“Understand me, Chauvelin,” she said, “even if I could do anything to aid your cause, I would not do so. I could never betray so brave a man, whoever he may be.”

“You would prefer to be insulted by every French aristocrat that comes to this country?” Chauvelin said. “Yes, I observed that little drama earlier this evening. If this Scarlet Pimpernel is not brought to justice, I can assure you that it will be replayed time and time again, with each new arrival who recalls your part in the trial of the ci-devant Marquis de St. Cyr.”

Marguerite stiffened. “Be that as it may, Chauvelin,” she said, “I will not help you.”

“I see,” said Chauvelin. “Well, I am not a man to be easily dissuaded, Citoyenne.” He pointedly ignored her correction of him as to her proper title. “I think that we shall meet again in London.”

Irritated, Marguerite gave him a curt nod of dismissal and entered the Fisherman’s Rest without saying anything further to the little Frenchman. Since they had last seen each other in Paris, he had developed an oily officiousness she did not care for at all.

There were still several patrons sitting at the tables, despite the lateness of the hour, among them Ffoulkes and Dewhurst Marguerite said a brief good night to them and went upstairs, only to find that her husband was not in. For a moment, she wondered if she had really expected him to be. She also wondered about the pretty blonde girl in Jellyband’s employ. If Percy was not coming to her bed, perhaps he was going to someone else’s.

As she prepared to go to bed, alone as usual, Marguerite contemplated all her recent disappointments. The fact that Armand was only able to spend so brief a period of time with her was only one more disappointment added to the list. She understood why he had to go back to Paris and why it would be unseemly for him to mingle in the Blakeneys’ social circle. Still, she felt that she had not really been able to tell him half the things she meant to say to him. Some things, she thought one cannot speak of, even with a brother. She had only been able to hint at what was really bothering her. She missed her confidant.

As Chauvelin quietly entered the small firelight room, he saw Ffoulkes and Dewhurst lying unconscious on the floor, his two agents going through their pockets. He closed the door behind him softly.

“Did either of them see you?” he whispered.

One of the men shook his head. “No, Citizen. We took them from behind.”

Chauvelin nodded. “Excellent. Quickly now, let me see what you have found.”

They passed over the two men’s purses and several papers they had found on Andrew Ffoulkes. Chauvelin quickly glanced over them.

“Anything?” said one of the men.

Chauvelin made a wry face. “Several drafts of what appears to be a love poem,” he said. “It seems that we have wasted our…one moment.” He unfolded a letter and read silently to himself, then looked up at his accomplices with a broad smile. “Correction, we have not wasted our efforts. Quite the contrary.”

“Have you discovered a clue to the Pimpernel’s identity?” one of the men said, anxiously.

“No, but something just as interesting. A letter to the Pimpernel, from a member of the Committee of Public Safety, no less, clearly implicating himself.”

Chauvelin carefully folded the letter and put it in his pocket. “Tear the rest of these papers up and throw them in the fire, but take care to leave some scraps lying on the floor, as if they missed the hearth. Let them think the robbers went through all their pockets, destroying anything of no value to them and making off with what they wanted. Remove their watches and their rings and take these two purses. The fools will never be the wiser.” He smiled. “I think, my friends, that we may now count on Citoyenne St. Just’s complete cooperation.”

11

The two men stood upon the bluffs overlooking the Channel, the strong wind plucking at their cloaks. In the moonlight, Finn could see that Cobra was furious.

“Better not get too close, Delaney,” said the agent. “I just might take it in my head to toss you off the goddamn cliff!”

“Go ahead and try, if it’ll make you feel better,” Finn said lightly. “Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“I can almost understand why Mongoose had it in for you,” said Cobra. “I’m real tempted to take you on myself. Whose idea was it to blow the plate?”

“Mine, actually,” said Finn, “although to tell the truth, I had my doubts that Andre would get the chance. Did a damn good job for a rookie, didn’t she?”

“Why, Finn? I broke regulations to be straight with you. Why turn around and stab me in the back?”

“For one thing, don’t take it so damn personally,” said Finn. “It wasn’t personal, you know. We both have our orders and I told you before that my mission comes first. I’ve never liked the TIA and you know why. For some reason, I find that I actually like you. Maybe because you understand the craziness of it all and try to work around it. I respect that. I’m also grateful to you for working with me on this thing. I know you didn’t have to.”

“Then why in the name of-”

“Because, to use your own words, it was a calculated risk. In fact, there were several risk factors involved, but Lucas and I both felt we had to go ahead in spite of them. For Andre to attempt breaking into the safehouse was a risk. We could have lost her. Blowing the plate was another risk. It might have added yet another element of disruption to the scenario. Fortunately, it didn’t. No one was killed.”

“What about Mongoose?” said the agent.

“I was just getting to that. In a way, that was the biggest risk of all. If he clocked in before Andre had time to blow the plate, I might have lost a valuable member of our team. If he tried clocking in while the plate was being blown, we might have lost h

im. I didn’t want to do that, partly for your sake and partly because I want him brought in alive.”

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