Deadly Peril (27 page)

“Yes, for Emily, I agree with you,” Alec replied, cutting her off. “We must think of what is best for her. And having Selina for support when we reach the castle will be just what she needs. But that won’t stop me taking up my displeasure with you, my dear Mrs. Jamison-Lewis,” he said addressing Selina directly, “tomorrow aboard the trekschuit.”

“Good. I’m glad that’s settled,” the Duchess declared buoyantly.

She had no intention of allowing Selina to reveal where the ransom was hidden, because she held to the belief that her jewelry and coins might not yet be needed. Thus, what was the point of revealing something that was unnecessary, and would only add to Alec’s burden of worry? She also knew she was being selfish. She would be out of the country and thus far away from his displeasure if there ever came a time for him to discover the truth. For now, she was just pleased to have suitably diverted him from asking anything further. She hoped to continue this diversion, and so said with practiced enquiry,

“So how did you manage to persuade the Colonel to allow us to leave tomorrow? Did the Herr Baron threaten him with his sword again to do his bidding?”

The corner of Alec’s mouth twitched. “Nothing so heroic, or idiotic. Though it was quite dramatic, what with well over two hundred men converging on this house waving paper and demanding to have their grievances addressed by the Herr Baron.”

“What did those fools think you could do for them that their own leaders, civil and military, could not? Dolts!” The Duchess scoffed. She gave a little shiver of displeasure and squared her shoulders. “I’m not surprised this place is at war with itself if it allows a mob recourse; it is the beginning of the end. Selina said the soldiers finally sent them on their way. But only after you addressed them. I trust you gave them a stern talking-to and told them to go back to their beds.”

This elicited a reluctant laugh from Alec. He knew what his uncle would have to say about the Duchess’s aristocratic distrust and fear when members of the lower orders congregated in numbers greater than three. Not to mention speaking of them as if they were children in need of correction, and not beings with genuine grievances. But he kept Plantagenet Halsey’s censure to himself and said with a grin,

“Yes, I did give them a—um—
talking-to
, but it was not stern. I told them what they wanted to hear.”

“Which is why they cheered you and went peaceably away again,” stated Selina, and gingerly stretched out her hand across the coverlet.

“Yes,” Alec stated, taking hold of her hand with a smile. “But they were not cheering me, but the Herr Baron.”

Selina smiled in understanding. She smiled more because he was holding her hand. “Of course. But while we are in Midanich you are one and the same, are you not?”

“Yes, I suppose I am…”

“What did they want? What did you tell them?” asked the Duchess, and in her eagerness to find out the answers to these questions was oblivious to the fact the couple were holding hands, which surely meant a reconciliation, and should have been more momentous news to her than a mob outside her window. “Why did they cheer the Herr Baron?”

“I ordered the port opened so they can leave and return to their homes and their families.”

“You can do that?”

“Baron Aurich can. He is a personal representative of the Margrave, and thus has jurisdiction over the councillors, and the military commander, and in the absence of his noble kinsmen, is de facto head of the military here. Thus Colonel Müller and his men owe him their allegiance.”

“Good Grief! Are you? Do they?” The Duchess was astounded. “Can you?”

“That mob, as you called them, my dear Olivia, are not the faceless masses. They are merchants, bankers, businessmen, travelers, and journeymen, caught up in this conflict without wishing to be. They are displaced, victims of this civil war. When the Margrave ordered the borders closed to stop men fleeing, and hostile forces from entering, these men became trapped. Some were visiting Emden on business, others to see family. Most were minding their own affairs aboard ships in the estuary or further afield, near the islands off the coast, and were boarded by pirates and privateers, just as we were. They and their ships were brought here. All they want is what you want: To leave here to return home to their families.”

“And their petitions?” asked Selina.

“Demands for compensation, requests of one sort or another to see them safely home. Information about where they live. All of which I’m having Jeffries and Müller’s secretary read through and compile into lists, in the hopes of making it easier for the customs officials and officers to process these men tomorrow with the minimum of fuss. Which reminds me,” he added, suppressing a yawn behind his fist before addressing Olivia. “As
The Caroline
is the largest vessel docked in the harbor, I’ve given permission for it to ferry passengers to Delfzijl. And I am told there are people—family members—who have been stuck in that port waiting permission to cross to Emden, to be reunited with family here. So there will be an exchange of passengers.”

