Wyatt's first stop on his search was a on the tip of high ground to the west of the encampment. The glowing green light flickered more slowly as he traveled there, telling him he moved farther from the Mother Ship. But once he reached it, the town and troops spilled out before him like a map. He could see the area where Rufus and Lucy were sheltered. He spent moments staring uselessly trying to get a glimpse of movement that would tell him they were okay. Then he dragged his eyes away to drink in the rest of the pattern of the camp.
Memorizing what he saw he took quick notes on a scrap of paper he'd taken for the purpose. From this distance, the tricorder gave him no indication which way was more promising than the other, so he sketched out a path for himself that would skirt the highest concentration of troops, but take him past likely areas to hide the time machine. His course would eventually give him roughly even coverage of the entire area. He identified a few spots where he thought he might make a go of sheltering for the night if need be. Sparing a moment, he rested and ate some food he'd taken for the scouting trip. He kept his eyes open but in his mind he relived that kiss with Lucy. If we can just end this here, Lucy, I want to see what those possibilities with you might be.
The temperature in the kitchen tents tipped right past warm to hellishly hot. Putting more wood in the fire, Lucy felt grateful for the break from the bone-crushing cold, but loosened buttons at her neck and wiped sweat from her brow. Out of the icebox and into the fire. Rufus entered the tent carrying a load of wood. He made eye contact with Lucy as he dropped the bundle and shook his head. It had been twenty four hours since they'd seen Wyatt last. No sign of him since. Lucy worked to calm her heart and focus on the task at hand. Only two more days before the battle was joined.
She finished basting the poultry spitted over the fire. She took a basket of potatoes to the work area and set it down in a spot close to the wood pile where Rufus stacked the fuel he'd lugged in. Under cover of directing him Lucy conferred with her team mate in hushed tones.
"Have you seen Karl?"
Rufus nodded. "I saw him and one other outside the General's tent where Emma has been staying."
"You kept your distance?"
"You know it. Lucy, what is your plan to get close to Napoleon?"
Lucy picked up a knife and started skinning the potatoes. "I won't need to. I'll unmask her as a spy to his quartermaster. The lower profile we keep, the better. And the sooner this will be over."
"I'm with you there." Lucy nodded but her face was taut and tense, her mind on Wyatt.
Rufus put his hand on her arm. "Lucy, he'll be all right." She looked at him and gave him a small smile.
Throughout that day Lucy and Rufus worked like dogs to feed and support the French and allied troops. When they could take breaks they conversed about how to establish Emma's guilt as a spy.
Rufus saw an opportunity late in the day and took it. Emma, Karl and Hammond, a new recruit, left the General's tent together. Rufus had "conveniently" taken on the duty of removing slop water and privy jars. Tensely he searched through the tent. Paydirt. There was a pile of letters and maps on a folding leather table beside the rope bed with it's feather ticks and straw mattress. Taking a look through the materials, he picked two that seemed the most important, a letter that seemed to be signed by Napoleon himself and a map covered with arrows and notations that Rufus was willing to bet were related to supply lines and troop movements. He took them and placed them in a chest filled with Emma's things. His hands shaking he grabbed the bucket and left as swiftly as he could.
He stumbled through the deepening darkness, but paused as he heard the sound of voices conversing in English.
Rufus heard Karl say, "Emma, is he listening to you?"
"I've convinced the General, but Napoleon is another matter all together. I've got to get him alone."
"What will that do? Why should he listen to you?"
Rufus pulled closer to the tent's wall to hear her reply.
"He's got a weakness I can exploit. His superstitious beliefs. And this time it will be right. He really can thank his lucky star if he listens to me."
"So she said something about his 'lucky star,'" said Lucy when Rufus let her know what had gone down. "Perfect! Rufus, you're a prince." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
He rubbed his cheek with his mittened fist. "So that's good news? Didn't sound that good to me. She thinks she's got a lock."
Lucy pulled the pile of quilted blankets back over them. After just a few hours in this cold, they'd pulled their bedrolls together that first night. ("You won't tell Jiya about this will you?" "Please. Jiya will just be glad that we didn't let you freeze to death. But what will Wyatt do...?" "He's been through worse, Lucy.")
