The Man in the Green Coat

by Carola Dunn

  Mademoiselle de Vignard was waiting below stairs, ignorant of her fate, alone and afraid.

  “Dorothea!” hissed Gabrielle. “Listen! You must take Alain’s sister away from here. Hire a carriage, go back to Charing. She will be safe there, whatever happens.”

  Dorothea’s frightened face gazed at her in horror. “Oh, I couldn’t,” she stammered. “On my own? I have no money.”

  “Of course you can. You must! For Alain’s sake. Take the groom with you, and tell Mr Colby to put the charge on your brother’s reckoning.”

  “On Luke’s?”

  “Or Alain’s, if he thinks Alain is your brother. For heaven’s sake, what does it matter? Go now, quickly.”

  With relief she saw that she had convinced Dorothea. The girl scurried towards the door into the corridor. Gabrielle turned back in time to hear her father say,

  “Roussel, you appear surprised.”

  “Sacre bleu!” The Frenchman addressed as Roussel was beyond Gabrielle’s view, but he sounded stunned, not merely surprised. “For eight years you have worked for Fouché, and I for you. How should I not be surprised? What are you going to do now?”

  “’E’s not gonna do nowt!” declared a familiar voice. Suddenly Mr Darcy’s reflection was framed on one side by a small, bald man in black, on the other by a portion of a huge, round-faced man in fustian. “Drop that pop smart now,” Billy continued, “or I’m gonnarafta shoot, and I don’t like killing coves, see?”

  “Don’t shoot!” cried Alain, springing up. “He’s on our side. That is Le Hibou!”

  Gabrielle’s knees went weak and she sat down abruptly on the floor, head spinning. What was her father? Was Alain lying to gain time? Or was he really Le Hibou, the mysterious English spy who had bedevilled Boney for years, and his predecessors before him? With all her heart she hoped that it was true, that he was not after all a renegade and a turncoat.

  Yet, just as Luke had believed the worst of her, so she had been ready to condemn her own father.

  She wanted to run to him and ask his forgiveness. She wanted to sit still and think quietly, sort out her feelings. But Luke was speaking, his voice tired, and she must concentrate on his words.

  “All right, I don’t know who is who here. But until I find out, you are all under arrest. Baxter, Billy, let us escort these gentlemen belowstairs, if you please. There is a parlour reserved there, I believe, which cannot but be more convenient than this wretched bedchamber, which I begin to abhor!”

  Luke was in control. For the moment she was content to have it so.

  There was no need now for Dorothea and Sophie to escape to Charing. She must call them back and tell them the outcome of the confrontation. Hurrying down the stair she met Mr Colby, lumbering up, looking as worried as a man with a plump face made for jollity can look. He greeted her with relief.

  “What’s agoing on up there, miss?” he asked anxiously. “The young lady come down all of a fluster and ordered a chaise to be made ready, quick as winking. I don’t have no objection to my house being used for certain activities what you wot well of, if you catch my drift, but I don’t care for the looks of some of them as is here tonight.”

  “It’s quite all right,” Gabrielle assured him. "A certain gentleman the colour of whose coat we both wot well has everything under control. The chaise will not be needed, at least not immediately. Where is the young lady who ordered it?”

  “This way, miss, if you please. She’s in the parlour with the foreign miss as arrived a while back. The missus went in a few minutes agone, and she said as neither young lady don’t look too well, miss.”

  “I shall take care of them. Pray bring us some tea, for it will do them good, and I vow it is the only thing I want in the whole world!”

  She found Sophie de Vignard huddled in a wing chair by the fire. She was a thin, sickly-looking girl of fifteen or sixteen, with her brother’s dark hair hanging now in lank strands about her wan face. Dorothea was sitting beside her, holding her hands. They both looked up.

  “You need not go,” said Gabrielle. “Luke had a pair of aces up his sleeve, and you will be quite safe here.”

  “He has not shot Alain?”

  “No, merely arrested him until he sorts out the mess.”

  “Arrested! That is near as bad!” Dorothea turned to Sophie and the two chattered to each other in mixed French and English.

