Vintage Love (37 page)

“Go on, sir,” Eric encouraged him.

“I propose to send a party consisting of you, Walters, along with Dr. O’Meara and Captain Gray into the sewer by means of another house close by the one Valmy is occupying.”

Eric nodded in agreement. “I think I follow you, sir. We shall use the sewer connection with this other house to get into the main sewer line and make our way under the house where Valmy is. Then we can enter it the same way!”

“Precisely,” Felix Black said. “Once you get in the house, you will try to reach Napoleon without Valmy knowing, or over his dead body if necessary, and get the former emperor out of the house by the same means. Then Captain Gray can turn him over to his men, and the carriage will take him to Calais.”

“It sounds practical,” Eric said. “Do you have a plan of the house, sir, with the room marked in which Napoleon is liable to be found.”

“I have such a plan,” the old master spy said. “But it may not be entirely correct. The man who made it for me used his memory to recreate the plan. He was once a servant in the house.”

O’Meara said, “Well, if we are to become sewer rats, let us get on with it!”

Geroge Frederick Kingston demanded, “What about me, sir?”

“I have other plans for you,” the old man leaning on his cane said brusquely. And to Eric he said, “You take the others to your room and study the plan for a while. Then arm yourselves well, and I will tell you when to start out.”

Eric turned to Betsy. “I will see you before I go.”

Felix Black waited until everyone had gone except Betsy and Kingston. Then he said, “How do you feel?”

She said, “I am ready for any task.”

“You are sure?”

“Yes.”

He said, “I did not ask you when Major Walters was here because he has strong feelings that you have been subjected to rather too much danger as it is.”

“He tries to overprotect me,” she said.

“That is very likely true,” Black said. “But then you should be grateful after your last experience with Valmy.”

“I am filled with hatred for Valmy!” she said.

“That pleases me,” the old master spy said. “I felt you to be in a dangerous mood before.” He rummaged in an inner pocket and produced a sketch and handed it to Kingston. “Do you think you could make yourself up to look like that?”

“Stout chap,” Kingston said studying the pencil sketch. “But about my height. And the black whisker is easy enough.”

“One of my agents made that sketch,” Black told them. “He is holding the original of it prisoner, along with a young woman.”

“Indeed, sir,” Kingston said. “I’d say I could quite easily make myself up to pass for this fellow. A bit of padding, darken my eyebrows, paste on a false dark whisker, and I think I could pass.”

“I hoped you would say that,” the man in black said with satisfaction. “The man you are to impersonate is Valmy’s cook.”

“Indeed, sir,” Kingston said with polite interest.

“Valmy takes him with him everywhere, and it is this fellow who prepares the meals of the emperor.”

“Jolly important job! Doubt if I’m up to it. Never did much cooking.”

“You won’t be required to cook,” Black said dryly. “Merely look like this cook fellow.”

“I can do that,” Kingston vouched.

The old man suffered a coughing spell and could not go on for a little while. When he’d finished the wracking session, he looked more ill than ever, and he was trembling slightly.

She rose with concern. “Are you ill?”

He waved her to sit down again. “No. It’s over. I’ve become accustomed to these fits of coughing. Now where was I?”

She said. “You were telling us about Valmy’s cook.”

“Ah yes,” he said. “As you know, most cooks go out in the early morning to the various shops and market for the day. But in the case of Valmy’s cook there must be a certain discretion. So he does not go out on his errands until dusk, returning after dark. He always takes a kitchen maid with a basket along with him to carry the goods he selects.”

Betsy smiled grimly. “And I am to be the kitchen maid.”

“That is my idea,” Black said. “A risk! Valmy may try to put you in a madhouse again if you’re caught. Do you want to risk it?”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” she said. “It is probably my only chance to pay him back!”

“And to save the emperor,” he reminded her. “That once was your chief concern, and it is still mine.”

She sighed. “My desire for revenge seems to have made me forget everything else.”

“Revenge can be blinding. One should avoid it. As an example Valmy made a bad mistake in exacting vengeance from you. He made you hate him.”

