Page 25 of Lord Carlisle's Enticing Lure
“Will you have tea?” Gus asked her, and led her toward the assembly of settees and chairs arranged for their discussion.
“Yes, I will. Thank you.” Now here with her friends, Giselle was totally relaxed. Walking north along the Steine was not a challenge to her this morning. Gus had assured her yesterday that they would assign a man to act as her guard, investigate what had happened to her other man, and search for the fellow she thought she’d seen in Hastings.
“As long as I have a new guard by tomorrow morning,” she had told the two women yesterday, “I would prefer to walk to meet you. All of that exposure adds to my ability to draw the city accurately…and inaccurately.”
Her argument that she doubted anyone would hurt her in broad daylight had been met with skepticism. The use of a carriage back to the hotel was the result. But today, coming here, she had felt thepresence of others interested in her. She wondered if they all spied upon each other and inspired an unusual parade!
Now, Gus and Amber sat on the settee to either side of Giselle. The two men stood, Ashley motionless behind one facing chair, Ramsey breaking his stillness now and then to prowl the room.
“We have no word yet on what has happened to your first guard,” Ashley told her.
“We have two men investigating that,” Ramsey added. “We hope for news later today.”
“How is the new man?” Gus asked.
“Attentive,” Giselle said. “I walked the beach early this morning and felt his presence. Benevolent. I am pleased.”
“Does the fellow who resembles one from Hastings follow you today?”
“I think so.”
“Shall we hire an additional guard?” Amber asked.
“No. One is enough.”Provided nothing happens to him.“You will tell me what happened to my first man, I do hope.”
Ramsey frowned. “I won’t have you frightened, Giselle.”
She was not his wife and not a child. “I want to know.”
Ramsey acceded to that. “As you wish.”
“And what happened to Jacques Durand’s messenger that he did not appear the other night? Do you know?”
Ashley winced. “He was arrested hours before he was to meet you.”
“Bow Street Runners took him?”
“No,” Ashley said. “Revenuers who tracked him from Durand’s schooner offshore.”
Giselle took her tea from Gus’s hands and sipped. That news was not good. She liked Durand, his crew, and his canny ability to outwit the French and British blockade. She had sailed with him last September from Le Havre to Dover. He had been good company on theirmany days at sea. They’d even discussed the construction of the French fleet in La Rochelle and Le Havre, both ports Giselle had investigated before she met Durand in an inn in Le Havre. He was a skilled sailor, and Giselle would not see him harmed or hurt. Now she was worried not only about Durand but also their friend and agent in the encampment of the Grand Army in Boulogne. Bonaparte assembled most of the flat-bottomed boats of his invasion fleet there in sight of his army generals to encourage them for the future crossing.
“Durand is vital to us. He will look for his man and rescue him, I hope.”
“Of course,” Amber assured her with a touch of her hand.
Giselle knew that meant if and when Durand could get in and out of whatever Channel port he currently hid inside.
“We need all our links unbroken,” said Ashley.
“And the information flowing. However,” Ramsey said with a frown, “we have to tell you of our other challenges.”
Giselle put down her cup and saucer on the small tea table.
“Your last drawings that we had you place in the book in that store in Hastings remain there.”
“No one has picked them up?” She tipped her head, surprised. All her other postings had been carried off as planned by those they suspected as French agents. They had proof of that from other agents, and the actions of the French confirmed their belief in Giselle’s false drawings. “Why do you suppose that is?”
“We have no idea,” Ashley admitted. “We can only wait to see if someone comes to take them away.”
