TW03 The Pimpernel Plot NEW (8 page)

“Yet, nevertheless, it’s true,” said Finn. So Armand St. Just, along with Lafayette, was one of the moderate monarchists who had separated from the Jacobins. He was sympathetic to Blakeney’s cause, enough so that he had taken an active part in it. That was something Delaney had not known. It was a very worthwhile piece of information. If the bloody excesses of the Revolution, combined with his sister’s part in the fall of the Marquis de St. Cyr, were an affront to his humanistic sensibilities, Armand could be used. Indeed, it appeared that Blakeney had used him already.

“Still, I’m very sorry, Percy. She is your wife, after all. I hope you can forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, Tony. The times have given all of us strange bedfellows.”

“I say, that’s a little crude,” said Dewhurst, a bit taken aback.

“These days, l have little patience for the delicacies of polite behavior,” Finn said. “It smacks of hypocrisy, what with people being slaughtered left and right in the name of liberty, fraternity and equality. A poet once said, ‘If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs….’” He broke off, realizing that the poet in question, Rudyard Kipling, would not be born until 1865. “Well, I intend to keep my head,” he said. “And to do everything in my power to keep as many as possible from losing theirs. The guillotine is an abomination and I have set myself the task of denying it as many victims as I can. This is the very least that I can do. It won’t bring back St. Cyr or make the knowledge of Marguerite’s part in his execution any easier to bear, but if I can spare others from his fate, any risk would be worthwhile. It’s not enough to simply spirit one aristocrat out of the country. I must try to save as many as I can and then rub Fouquier Tinville’s nose in it!”

“In principle, I’m all for it,” Dewhurst said, “but in practice, it would be quite dangerous. Then, too, there is the matter of Lady Blakeney’s views, although I hesitate to dwell upon the matter.”

“She must never know, of course,” said Finn. “I will have to work in secret.”

“Then each of those you help will have to be sworn to secrecy, as well,” said Dewhurst. “The only thing is, despite all good intentions, secrets do not remain secrets for long when those who share them grow great in number.” Finn nodded. “I’m certain that the Duc de Chalis can be trusted not to speak of his benefactors. As for any others, I’ll have to take great pains to conceal my identity from them.”

“Any subterfuge along those lines would come to nought the moment anyone inquired as to the identity of the owner of this boat,” said Dewhurst. “You cannot hope to use the Day Dream in your plans and still remain unknown. She is far from being inconspicuous and she won’t be lost among more common craft.”

Finn smiled. “Then I shall sell her.”

Dewhurst frowned. “But then, how—”

“After all,” continued Finn, “I’ve grown tired of traveling and I’m on my way back to England to take charge of my affairs. I no longer have need of such an extravagant yacht since I will be staying in London most of the time. As a matter of fact, I’ve already sold her.”

“What? To whom?”

“Why, to you, Tony.”

“To me?”

“Yes, to you. You’ve wanted her for years, haven’t you? You’ve been after me to sell the Day Dream to you for as long as we’ve known each other.”

“What? Percy, what on earth are you talking about? I’ve never—”

“Yes, I know you’ve never done any such thing. You know it and I know it, but no one else knows it and that’s all that really matters.”

“I don’t understand this at all, Percy. What the devil are you getting at?”

“Look, Tony, you don’t spend all of your time sailing about in the English Channel, do you? Being the new owner of such a fine boat, is there any reason why you shouldn’t realize some profit from her? Allow Briggs to take on some small commissions to help pay for the Day Dream’s upkeep and keep the crew from being idle? As a matter of fact, the moment we return to England, you’ll be offered just such a commission, by an agent whose name you will conveniently forget. You will be very much surprised when you discover that it was for the purpose of helping the Duc de Chalis escape from France. When you discover this extraordinary fact, you’ll be so astonished and delighted that, as a gesture of noble idealism, you will instruct Briggs to keep the boat available to this unknown adventurer, whose face no one will ever see. You and Ffoulkes will make a grand show of helping the new arrivals find a place for themselves in England. You’ll speak a great deal about this man of mystery whose cause you have elected to support, even though you don’t know anything about him.” Finn grinned.

