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‘Did my father explain why I need you?’ Jay asked after they had greeted each other.
‘Yes, sir. We’re to fetch Sir John Challon and his friends out of the hands of those froggies. Not that I—’ He stopped suddenly.
Jay smiled, realising the old retainer was about to commit an indiscretion and say what he really thought of Sir John. ‘Will you come?’
‘Try keeping me away.’ Sam had been in the navy with Lord Drymore when he was a sea captain and had served him ever since, both in an unspecified domestic capacity and as an associate member of the Society for the Discovery and Apprehending of Criminals, popularly known as the Piccadilly Gentlemen’s Club. He had known Jay all his life and was allowed a familiarity others would not have dared.
‘And Susan doesn’t mind?’
‘Susan does as she’s told,’ Sam said firmly. ‘’Sides, she’d do anything to please her ladyship, as you well know, so we go with her blessing.’
‘Good,’ Jay said. ‘We sail on the Lady Amy on tomorrow’s tide. Can you be ready?
‘I am ready now, Commodore.’
‘You can forget the formality of address, Sam. I do not think an English naval officer will be welcome in France at this time. I shall go as a private citizen on a visit to my grandfather and you will simply be my servant, Sam Dogsbody.’
‘Yes, sir.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘It is an age since I went on an adventure for the Gentlemen and longer still since I set foot in France.’
‘This isn’t being done at the behest of the Gentlemen,’ Jay said. ‘It is a personal errand.’
‘I know, sir, I know. Let us hope we are in time.’
‘Amen to that,’ Jay said fervently.
Sir John lived in a small villa on the outskirts of Honfleur, a picturesque port on the south bank of the Seine estuary. It had once been a transit point for trade from Rouen to England, but the blockade imposed by Britain had put a stop to that. Perhaps that was why Sir John had chosen to live there; in the early days of his exile it had offered a tenuous link with home. He was an old man and English to boot, but because the locals were unsure what the attitude of the new government was with regard to aliens, he had so far been left unmolested.
Lisette had known him all her life and now felt as if he were her only friend and ally, and though he had not promised he could help free her father, he had written to his daughter and son-in-law on her behalf. ‘I think it is about time I went home myself,’ he had told her. ‘France is a cauldron about to boil over.’
She had called on him almost every day to ask if he had had a reply and each time she had received the same answer. ‘Not yet. It takes time, my dear. The wind and tide might not be favourable for the mail packet and my son-in-law might be from home. You must be patient.’
‘How can I be patient with Papa locked up? They would not let me see him when I took fresh clothes for him. They inspected them minutely in case I had hidden something in them.’
‘And had you?’
‘Only a note to say I was trying my best to have him released. It caused some hilarity when the guards found it. If only I could rely on the servants, we might storm the prison and set him free, but they have been drifting away one by one. Of the men, only two of the seven indoor servants are still with me and only the housekeeper and Hortense of the sixteen women. Georges, our coachman, is still with me and still loyal, but as for the rest…’ She shrugged. ‘They are afraid…’ Her voice faded.
‘And what would you do if you could set your father free?’ he asked her now. ‘You could not take him home, they would come for him again and you too.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘There you are, then, we must await help.’
‘How do you know there will be help?’ She was beginning to give up hope and his complacent attitude was making her tetchy.
Before he could respond, a servant knocked and entered. ‘There is a man at the door who says he is from England,’ he said. ‘Shall I admit him?’
‘Anyone from England is welcome,’ Sir John told him. ‘Did he give you his name?’
‘He said it was John Drymore, Sir John.’
Sir John suddenly became animated. ‘Then don’t stand there, man, go and show him in at once.’
The man who entered the withdrawing room was exceedingly tall and well built, dressed in a cut-back dark-blue coat, white breeches and stockings and a lighter blue waistcoat. His sun-bleached hair was tied back with a ribbon and he carried a chapeau-bras beneath his arm.
‘John!’ Sir John rose to greet him, a huge smile of pleasure on his face. ‘We meet at last.’
