As more French troops moved to help control the group of Britons, a gap opened in the line in front of the ambassador’s party. “Now!” Hansen snapped.
They all moved forward and closed half the distance to their ship before Colonel Gagnon and his aides galloped forward to stop them. The colonel barked, “All of you men will be arrested and detained as prisoners of war!”
Lord Whitworth said in his excellent French, “I am the British ambassador and have permission to leave. Here is my signed and sealed official passport.”
He produced the document and handed it up to the colonel, who scowled at it before saying grudgingly, “You and the women may proceed, but the rest of you damned Englishmen will be detained.”
Tamsyn stepped forward and caught the colonel’s gaze. She’d removed her dull bonnet and the sunshine made her blond hair shine like gold. Speaking in flawless Parisian French, she said, “Monsieur le Colonel, only the ambassador and his wife are English. The rest of us are French. These men were ordered to escort the ambassador to his ship to ensure that he left the country promptly.”
Cade almost laughed aloud. Tam had a powerful gift of persuasion, and when combined with her beauty, there were very few men who could resist her.
The colonel’s gaze ran over the other men disbelievingly. “You’re all French?”
“Of course!” Tamsyn said, her bright voice utterly convincing. She shifted her gaze to Cade. “Captain Tremayne, speak to Colonel Gagnon to prove you are French.”
All the children of the Tribe of Tremayne had been raised with French tutors and spoke the language flawlessly, so Cade responded in French that was a little less aristocratic than Tamsyn’s accent. “Indeed we are citizens and soldiers of France, sir. We are not in uniform because we were ordered to escort the ambassador and his wife to Calais as quietly as possible. If we were in uniform, rumors would spread that France had arrested the British ambassador.” He cast a contemptuous glance at Whitworth. “The British may ignore the rules of war, but the sons of France are always honorable!”
Amazingly, the colonel believed him. “Very well, Captain. Once you’ve delivered the ambassador and his wife to their ship, join my soldiers in arresting these other Englishmen!” He turned his horse and rode down the waterfront, his aides following him.
Whitworth said with a laugh, “Lady Tamsyn, Mr. Tremayne, that was an amazing performance! I now understand why the Home Office supplied me with Tremaynes.” Taking the duchess’s arm, he strode toward thePrincess of Wales.
They reached the gangway of their ship and several sailors bolted down to help the passengers aboard. The duchess went first, followed by Whitworth and Holland, then the guards other than Hansen.
With most of the ambassador’s party safely on board, Cade scanned the area behind them and saw several Britons who had made their way through a gap in the French cordon and were now looking around in confusion and despair.
Tamsyn hadn’t yet boarded. Taking in the situation, she said, “ThePrincess of Walesisn’t full, so let’s get some of these people aboard!”
Hansen was nearby. “The ambassador will want to help them get home,” he agreed, “but we have to be quick about it!”
The three of them split up and headed toward the nearest desperate travelers. Tamsyn approached a young family with two small children. The couple moved slowly since they were carrying the children as well as a bag of the family’s belongings. After a brief conversation, Tamsyn took the larger child so the father could manage the travel bag, and Tam and the family walked swiftly toward the ship,
Hansen jogged over to what looked like a father and son. The father was limping slowly with a cane. He could be heard begging his son to leave him behind, but the son flatly refused. Hansen joined them, and after exchanging a few sentences, he and the son lifted the father between them and carried him to the ship at a near run. When they reached the gangway, two crewmen carried the older man up, and the son hurried behind.
Farther away, Cade spotted an elderly man wearing a vicar’s collar moving forward with his wife, both of them looking frantically for their ship. A French soldier swooped down on them and grabbed the vicar’s arm. “You’re under arrest!”
The vicar cried out, “No! I’m sixty-three, too old!”
Refusing to release her husband’s arm, his wife said furiously, “Let him go! Clergymen and doctors are never taken prisoners of war!”
The French soldier gave a nasty laugh. “You can take it up with the First Consul once I have you safe in a cell!”
Cade sprinted over and jerked the French soldier away from the vicar, then knocked him to the ground with a hard punch to the jaw. He pointed at thePrincess of Wales.“Sir, you and your wife can board this ship right here! You can sort things out when you get to Dover.”
The vicar looked at the chaos around them. Some Britons were trying to force their way through the cordon while others fled back to the town, hoping to escape and hide. Occasional gunshots were heard, and shouts of fear and anger mingled in a fearsome chorus accompanying the actions of the relentless soldiers. They’d rounded up an ever-growing group of detainees, mostly men, but also some women refusing to leave their husbands.
“God bless you, sir!” the vicar gasped. “Quickly, Elizabeth!”
Cade kept an eye on the elderly couple until they were safely aboard while he scanned for others in need, but by now the British travelers had already boarded ships, fled, or been captured. Only Hansen, Tamsyn, and Cade remained free in this area.
Gagnon or one of his aides must have noticed that most of the ambassador’s group were staying on the ship, not leaving, and realized they were likely English. At a shouted order, several French cavalrymen turned their horses and began to gallop toward the spot where thePrincess of Waleswas docked, closely followed by a small carriage.
Cade swore to himself as he realized that he’d waited too long. He bolted toward thePrincess of Wales,but the cavalrymen blocked the route between Cade and the ship. He was searching for a way to weave between the horsemen when the carriage thundered to a halt right behind him. Cade was trapped.
The door of the carriage opened and Cade prepared to attack the occupant, hoping to fight his way free. But the tall, dark man who emerged from the carriage had vicious eyes and a pistol in one hand. “Now I have you, my British spy!”
Swearing to himself, Cade recognized that this was the Scorpion, so he immediately hurled himself at his attacker. After Cade wrenched the pistol away, there was a brief, violent skirmish between the two men. Cade almost managed to break free....
“You’ll not escape me!” the Scorpion snarled as he clamped a large hand across Cade’s forehead. An uncanny energy surged between them, unlike anything Cade had ever experienced. There was pain and searing light. Then the world disappeared.