“True,” she agreed.

“I have the cook and his kitchen maid in custody,” he went on. “And I have the cook’s key to the rear door of the mansion.”

“Then we should be able to get in easily,” Kingston exclaimed.

“As long as someone doesn’t spot you as impostors,” the master spy said. “In that case all is lost.”

Betsy said, “So that is why you will have the others approach by the main sewer.”

“Yes. And once you are in the house, it will be your task to make sure that the passage to the sewer is not in any way shut off. Some houses which were on the sewer have since closed the entry off because of the plague of rats.”

She nodded. “We can do that.”

“If you find it possible, you can try and approach the emperor and tell him that he must deliver himself to the others when they arrive and go with them. It is his only hope for survival.”

“I will speak to him if I can and hope that he will believe me,” she said.

“He did not have so many beautiful girls as friends on Saint Helena that he should forget you,” the old master spy said.

“When do you want us to leave?” she asked.

“As soon as you can be ready.”

Kingston rose. “It will take me the best part of an hour to prepare myself.”

Betsy said, “I can manage more quickly than that. I’ll borrow a maid’s outfit and a shawl from the landlady.”

Black nodded. “She will supply the items. I have already told her about it.”

She smiled. “I wonder what sort of guests the poor woman thinks she has.”

“English and quite mad!” the master spy said with a bleak smile. “Come to me when you are ready to leave, and I shall give you the key and my blessing.”

“What about the others?” she asked.

“Their departure will be timed to yours,” the old master spy said. “I think that between the parties we have a good chance of rescuing the emperor.”

“Providing he hasn’t been removed before we get there,” she said.

“I don’t think Valmy dares leave the house with Paris so filled with soldiers. He won’t dare attempt his vaunted uprising until he thinks suspicion has eased and the army of Louis’s supporters are off guard.”

Betsy was standing before the dresser mirror in the bedroom inspecting herself in the maid’s uniform when Eric came into the room. She could tell at once he was upset.

He said, “What is this I hear about you and Kingston?”

She smiled. “We’re to impersonate the cook and a maid.”

“It’s too risky! You know how well Valmy keeps his headquarters guarded,” he objected.

“He may not have so many now. And in any case Kingston will look very much like the cook. And nobody ever notices a maid.”

“No one but the other kitchen help,” Eric said. “You might get inside, but that would be it. Someone would be bound to notice you.”

She said, “I don’t agree. From my experience the guards pay little attention to the household staff.”

He stared at her in dismay. “After all you’ve gone through, you’re ready to take another such risk?”

“I can’t let Felix Black down now.”

“You can if you wish.”

“I don’t want to. And in any case you’ll be nearby. It’s not like before. The idea is to have us join forces.”

“I’m afraid for you.”

She went to him. “You mustn’t be!”

He put his arms round her and kissed her tenderly. Then he held her to him tightly. He said, “I can’t forget the state you were in when I found you in that madhouse.”

“That’s over with,” she said. “We can’t let it spoil our chances.”

He sighed. “I see it is no use. Black must have used his hypnotic powers on you.”

“I think tonight will end the chase,” she told him.

“I hope so,” he said, and he kissed her again.

Kingston was downstairs waiting for her. She was impressed by the way he’d disguised himself. He had padded his body so that he seemed at least fifty pounds heavier and the black beard and eyebrows together with a pot hat slouched down over his forehead gave him an entirely different appearance.

He handed her the big shopping basket. “How do I look?” he asked.

“If I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have recognized you,” she said.

“I have the key,” he told her. “There’s a pistol for you in the basket. I’m also carrying one.”

“At least that gives us some chance.”

The actor sighed. “I suppose we’d better get on our way.”

“I don’t even know the address of the house.”

“I do,” he said. “We’ll take a carriage to within a block of it, then walk the rest of the way.”

She asked, “Have the others left yet?”

“A few minutes ago,” Kingston said. “I prefer our task, dangerous as it is, to going down in those sewers.”