  Gabrielle realised that for the present she was not needed. The girls were united in adoration of Alain and worry over his safety. A wave of intense loneliness unexpectedly engulfed her, and she sank onto a sofa on the other side of the room.

  At any moment Luke would come in with his prisoners. She did not want to face him. Two thoughts chased each other through her mind, refusing to stand still for rational examination.

  Papa was found and Luke was lost.

  The maid brought in a tray of tea and set it on the table. Gabrielle was pouring from the heavy earthenware pot when voices were heard in the hall. The French spy, Roussel, came into the parlour, guarded by Baxter. Next came Alain, with Billy towering over him, then Mr Darcy, and lastly Luke, pistol in hand.

  Mr Darcy looked back at him. “I can see that I shall have to produce reams of evidence to satisfy you as to my credentials,” he said. “Perhaps you will at least explain to me just where you come into the picture?”

  “He is the Man in the Green Coat, Papa,” said Gabrielle.

  Mr Darcy stopped dead. She had never seen him taken by surprise before. His face was momentarily completely blank, but when he spoke it was in his usual calm voice.

  “Gabrielle, my love, what the devil are you doing here?”

  “I came to rescue Alain, Papa.” Her own voice was unnaturally calm.

  Luke gazed at her in astonishment. Apparently he had not yet learned his prisoner’s name, and thus his connection with Gabrielle. She tried to avoid looking at his face.

  "To rescue Alain!” Her father was undoubtedly taken aback. He looked from her to Alain and back, and frowned. “You are in love with Alain, mon petit chou? I cannot like a marriage between first cousins.”

  Gabrielle scarce heard his last comment.

  “No,” she cried, “I am in love with the Man in the Green Coat!” Her control broke and she ran to hide her face in her father’s waistcoat. “Tell him to go away, Papa,” she sobbed. “I never want to see him again!”

  Chapter 23

  “I cannot understand him!” exclaimed Lord Everett. “I told him that the debts are paid and that henceforth he will receive an allowance suitable to his position, and it sent him into a flat despair!”

  Lady Cecilia nodded wisely. “I thought there was something amiss. Let me talk to him.”

  “I wish you will, and that before he wears out the carpet in my study.”

  Luke was pacing up and down from desk to window and back. Now and then he paused at the window and gazed on to the Dower House, then shook his head fiercely and turned away. His stepmother watched him for a few moments before announcing her presence.

  “Luke?”

  Startled, he swung round.

  “What is wrong?” she asked bluntly, advancing into the room and taking a seat.

  He flung himself into a chair, then got up again and went back to the window.

  “I don’t know what to do!” he said, not looking at her.

  “About Gabrielle? She is at Charing, is she not, and you are on your way there?”

  “She told her father that she loves me, and that she never wants to see me again.”

  Lady Cecilia laughed gently. “Is that all? You must have made her very, very angry.”

  “I insulted her in every conceivable way. Not only last time we met, but the time before also.”

  “Then you can hardly wonder that the poor girl does not want to see you! I daresay she expects more of the same.”

  “I cannot think what came over me! I have never before fallen into such a rage that I lost control of my tongue.”

  �
�No, it is not like you. But there is nothing in the world so painful as to think ill of the one you love. I take it your suspicions were unfounded?”

  “Of course! I cannot tell you all because it is secret government business, connected with my position at the Foreign Office. But you know that Gabrielle’s father is come. He and I decided to gather together everyone involved to explain the situation, and since Lord Charing must be present and his ill health makes travel inadvisable, I am on my way to Charing now. If it were not for that, I should probably never see her again.”

  “It is up to you to make use of the opportunity. Luke, I cannot tell you what to say, only to make very sure that she knows you love her.”

  “I do, Cecilia. Very much.”

  She went to him, squeezed his hand and kissed his cheek. “Then you will know what to do.” Struggling with an unexpected and unwanted pang of jealousy, she left him. For too many years she had had his silent devotion. She had always hoped that he would find a woman he could love and wed; yet now that the moment had come, it hurt a little. She went to look for her husband.

