Chapter 6
"They left?"
Rebecca had come to Whitehall on the wagon with the boxes of League records to hand over to Chatsworth. She had intended to see Jules and tell him the good news before she headed upstairs. Instead, she had found their haven empty. With deep concern for Jules and the Americans, Rebecca headed straight up to see Chatsworth with a dozen questions on her lips.
"All three of them left here over a month ago," Chatsworth said. He let her sit and told an abbreviated tale of how Matthew Ridgemont orchestrated their release. He then dropped the file he had been holding in disgust and leaned back in his desk chair. "Matthew Ridgemont made a formal request for a visit from the American Ambassador, which, of course, I could not refuse. The Ambassador came up to me after his meeting and demanded I release the Ridgemont's into his custody. And for good measure, that brash excitable colonial threatened to tell the French Ambassador that one of his countrymen had been locked up in our cells without his knowledge as well!"
"Oh, dear." Rebecca said. "Was the French Ambassador not aware of Verne's place in protective custody?"
"Of course not!" Sir Jonathan said. "France pays no attention to Verne. He is no one and nothing to them. Why would I have told them anything?"
"Of course," Rebecca said, dismissing it. "So, you turned them all over to the American ambassador? Who did what with them?"
"As I was told, the Ridgemont's wanted to return home to Texas until their problems here had blown over. Their places at Cambridge have been held for them. If all is cleaned up quickly, they will return next fall. The Ambassador put them and Verne on a ship to America. It was done quietly and with more discretion than I would have thought Americans capable of. By now, Verne is indulging in a fine little holiday." With that sarcastic remark, Chatsworth pulled another file from a desk drawer and handed it to Rebecca. "This is the information about the ship and their destination."
"On another matter, Rebecca," Sir Jonathan said before she could leave. "As you have been away so long, you may not have been told yet, but you are now one of the top three considered for deputy director. Congratulations."
"Thank you," Rebecca said over her shoulder, smiling. She knew she had him to thank for even being on the list. "Who are the other contenders?"
"Arthur Davenport and Sir Charles Mansfield."
Rebecca's exuberance was immediately dashed. Davenport was a few years senior to her, and Mansfield was politically connected in lofty places. Not that Rebecca was not a senior agent or well connected. However, she was a woman and her connection to the Queen often prevented preference rather than fostering it. Both men also had outstanding mission records.
After leaving Chatsworth's office, Rebecca sent up a prayer that Jules and the Americans had gone home and stayed out of sight. The League's new accommodation, like Count Gregory's last hide-a-way, was in a dense forest of North America. The one called the Big Thicket in East Texas. It was just a riverboat ride from Galveston.
Before leaving France, Rebecca contacted Agent Artemus Gordon in Washington, promising him all the records they had found speaking of the League's move to America.
It will be good to meet Artemus Gordon again, Rebecca considered, remembering the dark-haired, blue-eyed gallant. If all went well, she might even spend some time getting reacquainted. Of course, that will depend on Phileas.
A mischievous smile crossed her face. He can get so jealous for so little reason. It is endearing and a nuisance. Thinking of that, she remembered other things that were souring his mood of late. Phileas had been most annoyed to discover that the League's new location as they gleaned through files aboard the Aurora. It was mid-spring presently. They had last visited Texas in late summer. Phileas had been put to a long horse ride through the woods to rescue their American-born cousin, Jessica, and had been severely afflicted by a native pestilence. That awful experience made him vow never to set foot in Texas again. Yet Phileas was preparing to break that vow in his bid to destroy the League.
He will get over it. If Phileas becomes too exercised over it, I will ask Jessica along. Per a letter waiting for her when she returned, Jessica was in London for a visit after her honeymoon and might enjoy a trip to see her former mother-in-law. They had become excellent friends over the last year and a half.
Looking at Jessica, there was nothing to tell an observer that she was a Fogg. She was a tiny delicate angel blonde with light green eyes. But under her American mother's physical bequeath, Jessica was all Fogg. The two women felt like sisters. They had so many tastes and interests in common. The ever-practical Jessica, with her knowledge of cures and treatments, would know just what to mix up to fix whatever ill might set upon us. Besides, I have not told her of our news.
Agent Artemus Gordon received Rebecca's message with a wide smile. He sent a return telegram to London, thanking England and Rebecca for the information. Artemus then sent a message to Texas for Jim West, giving him his expected arrival in Galveston and the arrival estimate for the English.