Barnaby thought about that. There was a safe house near Bude, and the next house after that was in Gloucestershire. It was possible that Chadwick suspected they were heading to Portsmouth and decided to send men ahead to intercept them. However, an inner instinct, an inherent instinct for self-preservation, warned him that it wasn’t likely.
“If they knew the safe house was here, why did they snatch Rose out of the woods like they did? Why did they not let you take her to the safe house and snatch her from there? We know they are adept at breaking into buildings,” Ben murmured.
“We have more men there,” Reg warned. “Out in the open like she was left her vulnerable. They couldn’t risk Barnaby getting her to the safe house because they knew she would disappear and be protected by us.”
“They would be run out of town by the locals if there was a skirmish,” Barnaby sighed.
“If the magistrate didn’t catch them first,” Reg added.
Noah sighed. “I think it is safe to say that they might not have liked the idea of you bringing her into somewhere as crowded as Portsmouth. It would be easy to lose you in the crowds on a busy day.”
“Yes, but the crowds are also perfect if you want to snatch someone off the streets because it is easy to get confused,” Reg reasoned.
“But who would betray us like this?” Barnaby growled. “I hate to even think of it but the more I look at everything the more it becomes obvious that someone has been giving away our deepest secrets.”
“I think you need to consider all the risks here, boy,” Noah sighed. “The traitor might not be any of the men you work with, Barnaby. He might be someone at the War Office. Someone who divulged the locations of the safe houses you would be likely to take witnesses to-”
“Nobody at the War Office knows about them. Why, I don’t think even Sir Hugo knows about the ones we use,” Barnaby interrupted.
“It is true, and we move them around occasionally so only the men who are actively working are likely to know about them,” Ben added.
“Yes, but people talk when they are in their cups. The men drink, you know they do,” Noah argued. “If drunk, a man could divulge anything and not remember he had done so come morning.”
Barnaby still couldn’t see that any of the men from the Star Elite would be that stupid. They all put their lives on the line far too often to be so foolish and reckless with such valuable information. He shook his head but didn’t argue any further. Instead, he mulled over the possibility that someone from the War Office was Sayers’ spy.
“Who gave you the order to come here?” Ben asked.
Barnaby looked at him. “Sir Hugo.”
“Sir Hugo can’t be the traitor,” Reg snapped. “Why, it is preposterous.”
“Nor can it be Simon Ambrose. He mainly works out of Norfolk now,” Ben sighed.
Noah snorted. “It isn’t either of them. They would never do something like this.”
“As far as I am aware there haven’t been any rumours that Mainton is in Portsmouth,” Barnaby murmured.
“So why are you here?” Ben asked.
Barnaby looked at him but couldn’t be angry with the man for asking if he was the spy.
“I was meeting with a contact of mine to try to find out if Mainton had been seen. I heard the week before I left London that Mainton had headed south, to Cornwall or Devon, but that was all I heard. Nobody knew for definite so I decided to come down here myself and meet with the man,” Barnaby explained.
“Is your contact still alive?” Reg asked.
Barnaby nodded and hoped that was still the case. “The last time I saw him he was.”
“Well, if there is a traitor in London, we can’t take you there,” Noah warned. “Sir Hugo says that under no circumstances should any of you show your faces there until the spy is found. He wants you to make your way up north but stay away from the safe houses.”
“How are we going to uncover the spy if we go to Scotland and hide?” Barnaby snapped. Barnaby considered it but, regardless of what Sir Hugo wanted, he knew he would never go along with that particular order.
“I didn’t say it was an order,” Noah grinned.
“Good, because I refuse,” Barnaby snapped.
“You have Rose to think about,” Ben reminded him. “You can’t put her in danger, or simply abandon her once we are in Scotland to head off to London. Once we are in Scotland, even if one of us stays with her, by the time we get back here, Chadwick and his men will have gone.”
“Is there any sign of them trying to follow us at sea?” Barnaby asked Noah.