The Deception

by Catherine Coulter

  “You may stay at Chesleigh if you wish. I will expect reports from you on Edmund’s progress. I bid you good night and good-bye.”

  He left her standing there, her gown bunched at her waist. He didn’t look back, just quietly closed the door behind him.

  She stared at that closed door. She knew in that moment, simply knew that she couldn’t betray him. She would tell him the truth. He would believe her. He and Lord Pettigrew would arrest John Edgerton. They would help free her father from Houchard. Surely it could be done.

  It took her some time to get her gown back into place. She had to hurry. She had to tell him that she was meeting Edgerton in but an hour. They had to make plans. She ran out of the dining room, down the long corridor to the entrance hall, only to see Bassick standing at the great front doors, shaking his head.

  She stopped, drawing a deep breath. “Is something wrong, Bassick?”

  He looked at her standing there, shaking his head slowly, back and forth. “No, Madame, there is nothing wrong that either you or I can fix.” “I don’t know what you mean.” “His grace,” Bassick said. “He’s gone. Just gone, not three minutes ago.”

  Chapter 19

  She nearly ran out of the castle but stopped herself. Perhaps it was better this way. She would see firsthand how the operation worked. She would have proof that Edgerton was a traitor. Then she would send a messenger to the duke.

  Yes, that would work. She just had to keep her nerve with Edgerton. She couldn’t allow him to suspect what she was going to do. It was difficult to wait to go to the cove, and she did sneak out of the castle early, pulling her cloak more closely about her. The summery weather had disappeared. It was cold now, not bitterly cold, but soon it would be. She walked carefully down the long path to the cove, a half-moon guiding her. When she reached the cave, she turned for a moment to look out at the sea. The waves built slowly, then tumbled gently forward, rolling over and over, like a huge bolt of cloth unfolding, until they reached the shore, there to lap softly over the sand, just a whisper of sound.

  She didn’t want to step into the frightening, dark cave. She walked to a rock near the entrance and sat down, waiting. Perhaps Edgerton wouldn’t come. Perhaps he had been discovered and her father would be safe. Of course he hadn’t been discovered. It was just a futile prayer. She knew she wasn’t a good actress, but she had to be tonight with John Edgerton. He mustn’t suspect that she was anything but obedient to him.

  Tomorrow, she thought, tomorrow she would send a message to the duke. He would come back. He would help her.

  She wanted to see John Edgerton in hell.

  She also felt the huge weight of guilt lifted off her.

  It was getting colder. She shivered. Where was Edgerton? Perhaps she’d misunderstood his instructions, perhaps—

  “Good evening, Evangeline. Unlike most women, you are punctual. That pleases me and relieves me.”

  She whirled about, nearly falling off the rock. There was John Edgerton, silhouetted in the moonlight, standing quietly in the mouth of the cave. How long had he been there, waiting in the darkness, watching her?

  She rose slowly, holding her cloak tightly fisted to her throat. “I have found that men, more often than women, are the ones who aren’t punctual. Perhaps it is their desire to swagger into a room after all others are already present.”

  “You are very young, your experience limited, and thus your opinions are not very important. You are here. Had you been late, I might have wondered about your intentions. I didn’t have a chance to tell you the other evening how delighted I am to see you again. Naturally, I would have preferred a different context for our reunion, but alas, it was not meant to be. But I digress. The next time you have occasion to visit the cave, bring a lantern. Come along now.”

  She watched as he set his lantern upon the cave floor and knelt to light it. He straightened toward her, his face shadowed in its dim yellowish light. “In twenty minutes you will give a signal, using the lantern.” He paused, looking at her closely. “You’re afraid. That’s not a bad thing. It will keep you from making mistakes, mistakes that could be fatal to your dear father.”

  She said nothing.

