Page 39 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
The scratch of the pen seemed loud in her ears. She turned away, unable tobearthe sight of Spark in such pain. She met Lease’s glance, wondering atthe lights that flickered in his own eyes. She had seen nothing but defeat and melancholy mirrored in them before, but now they glowedwithabrilliancethatmadeher shiver. Is thee truly mad, she wondered as Colonel Aillet presented the document to Adam with aflourish.
“Yes, yes, soon his head will roll,”Aillet assuredthem. He nodded in Lease’s direction, too.“Andyours, doctor.”
Lease whirled around, his mouth open.“And what have I done to deserve such a fate?”he asked,his voice rising unpleasantly.
Colonel Aillet spread out his hands, palms up.“Surely you do not think Napoleon willbe inclined to spare you? I am certain that Dr.Guillotinewillbe happy to extend professional courtesies to you, too.”
Leasegrabbed Aillet by the front of his uniform.“I think not, Colonel,”he hissed,“especially when I show you what is in this bag. I believe I have a dispatch from theBergeronthat you will be grateful to see in Napoleon’s hands. Only consider how he will thank you.”
Spark looked up from the table then, and tried to rise.“Good God, Andrew,”he said, the devastation in his voice unfeigned.“You were supposed to destroy that!”
Hannah looked from one man to the other, and then at Adam, a question in her eyes. Adam shook his head and edged closer to her.“Sits the wind in that quarter?”he murmured.“I think our surgeon is playing a deep game withFrance.”
Hannah shook her head.“Thee doesn’t understand, Adam!”She stared at the surgeon, wondering why he had told no one else about the infamous dispatch, which he had bandaged to the captain without his kledge.
His eyes burning into the surgeon, Captain Spark tried to rise from the table, only to sink back in pain.“Damn you, Andrew,”he shouted.“I think you are mad that you would betray your king and country!”
Lease only smiled and turned his full attention to the colonel, retrieving his medicine satchel from the table and leading the colonel to the buffet.“I merely wish to maintain my head’s connection with my neck,”he said with a backward glance and a smirk at the captain.
“Hand it to me,”the colonel said, snapping his fingers in his urgency.
“Patience,moncolonel,”the surgeon said.“I had thought the French liked ceremony. What say you to offering me one of those cigars you have been smoking, and then I show it to you? Over here, too, where the light is better.”
The colonel smiled and selected a cigar, and a match, which Lease took from his hand. Smiling broadly, he led the colonel to the balcony and struck the match against the stone tracery.
Captain Sparkstirred uneasily.“He doesn’t smoke,”he murmured.“I wish you would stop him, Adam.”
“And he doesn’t have the dispatch,”Hannah said, her voice low.
“Tally-ho,”the surgeon said distinctly as he opened the medicine satchel and dropped the match inside.
Everything happened at once. Hannah looked at the captain, and then with a strength Hannah wouldn’t have credited, he grabbed her and pulled her e colonel floor. He tugged her under the massive dining room table and fell on top of her at the same time Adam dropped beside them and the medicine satchel exploded.
The concussion from the blast seemed to ricochet from wall to walland then inside her head, even though Captain Spark clapped his hands over her ears. Chunks of stone crashed onto the dining room table, and all the glasses and china on the sideboard tinkled into shards as the three of them huddled close together. When theroom was finally silent, the captain took his hands from her in time to hear a similar explosion in the harbor, and another.
Adam was the first to stand. He dragged Hannah from under the table, his hand trembling, his voice highpitched.“Hannah, was this his diversion? Oh, God, how could he?”
The two of them helped the captain to his feet.“How could he not?”said the captain, looking at the gaping hole where two men had been standing only seconds before. He took Hannah’sarm.“I do not wish to appear callous, but let us not look a gift horse in the mouth. Lead on, Adam. Andrew showed us the way out, and I think he, Mr. Futtrell, and the Marines have created enough diversion for us to get to the harbor.”
They descended the stairs slowly, a step at a time, clutching the captain between themas soldiers raced past them, hurrying toward the sound of the explosion in the banquet hall. Hannah held her breath, wondering why the French soldiers did not stop them,but they appeared intent upon reaching the dining room to report to the colonel. Hannah shuddered to think how fast they would come down those stairs again when they found the colonel in as many pieces as the chinaware and crystal. Somewhere deep within the walls of São Miguel, she heard a woman screaming.“PoorMadame Aillet.”she said out loud.
They were met at the outer archway by a phalanx of red-coated Marines and sailors waving cutlasses.“Thank God.”Captain Spark said, and pitched forward, unconscious. The Marine with the broadest shoulders picked him up and threw him over his shoulder like a bag of feathers and set out at a dogtrot for the harbor, which was ablaze now with burning shops and fired boats.
“Begging your pardon, ma’am,”said a sailor Hannah recognized from her days aloft in the lookout. He picked her up and raced after the Marine, while Adam ran alongside, grinning from ear to ear.
Soon they were in the harbor and surrounded bymore Marines and sailors returning from other parts of town. They carried with them squawking chickens and piglets trussed within an inch of their lives and other souvenirs of a sleepy town which, until theDissuadesank in its harbor, must have thought itself far removed from the troubles in Napoleon’sEurope.
Her rescuer ran on board the ship just behind the captain and Adam jumped from the dock as a sailor cut the cable and they swung out to sea. The seaman set her down, apologizing for his rude behavior,but Hannah could only wring his hand in gratitude while he towered over her and blushed like a schoolboy.
“Someone take the captain below,”snapped a commanding voice from the deck.“Lively now. We don’t know how bad he’s hurt. Miss Whittier, where is the doctor?”
Hannah looked up at Mr. Futtrell, who stood, eyes stern,feet planted widely apart, on the darkened deck.“He was the diversion,”she said simply.
Futtrell nodded, but said nothing. Adam helped her below deck, where a sailor had already wrapped the captain in a blanket. Without a word, she sat down and leaned back against the gunwales as the sailor deposited the unconscious captain in her lap then raced back on deck again. The harbor shook with another explosion while Futtrell steered a course out into theAtlantic, taking them out of harm’s way and far from the wrath of a French garrison destroyed by a handful of shipwrecked members of theRoyalNavy.
Hannah took a deep breath and then another. What ship was this, she asked herself as she pulled the captain closer and looked about her. Everywhere were barrels of fish, and nets. Captain Spark stirredin herarms and opened his one eye. She touched his face.“I think Mr. Futtrell has commandeered a Portuguese fishing vessel;”she said.
Spark nodded and then closed his eye again.“Lady Amber, it is nine good sailing days toLisbon,”he said.“Only think of all the ways you will discover that you can cook tunny.”His voice was scarcely audible, but it carried a conviction that put the heart back in her.“I told you I was a rapid mender.”He chuckled, and then winced.“But I think I will sleep now, my dear. Don’t wake me until we get toLisbon. I could sleep a week.”
