In the Commodore's Hands. Mary Nichols
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to do it for the great love he had for Amy, but Roker stopped him.’
‘Yes, he is a good man, a trusted retainer. I have brought him with me.’
‘I fancy he has no great affection for me.’
‘Perhaps not, but he will do anything for my parents.’
‘Your parents, they are happy together, are they?’
‘Very. Mama is one in a million and my father adores her.’
‘It has not been an easy exile,’ Sir John went on. ‘I settled here in Honfleur because so many English merchants used to use the port and I could learn a little of what was happening at home. Now, with the blockade, that doesn’t happen and I grow more homesick.’
Jay detected a wistful note in the older man’s voice and realised how hard life must have been in France when everyone he loved was in England. No wonder he had been glad of Lisette’s friendship. ‘Mademoiselle Giradet told me her mother was English.’
‘Yes. She was a Wentworth, daughter of Earl Wentworth.’ He looked up as a startled gasp escaped from Jay’s lips. ‘You know the family?’
‘I know of them.’ Jay pulled himself together. ‘Go on.’
‘The Earl was furious when she told him she wanted to marry Gervais and live in France. They cut her off without a penny, hoping it would make her change her mind, but Louise was made of sterner stuff.’ He chuckled. ‘In any case, money was not a problem because Gervais was as rich as Croesus. What he found so hard to bear, and he told me this many, many times, was that she was cut off from a family she had loved, particularly her mother, and though she never complained he knew she felt it deeply. We had that in common.’
‘And what about her daughter? Does she feel it too?’ The revelation that the woman he had come to rescue was related to the Wentworths had shocked him to the core. He felt again the fury that had engulfed him on coming home from a long voyage to find his wife absent and children alone with their governess. Miss Corton had said her mistress had been gone some days, but she did not know where she was.
‘The children have been told she is taking a little holiday with friends,’ she had said. It had been left to his mother to tell him the truth.
‘I believe she has gone to live with Gerald Wentworth at his home in Hertfordshire,’ she had said. ‘They seem not to mind the scandal.’
How Wentworth had seduced his wife he did not know, but the man could not be allowed to go unchallenged. His mother had advised against it, telling him to let sleeping dogs lie, but he had been so furious, he would not listen. The duel had been fought in the grounds of Wentworth Castle, the choice of his opponent and a poor one for him because his adversary’s friends and family were there. Nevertheless he was the better swordsman and no one interfered until he was standing over the disarmed Wentworth, sword raised to deliver the fatal blow. He found he could not do it and had walked away in disgust, with the man’s threats ringing in his ears.
The gossip had raged for months; a man did not fight a duel and then refuse to deliver the coup de grâce when it was within his power. Many laughed at him, others said he was in hiding, fearing Wentworth’s revenge for the humiliation, for it was humiliating to lose and be spared simply because one’s opponent did not have the stomach to finish it.
None of that was Mademoiselle Giradet’s fault, he scolded himself, and ought to have no bearing on the task he had been set. Once he had accomplished it, they need never meet again.
‘Lisette?’ his grandfather said, in answer to his question. ‘A little, perhaps. I can only guess. Like her mother, she does not complain.’
‘What about her brother? What can you tell me of him?’
‘He is Lisette’s twin and has been in the service of King Louis ever since he finished his education, first as a page and then a gentleman of the bedchamber. I believe it took money and influence on Gervais’s part to obtain the post for him. After all, they are not the old nobility. It was an unselfish act on the Comte’s part; he was devoted to his son and hated parting from him, but he wanted him to make his way at court and encouraged him to go. Michel is loyal to the King and, according to Lisette, would not dream of deserting him. She worries about him, but is convinced the King will be able to protect him.’
‘Do you believe that?’
Sir John shrugged. ‘Who knows? The King embraced the new constitution and that pleased the people, but then he chose to try to flee, no doubt to drum up foreign support, and that sent his popularity plummeting. He might just as well be in prison himself. I suppose while the legislature is divided on what to do about him, he is safe enough and that goes for Michel too.’
‘So mademoiselle is content to leave him behind?’
‘I think it will be hard for her, she and her brother were close as children, but her first concern at the moment is to free her father.’
‘Then we must do what we can to bring that about.’
‘What would you like me to do?’
‘Nothing at the moment, except to put your affairs in order and gather together whatever you want to take to England, but bear in mind we cannot accommodate large or heavy items; everything will have to be carried aboard the Lady Amy and we must not attract undue attention. I shall tell Mademoiselle Giradet the same thing.’
‘You mean I am to be welcomed back?’
‘That is Mama’s wish.’
‘And it is mine. I will do anything to be reunited with my daughter. You may count on me.’
Lisette was ready for Jay the next morning, with the horses already harnessed to the carriage. She suspected she had been allowed to keep the equipage simply because no one had thought to take it from her. And the peasantry would not know what to do with it if they had it. Riding about in a carriage would be far too ostentatious and would bring down opprobrium on their heads. It was fashionable to be poor and dirty even if you were not. In deference to this and so she did not stand out in the crowd, she had donned the plainest gown she could find, a deep-blue cambric over which she had tied a scarf in the bright red of the Revolution. Unwilling to don the Phrygian cap with its Revolutionary cockade, she chose to go bare-headed, tying her thick blonde locks back with a red ribbon.
She met Jay in the vestibule when Hortense admitted him to the house. All the servants except Hortense and Georges had abandoned her. She dipped her knee in answer to his sweeping bow. ‘Good morning, monsieur. I am ready. And there is a case of our best Calvados in the boot. I hope that will be sufficient.’
‘It will do for the moment.’ He handed her into the carriage and climbed in beside her. ‘We may need more later.’
They settled in their seats for the short ride to Honfleur. ‘I have met two of the gaolers already,’ he told her. ‘They think I am a smuggler and buying brandy from the Comte to take out of the country. For a bribe, they will let me speak to him.’
‘The bribe being brandy?’
‘And money.’
‘How much money?’
He shrugged. ‘I have yet to discover their price.’
‘And then they will free Papa?’
‘Nothing was said of that. I am simply being allowed to speak to him.’
‘Oh.’ There was dejection in her voice. Why she had expected more of him, she did not know. To pay large sums simply to speak to him and leave him where he was did not sound like a good deal to her. ‘What happens after you have spoken to him?’
‘I have not yet decided. It all depends on what I discover.’
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Nothing for the moment. I do not want those gaolers to think we are in league with one another,