The Shadow of the Eagle Read Online Free PDF Page B

misfortunes. The Prince de Benevento, as head of the provisional government, has himself resolved to have the Emperor exiled. The Iles d’Azores have been suggested, as has your Ile de Sainte Helene. Caulaincourt has been running back and forth between Talleyrand and the Tsar as an intermediary.’
    ‘And how are you and I involved in this negotiation between the Tsar Alexander and Talleyrand? You did not come here in the middle of the night to tell me what I may read in the newspapers in London? They also mentioned Elba.’
    ‘Pah, d’you think that a likelihood? Why, it is too close to France and too close to Tuscany. Austria will not wish to have the Emperor so close.’
    ‘Your Emperor is the son-in-law of the Austrian Emperor.’
    ‘That counts for nothing. Elba is but a ruse, though the world thinks the matter will rest there …’
    ‘And you think otherwise?’
    ‘Captain, I know otherwise.’ The vehemence in her tone was a warning of something to follow. Drinkwater struggled to clear his tired brain.
    ‘I can think of nowhere better than a more remote island such as you have mentioned if the late Emperor is to maintain some dignity. Otherwise I imagine it is not beyond the wit of your new Bourbon master to find an oubliette for him.’
    ‘But Captain Drinkwater, do you think he will remain long on an island? Have not your English newspapers been saying otherwise?’
    ‘He will be guarded by a navy whom he has compelled to master the techniques of blockade duty. I think your Emperor would find it very hard to escape …’
    ‘What will your navy employ, Captain,’ she broke in, the wine reviving her spirits as she warmed to her argument, ‘a brace of frigates?’
    The sarcasm in her tone as she guyed the English sporting term was clear. There was a sparkle in the green eyes that suddenly lit her face with the animated and terrible beauty he both admired and feared.
    Drinkwater shrugged. ‘Peut-être …’
    ‘Perhaps,’
    Hortense Santhonax scoffed, ‘do you think you can cage an eagle, Captain? Come, my friend, you have more imagination than that!’
    ‘Then, Madame,’ Drinkwater snapped back, ‘speak plainly. You have not come to warn me in so circumlocutory a style without there being something you wish for …’
    The remark seemed to deflate her. Her shoulders sagged visibly as though the weight they bore was unsupportable. She raised the glass and drained it. ‘You are right. I have need of your help … There, I acknowledge it!’
    Drinkwater leaned over and refilled both their glasses. ‘Hortense,’ he said in a low voice, ‘much has lain between us in the past. We have been enemies for so long, yet you can feel easy addressing me as friend. Do you remember when I dug a musket ball out of the shoulder of the Comte de Tocqueville aboard the Kestrel? I can see you now, watching me; I felt the depth of your hatred then, though I cannot imagine why you felt thus. Since that time I acknowledge I might have earned your hate, but I think you have come here because you trust me. And, in a strange sense, despite past events, I find myself trusting you.’ He reached out and touched her lightly on her shoulder. ‘Please do go on.’
    She gave so large a sigh that her whole body heaved and when she looked up at him her fine eyes were swimming in tears.
    ‘Yes, I remember the cabin and the wound … I remember you drinking brandy as you bent over De Tocqueville with a knife, but I do not remember hating you . Perhaps my terror at escaping the mob, of having abandoned everything …’ She sighed and shrugged, sipping at her glass. ‘But I know you to be a man of honour and that you will not abuse the confidence I bear.’ She took a gulp of the wine and went on. ‘When it was known in Paris that the British ships which would escort the Bourbon back to France included the Andromeda commanded by Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater, I knew also that our lives were destined to touch at least once more.’