A Mutual Accord

Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44

“ B rigadier General Spaulding, reporting as ordered, sir!” said the officer as he saluted the senior officer in front of him.

“Take a seat, Spaulding.” The quartermaster general gestured to a chair. “What is the situation in Eastbourne?”

“We have received four messages from the agent, sir. So far, no evidence of anything sinister in the area,” Spaulding answered. “Smuggling there almost certainly is, in the region, it is to be expected in any coastal town, but the agent still has no concrete evidence of even that.”

“Let him keep looking,” the senior officer ordered. “The war office has received several letters from locals in positions of authority. The magistrate, the organiser of the East Sussex Volunteer Corps, and even a letter from the coast guard. They all maintain that the coastal activity in the area is concerning.”

“I am certain that if there is anything to find, our agent will discover it, sir,” Spaulding assured him.

“Dismissed,” the quartermaster general said with a wave as Brigadier General Spaulding jumped to his feet and saluted again.

Spaulding returned to his office. This was all coming together far easier than he expected it to. Matters in Eastbourne were taking care of themselves, the French were due in about a week, and it was all at very little trouble to himself. His only concern now was to do something about the target’s other two brats. One would be killed and fingered as complicit in the plot when it was enacted. The second would be easy enough to manage – she was out in public quite frequently. It was only the target’s eldest and his family that would be difficult.

It will be over soon, Marguerite, he promised. The last one. Then I shall join you.

Spaulding was tired. He had spent years hunting and killing the men who had murdered his war bride. He had met Marguerite during the war, when he was a captain on the continent. Marguerite had joined the women following the soldiers not because she was a whore, but because she had lost everything. She was the daughter of a French nobleman who had lost his head, and she had been abused by the French soldiers. She had attached herself to him when he became separated from his regiment, and she hid him from the French soldiers and fed him for three days. He took her back to his tent, and had spent the following months fighting with the other men, in his attempt to prevent her from being used as a typical camp follower.

We were to be married when we returned home, he thought sadly as he recalled the day he returned from a two day drill exercise to find that his Colonel had sent for her while he was away. Drunk and randy, the senior officers as a group had used Marguerite, despite her being heavy with his child, causing her to lose the child and haemorrhage to death. He was thrown into lock-up for his response to the murder of the woman he loved. The men involved were never disciplined. Women were often so used by both sides of the army, the French and the English. The Colonel of his new regiment when he was transferred told him sadly that he did not agree with it, but the top man at the war office had put an end to the matter, saying that it would look bad back home, at a time when the country’s and army’s morale was never more important, if the officers were disciplined. Other officers told him to be grateful, that Marguerite was probably not even carrying his child, and that he had been done a favour. Marguerite had been doubly judged by the British soldiers and the women who followed them because she had played the traitor to her own country by helping him. The soldiers considered her dishonourable, the female camp followers considered her the worst of women. They only followed the camp and serviced the men to earn enough to eat. Marguerite had actually hidden an English officer from her own side’s army.

Spaulding had found ways to pick the men who had hurt Marguerite all off slowly, one by one. Carriage accidents were all too common. One poor man had fallen off a cliff. Another had been knifed while being robbed in London. Three had obliged him by dying in battle. Only the man who had made the final decision was left. Spaulding would ensure this man did not die. He would, instead, like Spaulding himself, lose everything. The man, who was now foreign secretary, would see the end of his line, and live with the pain, as Spaulding had done.

The cricket match was cancelled. The tradesmen sent an emissary to the mayor, informing him that they wished to cancel the match until Mr Darcy was found. Lady Catherine was touched by the town’s consideration, though the gentlemen of the house would not play while they were searching for their friend, and so the gentlemen’s team was sadly diminished anyway.

The house ceased all social engagements. Some of the ladies still accepted morning callers while they waited for news. None of the ladies of the house returned calls, and society understood. The household dined alone each evening. The comte still came daily to administer elixirs to Lady Catherine, and work with Mary at the pianoforte. Lady Catherine, Elizabeth, and Georgiana met daily with the mayor and the magistrate. Late every night, Lady Catherine and Georgiana met with Richard, who visited them by stealth to discuss what they knew.

None were aware of it, but at night, Lady Catherine had ceased sleeping. She spent her nights on her knees by her bed, praying for hours for the life of her nephew, the only living son of her beloved sister. She began to look drawn and pale again, she was once again neglecting her meals, and despite the comte’s elixirs, the disease that was killing her began to sap her strength afresh.

The day of the cancelled cricket match, Lady Catherine was overcome after a discussion with the mayor. “Lady Catherine, are you well?” asked Elizabeth in concern to see her host swaying on her feet in the hall. Elizabeth motioned to Torrens, who moved closer, and caught Lady Catherine as she collapsed.

Later, Elizabeth and Anne sat by Lady Catherine’s bedside as the comte examined her. She woke during the examination. “ Mon trésor , you have undone all of our good work,” he said, patting her hand, which he held in his own.

“I think the time has come for you to admit that your elixirs do not work, and encourage my mother to seek real care , before you end up killing her, do not you agree, comte ?” Anne demanded.

“Anne, you may leave us. I would prefer it if you mind your own business,” said her mother.

“Lady Catherine, I must object,” interrupted Elizabeth. “I must point out that you asked me, your nieces, and my sister to accompany you here while you sought a cure. Now you expect us, and your poor daughter, to go without comment or question for weeks on end, meanwhile knowing nothing of your plans or what to expect in terms of your health. You must see how unkind this is to Anne, and how inconsiderate it is of those who travelled here with you in concern for your condition.”

Lady Catherine looked to the comte . “It was never my advice to keep your loved ones in the dark, mon trésor ,” he said gently.

“I would not, if Anne did not keep coddling me!” Lady Catherine objected. The comte raised his brow at her. She sighed and said to Anne and Elizabeth, “The elixirs are to restore my strength, not to cure me.”

“I knew those elixirs were not a cure!” Anne exclaimed.

“It is a cure for some things,” the comte explained. “There is no cure for un loup .”

“Then why not have the operation, Mama?” Anne cried in frustration.

“Lady Catherine was not strong enough to survive the operation when she arrived in Eastbourne,” the comte explained. “The elixirs have been to rebuild her strength, to make her feel well and restore her appetite, so she will eat, rest, and be stronger before the knife. I am to provide the surgeons with a sedative, so that she may sleep heavily during the operation, and feel nothing.” He looked at Lady Catherine sternly. “You have unmade all of our efforts with your silliness. Your nephew would not wish his disappearance to be the death of you. I must insist that you eat and sleep, even if I must give you a sedative each night.”

“She will, Comte . I will make certain of it,” Anne said excitedly. Now that she knew that her mother might still try the physician’s cure, she was all the more determined to see to every aspect of her mother’s health.

“Oh goody,” Lady Catherine said like a petulant child.

“It occurs to me that now you know how Anne felt, being coddled by you, all of those years, your ladyship,” Elizabeth teased.

“Off with you girls, too saucy by half, the pair of you!” Lady Catherine waved them away, a momentary smile ghosting her lips.

“We will go, but I am returning with your meal in a half hour, and you must eat every mouthful!” Anne said as she and Elizabeth made for the door.

The comte turned back to Lady Catherine as he prepared to administer the elixir. “I ought to have recruited that girl to oversee your care the minute I walked into the house,” he laughed.