  “Listen to me now. You will be meeting some men at the dock. I will wait here to see that all goes well. Come now, and learn, for we haven’t much time. You hesitate. This is a very big step for you. Tonight you will perform a treasonous act against England. A single act, but one that will serve our purpose. Then the die will be cast. There will be no turning back for you.”

  If she’d had a gun, she would have shot him with no hesitation. No regrets. Oh, yes, she would turn back. “You’re a fool, Sir John. You believe this some sort of game in which you dominate me. Don’t lie to yourself. You’re nothing but a miserable old man.

  “Houchard holds my father. You know I have no choice. All the rest of this—it’s nothing more than stage settings and bad melodrama. Get on with it, damn you.”

  She thought he would strike her. He raised his hand, then slowly, very slowly, he lowered his arm. “You push me, Evangeline. You believe I shall remember the girl I once wanted, the girl your miserable father refused me?”

  “My father refused you nothing. I was the one who refused you.”

  He smiled, a terrifying smile in the gloom of the cave. “You are in my power now, Evangeline, make no mistake about that. I find your bravado somewhat amusing. I should even like to pursue this with you, but not tonight. We have more important things to do, and we must hurry.”

  “You’re English. Why are you betraying your country?”

  He shrugged, frowning down at the glowing lamp. Then he said, looking straight at her, “All of us make choices, Evangeline. I choose to assist a great man to fulfill his destiny. It is a destiny that will extend far into the future, and I will have been a part of it. But enough. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. No, don’t try to argue with me. We haven’t much time. What we do here tonight is very serious business. Your duties will be varied, but none of them will place you in any particular danger. Your primary function will be to serve as a checkpoint. No one will be sent to me unless you have first verified that they are who they purport to be.”

  He drew a folded piece of paper from his cloak pocket and handed it to her. “All messages that you receive will be in this code. Only you, I, and Houchard know it. You will meet whomever you are instructed to, Evangeline, and you will examine their papers carefully. You will never clear a man until you have ensured that his instructions are authentic. Then you will write your initials at the bottom of each page to prove that you have verified the message. It is for my protection as well as for Houchard’s. You and I have further protection. No one will know either your name or mine. You will be known as the eagle, L’Aigle, and I, the Lynx, le loupcervier. You are smart—study the code.”

  Evangeline moved close to the lantern and sank to her knees. The code was a formula substituting numbers for letters in various combinations.

  “The vowels have a separate code. You will practice the code in a few moments.”

  She looked up at him. “What if a man carries a message that isn’t authentic?”

  “If you prove this to be true, you won’t do anything. You will simply direct the man to this address in London.” He handed her a small visiting card. “I don’t expect anyone to successfully penetrate our network, but one can’t be too careful. We try to foresee all contingencies. I trust you will be quite certain that you are sending along a Bonapartist, for if you make an error, purposefully or not, I assure you it will be your last. Of course, then your father will die also, not that you’ll be alive to know of it.”

  She held up the card. “You mean that anyone I send to this address will be murdered?”

  “Naturally. Now, here is my card. The men you clear, you will send here.”

  “Where is the letter from my father? Houchard promised to send one to me.”

  “You will have your letter when the boat arrives. Al
ong with instructions for your next assignment. You will remain at Chesleigh. If there are any changes, I will send you a message. Has the duke already tried to bed you?”

  “No. I don’t think he cares for me at all. Indeed, he has already returned to London.”

  “No matter. Incidentally, you gave a fine performance the other evening. I was impressed with your abilities.”

  “I had no choice. The duke and Lord Pettigrew both regard you as a friend, someone they can trust.” “Yes,” he said, nodding. “I have worked hard for many years to earn their trust. Now, as I said, the young lady you presented was perfect in her role.”

  “You are quite wrong,” she said, rising to face him. “I’m not a good actress. If the duke hadn’t already left Chesleigh, he would probably already suspect that something is wrong. Indeed, I’ve been here only a short time, and already there is someone who suspects me. Mrs. Needle is a harmless old woman, but she guesses that something’s not right with me. Who will be next to guess? If I am so very transparent, surely I can’t be much use to you or to Houchard.” “Who did you say this old woman was?” Evangeline shook her head impatiently. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just that she seemed to see me, to really see me. Others might do the same.”