"Yes, but I believe that she's working with false premises. There are conflicting schools of thought about Napoleon. There is a tremendous tradition surrounding his superstitions, following his lucky star, fears about Josephine, and so on. But it's also quite likely that none of it is true. They may be mythologies that sprang up after his defeat. He may even have encouraged these ideas to circulate for his own reasons."
"Well, that's promising. I'm glad it was all worth it."
"With what you did, I'm sure we'll be able to destroy her legitimacy."
"We'd better hope that is enough."
The next day, Lucy and Rufus both took the places of servers. Lucy had made friends with a Annette, a pregnant worker, getting close to her time. Annette was still expected to wait tables for the generals. She gratefully let Lucy take her place. Rufus had been ingratiating himself with several of the other servants and had learned enough pidgin French to be able to offer his services where it would suit them to have him be. But this morning their luck with respect to the other time travellers finally ran out.
"This one will do." Lucy heard Emma's voice curl around those syllables. She laid a platter down on the table. Turning slowly towards the sound of her voice, Lucy took in the situation. Emma was perched on the lap of General Montbrun, a charming cavalry man who was a favorite all around. He, Lanabère and Tharreau, two more of Napoleons' officers had gathered and were looking at Lucy. The predatory looks of the men alarmed Lucy, but Emma had a twinkle in her eye. Lucy approached them and gave a curtsey appropriate to her station. She answered. "I'm at your service, madam."
Emma stood, her lover pinching her full bottom for her trouble. Emma faced Lucy wearing such a look of such fury that Lucy was scared, until she realized it was not meant for her, but for the man whose lap Emma had left. Emma's hair was put up in graceful curls, the curve of her pale breasts visible above the high waist of the pale blue silk dress she wore today. She hid her face coquettishly with a blue silk fan that matched her gown. Lucy noticed idly that the wiry arm holding the fan her was dusted with ginger freckles. They were barely visible, hidden by a layer of powder.
Emma folded the fan and pointed with it at Lucy. "You'll be my new maid. You should be grateful to get out of the kitchen, girl."
Lucy caught Rufus' eye as he came back towards the table. She shook her head slightly and he retreated. But too late, Karl had seen him. Rufus was lost from Lucy's vision and she focused once more on Emma's strange overture. The fan extended was to shepherd Lucy in the direction of her choice. Gripped in her other hand, Lucy saw a pistol. Small but still deadly for all that, and viciously out of period. Emma lead the way back to her tent. Lucy recognized it from Rufus' description. She gulped trying to improvise changes in the plan that would allow them to still carry through.
Before they reached the tent, Hammond came into sight, breathing heavily. "We've found one of the others. Still no sign of the soldier."
"Did you catch Rufus then? He can't get too far."
"Tomas has got him cornered. It won't be long." Lucy gasped despite herself.
Emma smiled. "Don't worry, Lucy. You never had a chance." As Hammond left to rejoin Karl, Emma opened the chest Rufus had stashed the map and letters in. "You tipped your hand trying to frame me. I'm going to enjoy finally putting an end to this cat and mouse game."
Lucy saw her window of opportunity closing. "Emma I understand where you're coming from. I'm in the same boat. But we can work together and free ourselves. What did you want to do with your life? What do you want to do? It doesn't have to be this!"
"It's too late, Lucy. You'll understand soon enough."
A cry went up far in the camp. Gunshots were fired. Emma kept her gun pointed at Lucy. "Don't get any ideas." Suddenly General Montbrun and his attendants rushed into the tent calling for help. Karl and Hammond seized their swords and fire arms. Lucy saw her chance.
"General Montbrun, she is a traitor! Look!" Lucy put her hand on Emma's that held the gun, shoving past her to dive towards the chest that held the stolen papers. Not able to grab them, Lucy made do with tipping the chest over, spilling silk, linens and papers everywhere.
Emma cried, "Don't believe her! She and her conspirators have placed those there. She's trying to frame me, but she is the real spy!" Emma tried to hide her gun, but Lucy instead wrestled her for it, pulling the pistol back into view.
"She was planning to kill the Emperor!" improvized Lucy.
"Madness!" hissed Emma. "A woman must protect herself."
A circle had formed now around the two women twined around one another. Montbrun yelled, "Enough. Enough! I'll bring you both to the Emperor himself to sort this out. Bind their hands."
They were brought before Napoleon. Lucy prayed that Rufus had gotten away. There had been no further reports of him. She hoped that was good news.
