Discovery of Christabel’s whereabouts in Brittany

The discovery of Christabel’s whereabouts in Brittany transforms a fragmentary scholarly lead into a family history with consequences for Maud Bailey’s own ancestry. A letter from Ariane Le Minier directs Maud and Roland Michell toward the papers of Sabine de Kercoz, a relative of Christabel LaMotte who recorded Christabel’s 1859 visit. Ariane’s photocopy of Sabine’s journal supplies the missing account: Christabel sought refuge with the de Kercoz family, disappeared while pregnant, and returned after giving birth. Later disclosures establish that the child was Maia, raised in England by Christabel’s sister Sophie, and that Maud descends from both Christabel and Randolph Henry Ash.

The archival lead

Maud first learns of the possible connection through a letter Ariane sent to Leonora Stern. Ariane, a student of women’s writing at the University of Nantes, explains that she is researching Sabine de Kercoz, a little-published writer whose papers include poems and four unpublished novels. Sabine’s literary interests included George Sand, and one of her novels drew on the legend of the drowned city of Is, the same tradition behind Christabel’s poem on the subject. The letter also says that Sabine was related to Christabel through her paternal grandmother and that Christabel appears to have visited her family in Fouesnant in autumn 1859.

The lead is valuable because it joins literary research to a specific, previously obscure family archive. Ariane’s initial source is a letter from Sabine to her cousin Solange among papers deposited at the University of Nantes by a descendant of Sabine. That descendant became Mme de Kergarouet and died in childbirth in 1870. The archive thus offers more than a possible location for Christabel: it promises a contemporary record by a young relative who shared her household during the visit.

Maud and Roland travel to Nantes to meet Ariane. Maud approaches the request for access carefully, since she needs the papers without explaining every circumstance behind her inquiry. Ariane says the archive is locked and access would be difficult while she is about to leave for a holiday. Her absence initially seems to close off the investigation, but she has meanwhile made a new discovery: Sabine kept a private journal covering almost all of Christabel’s visit. Ariane believes Sabine chose to write in French, rather than the Breton that might have seemed more natural, partly in imitation of George Sand.

The journal and the search in Brittany

Ariane gives Maud a photocopy of the journal, both so that Maud can show it to Leonora and as a gesture of scholarly cooperation. She admires Maud’s work on Melusina and presents sharing information as a feminist principle. The gift changes the direction of the inquiry: rather than waiting for access to the archive, Maud and Roland can read Sabine’s account directly. Ariane hints that its contents will be surprising but does not disclose them in advance.

The following day, Maud and Roland drive through Brittany, passing through the forests of Paimpont and Brocéliande before reaching Fouesnant. They spend three days reading the journal at a hotel near the bay. The narrative withholds their immediate reactions and presents the journal itself, allowing Sabine’s dated account to disclose the visit gradually rather than reducing it to a conclusion supplied by the modern researchers.

Sabine describes Christabel’s arrival during a severe storm, after a journey that brought her to the family courtyard at night. Christabel, accompanied by a large dog, was exhausted and fell into Raoul de Kercoz’s arms when she stepped from the carriage. She asked for sanctuary in Breton. Raoul welcomed her and promised her a home for as long as she desired. Sabine, who had hoped for a female confidante, was unsettled by Christabel’s apparent closeness to her father and her reserve toward Sabine. The first entry therefore records both the practical fact of refuge and the emotional uncertainty of sharing a home with the newcomer.

Disappearance, return, and the concealed birth

Sabine’s journal later becomes difficult for her to continue. She recognizes that it has turned from a record of her world into an account shaped by jealousy, bafflement, and resentment, and worries that writing about Christabel’s private distress may give those feelings a more lasting form. When she resumes, Christabel’s pregnancy is visible, but she refuses to discuss it. Raoul wants to assure her that the family will welcome and care for the child, whatever its origins, yet feels unable to make her speak. Sabine records his fear that raising the subject in the wrong way could deepen Christabel’s distress, even as the household faces the need to prepare for the birth.

Christabel disappears before the family can resolve the silence. When she returns on May 8, she is frail and changed in appearance, and she insists that she is well and can stand by herself. The journal’s contrast between her storm-bound arrival and her return makes the gap in her story tangible: the family can see that something consequential has happened, but Christabel still does not explain where she has been or what has become of the child. Her return establishes the visit’s central mystery without immediately solving it.

The answer is disclosed later in a letter from Christabel to Ash. Christabel explains that, when they parted, she suspected the consequences of their relationship but had no certain proof. She arranged to go to a place where she could take responsibility for her and the child’s fate, and enlisted her sister Sophie to help her conceal the circumstances. Their daughter was born in Brittany, in a convent, then taken to England by Sophie, who raised her as her own. This account identifies the child and explains why the contemporary household in Sabine’s journal could witness Christabel’s pregnancy and disappearance without learning the full outcome.

From local history to family revelation

The archival discovery also changes the meaning of the researchers’ work. Ariane’s letter begins as a lead about Christabel’s movements and Sabine’s writing; the journal makes the family archive a record of a hidden birth and a deliberately concealed parentage. Its revelations are not delivered by a neutral official account but through Sabine’s private, partial observations, followed by Christabel’s own later explanation. The two records illuminate different parts of the same history: Sabine witnesses the household’s uncertainty, while Christabel explains the decisions made beyond its reach.

The concealed parentage has a further consequence for Maud. When the family history is eventually recognized, Euan explains that children born outside marriage could not inherit at the time and that placing such a child within a socially legitimate family could protect her prospects. Blackadder notes the striking result: Maud, who had been studying the myth associated with Christabel, is descended from both Christabel and Ash. The discovery in Brittany therefore does more than restore a lost episode in a poet’s life. It links archival recovery to kinship, inheritance, and the researchers’ own identities, while showing how the gaps in a historical record can be the deliberate work of those trying to secure a child’s future.