  “I trust for your sake, for your dear father’s sake, that you will quickly learn your trade. Women seem to have a talent for it. Not such a surprise since generally women tend to excel in deception. Surely you’re no different.”

  “Your opinion of my sex isn’t very high.” “Oh, I adore your sex. All men do when it comes to seeing to their needs. It’s just that I understand you. Not one of you can be trusted.”

  “Then why did you want to marry a seventeen-year-old girl if you wouldn’t ever trust her?”

  “For that very reason. You were very young. You hadn’t had the time to perfect your woman’s skills. I would have taught you, molded you to my liking.” He pulled his watch from his waistcoat pocket. “It’s time. Attend me carefully.”

  He pulled out a handkerchief, covered the lantern, and carried it to the mouth of the cave. Just then, in the distance, Evangeline saw a brief flicker of light, followed shortly by another.

  He whipped off the handkerchief and raised the lantern high for some seconds. “You’ll always receive a double signal. You have only to return it with a single, steady light, long enough for the men to get their bearings. They will row in and debark at the dock. You will meet them there.” John Edgerton again lowered the lantern and covered it with his handkerchief and set it inside the cave. “At the high tide the cave is flooded.” “The men know to approach only at low tide. They will never draw near in any case unless you yourself give the signal.” He raised his hand. “Listen.”

  Within moments she heard the soft, rhythmic sound of oars dipping through the water.

  “You’ll go to the dock. Remember, my dear Eagle, that you are now one of us. You will greet the men and bring their packet of instructions back to me. We will read the code together tonight.”

  Evangeline nodded, and hurried from the cave to the end of the long wooden dock. She saw Edmund’s small sloop bobbing up and down at its anchor, and beyond it, through the soft night mist, a longboat. Two men, muffled to their ears in black greatcoats, climbed up onto the dock, and one of them stepped forward. To Evangeline’s surprise, he spoke fluent English. “All goes well. You are the Eagle?”

  Evangeline merely nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  The man looked her up and down, then said, his voice low, “I was told that a woman was to be our contact. I hadn’t expected anyone so young and so beautiful.”

  She wanted to vomit on his boots. She said, her voice as cold as the night had become, “Give me your instructions.”

  She made her way back to the cave, leaving the two men on the dock, waiting for her. Evangeline opened the packet and withdrew the papers. There were two envelopes, one of which, John Edgerton told her, contained a letter from her father and her next instructions. The other contained papers and a message in Houchard’s code. Her hands shook; her mind squirreled about. She stumbled again and again over the letters.

  “Keep calm. The men will wait until you are done, Evangeline. You have reversed the letters. Try again.” It took her another fifteen minutes to verify that the message was indeed from Houchard. The papers were letters of reference and letters vouching for the character of Allan Dannard for the post of secretary to a Lord George Barrington in London. Evangeline had never heard his name before, but she’d wager he was somehow involved in the war ministry. She memorized both names. She would tell the duke.

  “They were legitimate,” Evangeline said she folded them back into the packet.

  John Edgerton withdrew a slender piece of charcoal from his dark waistcoat pocket. “Write your initials in the bottom corner. Without them the men couldn’t continue to London.”

  When she handed one of the men the packet, and told them the address of the Lynx, they nodded and gave a quick salute to Evangeline. “A bientôt, Mademoiselle L’Aigle.” One of the men kissed his fingertips to his lips. “Perhaps I will see you again, in different circumstances.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said, his new name stark in her mind. “Be assured that I will never forget you.” When they had disappeared behind the rise of the cliff and the longboat was no longer in sight, John Edgerton emerged from the cave. “You did well, Evangeline. You will find your next instructions in the envelope, as I told you.” He paused a moment and touched his fingers to her cheek. She drew back.

