Mississippi Raider (16 page)

“
You!”
Belle gasped as her gaze came to rest upon the
speaker.

“
Me,”
the woman replied.

Staring as if unable to believe
the evidence of her eyes, Belle concluded that it was obvious how
her mother
’s
cousin had become known as a leading hostess in the society of
Washington, D.C., over the past few years.

In her mid
-thirties, Rose Greenhow had
strikingly beautiful patrician alabaster features with proud hazel
eyes and more than a suggestion of intelligence in their lines.
Although the way in which her much longer, immaculately coiffured
black tresses made the difference appear more pronounced, she was
an inch taller than her niece. Her figure was displayed to its best
advantage by a stylish black ball gown with a close-to-daring
décolleté. Statuesque in its dimensions, its proudly jutting
imposing bosom above a naturally slender waist and richly contoured
hips was of the “hourglass” variety so much favored by members of
the opposite sex at that period. Everything about her, especially
the amount of jewelry glistening in the light of the room from her
ears, around her nacreous throat, and on her wrists and fingers,
denoted the possession of the most excellent taste.

“
But I
thought you were in Washington!” Belle said in a puzzled
tone.

“
I
was,”
Rose replied calmly, studying the girl who had always been
her favorite niece in a more speculative than amiable fashion. “But
I heard Allan Pinkerton was taking a most unhealthy interest in my
affairs and considered it was prudent for me to come back home. The
more important thing right now is what kind of game you’ve been
playing for the past few weeks.”

“
Game?” Belle repeated, then a remembrance of whom she had
been with forced her to attain a sitting position. Anxiety helped
her to fend off the dizziness caused by the sudden movement, and
she demanded rather than asked, “Where is Alfred
Higgins?”

“
Is
that the little locksmith—and far more, I should imagine—who you’ve
been spending so much time with recently?” Rose
inquired.

“
It
is,” the girl confirmed. “And if he’s been hurt—!”

“
He
hasn’t,” the beautiful Southron woman stated in a reassuring tone.
“But it took all Captain Dartagnan’s considerable persuasive powers
to convince him
you
had not been harmed, nor would be.”

“
Where
is he now?” Belle insisted.

“
In
the kitchen, drinking whiskey and regaling my friends with what I
suspect are ribald tales of his criminal exploits in England,” Rose
said soothingly. “He’s not harmed, nor will he be. However, after
Alex had persuaded him to return your—loot, shall we call it?—and
conceal all traces of what you had done, he insisted upon being
brought here to make certain you are all right.”

“
Then
he may get his nice tickle after all,” the girl said with a
smile.

“
I beg
your pardon?” the woman asked in genuine puzzlement, lacking the
knowledge her niece had acquired about the argot of criminals in
London.

“
It’s
a private joke,
Aunt
Rose,” Belle answered, knowing the reference to their
relationship had never been popular with the Southron beauty on the
grounds that it made her appear old.

“
What
you’ve been doing since you arrived in Richmond
hasn’t
been a joke,” Rose warned, and raised
a hand before the girl could speak. “Oh, I know what you’ve been
trying to do and why you’ve played that game tonight. Well, you
have achieved your intention.”

“
You
mean—!”

“
You’ve found the South’s Secret Service, or rather a part
of it, at least.”

“
Are
you a member of it?”

“
I am
and have been for some considerable time.”

“
Then
why didn’t you—?”

“
Why
didn’t I come straight over to the Sandford and visit to tell you?”
Rose finished for the girl. “I’ve only been back for a day, and I
meant to do so after having heard all you’ve been getting up
to.”

“
Do
you mean that—” Belle began, but once again words failed
her.

“
You’ve been kept under observation ever since it came to
the attention of our people that you were behaving the way you
were,” Rose confirmed, nodding her head gracefully and smiling at
the confusion being shown by her generally composed and
self-possessed niece. “At first it was suspected you might be a
Yankee spy, then Colonel Raines told Alex who you were and why you
were trying to meet members of the Secret Service.” She lost all
traces of levity as a thought struck her, and she continued in a
contrite fashion, “Let me offer my condolences over the death of
your parents, dear, and please forgive me for not having done so
immediately.”

“
No
apologies are necessary,
Rose”
Belle stated, and hoped not saying “Aunt” would
show she harbored no ill feeling over the omission. “Then I don’t
need to tell you why I wanted to meet and, if I could, join the
Secret Service.”

“
You
don’t,” the beautiful woman asserted, and all the kindliness left
her face. She stiffened as if preparing herself for an unpleasant
yet necessary task and went on, “But you can get one thing into
your head right now. There’s no room in this organization for a
vengeance seeker. Don’t deny it, Belle, you wouldn’t be Electra and
Vincent Boyd’s daughter if you didn’t want to do something to
avenge their death. The thing is, although everything you’ve done
since coming to Richmond—even that escapade tonight—had made us
sure that you can be of use to us, you
can’t
use the Secret Service for your personal
ends.”

“
I
won’t,” Belle promised without hesitation, realizing that there was
no other way she would gain the acceptance she wanted—even more now
that she had discovered her favorite aunt’s involvement in the
organization she had been seeking. “And you have my
word,
as Electra and
Vincent Boyd’s daughter, on it.”

