“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?”