The Scarlet Code

by C. S. Quinn

  ‘I am sorry too,’ I tell Jemmy. ‘We weren’t ourselves on that voyage.’ I try for a smile. ‘Something in the ship’s rum.’

  He shakes his head. ‘I never get drunk aboard a ship,’ he says. ‘Perhaps I was sad you were leaving.’

  We’re both looking at one another, and deep in his eyes is a story I never want to stop reading.

  I’ve missed him so badly, I realise, with a shock.

  Then Jemmy’s eyes slip from my face to my hand, and his face puckers in confusion.

  ‘You are married?’ he asks, and whatever was just between us vanishes like smoke.

  I nod, looking at the gold ring on my finger.

  ‘Moved the day, did you?’ The false lightness resounds in his voice.

  ‘There is no need to dwell on the details.’

  ‘Did you ever consider,’ suggests Jemmy, ‘that Atherton knows you well enough to make a delay? Just to be certain you’d make it?’

  ‘I …’ I never had considered it, but now Jemmy says it the possibility seems rather obvious. Not nice either, I consider with a frown. The kind of manipulation Lord Pole would engineer.

  ‘I’m only teasing,’ says Jemmy quickly. ‘A lucky coincidence. Fate at work.’ He studies my face. ‘If you are married,’ he says, ‘why are you here?’

  ‘Fortunately my new husband is a very understanding man.’

  ‘But …’ Jemmy frowns deeply, trying to make sense of this. ‘Your wedding night,’ he manages.

  ‘We’ve postponed it,’ I say lightly. ‘Atherton knows the mission is important to me. If Haitians are inspired by events in France, then we have a chance to do real good.’ I force a smile. ‘I will only be gone for a week. That was the arrangement.’ My eyes lift to Jemmy’s, and his earlier joy has been replaced by something more complicated.

  ‘A week,’ he murmurs. ‘Well, better than nothing,’ he adds, brightening. ‘And perhaps you shall make another delay.’

  ‘I won’t,’ I say. ‘Not for a second time.’

  ‘Even so, your Atherton takes a risk,’ he says, looking happy. ‘Unconsummated is not yet wed, is it?’

  ‘That isn’t how I regard things.’ I eye him in amusement. ‘If we are to continue to work together, you shall have to give your word to respect my arrangements with Atherton.’

  ‘The marriage that isn’t yet a marriage? I’ll make no such promise.’ He grins.

  ‘Now you are impossible,’ but I cannot keep the smile from my face.

  Jemmy drains his tankard, stands and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

  ‘How about it then, Lady Morgan,’ he says, offering me his arm. ‘Another adventure with your pirate crew. Our ship awaits. What shall you say to it?’

  I thread my arm through his, feeling the solid dependableness of him like an anchor.

  ‘Captain Avery,’ I say, ‘I do.’

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I love every minute of writing these adventures, and I have so many people to thank for helping me along the way. My editor Poppy Mostyn-Owen for being such a great support throughout, and the same goes for my agent Piers Blofeld who has been my champion for many years now. Susannah Hamilton deserves thanks for cheering from the sidelines, as well as Kirsty Doole, and those at the publicity coal-face, Aimee Oliver-Powell and Sophie Walker, thanks so much for getting behind the book. The entire Corvus team, headed by the able Will Atkinson are a dream to work with, and so much fun besides.

  At home, my amazing sister, Susannah Quinn, is always the first reader and critique of my books and is my favourite author besides. I am also blessed with a partner who is also my best friend, Simon Avery, and is just as entertaining as when we first met. My two children, Ben and Natalie, are my best little bringers of joy, and robbers of author snacks – and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Finally, my biggest thank you, as always, goes to my readers, who never fail to amaze me by liking the books, sometimes, quite a lot. What a great time we have together. I’ll keep writing them, if you keep reading them.

  Truth is stranger than fiction.

  Which of these events really happened?

  One of the following facts is false. Do you know which? Go to www.atlantic-books.co.uk/scarlet to find out which, and unlock a secret history to The Scarlet Code.

  1. The women of Paris’s market organisations (a kind of early trade union) marched on Versailles and brought about the royal family’s enforced move to Paris.

  2. Marie Antionette missed being set upon by a mob in her bedroom by mere moments, rescued only by the suggestion she flee through a secret back door without her stockings on.

  3. Pencils were an emergent and exciting technology.

  4. King Louis XIV commissioned the design of ‘automatic tables’ that could be set with food and rotate upwards into his apartment, without servants impeding his legendary seductions.

  5. Spy weaponry of the time included maps on handkerchiefs.