“Oh, how marvelous that you’ve allowed for these families to be reunited for Christmastime!” said Selina, giving his fingers a little squeeze so that he looked at her. “I saw the old man and his granddaughter from the docks amongst the mob. Is the Herr Baron helping them, too?”

“Yes. The Reverend Shirley and his granddaughter will be accompanying me—
us
—as far as the east coast, and then travelling on to Hannover. It is the least I could do for them.” He smiled crookedly. “Particularly as he is only too happy to grant me my wish.”

Selina was about to ask him the nature of his wish, particularly as he was regarding her with a look in his lovely blue eyes that made her suspicious that she was somehow involved, when there was a soft scratching on the outer door. And again, as if able to anticipate visitors to her mistress’ bedchamber, Peeble materialized in answer to it. On the threshold was a tired-looking Hadrian Jeffries, not come about the petitions or anything else requiring his master’s attention, but with the welcome announcement a bath had been prepared for his lordship which was now full of hot fragrant water. Thus Selina was unable to ask her question until the following day, and then she was given the answer in the most surprising of ways.

F
IFTEEN

T
HE
FOLLOWING
MORNING
, just on dawn, with the night sky turning from black to grey, and a blanket of fog in Emden’s clean cobbled streets, a military detachment came for Selina Jamison-Lewis and her lady’s maid. Wrapped head to toe in furs, their gloved hands deep in large fur muffs and their stockinged toes wrapped in fur-lined ankle boots, the two women and their portmanteaux were taken by carriage under escort to a waiting barge. The canal ride took them under several low bridges, and away from the tall houses squeezed up against each other in the town on one side of the main canal, and on the other past the market gardens under intense cultivation for most of the year, but now lying fallow for the winter.

When the barge docked, it was at the far end of a long wharf at the mouth of the widest canal, which gave access to the Ems estuary and the sea beyond. Here
The Caroline
and other smaller vessels were being made ready for sail. Already passengers were waiting to board. Some had been out all night, and all were now huddled around makeshift campfires, luggage at their feet. Wharf workers scurried to and fro from onboard these seafaring vessels, juggling supplies and equipage for travel. Emden’s port was once again opened to traffic, to and from the harbor, allowing those who had been trapped for many months to return home, and those forced to remain in Emden to finally leave.

And while such activity continued on at the east end of the wharf, Selina and Evans were set down away from the clamor, by a line of trekschuiten, also being made ready for a journey, but by a different route, not by sea but cross-country. Here, too, wharf workers were busy, crawling all over the barges, seeing to last-minute adjustments to the webbing of ropes that kept luggage secure, while jagers in heavy coats and nailed boots and smoking from long clay pipes checked the tack and leading ropes of their heavy horses. Boys ran around with flambeaux wherever light was demanded. Soldiers in their distinct blue wool coats and mitre hats, white splatterdashers over their shiny black boots, bayoneted muskets over a shoulder, and packs strapped to their backs, stood to attention listening to their commander bellow orders over the din.

Emerging from the barge to solid ground, Selina took in all this activity with a sweeping glance, and tried to fix beyond the tall ships to the wider body of water of the estuary. But the thick fog made that impossible. So she turned away from the noise coming from further down the dock with a pang of sadness, knowing the Duchess of Romney-St. Neots, Plantagenet Halsey, Sir Gilbert Parsons, and their servants would soon be making their way to
The Caroline
for the journey west, to Holland and freedom. She, on the other hand, would be traveling east into territory unknown to her, but in the knowledge she was helping aid in the rescue of Emily and Cosmo. And she was taking this journey with the love of her life, which made it more than bearable. She could hardly wait to spend time with him, and to be properly reconciled. She was ever hopeful and just that little bit excited at the prospect, which made the parting from her aunt and Alec’s uncle that much more bittersweet.

She nodded to the captain who was patiently waiting to escort her and Evans to the head of a procession of five large trekschuiten.