“
That’s good enough for me,” Rose affirmed. “From tonight
you can count yourself a member of the Confederate States Secret
Service. However, capable and determined as you’ve shown yourself
to be, there are still things you have to learn before we will let
you go on any assignments. And, Belle, while none of us will mind
if you deal with Tollinger and Barmain as they deserve should your
paths cross, you must
never
under
any
circumstances turn aside from your assigned duty
to do it. Is that understood?”

“
It
is!”
the girl declared. “Now, as he’s been such a good friend
and helpful to me, can I go and see Alfred?”

“
You
can, after you’ve washed that black stuff off your face,” Rose
confirmed. “And I’ll come with you. I’m rather keen to hear the
ending of the story he stopped telling about how he was compelled
to respond when a titled lady at a house he was robbing mistook him
in the darkness for her husband and insisted—Well, let’s go and see
if we can persuade him to fill in the details he was tactful and, I
consider, unsporting enough to leave untold when he became aware
that I was listening.”

Rising to carry out her
aunt
’s
instructions with regard to her appearance, Belle felt a sense of
elation. Despite the restriction on the freedom to hunt for the
murders of her parents that she had willingly agreed to on
realizing why they had been imposed, she decided she would do
anything possible to justify the faith Rose was putting in her, and
after whatever additional training she was to be given, she meant
to do everything she could to be a very useful Rebel
spy.

“
G
ood evening, sir,” boomed the elderly-looking and
well-dressed man who had accompanied Belle Boyd into the mansion in
Atlanta, Georgia, that had been converted to a luxurious gambling
house. “My name is Culpepper,
Colonel
Ebediah F. Culpepper the Third. Retired, of
course.
They
say I’m too old for duty, sir. Well, I’ll show them.” While
his left hand tapped the metal ferrule of the silver-topped
polished ebony cane in his left hand on the floor as if to
emphasize the point he was making, he slapped where the inside
breast of his white cutaway jacket bulged with his right palm and
went on just as flamboyantly, “I trust, sir, you have liberal funds
to meet the winnings I shall have to be used to set up my
niece
in the manner she
deserves?”

It was highly unlikely that anybody who had
known the beautiful, willowy girl when she was living happily at
Baton Royale Manor would have recognized her at that moment. She
was dressed and behaving in the manner required by her pose of
being the kind of fluttery, featherbrained, and generally
less-than-competent-at-anything Southron maiden already often
portrayed on the stage and met in real life often enough to give
credence to the character. She had so ably created the guise for
her first assignment as a member of the Confederate States Secret
Service.

Three months had elapsed since
Belle had achieved her purpose by having been inducted into the
service of the organization she had sought to locate by employing
the unconventional methods that brought her to its
member
’s
attention. Although being related to Rose Greenhow, who she had
discovered was high in its hierarchy, she was aware that it was
solely her own efforts and willingness to learn whatever was
required of her that had allowed her to get as far as she had. What
was more, on learning how her aunt had been able to reach Richmond,
she had discovered something of the dedication that would be
expected from her if she was to succeed as a Rebel spy.

Finding that the attentions of
Allan Pinkerton, who she claimed to be the most efficient member of
the Union
’s
Secret Service, had made Washington, D.C., too hot for safety and
also having acquired intelligence of vital importance that must be
delivered to her superiors with a minimum of delay, Rose had
contrived with the help of another lady with Southern sympathies,
but who was unable to travel from the North for family reasons, to
escape. When telling Belle of the means employed, sounding a trifle
defiant and perhaps even a little conscience-stricken, the
beautiful black-haired woman had stated that she would not have
permitted the sacrifice of liberty if the intelligence she had
acquired had not been a matter of highest importance.

Being a realist, the girl had accepted that
she might be compelled to reach similar unpleasant decisions in the
work that lay ahead and hoped she would have the strength of will
to behave in the same fashion.

There was one thing of which Belle felt
confident. Should she fail in her duties, it would not be because
of a lack of training. In fact, even more than while she was
carrying out the program that led to her being brought to the
attention of Captain Alexandre Dartagnan, the tall, debonair and
handsome French Creole—who could prove to be descended from the
famous Gascon swordsman of that name—almost every day had been
fully occupied by something that would offer her a greater chance
of survival or prove of use for the duties she was to perform.

The skills that Belle had acquired from
Alfred Higgins were improved under his still-willing guidance, with
him expressing such admiration for the way they had been followed
undetected by him to their burglary that he had offered his
services to the organization. Having seen proof of his abilities by
the way in which he had helped the girl carry out the robbery and
then return the loot—chosen so carefully by her as being
embarrassing to the loser rather than of military importance or
secrecy—with such dexterity and care that General Wilberforce
Crumley never learned its temporary removal had taken place, this
was accepted without reservations.

Instructed by Rose, who was an
expert in the subject, as had been proved by the way her return to
Richmond had been effected, the girl had improved her already
latent ability at creating different characters by using disguises
and had been supplied with several things—including the start of a
collection of realistic-looking wigs—to give greater credence to
whatever persona she adopted. She had become adept at using the
code employing a substitution of letters by numbers with which
messages could be passed.
^xii
Although competent in the use of
savate, she had learned from Dartagnan to employ methods of attack
that would result in an immediate disqualification if applied
during a formal sporting contest. He had told her with Gallic humor
that, instead of making the spectacular leaping high kick to the
chest when trying to go to Higgins’s assistance, she would have
achieved far better results by delivering a more potent kick to
somewhere he described as being “between neck and knee” and was
followed by a demonstration that indicated the point on the
masculine anatomy he had in mind.