“Then let me go, English.” Pasques looked at me balefully as well, clearly disappointed with my official standing.
“And I’m offended to find myself imprisoned, Sir Sidney,” I tried, deciding it was best not to reveal I’d agreed to be a double agent to save my family. I tend to edit my résumé for each employer and was a little defensive about my ability to bounce from side to side. “Always I’m the victim of misunderstandings. I wove myself into the heart of the French military establishment and reported for months on French politics and arms. My reward for such courage is rude jailing?”
“Reports? Haven’t received a one. Pitt thought you were dead, but I said, No, Gage is a survivor but his alliances are one of convenience. Turncoat, I predicted. American, after all; the whole bloody country is a nest of traitors. So the man has betrayed us and is likely living in luxury in Paris, I said. The prime minister agreed, as we never expect much from foreign agents such as yourself.”
I was confused. “But I risked my life and my family’s life spying for England! I mailed regular as a gazette.”
“Apparently, what the French say and what they do are two different things, Ethan. We haven’t heard a peep from you or Comtesse Marceau since you both crossed the Channel last April.”
“She is a traitor, and not even a comtesse. She’s an imposter as secretive as a mole who betrayed me as well as you, Sir Sidney. Damned good at coronation fashion, however.”
He blinked. “Catherine Marceau is an enemy? I rather enjoyed her.”
“She lived with my family in Paris and broke us apart at the coronation. She’s the one who worked to make Napoleon’s crowning a success. I, meanwhile, told you everything I could learn about the French army.”
“Your reports probably made fine fire starter in the offices of Commissioner Réal after he had a chuckle reading them.” Smith cocked his head. “Unless you’re posing now in the service of Bonaparte and lying about your every action. You can’t be that clever, can you?”
I picked at some lice I’d acquired in our cell. “Certainly not. I just find myself working for everyone because I’m so popular.” I sat straight to feign dignity. “We can test me, can’t we?”
“How? Hot coals?” He looked sourly at Pasques, who looked sourly back.
“I’ve brought you a report I snatched from Talleyrand himself. It details plans to lure the British navy away from the Channel with a complex attack on Senegal, Surinam, and Saint Helena, involving dozens of ships crisscrossing the Atlantic. It’s impossibly ambitious, which means it came from Napoleon instead of his admirals. He thinks you can move sailing ships like chess pieces. The British Admiralty can judge whether it reflects real French movements, and thwart it by responding prudently.”
“Talleyrand? How the devil did you get that?”
“I work for him, too, or would have if Pasques here hadn’t floored him with a punch. I fled Paris on a new American invention called a steamboat, enlisted this heroic if hungry Frenchman here, and avoided pursuing patrols with the aid of a beautiful redheaded spy named Rose. I assume she’s yours?”
Smith blinked, skeptical but always seduced by derring-do. He longed to win wars with cleverness. “This Frenchman is heroic?”
“I struck the grand chamberlain only after I swung at you and missed,” my new companion spoke up, which I had coached him not to do.
“Yes, we make quite a team,” I put in.
Smith drummed his fingers, considering us. “Rose has helped us smuggle countless agents in and out of France, and I instructed her to contact you. An interesting woman with odd beliefs, she’s the follower of the rosy cross, if you’d heard of that bunch. Medieval mystics, mostly, but she thinks there’s something to it.”
I filed this assessment away for my own future use. “It’s not my fault the courier system you instructed me to use in Paris has been compromised.” I looked stern. “Nor that I never received a word of instruction from England. Now my wife and son have fled to central Europe and I need a ship to catch up with them.”
“A ship? You do have gall, Gage.”
“Passage to Venice. From there I’ll ride north to Bohemia. A fast frigate will do,” I demanded with more confidence than I felt.
“We’re going to win a huge fortune from Talleyrand and win the war single-handed,” Pasques put in, with the logic of a lunatic.