Each barge was tethered to two heavy horses in control of jagers, who doffed their hats in deference to Selina as she swept past. The first trekschuit Selina passed was laden with four—or was it five?—sledges and their equipages. The horses needed to pull these sledges were rugged up and being walked in pairs up and down the wharf by their handlers, who Selina rightly assumed were also the drivers for the sledges, to be used on the second leg of their journey east from Aurich. The next two barges were loaded down with cargo under tarpaulins secured with rope, while the fourth and fifth barges were passenger trekschuiten. She knew this because they were different in build to the previous three vessels. They had a longer hull, and were fitted with a long, low wooden deckhouse with a curved roof, that had curtained windows along the starboard and port sides, and a set of shallow steps at either end leading down into the cabin from the deck.

The occupants of these vessels had yet to board, and were blowing their breath into gloved hands as they stamped their feet, warming themselves by a fire blazing in a large drum. She did not recognize any of these men and correctly assumed they were the personal servants and lackeys of the occupants of the first barge. She was to learn later, amongst their number were a cook and his assistant. This second trekschuit was equipped with a small kitchen to provide meals for passengers and the officers of the soldiers charged with guarding the convoy of barges, and the life of the Herr Baron and his party of travelers.

Standing by a second fire in a half barrel in front of the leading trekschuit was the British consul Jacob Luytens, and beside him a large man with heavy jowls whom Selina had seen at the consul’s house. With them was the Reverend Shirvington Shirley and his granddaughter Sophie, and behind them, a little way up the dock, a second contingent of smartly turned-out soldiers, also wearing the tall mitre of the grenadier, who were being issued with last-minute orders by their commander. Watching over the proceedings, the collar of his blue wool military coat pulled up over his ears and his black felt tricorne lowered over his brow, was Colonel Müller.

The captain escorting Selina made her a quaint bow before marching up to the Colonel and saluting. The Colonel looked up just as the Reverend’s granddaughter saw Selina, eyes widening, and smiling with genuine happiness to see her. A tug on her grandfather’s sleeve had him looking her way, and she pointed in Selina’s direction then skipped up to her and dropped a curtsey. And when Selina removed a gloved hand from within her muff and extended it to the girl in greeting, Sophie took this as an open invitation to throw her arms around her.

Selina gave a little laugh at the girl’s enthusiastic welcome. But Evans was unamused at such forwardness from one who was not her mistress’s social equal.

“I suspect she has no idea as to my consequence, Evans,” Selina quipped, and stepped back with a smile. Yet she kept a light hold on the girl’s arm and maintained eye contact as she pointed her muff over the girl’s shoulder so she would not be startled, and would notice the Colonel before he was upon her, given she was unable to hear his approach. “She meant nothing by her embrace, M’sieur Colonel,” she assured him in French, thinking he meant to chastise Sophie for her forwardness.

If she had learned anything about the dour Midanichians, it was their strict adherence to social rank and protocol. This circumstance she had remarked on to Plantagenet Halsey, saying that the English by comparison were practically republicans, which should make him happy. To which he had told her that she was a blessed troublemaker and if she could name one member of her family, or his, other than himself, with a republican bone in their body he would eat his sealskin coat!

“She is young, and her deafness may preclude her from expressing her happiness in the usual manner.”

“Yes, Madame. You may well be right,” Colonel Müller stated with a formal bow. “Please come with me. The Herr Baron wishes a few words before our departure. Do not worry about your lady’s maid,” he added when Selina instinctively glanced over her shoulder, then passed her large fur muff to Evans. “She will not be inconvenienced for long. We will be boarding in the next quarter hour.”

“Thank you, Colonel,” Selina replied, offering him her gloved hand when he stepped onto the barge first and held out his hand to her so she could step down from the wharf onto the boat without incident.

He continued to hold her fingers until she was steady and had a hand to the brass rail of the steps that led down into the cabin. He then went before her towards a curtain at the far end of the deckhouse, and here he waited, silent and as dour as ever, thought Selina with a small sigh. She wondered if he ever smiled, as his was not an unfriendly face, and his eyes held a hint of something more than an occupation with military drills and giving orders. But she recognized that the life of a soldier was not an easy one, so perhaps his war-time experiences, and this recent civil war, which must be upsetting for any soldier, was weighing on his mind. Whatever his disposition, she was just glad to have him and his men guarding them on this journey into open territory which was said to be plagued with rebels and inhabitants hostile to the country’s new Margrave. But what she was most particularly glad about was the esteem in which the Colonel held Alec as the Herr Baron. She did not doubt the man would lay down his life in Alec’s service, and that made her like him regardless of his disposition, dour or otherwise.