The Moonless Night (33 page)

“I realize I don’t rate so high in your estimation as that fat French strumpet, but then I always had an odd notion of your preference in females.”

“That one struck at the quick, I see. But I only prefer French strumpets for business. For a wife one must naturally select and appear to be content with a well-bred prude. A nice wholesome country wench will do as well as any.”

“You omit one of my advantages. Do you not prefer your country wench insipid as well as wholesome?”

“It is a velleity, merely. I do not insist on insipidity. And don’t think I am going to get it, either,” he added, regarding her sparkling eyes with a lazy smile.

“Let us count the money while we wait,” she suggested. “There is nothing like ten thousand pounds there. It is only a small box.”

“Ten thousand? No, no, I have that at Bolt Hall. That money you speak of is from the sale of Madame’s sapphires. Under five hundred—she got four-fifty for them.” He arose and walked to the trunk, pulling it out from behind the door. “They were required to raise some emergency blunt when I got their big cache. It was the disposing of the sapphires that caused Madame to miss our little water party the other day.”

“Where did you find the money? David and I looked all over for it.”

“Under Benson’s instructions. He was careful to lead you away from it. It was in the bottom of the big chain box in the winch room. Not even locked, but pretty safe for all that. No one was likely to haul out that great heavy chain. Sir Henry told me David’s story about the money. I thought it was moonshine at first, but after scrutinizing Benson a while, I noticed he spent an inordinate amount of time in the winch room, and a good search one night told me why. Answered a few other questions that had been plaguing me, too. I had no reason to suspect Benson when first I came. He was some connection of your mother’s, and had a right to be there. I knew from London that Madame was in town, and she of course was my chief suspect. She had caused trouble before, in Vienna. Benson over-reacted to her from the start. The day we all lunched together at the inn he was at considerable pains to ignore her—not his customary reaction to ladies of her sort.”

“Nor anyone else’s, apparently.”

“It was ordained on high that men be attracted to pretty women. I put it right in the Almighty’s dish, you see, where you daren’t disagree with me. Benson was a neighbor of mine, and I was extremely curious to hear why he had sold up Oakhurst, with no rumors of his being so deeply in debt. I got busy with my pen. Inquiries in Devonshire discovered that it was not even mortgaged, and the sum obtained for it was ten thousand. That interesting figure already featuring in the case, I then began to look at him with heightened suspicion. Then of course when I bumped into him at Bolt’s Point pulling in a message from Billy Ruffian my little suspicions took on a stronger coloring. The message itself was uninteresting enough. I had hoped for a firm date or means of rescue, but it was only a request to know what chances MacKenroth’s ploy had of succeeding.

“It was our old friend Hazy, of course, who warned me to be on the lookout for messages coming and going. It was obvious flags couldn’t be used, and communications between Billy Ruffian and naval vessels were so well attended, with Boney carefully below-deck, that nothing could be done then. It was of course a written message coming ashore by a bribed seaman. The Point, with its telescope, seemed a nice private spot for it. Anyway, knowing that Benson had all his gold concealed on the premises induced me to nose around till I found it, and I put it away for safekeeping.”

“Where?”

“I took it to Sinclair’s aboard
Seadog
.”

“So that’s why you went back there, to watch it, and not to gather leeches. Do tell me, is that how Benson got his black eye, too, trying to get it back?”

“No, no, you will recall he was kicked by a jackass.”

“A jackass named Lord Sanford?”

“I am not so hard on myself. It was Jean Valet who had the bruised knuckles, you will recall.”

“And that’s why Rawlins went down there the next day, snooping around
Seadog
. I suppose it was all a hum that you had no crewmen aboard your yacht guarding the gold.”

“No, there was no gold there to guard by that time. Once I knew he had tumbled to where I had it, it had to be moved.”

“What a well-traveled box of gold it is, to be sure! What was its next resting place?”

He opened his mouth to tell her, then shut it again, rather quickly. “Where I didn’t think Benson would be likely to look for it.”

“How clever of you not to hide it under your bed. Obviously you hid it where he wasn’t likely to find it, but where exactly? It wasn’t in your room or your valet’s.”