“We may still have to meet them down there,” she reminded him.

It was another dark night. But as they rode through the streets of the great city, she was amazed that so many people were about, especially those in uniform. Every so often a group of cavalry would ride by, and she saw clusters of foot soldiers at various corners.

Betsy glanced at Kingston across the carriage and said, “You’d almost think Paris was prepared for siege!”

“That is what Valmy threatened!”

“Someone has spread the word.”

“I think they will close in on him soon,” the actor said. “It is now just a question of who gets to Valmy first.”

“I hope we do,” she said. “I still want to see the emperor protected.”

“There’s a thin line of us to help him now,” Kingston said.

“We can still manage it if nothing happens,” she said. And at once she knew this was a ridiculous statement. They could manage anything if they were not prevented. The unhappy fact was that the odds of their being prevented were great.

The carriage halted, and they got out. Kingston paid the driver and then told her, “It’s over there toward the river.”

They walked along in silence, she keeping a full foot behind him as Felix Black had instructed her. This was the respectful distance for the maid to keep from the cook.

As they drew near the house, Kingston told her over her shoulder, “That’s it! Directly ahead!”

“We must go to the back door.”

“Yes,” he said. And then he halted suddenly and in a nervous voice whispered, “Do you see what I see?”

She stared ahead in the near darkness and then began to make out the blurred figures of soldiers milling about in the street in front of the house. There were also some mounted officers riding among them.

Betsy gasped. “It looks as if they’re ready to make an attack on the house.”

“If they do it at once, we’re out of it,” Kingston said.

“I think they’re just preparing,” she ventured. “We can’t lose any time. We ought to go straight in now and try and get to the emperor before they smash down the front door and overflow the place.”

“I don’t like it,” Kingston worried.

“We can’t turn back.”

“What if we’re caught in there, and they take us for being one of Valmy’s crowd?”

Betsy said, “I don’t think even then they would stoop to shoot mere servants. And that is how we’re dressed.”

“Will they take time to find out?”

“I think so,” she said. “Don’t be so nervous.”

He eyed her grimly. “You’re a wonder to be this calm after all you went through.”

“I have you with me this time,” she said. “They caught us before by ticking us off one by one.”

They made their way around to the back of the shuttered mansion, half expecting to find military men there, but there were none. They were all congregated in the front. It was as if they felt the rear door was of no concern.

Her heart pounded wildly as Kingston fitted the key in the door and opened it. They both entered the vestibule as quietly as they could and moved on to the kitchen. They found themselves in a large room completely empty at the moment.

He whispered, “What now?”

She drew her pistol from the shopping bag and held it ready. At her side George Frederick Kingston glanced around him, then moved slowly forward toward the front of the house with Betsy close by him.

The place gave her a strange feeling. There seemed to be no guards around at all. Then suddenly from behind them there came a harsh voice.

“What are you two up to?” the voice demanded.

They turned and found themselves looking at a tall stern man in butler’s uniform with a large revolver in his hand pointed straight at them. He stared at them and said.

“You’re fakes! She’s not the maid and you’re not the cook! Drop those guns!”

There was nothing else but to drop the weapons. He quickly picked them up and dropped them in the basket. Then with the basket on his arm he backed slowly into the big kitchen again. He nodded to them, “Come along! Move smartly!”

They did what he told them. And he moved slowly to a corner of the kitchen and opened a door to a medium-sized closet. He stood close to the door and jerked his head as he instructed them, “You two in there!”

She felt a true feeling of despair along with her fright. Once they were locked in the closet, they would be at the mercy of Valmy. She made a move as if to step inside, then instead shoved hard against the butler and caught him by surprise so that he stumbled back into the closet with the revolver in one hand and the basket in the other!

Betsy swung the door closed as the man inside began to hammer on it. She cried to Kingston to turn the key as she pressed all her weight against the door. Kingston turned the key, and the butler was caught in his own trap!

She said, “That’s that!”

Kingston grasped her by the arm. “He fixed us just the same!”