DrabbleWriMo 23: Herb

[igenlode]

Broster doesn't name the "obscure little hôtel garni in the Rue du Vieux-Colombier" in which de Brencourt lodges while Valentine is staying in her old room with Suzon, so taking a lead out of Elizabeth Goudge and naming it "the Herb of Grace" seemed appropriate :-)
And the herb of grace *is*, of course, rue...

Returning alone to his lodgings at the sign of the Herbe-de-Grâce, he shivered.

This summer past, at Mirabel, he had begged Valentine to come away with him as sister and brother and let him devote his life to her service. Well, he had that now — would to God he had not!

He was the one man alive who should not have carried that warning. He had brought this down upon her like Nemesis on them both. And though de Trélan had sent regrets — however dearly that cost the other man's pride — in his mouth lay the bitter taste of rue.