T.F. Banks - The Emperor's assassin

“Come to view the Corsican, have you?” one of the men said.

It occurred to Morton that one of these men might be Berman but wouldn't reveal himself until he was satisfied that Morton was not some member of the Customs Service.

“I've a bit of business with Mr. Berman,” Morton said, keeping his tone pleasant.

The men looked about at one another.

“He might be back by and by,” one of them said, and they went back to their conversation.

Morton looked at his young companion, and the two retreated a little. “Let's see who else here might know Berman.”

The two Runners went in opposite directions. Morton waited until he was hidden from Berman's friends by the fog, then began a quiet enquiry. Half an hour later he stood talking to a costerwoman who was filling her barrow with shellfish. She was a few years older than Morton, broad and strong. But from within this unlikely shape came the most melodious voice. Her very speech was song.

“Berman? He's off to the Bellerophon . Saw him set out not an hour ago.”

“And who had he for passengers, did you see?”

The woman shrugged as she arranged her merchandise. “Half a dozen men-down from Bath, I think.”

“French gentlemen?”

The woman shook her head. “English all,” she said.

“None with a raspberry stain on the head?”

“The gentlemen wore hats, as you'd expect,” she answered.

“This man you'd know. His mark stretches down onto his forehead.”

“Didn't see such,” she said, picking up mussels by the double-handful and shovelling them into her barrel with a clatter.

“But did you hear them speak? Are you certain they were English?”

The woman stopped, hunched over her barrow, turned her head, and looked up at Morton suspiciously. “I can tell you no more,” she said, and went back to her work.

Morton continued to canvass the quay without much luck until it came time to meet Westcott. He arrived at the Blue Pillars to find Westcott and Presley waiting for him, the young Runner shovelling down some of the proprietor's best John Dory in cream sauce. It was a Devon delicacy, but the way Jimmy approached it was anything but delicate.

“Berman is said to have carried a group of men out to view the Corsican,” Morton reported as he took a seat. “How long they'll stay is dependent upon the depth of their purses.”

Westcott looked exhausted and worried. “I managed to see Keith's secretary, who promised to pass my message to the lord admiral, but I was unable to impress the gravity of the situation upon the man. Our lack of actual evidence was telling. Though corpses are appearing at an alarming rate-five, by my last count-we do not have a single witness who can tell us, in plain truth, what these men are planning. Until we have that or some other form of evidence, I think the lords of the Admiralty will stay their course.”

Morton nodded. Westcott was right. He had only his hunch, his intuition, that these royalists were going to try to murder Bonaparte. So who had those men been the night Morton had listened outside Boulot's door? Royalists? He was sure that Eustache d'Auvraye and Rolles had not been among them. Lafond and his followers?

Westcott's own meal arrived, and Morton called for a plate of Presley's fish.

“And where was Admiral Lord Keith?” Westcott went on. “He was off in a barge, running from some barrister with a writ of habeas corpus that a kindly judge has issued for the person of one Napoleon Bonaparte. It seems the man wants Bonaparte to appear in court as a witness in some financial matter to do with the sinking of an English ship-a transparent ploy to get the Corsican ashore! But the admiral is bound by the laws of England. If the writ is delivered to him in person, he will have no choice but to produce Napoleon Bonaparte; so he is doing everything within his power to avoid this lawyer and his writ!” Westcott snorted. “I have only one bit of good news to report. I've managed to secure us a gig for a few hours. If nothing else, we can row out to Maitland's ship and look for our assassins. Perhaps we'll find Keith fleeing his barrister.”

The two Runners and the navy man devoured their meals and were back on the quay in half an hour. It was a good walk to the navy docks, and then it took time to assemble their promised crew.

The Runners clambered aboard, their boots echoing hollowly in the dank, cloudy air. The stern seat, the place traditionally taken by the superior officer, was given to Westcott. Morton sat in the bow with Presley just behind him. The coxswain gave his quiet orders, and the boat was away, oars settling into place. They were soon out in the sound, ghosting past anchored ships that loomed darkly out of the fog. A low ground swell lifted the smooth waters of the sound in a slow undulating rhythm. Visibility was not twenty yards, Morton thought. How would they even find the Bellerophon ?-for Plymouth Sound was not small.

Suddenly ships' bells rang out from all around.

“Six bells,” announced the coxswain.

“Seven of an evening,” Westcott said for the benefit of Presley and Morton.

The two Runners shared a glance. Neither of them needed to say it: The day was slipping away.

A small boat rowed past carrying a silent cargo of holidayers.

“Know you Berman?” Morton called to the man at the oars.

“Aye,” the man answered.

“Is he out here, at the Bellerophon ?”

“Mayhap he is. There's a mite of fog, if you hadn't noticed.”

Morton settled back onto his damp thwart, the cool wood of the gunwale beneath his fingers. A gull circled, crying sadly, then made off into the mist, wondering, perhaps, where all the fishermen had gone.

Out of the shroud of silence a lady's face appeared, and Morton was reminded of the woman beneath the snows in Skelton's surgery. This lady, however, rode in a small boat and was very much alive. Somewhere nearby, Bonaparte, too, was buried beneath this bank of fog, this damp, cold shroud.

A few more strokes of the oars, and a host of other craft were revealed, their people talking solemnly, as though a funeral procession passed. Morton stood to search among the sea of faces. Above this clinging mass of small craft the Bellerophon rose up, half-obscured in the sea's cumulus. Morton could just make out men moving along the rail. As he searched the quarterdeck he held his breath, but the cockaded hat was not to be seen.

“Has he been sighted this day?” Morton asked as they passed close by the stern of a small punt.

A man shook his head in answer.

“Morton?” Westcott said from the stern. “We'll circle slowly round. There's not much else we can do. If we get into this mass, we might be an hour extricating ourselves.”

“Can you go aboard and warn Captain Maitland?”

Westcott shook his head, his look sour. “No one is to approach the ship without Keith's written orders. They would turn me back.”

Morton cursed at this foolishness. The coxswain began to steer around the fleet of gathered craft, keeping them so close that the oar blades all but struck the boats nearest. The Runner searched among the faces, though most were turned away, watching the Bellerophon .

“Berman!” Morton called out, and in the near silence heads turned, a look of surprised offence upon the faces. But Morton kept it up, calling out every so often and searching among those present for the raspberry pate, the little secretary, and his young master.

Inside the circle of craft a navy cutter passed, enforcing a ring of clear water round the great ship. “Be wary, there!” Morton called to the officer in the cutter. “I'm from Bow Street, and we've reason to believe there is an assassin waiting for Bonaparte to appear.”