Don Gutteridge - Unholy Alliance

“So how did you find out about Baldwin’splans?” Marc asked, though he was pretty sure how that had comeabout.

“That’s where the luck came in. Two weeks agoSaturday, the very morning after my Friday evening dinner at thePalace and our discussion of these issues, Giles Harkness arrivedat my door.” Winthrop sighed and glared at his whiskey-glass. “Ishould have thrown the blackguard out then and there. But he hadinformation I coveted. He had left his employ at Elmdale sometimeafter his brother’s death and what he saw as his employer’s perfidyin hiring some stranger from England to take Alfred’s place. It’sabsurd, but he actually thought he himself deserved to be the newbutler.”

“So he was seeking revenge of some sort?”

“Yes. Before leaving the estate, he used oneof his cronies in the household to gain access to Macaulay’sprivate papers, where he read and memorized the recentcorrespondence and memoranda he found there.”

“About the proposed meeting between Baldwinand LaFontaine?”

“Yes. Harkness had the dates and locale, andeven the names of the Frenchmen coming from Quebec. But he also hadinformation on the new butler. He was to be Graves Chilton fromEngland. The fellow was already en route from London. Harkness wassubsequently told by his crony — Austin Briggs, I think his namewas — that Chilton had reached New York and would arrive at Elmdaleon Weller’s stage from Kingston on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursdayof the next week.”

So, Bragg had rummaged through the letters inthe library and given Harkness what he needed to know, Marc mused.As a favour to a good mate, perhaps, or merely because he too couldnot abide Alfred’s being replaced by an outsider. That Bragg knewnothing about spying or murder, Marc was still certain, though hedreaded having to tell Macaulay about his manservant’sdisloyalty.

“What did you do with this information?” hesaid to Winthrop.

“Nothing at first. I put Harkness in thekitchen with some breakfast, and sat down to think. Here was aHeaven-sent opportunity to infiltrate the secret meetings and getinformation that would please the Bishop and his Tory associates,information that could help prevent a political and economiccatastrophe.”

“Not everybody sees it that way,” Cobb feltobliged to say.

Winthrop ignored Cobb, as he had studiouslytried to do from the outset of the interview. “I already knew ingeneral that a new butler was on the way. My brother Ethan inCobourg had an English butler, who had heard the news along thegrapevine that servants seem to have. This butler, Marcel Flett,once worked for me years ago when I lived in Belleville, so I knewhim well. I knew he would leap at the chance I was about to offerhim.”

So, at long last, they had a name for the manwhose body they had found stiffening in that cramped little officeat Elmdale.

“But Flett was in Cobourg,” Marc said, “andChilton was due at Elmdale as early as the next Tuesday.”

“That’s right. I hadn’t much time. I toldHarkness to leave his boarding-house, move in here, and awaitfurther instructions. Then I rode to Cobourg and, late thatSaturday evening, I broached my bold scheme to Flett at mybrother’s house. I offered him a ridiculous sum of money, which heaccepted greedily, but it was really the potential for excitementand danger that prompted him to join forces with me — that and thefact that he’s been an ardent Tory and monarchist all hislife.”

“So yer brother was in on this, too?” Cobbsaid.

Winthrop glowered at the constable. “No, no,not at all,” he said to Marc. “You mustn’t involve Ethan. All heknew was that I wished to borrow Flett for a few weeks, and washappy to accommodate me.”

“So you persuaded Flett to pose as Chilton,”Marc said, “but there was still the real butler to deal with.”

“Yes. I knew a lot about Bessie Jiggins. Shewas infamous in Northumberland County and the subject of manyconversations between Ethan and me over the years. I also knew thatshe was in desperate straits financially.”

“How could you know that?” Cobb snarled.

Still looking at Marc, Winthrop said, “I havefriends in the Bank of Upper Canada. Several weeks ago one of themsent me a note indicating that Mrs. Jiggins had missed yet anotherpayment on her mortgage and that the bank was going to forecloseand seize the property if the debt were not settled by the end ofFebruary. My friend wanted to know if I would be interested inpurchasing the inn at a good price.”

It was Cobb’s turn to glare at Winthrop, butbefore he could comment on such a flagrant violation of businessethics, Marc said, “So you already had the letter you needed tointimidate the woman into kidnapping a man she did not know and hadno quarrel with?”

“There was no intimidation. She had herselfbeen fearful of a foreclosure, and naturally jumped at the chanceto earn enough money to forestall the bank’s intentions. Nor was itkidnapping. From Harkness, I knew that Macaulay had been warnedabout Chilton’s weakness for drink and the fair sex. I mentionedthis as a possible means of her effecting a delay in his journey.How she managed it was up to her.”

“That ain’t what she told me,” Cobb said,intensifying his glare and letting the wart on his nose quivermenacingly.

“We know much of the rest,” Marc said. “Herassistant, Brutus Glatt, was sent into Cobourg on the Tuesdayevening to alert Flett that Chilton had been successfully ambushed.Flett arrived the following evening and the switch of identitieswas effected.”

Winthrop managed a grim smile. “Yes. The onlyrisk, once Chilton was out of the way, was that on the Thursdaymorning when Flett got on the stage at Cobourg, there would be alocal passenger or two who might recognize him.”

“But he was feigning illness, wasn’t he?”Marc said, “and had bundled himself up?”

“Just as we had planned it. He never spoke aword between Cobourg and Elmdale. And, according to the note hesmuggled to me via Harkness, he arrived there with Chilton’sbaggage, Chilton’s clothes and Chilton’s papers. He was unknown inToronto, so there was no way anyone at Macaulay’s would not accepthim as the legitimate English butler, especially Macaulay, who isnotoriously feckless and trusting.”

“All that remained, then, was for you andFlett to set up a means of transferring the purloined informationfrom the negotiations to this house?”

“Harkness knew exactly how to do that, and toadvise Flett on the best way to eavesdrop. Flett’s knowing Frenchwas a bonus. His mother was born in Calais. I could have waiteduntil the meetings were over and had Flett simply do a bunk withhis accumulated notes, but I wanted progress reports. The businessmight have gone on for days, and I was also hoping that somethingmight turn up to allow me to disrupt the negotiations themselves,something dramatic that would further ingratiate me with thepowers-that-be here in Toronto.”

Marc leaned forward and said, “But I ampuzzled as to why a successful businessman like yourself would riskgoing to prison for fraud and conspiracy to kidnap merely toingratiate himself with his Tory cronies? Or was it the nobler, ifmisguided, notion that you were saving the province fromdemocracy?”

“But you don’t really understand, do you? Ihave invested most of my fortune in the new order, as it were.Using insider information, one of the benefits of being on thefringe of the Family Compact, I have been purchasing a dozenseemingly worthless properties along the main streets of Kingston.Lately, as others have been trying the same moves, however, theprices have been rising and I have had to mortgage my business hereand even this house to continue buying. I even borrowed heavilyfrom Ethan.”

“You knew for certain that Governor PoulettThomson had decided to make Kingston the capital of the unitedprovinces?”