“No, it wasn’t there. Er, tell me, when did you get around to checking Belhomme’s towels?”

“David and Benson did it, but where was the money?”

“I might tell you someday, after we are safely away from Bolt Hall. I don’t think my hiding place would have universal approval, though really it wasn’t the chest that did the damage.”

“What damage? Adrian, tell me at once! Was that how you broke the chain, hiding the money?”

“Certainly not! That was no accident. Took me half an hour of filing to get through that damned chain. I made sure David would see me, right across the bay at the dock, moving the yachts about.”

“Much he would have cared. He would have helped you, for he had realized by then, I think, that you were the real spy. I don’t see why you couldn’t have told us, and let us help you.”

“You were a better help not knowing. Oh, both full to the brim of good intentions, but not discreet, my dear. Not at all discreet.”

He waggled a finger under her nose. “You had already informed Benson indirectly that London had sent down an agent, and of course he knew I was it, but I fear my plans would have had a poor chance of remaining unknown had I divulged them to you and David. What puzzles me considerably is how you took the notion Benson was the one sent, when he had the reason of being family, and I came with no other excuse than being a godson of a business associate of Sir Henry.”

“Benson came first—had already arrived when David overheard the men talking beneath his balcony, so we assumed... And once you get a notion like that in your head, you know, everything seems to support it.”

“Benson was at pains to support it, of course.”

“I wonder my father let him stay on once you told him he had lost Oakhurst.”

“He was wanting to show him the door, but I told him—asked him to keep him on. Easier to keep an eye on him when he was right under my nose.”

“I suppose if the truth were known, you were afraid he’d move in with his wife and cut you out. Just what did you hope to gain from setting Madame up in a love nest, other than love, of course?”

“I had various reasons for doing it—none of which involved love, incidentally. I knew she was Cicero, and hoped to con her into thinking I would help her. I professed myself ankle-deep in admiration for Boney, but that was no good. She actually does hate him, I think, and is only in it for the money. Then, of course, there was the possibility my attentions would cause her to lose her head, and utter some revealing statements regarding her activities. Even knowing when she would not be home to receive my gallantries might have been useful, though in fact Benson got stuck with all the leg-work, and she was there with open arms, night and day. God, what a bore! And didn’t give away a useful word, either. As sly as a diplomat.”

“One marvels at your pertinacity in returning night and day, considering how futile and boring the job was.”

“Mostly day. I had a number of little activities I had no wish to publicize chez Bolt Hall. I had the messages to check for at night, along with some shoulder-rubbing with what Biddy chooses to call hedgebirds in the city, to discover what groups my assistants—valet, groom, crew of
Seadog
et al—should make up to in order to make contact with Madame. All was not fun and games at the cottage.”

“No, indeed, some of the fun and games occurred in the orchard, and don’t let on you were bored there.”

“I wasn’t, once I perceived your arrival. That added a very welcome dash to the proceedings. You arrived just in time to save me the expense of replacing
les saphirs Monet
. She was hinting I might like to buy them, it being the plan that they would be a parting gift, of course, to herself.”

“Hinting in French, I presume?”

“In every language but English. Later she confessed their loss, as she would have to sell them, and thus appear without them at the ball after all the wonderful talk about them. All useful information to have. There was just a little doubt that my getting their money away from them would bring proceedings to a halt. Not cheap, you know, to bribe a crew to man the ship for them, and arrange to conceal an easily-recognized General in Ireland for a month or so, till they could get him smuggled out to America. Damned expensive, but their using a naval vessel free of expense helped in the bookkeeping. The four-fifty from the sapphires might have done it. When Benson sold up Oakhurst he had counted on having to buy a ship, I suppose. Bribing Rawlins must have been nearly as expensive. Rawlins was in it up to his ego by the time I got their loot, however, and must have agreed to wait and be paid out of the prize money.”

“Was there actually such a sum offered?”

“Hazy said so, and he would certainly know. Probably put up some of the blunt himself. But I am not working on that end. The Admiralty has more than one agent.”

