Uh oh,’ and that was all.”
“Let’s just hope he wasn’t caught,” Mckella said, rejoining them. “I like that kid. I’ve spent a lot of time at the Camera reading room lately, and he’s always such a sweetheart.”
Natalie smiled. “Mckella, everyone is a sweetheart to you, especially young men. You just bring out their better natures.”
Just then, Randy called to them from the cockpit, “Everyone, please put your seat belts back on. We’re making our descent into Calais.”
France
The plane touched down gently on French soil, and soon came to a halt.
“Well, at least we don’t have much baggage to lug around,” Calvin joked, as everyone emerged from the plane. “I’m glad I put on my warmest clothes this morning.”
“We can sort out our wardrobe deficiencies tomorrow,” Uncle Julien remarked. “Right now our first priority is to find a place to sleep. I have a friend who lives in Calais. If I didn’t throw my phone in a dumpster, I could contact him right now.”
Randy suggested that he might find his friend the old-fashioned way, with a phone book and a pay phone.
“How right you are, Monsieur,” he said, self-deprecatingly. “I have always been told by the younger generations that I embrace technology with much more alacrity than is normal for a man of my years.”
“That’s true,” Natalie asserted. “Uncle Julien was the first person I knew who had an iPod.”
Mckella and her father bade them goodbye, amid many promises that they would look out for themselves.
“I wish I could go with you,” Mckella said sadly. “If I didn’t have such an obscene amount of work to do at school, I’d accompany you to Paris.”
Natalie gave her a tight hug. “Don’t worry, we’ll be back before you know it, and I’ll bring you some French champagne to celebrate your doctorate!”
After giving Randy and Mckella their heartfelt thanks, the Romarins hailed a cab and headed into Calais. Julien instructed the driver to take them to the Hotel Metropol, on the Quai du Rhin.
“I thought we were going to try and stay with your friend,” Calvin reminded his uncle.
“I decided it wouldn’t be polite to rouse him at almost two in the morning. Besides, I have plenty of cash, so I think it’s safe for us to stay in a hotel, as long as we aren’t required to use a credit card or show our passports. I think it highly advisable we leave no paper trail, and I don’t think we should get in the habit of underestimating our pursuers.”
The cab pulled up in front of a charming brick building. It was very late, but the night manager was still behind his desk in the lobby. After a little financial maneuvering by Uncle Julien, they were finally able to procure a suite. The manager was reluctant at first to give them a room without a credit card, let alone proper I.D.s, but Julien quickly changed his attitude with a substantial wad of euros.
“Way to grease those palms,” Calvin teased him in the elevator.
“Unfortunately, money is a primary motivation for most people,” Julien sniffed. “However, in this case, the predictability of human nature was on our side.”
They took the lift to the top floor and found their suite. After taking turns in the bathroom, they crawled into their beds and were sound asleep within minutes.
Even Calvin got up late the next morning, awakening abruptly from a bad dream. He dreamed that he was being pursued by wolves through a tangled jungle, and just as he was about to be overtaken, he woke with a start. He jumped out of bed and checked on his uncle and sister, who were both sleeping soundly. Relieved, he went back to his room and pulled on the same clothes from the day before. He decided to check out the area and see if he could procure some breakfast.
When he returned a short while later, laden with French pastries, his uncle and sister were up.
“Jeez, Calvin, you should have left a note,” chided his sister. “We thought you got abducted or something.”
“Sorry, Nat,” he apologized. “I didn’t think about that. I guess we’d better get used to keeping track of each other.” He laid out eclairs and brioches on a little table in the sitting room. “I was just out getting breakfast.”
“Well, then we must forgive you this one time,” Julien said teasingly. “What a decadent treat! And I’ve just ordered a pot of chocolate.”
“Uncle,” Natalie began as she helped herself to an eclair, “why did we come to France? Are we going to stay with you until things cool down?”
Julien patted his mouth delicately with a napkin, saying, “I do think it was wise for us to remove ourselves from harm’s way, but I have other reasons for bringing you to Paris. I think it’s imperative that we find the Diodati Bible that was mentioned in Lucy’s letter to John Milton.”
“But how are we to know where it is?” Calvin asked plaintively. “Paris is full of libraries, and that book could be long gone by now, or in someone’s private collection.”
“I’ve considered that possibility, but since I was the Head Librarian at the Bibliothèque Nationale, I am certainly in a very good position to find a hidden poem in a very old book, particularly if it turns out to be in my own library.”
After breakfast, all agreed it was time to find a much-needed change of clothes, as well as a means of getting to Paris. Natalie asked to strike out on her own for a while. After spending almost every minute with her brother and uncle for the last few week or two, she felt that some solitude was in order.
“Of course, cherie,” said Uncle Julien, handing her some euros. “But mind you keep your wits about you. I think we are safe for the time being, but we must remain alert, nevertheless.”
She nodded and agreed to meet back at the hotel in a couple of hours, assuring them she would watch out for herself.
As she strolled down the street, she noticed how relatively modern many of the buildings appeared. It seemed unusual for such an ancient and important port town. She remembered her history classes and realized it was because Calais had been heavily bombarded during World War II. She wandered into a small vintage clothing store and found a number of things to get her by in the coming days. There was really no way of knowing how long they’d be away from home, so she tried to be somewhat practical. She smiled, reflecting that her uncle would probably be a bit dismayed by some of her choices. Birthday and Christmas gifts from him invariably consisted of expensive designer clothes and jewelry, but she had always been what Julien deemed “experimental” in regards to her wardrobe. How appalled he had been during one of his visits, finding her wearing a very pricey Gucci jacket he had given her paired with Levis that he said “appeared to have been tortured with a hacksaw.”
After purchasing necessary undergarments and a warmer jacket, she decided to find a bookstore in hopes of learning more about the Diodati family. Spying a little shop across the street, she frittered away some time in the biography