  * * * *

  The huge fireplace in the great hall at Charing was filled with dancing flames. Newly burnished, the suits of armour guarding the stair gleamed. A vase of magnificent Chinese chrysanthemums, bronze, white and yellow, added their spicy scent to the fragrance of woodsmoke.

  Lady Harrison looked around with an air of satisfaction.

  Barbaric splendour it might be, but it was a vast improvement over the gloomy den she had walked into when Maurice brought her here three days earlier. Outside was a raw September morning; inside was as near cosy as such a large room could be.

  She looked up as Gabrielle came down the wide oak staircase. Ah, bon! The girl was dressed in her new lilac morning gown and Marie had done wonders with her hair, not that those dark ringlets needed a great deal of arranging. A touch of rouge would not have come amiss, thought my lady. Gabrielle had been alarmingly listless since Maurice's return.

  There could be only one reason for melancholy in a young lady recently reunited with her long-lost father.

  Lady Harrison swept forward and gently pinched Gabrielle's cheeks to bring a little colour into them.

  “You must not let him believe you pine away, ma chérie!"

  Lord Charing’s halting step was heard approaching. Busy settling him in a comfortable chair by the fire, Gabrielle scarcely noticed the arrival of the rest of the company. She glanced up to find that her father, Gerard, Alain, Sophie de Vignard, Lady Sarah and Luke Everett had joined them. Marie and Baxter were also present, sitting a little apart from the rest.

  She sat down quickly on a footstool, leaning against the arm of his lordship’s chair and half hidden by a sofa occupied by Gerard and Alain. She could see clearly only Sophie, seated opposite, with Lady Sarah and Lady Harrison on either side of her, a strange contrast of quiet simplicity with fashionable elegance.

  Her father came to Lord Charing and kissed his hand.

  “With your permission, sir?’’ he said.

  “I will speak first,” said the marquis firmly. He raised his voice. “Welcome to Charing. My son has brought you all together to clear up any doubts and misapprehensions as to his identity and history. Yes, Maurice Darcy is my younger son, now my heir.

  “You will forgive an old man who feels a need to divulge the reasons for our estrangement. Maurice married against my wishes. I held, and still do hold, that the majority of the French nobility were mere lapdogs, fit for nothing but to scurry about the throne.” He held up his hand. “My apologies, Lady Harrison, Monsieur de Vignard—I did say, the majority! However reasonable my beliefs, I acted on them unreasonably.

  “I disinherited my son, forbidding his return to his native land and giving his patrimony to his brother, my heir. In the years since, I came to regret my decision but did not choose to expose my error by setting afoot a search. How foolish I was, I leave you to judge. How I might have watched my grandchildren grow up, perhaps saved their mother . . .” He was unable to continue. Gabrielle took his shaking hand and held it tight.

  There was a moment of silence, and then the new Lord Darcy, standing with his back to the fire, took up the tale.

  “My brother, with his good lady’s support…”

  Lady Sarah blushed

  “…secretly found me out and insisted on sending me that portion of his income which he considered rightfully mine. I settled in Paris. And now I come to the part of my tale which must never leave this room. You, sir,” he turned to the marquis, “Lady Sarah, Mademoiselle de Vignard, and my son are the only ones present who know nothing of what I am about to reveal. I must ask your word that you will never speak of it.”

  The four pledged silence—Lord Charing with curiosity, the ladies uneasily, Gerard casting a glance of resentment at Gabrielle. It was most unfair that his sister should know more than he did.

  Their father continued.

  “While living in France, I occasionally came across odd facts that I thought might be of interest to the British government. At first I did nothing, but eventually I reported an item of particular significance to our ambassador. He put me in contact with Mr Cosmo Harrison, as he then was, at the Foreign Office. Gradually I found myself spending more and more of my time not merely reporting, but actually searching out information.

  “The political situation in France deteriorated, and my position grew more dangerous. We developed between us a network of couriers and code names, so that in the event of hostilities my part should not be obvious. Sir Cosmo, by now created baronet for services to the Crown, was known as ‘the Man in the Green Coat.’”

  “Poor Sir Cosmo always was partial to green,” mourned Lady Harrison.

  “I became Le Hibou, the Owl, the silent, invisible predator of the night. A romantic image, I confess, but I was still young enough to consider my rôle romantic.”

