Simon Hawke - The Pimpernel Plot

The boat pulled up to the yacht and one of the crewmen dropped a rope ladder over the side. As the boatman hung onto the bottom of the ladder, trying to keep the rowboat steady in the swells, Finn helped Marguerite up the ladder, staying close behind her and holding on tight in case she should lose her grip and fall. She climbed a bit uncertainly, unaccustomed to having the world rolling all round her, but she hung on tenaciously and in moments, a crewman was giving her a hand on board. She thanked the young man, who smiled awkwardly in her presence, and turned back to look at Finn with a slightly shaky smile.

“Which way to my room, Percy? Oh, yes, it’s called a cabin on a boat, is it not?”

“Allow me, my lady,” said a tall, sandy-haired young man of about twenty-six or seven, who came up to them and offered her his arm. He flashed a dazzling smile at her. “Lord Antony Dewhurst, at your service, ma’am. You must be terribly fatigued after your journey. I’ve taken the liberty of having your cabin prepared and your bunk turned down. There’s fresh water for washing and Stevens here will bring you supper and a rum toddy momentarily. I think that you will find the bracing sea air quite conducive to deep and restful sleep. We shall be sailing on the morning tide.”

“You’re most kind, Lord Dewhurst.”

“Antony, ma’am,” he said with a grin, “or Tony, if you prefer. That’s what all my friends call me.”

“Thank you, Tony. I think I will retire, if you gentlemen will excuse me.”

Dewhurst led her away belowdeck, with a quick glance back at Finn to tell him that he would come right back at once. Finn leaned against the mainmast amidships and pulled out one of his clays. He filled it with tobacco and tamped it down; then, hunching over it and cupping his hand against the wind, he got it lit after several tries and settled down against the teak railing to wait for Dewhurst to return. With the exception of the captain, a weatherbeaten old salt named Briggs, who only bid him welcome aboard and asked if there was anything that he could do for him, the rest of the crew left him to his privacy. Briggs brought him a pewter flask filled with rum and then departed once again to his own cabin. After several moments, Dewhurst returned.

“I say, Percy, she’s absolutely marvelous! Beautiful, charming and intelligent; you’ll be the envy of every man in London.”

“I daresay,” said Finn, “excepting those who cannot abide the barbarity currently practiced on these shores.”

Dewhurst looked suddenly glum. “It’s true, then, about St. Cyr?”

“You’ve heard, then?” Finn said cautiously, to draw him out.

“Aye, news travels fast when it’s bad news,” said Dewhurst. “What are you going to do?”

“Faith, what can I do? She is my wife, Tony. I am married to her past, as well as to her future.”

“What about Ffoulkes? Is he well away? Have you seen him?”

“Aye, he’s well away. He got out the gate a bit ahead of us, but we did not pass him on the road. No doubt he pulled off the main road until he was certain it was safe to go on. There was trouble, though. Soldiers pursued him, but they pulled over the wrong wagon. I passed them as they were tearing it apart in search of human contraband.”

“He’ll make it, won’t he, Percy?” Dewhurst said, concern showing on his face.

Finn nodded. “He’ll make it. Andrew is no fool. But we must sail to Dover without him. I cannot risk having de Chalis and Marguerite come face to face. It will ruin everything. We shall have to send the Day Dream back for them.”

“Poor St. Just,” said Dewhurst.

“What’s that?” said Finn

“Oh, I said, ‘Poor St. Just.’ The only one of the Feuillants with any influence left and they appoint him to the Committee of Public Safety, where he’s outnumbered by Robespierre’s Jacobins. If only it were the other way around. Yet there he sits, teetering on the edge of the abyss, while Fouquier-Tinville pursues his butchery. Without his help, we would never have got de Chalis out alive, yet I fear that it will be a poor atonement for his sister’s crime.” Realizing, suddenly, what he had said, Dewhurst looked aghast at Finn. “God, Percy, forgive me! I didn’t think. That was a frightfully cruel thing to say.”

“Yet, nevertheless, it’s true,” said Finn. So Armand St. Just, along with Lafayette, was one of the moderate monarchists who had separated from the Jacobins. He was sympathetic to Blakeney’s cause, enough so that he had taken an active part in it. That was something Delaney had not known. It was a very worthwhile piece of information. If the bloody excesses of the Revolution, combined with his sister’s part in the fall of the Marquis de St. Cyr, were an affront to his humanistic sensibilities, Armand could be used. Indeed, it appeared that Blakeney had used him already.

“Still, I’m very sorry, Percy. She is your wife, after all. I hope you can forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, Tony. The times have given all of us strange bedfellows.”

“I say, that’s a little crude,” said Dewhurst, a bit taken aback.

“These days, l have little patience for the delicacies of polite behavior,” Finn said. “It smacks of hypocrisy, what with people being slaughtered left and right in the name of liberty, fraternity and equality. A poet once said, ‘If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs…’” He broke off, realizing that the poet in question, Rudyard Kipling, would not be born until 1865. “Well, I intend to keep my head,” he said. “And to do everything in my power to keep as many as possible from losing theirs. The guillotine is an abomination and I have set myself the task of denying it as many victims as I can. This is the very least that I can do. It won’t bring back St. Cyr or make the knowledge of Marguerite’s part in his execution any easier to bear, but if I can spare others from his fate, any risk would be worthwhile. It’s not enough to simply spirit one aristocrat out of the country. I must try to save as many as I can and then rub Fouquier Tinville’s nose in it!”

“In principle, I’m all for it,” Dewhurst said, “but in practice, it would be quite dangerous. Then, too, there is the matter of Lady Blakeney’s views, although I hesitate to dwell upon the matter.”

“She must never know, of course,” said Finn. “I will have to work in secret.”

“Then each of those you help will have to be sworn to secrecy, as well,” said Dewhurst. “The only thing is, despite all good intentions, secrets do not remain secrets for long when those who share them grow great in number.”

Finn nodded. “I’m certain that the Duc de Chalis can be trusted not to speak of his benefactors. As for any others, I’ll have to take great pains to conceal my identity from them.”

“Any subterfuge along those lines would come to nought the moment anyone inquired as to the identity of the owner of this boat,” said Dewhurst. “You cannot hope to use the Day Dream in your plans and still remain unknown. She is far from being inconspicuous and she won’t be lost among more common craft.”

Finn smiled. “Then I shall sell her.”

Dewhurst frowned. “But then, how-”

“After all,” continued Finn, “I’ve grown tired of traveling and I’m on my way back to England to take charge of my affairs. I no longer have need of such an extravagant yacht since I will be staying in London most of the time. As a matter of fact, I’ve already sold her.”

“What? To whom?”

“Why, to you, Tony.”

“To me?”

“Yes, to you. You’ve wanted her for years, haven’t you? You’ve been after me to sell the Day Dream to you for as long as we’ve known each other.”