“Before too long, I’m certain that you’ll be receiving contributions from everyone in London to pass on to Briggs, so that he can give it to the agents of this adventurer. If it’s managed right, we can make him a folk hero.”

“Don’t you mean ‘make yourself a folk hero’?” Dewhurst said with a smirk. “Why this sudden modesty, Percy?”

“Because it isn’t really me,” said Finn. “I don’t matter, not as Percy Blakeney, individual. It’s the principle involved, the idea of the thing. Suppose for a moment that I acted as myself, as Percy Blakeney, smuggling people out of France at great risk to myself. What would the resulting public opinion be? Some would support me, to be sure, others would think I was a fool.

As that faction in Parliament who oppose our intervention in the Revolution say, ‘Let ‘em murder!’ I would attract some attention for a while as a man with the courage to act on his convictions, but in due course, the novelty would wear off and people would grow bored with the whole thing. On the other hand, people love a mystery. If we have some romantic, unknown adventurer cheating the guillotine of victims, that would capture the public’s fancy. Who is he? Where did he come from? What is he like, this anonymous crusader against injustice? It’s not the man that counts, Tony, it’s the image. You see what I mean, don’t you?”

“Aye, I do. It strikes me that you’ve missed your calling, Percy. You should have been a politician or a dramatist. You seem to have an uncanny knack for understanding public opinion and emotions. As you say, the imagination of the people would indeed be captured by an adventurer such as you describe, a crusader who cloaks himself in mystery. Such a figure would appear to be larger than life and would become a cause célèbre.”

“Precisely. We can all help to create him together,” said Finn.

“We can recruit others into our cause, though we must do so with great care. We will form a league together, with this unknown crusader as our leader. The role that you and Ffoulkes must play in public must be that of men who are only involved indirectly with this man. It must be necessary for you to be able to account for your activities at the times when this crusader is at work; this is for your safety.”

“Why must we be known to be involved at all?” said Dewhurst.

“Because I shall need my Boswells,” said Delaney. “It will be necessary for the public to know something of the activities of this crusader if we are to curry their favor. Publicly, you will attest to his existence, though you will claim to know nothing of him whatsoever. You will be contacted by his league, his agents, by surreptitious means and told when to prepare for receiving escapees from France. Publicly, you will never set foot on French soil. Rather, you will instruct Briggs when to have the Day Dream ready, when and where to have her waiting to accept aristocrats saved by our crusader. When they arrive in England, they will then be in your charge and you and Ffoulkes will help them find a place in our society. This will leave you free to speak of this crusader and his league as the two of you, perhaps more than any others, will then be in a position to wonder at his true identity. You can help to fan the flame of public curiosity and in this manner elicit their support.”

“What about yourself?” said Dewhurst. “You will join us in this charade?”

“No, I will not,” said Finn. “I must create about myself an aura such that will insure that I can never be suspect in this matter. Only then will I be free to act. I shall have to be an even greater actor than my wife, for I will have to fool her, along with everybody else. None but you and Ffoulkes, as well as Briggs, for I must take him into my confidence, must know the part that I will play in all of this.”

“What of the Duc de Chalis?” Dewhurst said.

“I shall have to speak with him and prepare him for the part he is to play,” said Finn. “As for the rest of it, you are quite right. We must limit the number of those who share our secret.” Dewhurst smiled. “I must say, it all sounds like a great deal of fun.”

“It will be very dangerous,” said Finn.

Dewhurst shrugged. “It will be fine sport. And what is sport without some element of risk?” He laughed. “By God, I’m really going to enjoy this! I can’t wait to get started!”

Finn smiled. “We have already started, Tony. Let’s have a drink on it. To the speedy and safe arrival of Andrew Ffoulkes and to the creation of our mysterious crusader!” Finn took a sip of rum and then passed it to Dewhurst.

“What shall we call him, then?” said Dewhurst. “He will have to have a name, this flower of English manhood pitted against the fleur-de-lis of France.”

“Yes, he shall,” said Finn, “or he will be a common flower, indeed.”

Dewhurst chuckled. “Even a common English wayside flower smells sweeter to me than any of those that grow in France.”

“A common English wayside flower,” said Finn, musing. “Say, like a pimpernel?”

“The pimpernel,” said Dewhurst, considering. He grinned. “The Scarlet Pimpernel!”

