In the Commodore's Hands by Mary Nichols Read Free Book Online Page B

a great upheaval for you, so I will not insist.’
    ‘Naturally I will come. Do you think I will let you go without me?’
    ‘Thank you, Hortense. I am so tired, I am going to bed and you must do so too, but tomorrow morning, we must pack.’ She rose and together they climbed the stairs where Hortense helped her mistress to bed and then went to her own chamber.
    In spite of her tiredness Lisette could not sleep. She found herself going over and over everything she and the Commodore had said to each other, every nuance, every meaningful look, every curt response, every compliment he had paid her, every censure too. None of it helped her to understand him. She had to take him as she found him, a complex individualwho was charming one minute and annoying the next. But none of that mattered if he saved her father.
    Her thoughts strayed to visions of the rescue. She imagined the vehicle conveying her father to Paris being held up by Jay and his servant at gunpoint, of shots being fired, of people being wounded, perhaps the guards, perhaps the rescuers, perhaps her father. She saw them fighting their way to her coach and driving hell for leather to the coast, pursued on all sides. She saw the yacht rocking on the sea, out of reach, and their pursuers on their heels. And supposing they were all caught, what then? It did not bear thinking about. Surely there was another way.
    She had fallen asleep at last, to wake in the morning bleary-eyed and with a bad headache. Hortense gave her a tisane and made her eat some breakfast, after which she felt well enough to pack a few clothes and toiletries in two portmanteaux, then Lisette found a velvet bag and scooped all her jewels into it: necklaces, ear drops, bracelets and tiaras, some she had inherited from her mother, some her father had bought for her. She knew the French authorities would not take kindly to her taking them outof the country, so she hid them securely in the stuffing of one of the cushions in the carriage.
    She had a little money in the house, most of it
assignats
which would be worthless in England, but there was money and stocks held at the bank in Honfleur and she needed those too. ‘I’m going into Honfleur,’ she told Hortense. ‘I need to draw money out of the bank.’
    ‘Do you think that is a good idea, Lissie? It will surely indicate that you are planning to flee and put the authorities on their guard.’
    ‘Monsieur Gascon has been the family banker for years and years, he will not betray me.’
    ‘You cannot be sure of that. Everyone is afraid to have secrets nowadays.’
    ‘I shall say I wish to use the money to pay a lawyer to defend my father and he insists on being paid in cash.’
    ‘If you must, but I am afraid it will not please the Englishman.’
    ‘I think it will please him very much,’ Lisette said stubbornly. ‘It means I can pay him for his trouble and we will be able to live independently in England and not have to rely on charity.’
    ‘Shall I ask Georges to put the horses to the carriage?’
    ‘No. I have been told they must be kept fresh and ready to go at a moment’s notice. I will walk. Besides, a walk will help to clear my head.’
    ‘Then I shall come too.’
    Lisette did not object to that and they set off, both wearing plain gowns, bright red shawls and red ribbons in their hair. It was difficult to tell who was servant and who mistress except that Hortense was carrying a shopping basket. The maid deplored the necessity, but if it was the only way to keep her darling safe, then it had to be. They met a few people on the road, but no one exchanged a greeting, nor even a smile.
    At the bank, Hortense waited in the vestibule while Lisette went into the bank manager’s inner sanctum to make her request.
    ‘My dear
mademoiselle,’
he said. ‘I cannot release your father’s money to you. It is in his name and only he can withdraw it.’
    ‘But he is in prison.’
    ‘Yes, I had heard.’
    ‘I need it for his defence and