Able slept deep and peacefully, holding his wife close, savoring her warmth, even though it was August. They made love again before dawn, then spent the next hour in pleasant conversation. Even he hadn’t reckoned on the bliss of love and conversation. Marriage had many surprises.
As Meri half-drowsed, he told her of his visit to Admiralty House, and the grilling he received concerning Admiral Calder’s one-day battle at Cape Finisterre. “I could only tell them what I saw. I think he did his best.” He put his hand over Meri’s gentle fingers on his chest. “The only problem with Calder is that the threat of Napoleon demands more than our best.”
“Are we in danger here in Portsmouth?” she asked.
“Aye, we could be, without supreme watchfulness. It’s been averted for now, frankly, thanks to Calder,” he told her. “For your ears only: We dropped Ogilvie off north of the cape, and one other fellow I did not mention who was aboard Calder’s flagship, waiting for us. Can you guess?”
“Jean Hubert,” she whispered, as if spies lurked under their bed.
“The very same.”
“The two of them made it to Boulogne, where the small craft to cross the Channel waited. When we picked up Ogilvie after our rendezvous with Nelson’s fleet, he told us how he and Jean watched Napoleon’s troops abandon Boulogne. They have bigger fish to fry on the continent right now, to my relief.” He turned thoughtful. “I wonder where the Grande Armée will land next. I pity whichever of our allies lies in its path.”
She was silent a long while this time. He wondered if she had returned to sleep. When she spoke, her voice sounded studied and careful, as if she did not want to hear what he might say. “Only Angus returned? Did…did Jean…Is he…” She couldn’t finish.
“You like that rascal Frenchman, don’t you?” he asked, touched.
“We all do.”
“Rest easy, my love. He is on his way to Spain. Probably there by now, watching the harbor of Cádiz, where the combined fleet is anchored.”
“How can he be safe from detection there?” He heard all the worry. Meri had turned into the mother of many, even rascally Frenchmen, it would seem.
“Cádiz is full of Frogs now,” he reminded her. “I must say that Villeneuve is not a man I would put in charge of such a fleet, but there you have it. Calder wasn’t the only leader who lost his nerve at Cape Finisterre.”
She had not yet asked the question he feared the most. He waited for it.
“How much danger are you in when you drop off spies and pick them up?”
He kissed her, which probably gave her the answer she dreaded. She kissed him back with all the ferocity of her loving nature. She knew.
“Terrible danger,” he admitted, when he could speak. “Thankfully, the Mercury is the ship precisely right for maneuvering close and leaving fast.”
“Is Captain Ogilvie a spy?” she asked outright. “I think he must be, but no one tells ladies. Not that it is my business, Able, but it seems that he is complicating your life with his demands.”
What to tell her? Why not the truth? He knew this wife of his would say nothing. “No word of this anywhere, Meri. Your pledge?”
“You have it, my love. Cross my heart.”
“With pleasure.” He took her at her word, which meant some highly charged moments of pleasant fondling.
“That wasn’t precisely what I meant, Able,” she said, which made him laugh.
“Where were we? Ah, yes. Angus and I spent a few nights at the helm on this crossing, which the Rats slept below. He told me of the first time he saw my father in Cádiz. It was also the night he encountered the secretary of a prominent member of Admiralty house conversing with that demon Claude Pascal.”
Meri gasped. “A member of our government? With Claude Pascal?”
“For money? Out of fondness for the French? Who knows? Once the traitor secretary was dead, Ogilvie carried the news to a select few –Mr. Pitt included – who agreed to let that Admiralty fellow continue to roam free but under close scrutiny now, in the hopes that he might implicate others.”
Meri was silent, mulling the matter around, he knew. “How does anyone know who to trust?” she asked finally.
“That’s the spy business,” he said. “Personally, I deplore it.” He ran his fingers through her hair, enjoying the feeling. “We take Angus Ogilvie inshore to more danger than I