Finn raised his eyebrows. “It has a sort of ring to it.”

“I like it,” Dewhurst said. He raised the flask in a toast. “To the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel!”

The Fisherman’s Rest in Dover, in the county of Kent, was a warm and pleasant sanctuary from the damp and piscatory air of the cliffside town. They came in out of the mist to be greeted by the welcome warmth and glow of Mr. Jellyband’s fireplace.

The proprietor, a jovial, well-girthed innkeeper with a balding pate and a hail-fellow-well-met air, bowed to them as they came in and immediately dispatched his serving girl to the kitchen with orders for the help to snap to, as obviously well-heeled patrons had arrived.

The inn had more of the air of a country hostel than a “fisherman’s rest,” for it was clean and bright, with a red-tiled floor that was kept spotless and dark oak rafters and beams.

The tables, though marked with the ancient circles of many pewter mugs that had overflowed, were well polished and there were pots of scarlet and blue flowers in the windows. They hung up their cloaks and made themselves comfortable at a long table Jellyband ushered them to.

“Your pardon, gentlemen,” said Jellyband, wringing his hands in his obvious anxiety to please, “would one of you happen, by any chance, to be the honorable Sir Percy Blakeney?”

“I have the honor to answer to that name,” said Finn.

“Ah, yes, well, there is a young woman here expecting the arrival of your lordship,” Jellyband said.

“Indeed?” said Marguerite.

“One of his lordship’s servants, I believe,” Jellyband added, hastily. “A young woman of a most peculiar temperament, if you will excuse the observation, she was most insistent that I—”

“That would be Andre, I believe,” said Finn.

“Andre?” said Marguerite. “I thought you said that it was a young woman?”

“Andre is a young woman, my dear,” said Finn. “Her family has served the Blakeneys for years. She was part of the serving staff at my estate in Rouen. I sent her on ahead with Lucas to make certain that all was in readiness for us at Richmond. Regrettably, they were the only two of all my staff there who have shown me the least bit of loyalty. The others were all so full of revolutionary zeal that they all elected to become free citizens and, as such, could hardly be expected to continue in the service of a despised aristocrat such as myself. Go and fetch her, my good man,” he said to Jellyband. Then turning to Marguerite, he added, “She is of Basque origin, I believe, and possesses the roughness and independent spirit of those people. She is, however, loyal, and makes an admirable servant.”

“Is she pretty?” Marguerite said, archly.

Finn frowned. “Pretty? Faith, I can’t say as I’ve ever noticed, really.”

“How singularly unobservant of you,” Marguerite said.

“Well, at any rate, you may judge for yourself,” said Finn.

“She will doubtless be here momentarily.” The innkeeper returned, with Andre following behind. If Marguerite had expected to see a well-turned-out serving girl in a clinging bodice darting bold glances at Sir Percy, she was disappointed. Andre was dressed in riding boots and breeches. She had on a plain brown jacket with a matching waistcoat; a white shirt not altogether clean; a bit of lace adornment at the throat, begrimed with road dust; and a simple tricorne, which she carried in her left hand. Her blond hair was worn loose and was considerably shorter than the style of the day dictated.

“I say,” said Dewhurst, “there’s a manly looking wench. Shoulders like a farmboy’s and a manner like a soldier’s.” Marguerite sat silent, appraising Andre. Finn had the feeling that Lady Blakeney would just as coolly and as carefully take the measure of everyone and everything involved with her husband and her new life in England. It was the actress in her. She wanted to be thoroughly familiar with the set, to know where every light and prop was, where every other actor was to stand and what lines he was to deliver. Perhaps “Percy” hadn’t noticed whether or not Andre was pretty, but he could bet that Lady Blakeney noticed everything.

“Well, then, Andre,” Finn said, “is everything in readiness for us at Richmond? How stands the old estate? I trust that it has not fallen into disrepair?”

“Oh, no, milord,” said Andre. “The estate has been kept up most admirably and Master Lucas is there presently to make certain that all are prepared for your arrival. The news has caused a good deal of excitement. There has been a great deal of scurrying and cleaning and polishing and several of the neighbors have already sent servants to inquire as to when you and Lady Blakeney would be arriving.”