“Did you really agree with Hazy that the habeas corpus was a good thing?”

“Now, love, you of all people, who entered and searched my room, must know I dashed off no letters to the
Morning Chronicle
. It would be a wretched thing. But I am a Whig, with just a narrow stripe of Tory, picked up from my godfather no doubt, on the subject of Napoleon Bonaparte. I want him stashed away good and safe. I had to express some admiration for him to make myself acceptable to Hazy and find out what he was up to. All part of my orders. Holland, a friend, was kind enough to drop him a line I was coming and would call on him.”

“But then did you know all alone Rawlins meant to steal a naval vessel and go out to Billy Ruffian?”

“No, not at first. Well, Cicero herself didn’t know it at that point. The idea first came up the day I introduced Benson to Rawlins. Of course they were already known to each other— had met at Bolt Hall the night David saw those much-discussed brass buttons, I should think. Madame must have sent Rawlins along. She would have been chummying up to him sooner. Wide awake on all suits, Cicero. David mentioned that damnable idea of Boney masquerading as a seaman and I foolishly said it was either that or a whole crew of Frenchies masquerading as British sailors. I believe that’s when the idea first occurred to them. I think it would have been easier to have just one person pose as Boney, but I made Rawlins pass along that item to Maitland. He didn’t want to do it, either. That was their first plan, certainly. My valet and groom were busy snooping around, and let me know Rawlins was on close terms with Madame. I didn’t realize there was love-making in it till you and David told me.”

“Certainly that is what Benson was shaking his finger under her nose about. I knew he was jealous.”

“No doubt, but they patched it up and that is when the new plan began to emerge. With their ten thousand gone, their alternatives were severely limited. I think Rawlins was originally sucked in to do no more than resign his commission and captain a bought or hired ship for them. In for a penny, in for a pound, however. It was either the extremely bold scheme of using
Phoebe
, or stealing another ten thousand, which is not done in the batting of an eyelash.

“Now it would not be easy in the normal course of proceedings for Rawlins to get an excuse to take a ship out and dock it in some out-of-the-way spot to allow a change of crew to take place. When we heard that he was to bring a ship to Bolt Hall for the ball, that was obviously when the thing was to be done. Time was running very short.”

“Well you are a great deal more stupid than I ever thought!” Marie told him bluntly. “You had only to leave the chain in one piece, and raise it when Rawlins left the ball to go to
Phoebe
,”

“So I had, wizard, but it is not against the law for a rear admiral to go onto a ship under his command, or even to take it out in the harbor. No, we had to catch him actually making the attempt to free Bonaparte. We had to let him out and it was to be the job of one of them, Benson, as it turned out, to then raise the chain to keep the rest of us in.”

“How did David stop him, with only your
Seadog
—a smaller ship, and with no official status? Maitland must have taken orders from Rawlins.”

“No, he preferred to take his orders from Admiral Lord Keith, who happened to be aboard
Seadog
tonight.”

“How convenient!” she said with a knowing look.

“He was happy to have such a good hiding place, with MacKenroth beating the bushes looking for him.”

“And that’s why Benson professed such interest in keeping the chain preserved.”

“He was in favor of it even before the plan was devised. But I think he only said so at that point to ingratiate himself with your father. He knew once I turned up that his losing Oakhurst was bound to arise, and wished to be on the old boy’s good side.”

“I wonder why he decided to come to ns at all. Why did he not just go to the inn, like Madame?”

“The rooms were full. Unless he was ready to announce his marriage, he could not very well have bunked in with her. She must have known she would be watched. A scarlet past, you must know. Her chase of Sir Henry precedes Benson’s arrival by some time. Likely she had an eye on
Fury
from the start, or one of the yachts there. In any case, Bolt Hall was certainly the place to be—plans, news, and ships—all of interest to Madame. When she failed to gain entry, she put Benson up to it. His coming as a suitor to your hand was a ruse. I didn’t actually know about the marriage till I had written London he was here, and asked them to check him out for me. But I had begun taking objection to his courting you even before that time.”