The tent housing Napoleon was larger than the others, with more guards but not more grand in any other way. Guards stood by the golden eagles standards representing the companies present. Lucy caught herself dumbfound at being in the presence of them. Emma saw her look and couldn't contain the grin that slipped across her face. I know, right? she mouthed before the guards pushed her roughly forward. Getting a shoe caught on Emma's hem, Lucy heard a rip and realized she'd torn the other woman's dress.
They gathered before the massive table at the heart of the room. Off to the right was a private ready room with desk, area for ablutions and privy and racks of maps and communiques. Emma, examining the damage to her dress with a critical eye stood with poise. With just a dark look she dared the guards and they kept their distance. Lucy, overwhelmed and still casting about for some way out of this had no buffer of dignity to protect herself. The guard held her arm with cruel pressure.
"Explain yourself." A tall man with a ruddy complexion spoke. Lucy recognized him as Marshall Ney, the Grand Marshall of the army, called "the bravest of the brave" by Napoleon. Overwhelmed by the historical significance of the man, Lucy gave an awed glance to Emma. In response, the taller woman gave a smug smile. Then Emma moved to the center of the room and spoke loudly.
"Your excellency, I am known to these people. I am a known and trusted friend of the Emperor himself." She pointed at Lucy. "This miscreant is a spy for the Russians. She and her compatriots have framed me and thrown me into the path of danger." Lucy was jarred by the sudden switch. My enemy, not my colleague, she reminded herself.
The general brandished the papers. "These were found in your belongings. You would have us believe that this intelligence was placed there by someone else?"
Emma looked beyond. "I would request to make my plea to the emperor himself." There was a bit of a hubbub. Many people spoke at once affirming or contradicting her request. Ney called to another general, flashily dressed, who had moved to get Napoleon. Ney ordered him to remain. "No, Murat, this is not worthy of the emperor's time." Lucy couldn't repress her thought, Napoleon's brother-in-law!
But then, a stirring happened in the private quarters. Several figures came out, followed by the stocky, dark Corsican Emperor himself. He was unamused. Emma stepped boldly forward nonetheless and genuflected to him.
"You know me. I can give you insight into the future. A bad star shines on your next steps."
The look he gave her should have tipped Emma off, but she was too cocky, too sure of herself and what she'd seen before. She launched into a spiel that captured the attention of all the men around her, throwing in some flirting for good measure with a touch to a soldier here, a smile to a general there. She's wasted on this work, she should have been a performer, Lucy thought. Emma argued for committing all their troops, and using this as a turning point to return from rather than Moscow.
As Emma spoke, Napoleon walked over to her. He put a hand on her arm and smiled. Lucy drew a breath thinking Emma had pulled it off, but then his smile turned into a frown and he said, "You peddle fear that can control little minds. But you should know, my dear Emma, that it is no small mind that created the empire. Stars, stars! I am my own north star, I make my own destiny! Your knowledge of our movements is too good. Clearly you are a spy. And those who aid you must be as well. Seize them!" he called out.
Lucy hesitated, her argument with Emma and knowledge that she was at odds with her dimmed her awareness of the fact that as far as anyone else was concerned, she was Emma's handmaid. The tall soldier grabbed her cruelly and dragged her across the floor to where Emma was being similarly held. As they left the tent, Emma limped strongly. Lucy wondered, When was she hurt? But once they were clear of the lines the red haired woman leapt into action breaking free of her captor, grabbing his rifle and brandishing it at the other guards, her limp gone. Lucy saw Emma start backing away, leaving her behind. Lucy struggled to pull out her own pistol in the distraction caused by Emma's flight. But before she could raise it to gain leverage, a man came up behind Emma.
"Watch out!" Lucy called, giving up her own moment of advantage. Ney himself grabbed Lucy's hand and they wrestled for long moments. She heard Emma cry out and looked over to find the woman surrounded by soldiers all pointing their bayonets at her. As Ney gained the upper hand in their struggle, Lucy conceded, hoping they would take her surrender as a cue to not harm either of the women. Lucy stumbled in the direction she was taken now and was treated to Emma glaring at her.
"This is all your fault," spat out Emma. Lucy looked down at the ground, following her captors and trying to formulate a plan. Where are you Rufus? Wyatt?