  Gabrielle looked up at her father. Of course it was romantic! she thought. Not that Papa looked romantic. He looked rather ordinary. Even now, holding the floor, he had a quietly unassuming appearance, until you noticed the commanding eyes. Just like Luke’s.

  Had she fallen in love with Luke because he reminded her of her father?

  Lord Darcy was talking now about the Revolution. His wife’s sister, who had married the Vicomte de Vignard and lived near Avignon, fled to Paris with her two children when her home was burned, her husband murdered by the peasants. There was no safety in the chaos of the capital. He had told her to join the exodus to England, given her Sir Cosmo’s name and direction, and seen no more of her.

  Three months later the ci-devant Vicomtesse de Vignard was listed among the aristos sent to the guillotine. The children had vanished.

  “I lost Sophie,” said Alain, his head bowed. “Maman told me to take care of her, to take her to Sir Cosmo in England, but I lost her.”

  With a little wordless cry, Sophie jumped up and ran to him. She hugged him tightly, then squeezed in between him and Gerard on the sofa, holding his hand.

  “I found my way to England,” he went on, smiling tenderly down at his sister. “I had forgotten Sir Cosmo’s last name, but after a long search I found him, and he gave me work to do—nothing secret, just translations and such. Then Madame Aurore arrived.”

  “J’arrive!” crowed Lady Harrison. “I leave mon cher Maurice in Neuchâtel, une ville bien bourgeoise, and I come to Londres. Me, I know who is Monsieur D’Arcy and who is Le Hibou! I come to Sir Cosmo and I tell him all. He receives many messages from Le Hibou, but how to send to him he does not know. I arrange! Such long letters I write, full of the gossip. No censor will read all the babblings, n’est-ce pas? And with great secrecy I tell le feu Lord Darcy where is his brother. Through me, he sends the money.

  “Marie is of the greatest assistance. Une femme de chambre, a lady’s maid, she can speak with many people without the least suspicion. Also a boy—Alain was not yet twenty!— may go anywhere and no one will notice. He is the nep
hew of Le Hibou, so Sir Cosmo employs him in the secret work.

  “Then my poor Sir Cosmo dies. The Foreign Secretary, who does not take assez sérieusement the spying, appoints a young man of no experience. Patience, Monsieur Everett! I mean no insult. Le bon Davis, Sir Cosmo’s secretary, he must teach the young man. He learns very fast, but Davis knows only a part of the whole. He knows of Marie. but of me and of Alain he knows nothing! Still, the messages go to Le Hibou, and the messages come back to Monsieur Everett, who is now the Man in the Green Coat.”

  Luke stood up. Gabrielle fixed her eyes on her hands, but she heard him pacing as he talked.

  “I had no idea of Le Hibou’s identity, but he was the source of our best information from France—not surprisingly, as I now gather he had been posing for years as an aide to the Minister of Police. A year ago, I asked him to go to Russia, to investigate various matters there. We heard nothing from him for several months. Then came a message from France in his name, borne by an unknown courier and disclosing a conspiracy.”

  Gabrielle prayed that he was not about to reveal her part in the delivery of that message. She had told her father, but the fewer people who knew of her arrival in England, dressed as a boy and with a bullet in her, the better.

  “I will not go into details,” he continued, to her relief. “It is government business, and the less said the better. We heard from Le Hibou two or three times more, and then we received word that he was resigning. Lord Darcy?”

  “Thank you. Just before I left for St Petersburg, I heard that my brother was dead. My father discovered from his papers that he had been supporting me, and through the same channels wrote to say that I was now his heir. I chose to believe that he had forgiven me.”

  He smiled at the marquis, who nodded his white head and whispered to Gabrielle that in actual fact he had begged his son’s forgiveness.

  “However, I had to complete my mission to Russia before I could go home. It was, to say the least, a hazardous mission and uncertain of outcome. I had no idea how long I should be away. My dear children were used to long absences, but I told them that if I was gone for more than a certain period without sending news, or if it seemed likely that war would break out again, they were to go to Aurore in London. As indeed they did.