  “I regret that I’m the villain in this drama, but then again, it brought you to me and that was ultimately what I wanted. You will see me again, Evangeline. Perhaps soon you’ll be more submissive, more willing to hear of other matters.”

  “No,” she said. “No.”

  “Ah, we will see, won’t we? Now, I saw it on your face, Evangeline. Saw it clearly. You are still wavering, wondering if perhaps you can’t free yourself of us. You can’t.

  “Listen carefully and believe this. If anything happens to me, there are orders that Lord Edmund is to be killed. Killed quickly and cleanly, his small body buried where it will never be found. He will be dead and it will have been your fault. Then, there is of course your dear father. Two deaths, Evangeline, if you betray me to your duke or to anyone else. Do you understand me?”

  He’d won and she knew it. He probably saw it in her face as well. Not Edmund, not her boy, who was becoming more dear to her by the day. She couldn’t bear it.

  “Do you understand me?”

  Finally, she said so low he had to lean close to hear her, “Yes, I understand.”

  “Excellent. Perhaps you can keep in your mind a picture of your father holding little Edmund against his chest, the two of them buried deeply in the same grave.”

  Yes, she could see that clearly. She said nothing more, and her expression remained fixed. She felt cold and sick. Edgerton had won.

  Eventually—she didn’t know how much time had passed—she made her way slowly up the cliff path, clutching her father’s letter close. It was over for her, everything was over for her. She was now a traitor to England.

  She had betrayed the duke.

  There was no going back now.

  Chapter 20

  Trevlin sat back on the cushioned wooden bench in the White Goose Inn, his thirst slaked by a mug of porter. If he had thought it odd that Madame de la Valette wished to travel some five miles from Chesleigh simply to explore the tiny Norman church set atop the chalk cliffs, it wasn’t his place to ask questions. He supposed that the young lady was restless, what with only Lord Edmund and the servants to keep her company at the huge castle, and had thus taken to exploring the countryside. In the past several weeks he had accompanied her to Landsdown, a picturesque village in the rolling hills near Southsea, and to Southampton, to visit an abbey that had survived despite centuries of political and religious upheavals, or so she had told him.

  When she first ar
rived at Chesleigh, he had thought her a lively lady, whose laughter had more than once brought a smile to his lips. But lately, she seemed more withdrawn, even during their jaunts about the countryside. Trevlin crooked his finger at the barmaid, a pretty wench with an impertinent tongue, to bring him another mug. The wink she gave him removed further thoughts of Madame from his mind.

  * * *

  Evangeline’s nose wrinkled at the overpowering smell of fish as she turned off the narrow cobbled road that served as the thoroughfare in the small village of Chitterly onto a winding path that led to its ancient stone church. Although there was no one in sight, she sensed that she was being watched. She heard a sudden rustling of leaves behind her and whirled about. There was no one.

  She’d stayed close to Edmund since that night with Edgerton down in the protected cove. Of course, Edmund had tired of that quickly enough. She tried to act naturally around him, to laugh and jest with him, but it was difficult for her. Every shadow she saw, every unexpected noise she heard, could be a threat to him.

  She’d begun a journal of everyone she’d met, where they were bound, their descriptions, everything she thought could be helpful. She supposed, deep down, that she wanted so badly for something to happen which would resolve the situation that she wanted to have all the proof she could gather.

  When she lay in bed at night, alone, frightened, still she wondered if she shouldn’t write to the duke, beg his help. Then she saw Edmund in her father’s arms, and both of them were pale in death, silent, gone from her. She wondered how long she could go on like this. She even considered sneaking to London and killing John Edgerton herself, but there was Edmund, always her boy, for he was hers now, his laughter, his continuing attempts to chase her down in her highwayman role and shoot her with the gun given to him by an evil man who wouldn’t hesitate to kill him. Who had Edgerton told to kill Edmund if she betrayed him?