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‘Show his lordship up to one of the spare rooms and take some hot water up for him to wash that dreadful stuff off his face and teeth,’ Jay told Sam. ‘And find him some decent clothes.’
Harry followed Sam up the stairs while Lisette went into the kitchen to tell Madame Gilbert there would be a guest for dinner and they would like some refreshment to stave off the hunger pangs until then.
It was over tea and some unappetising cakes that they sat down to talk. Harry had changed into some of Jay’s clothes and though he was able to wear Jay’s stockings, his shoes were too small. ‘I trust you will excuse me, coming into your presence in stockinged feet, Mrs Drymore,’ he said, maintaining the pretence in case the concierge was listening. ‘And in this suit. Truly, Jay is not the most fashionably dressed of men. It comes with being a sailor and then a farmer, I think.’
‘It is not a good idea to be too well dressed in Paris now,’ Jay said. ‘Your usual flamboyant garb would have you hanging from the nearest lamp post at the blink of an eye.’
‘I am aware of that.’
‘Do you also know you are a wanted man?’
‘I guessed that might be so.’
‘Then why, in heaven’s name, risk coming back?’
‘I heard from your father what was afoot and decided you might be glad of a little help, so here I am. I came with Nat Kingslake and Joe Potton. I left them playing cards with mine host at the tavern where we are lodging. They will no doubt have lost their money by the time I return, but it is good to keep in with the local population, especially one as helpful as Monsieur Barnard has been.’ Nat was Nathaniel Kingslake, brother-in-law of Lord Cadogan, who, as Sir Ashley Saunders, was another prominent member of the Society, and Joe had been rescued by James from poverty and a life of crime in Ely when he was ten years old and been given an education and a job, but he had never lost the ability to live on his wits.
‘I am obliged to you,’ Jay said. ‘Five heads are better than two.’
‘Better than three,’ Lisette corrected him. ‘Now we are six.’
‘You, madam, will stay out of it,’ Jay said.
‘Oh, dear, do I detect a little dissension?’ Harry queried.
‘Lisette is not here at my behest,’ Jay told him. ‘She smuggled herself aboard the yacht and I am stuck with her.’
‘How ungallant you are, my friend. I wonder she bothers with you.’
‘We are stuck with each other,’ Lisette said, not to be outdone. ‘The Commodore is being very difficult. I am sure I can help, but he will not tell me what his plans are.’
‘Jay was always one to play his cards close to his chest, Mrs Drymore. It is why he won so many battles at sea and earned his promotion. You may safely trust him.’
‘I would if he would only confide in me, but he tells me nothing. I don’t think he knows what to do and he will not listen to my ideas.’
‘What ideas?’ Harry asked. ‘I am listening.’
‘I could dress up as Michel and change places with him. We are very alike and when we were children often used to dress in each other’s clothes and pretend to be each other. It was a game we played with our friends.’
‘And what do you hope to achieve?’ Jay demanded. ‘Have you thought how you will escape when the prison guards find out they have been duped? Do you imagine they will simply let you go?’
‘Probably not.’
‘Now can you see why I will not let her become involved?’ Jay asked Harry. ‘Her ideas are madness.’
‘Jay has a point, madam,’ Harry said. ‘If you took your brother’s place, you would be signing your own death warrant. We cannot allow that.’ Then, to Jay, ‘What have you done so far?’
‘I discovered Michel is being held in La Force, but where exactly we do not yet know. Prisoners are taken from there to the Conciergerie a day or two before their trial and held there after sentencing until the tumbril comes to take them to the guillotine. They are, of course, guarded closely at all times.’
‘What is he being charged with?’
‘I have not heard the formal arraignment, but Sam heard that he is accused of planning counter-revolution, aiding and abetting the escape of the ci-devant Comte Giradet from prison, and assaulting a member of a provincial assembly on his lawful business.’
‘That is surely enough to hang any man.’
‘None of it is true,’ Lisette said. ‘He had nothing to do with Papa’s escape, as Jay perfectly knows, and as for assaulting Henri Canard—can you blame him when the man is squatting in our home as if he owned it?’
