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‘If you are thinking what I think you are, sir, it is better I should be ill.’
‘No, you have already proved you can tolerate the drink, while I have done nothing but complain of it. Wait half an hour, then pretend to be concerned and come looking for me. I will meet you in the stable yard.’
The two guards they had met before were in the inn’s parlour and greeted them like long-lost friends. Jay did not doubt they expected to relieve them of a little more gold. They sat with them to drink and play cards. Jay hardly touched his cider, but the amount of liquid in his glass went down gradually, tipped on the floor under the table. Nevertheless he seemed to grow more and more intoxicated, until he suddenly dashed from the room retching and declaring he was about to be sick. The rest laughed, ordered more drink and invited another man to take up Jay’s hand. The game continued. Sam thought it wise to pretend he did not know how to play properly and lost a great deal of the money the Commodore had given him for the purpose.
Half an hour later, he declared they had cleaned him out and he had better go and find out what had happened to his friend. ‘He’s no doubt sleeping it off somewhere,’ he said, regretfully leaving the pot of billets de confiance and assignat in the middle of the table.
He found Jay in the yard, carrying a heap of clothing and leading two saddled horses. He handed one of the bundles and one set of reins to Sam and together they crept out on to the road and, once clear of the inn and out of earshot, mounted up and rode out of town.
‘What happened to the fellows these belong to?’ Sam asked.
‘Securely gagged and tied up in their beds and the door locked.’ He threw a key into some bushes as he spoke. ‘I do not suppose anyone will disturb them before breakfast time, not even then if we are lucky. By that time we will be on our way.’
Sam chuckled. ‘I did not realise thieving was one of your accomplishments, sir.’
‘All’s fair in love and war.’
‘And which is this, love or war?’
Jay looked sharply at him and decided not to reprimand him. ‘It feels like war. I hadn’t realised until tonight how much I missed the excitement of it.’ He paused to chuckle. ‘Not that I ever had to steal a man’s clothes before.’
‘Do you think they’ll fit?’
‘Good God, man! Did you think I had time to pick and choose? They will have to do.’
‘Where are we going?’ Sam asked as they rode out of the town and took the road to Rouen.
‘There’s a barn just along here. I noticed it this afternoon. We’ll lie up there. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day and if all goes well, we shall spend our next night at sea.’
‘Amen to that,’ Sam said fervently, following Jay into the barn and dismounting.
The next minute he had thrown himself down on a pile of straw and was soon snoring. Jay joined him on the straw, but lay wide awake, going over every move they would make the next day again and again, trying to foresee the pitfalls, deciding how to overcome them. If his grandfather and Lisette failed to reach the rendezvous with the boat, they could not leave; if Georges did not arrive at his allotted place and time with the Giradet carriage, they could be in trouble. They would have to take the prison van down to the shore and that would be cumbersome and slow and attract unwelcome attention. There were so many things that could go wrong and he had to rely on others doing their part.
In the navy he had known he could command obedience, but could you command obedience from coachmen like Georges, who owed him no allegiance and saw the Revolution as a way to set him free? Or from a young lady with strong views of her own and a reluctance to leave France’s shores without her father?
Lisette was like no other woman he had ever met. She was a strange mixture of the ingénue and the worldly-wise, which was somehow penetrating the hedge he had grown around himself and he was not sure he wanted that to happen. It was far too disturbing.
He woke Sam before dawn and they donned the uniforms; his was too small and Sam’s too large, but they would have to do. Then he sent Sam down the road to watch out for the prison van. He hoped Lisette had been right about the time and it would be along soon and that the papers he had stolen along with the uniforms would be enough to persuade the guard to hand the Comte over to him. This waiting about was the worst part. It was already daylight and he wondered if the prison authorities had changed their minds or found the two guards and put two and two together. He had been banking on the prison van setting out before that happened.
The sun rose high in the sky and still there was no sign of it. Had he been wrong and it was not on this road at all? He didn’t fancy chasing after the van all the way to Paris. He didn’t fancy going to Paris. Lisette and his grandfather should be on board the Lady Amy by now, waiting for him. He had given instructions that the boat was to wait no longer than two hours for him, not even that if there was trouble. It was going to be tight, very tight.
