Chapter 22
"Infirmed relatives, Hell!"
Isaac Jordan looked down at the report from his detective with fascination. Rebecca Fogg, with her cousin's presence or without him, had been a social butterfly on the continent for years. She had attended many balls and parties in France, Austria, Spain, and the German states. She had been chased and caught some of the worst rakes for lovers.
"That last part couldn't be proven, no matter how much his man pushed, but what was provable was a short dalliance with a Prussian Baron."
"One year ago, spring, Miss Fogg had been in Austria with her cousin. They met Baron Von Kessler, who was, by reports, a handsome Prussian Army officer. Miss Fogg had danced with him; flirted outrageously and left her cousin's company without explanation. The Baron departed at the same time to his estate. Sometime later, Miss Fogg had been seen at the Baron's castle without escort by the Baron's uncle, an Austrian Count. The Count," the investigator wrote, "clearly believed that she had been his nephew's mistress."
"Phileas Fogg's dirigible was later seen in the area later," the report said. "He must have retrieved her from the castle, as no one saw her leave." The detective summarized the leads he had followed to discover what had happened next.
"The Baron left his country for England sometime later that fall and arrested on Phileas Fogg's estate. The arrest was made at the local church. I searched the church's registry to gain details of the event. In it, I found several pages missing around the time the Baron had been arrested."
Jordan knew where his man's thoughts were going before he read the next lines.
"Had the Baron come to get his mistress back? Had there been more to the relationship than a mere dalliance? Had they married at the church? Was he arrested and sent back to Prussia by her guardian, and all records of the event destroyed?"
Intriguing thoughts.
What had been more intriguing in my findings is that this baron had been second in command to an old general in charge of Prussia's spy network. Prussia does not make as much effort to hide the identity of its intelligence operatives as our country does. So, if nothing else, Rebecca's lover may have been a Prussian spy.
The detective then gave some scenarios that might help piece the matter together. The man was used to dealing with scandals and wrote his report hard.
1. The baron may have fallen in love with Miss Fogg and came to England to marry her against the cousin's wishes. They may have been caught, and the marriage wiped from the church records.
2. Rebecca Fogg may have been recruited by the Baron to discover government secrets. They may have been caught exchanging her first dispatch, and the baron was expelled from the country. This is possible when looking into her family history. Sir Boniface Fogg, Rebecca's former guardian, was the head of the Secret Service before his death. She might have had access to information damaging to the government.
3. Phileas Fogg, her present guardian, worked in the Secret Service under his father's tenure. He is not believed to be part of the service now, but that is not an easily verifiable fact. I arranged for Mr. Fogg to be watched for a short time to see if a connection could be made. A week ago, on the day he left England for France, he was seen visiting a government building. Fogg came out of the building carrying a satchel he did not go in with. While in the building, he is believed to have met with Sir Jonathan Chatsworth, the present director of the Secret Service. The director had been at this building at the time and left it shortly after Mr. Fogg.
4. The baron may have tried to seduce Miss Fogg not to make her a spy, but to take her back to Prussia and gain secrets she may have had from her close family association with the Secret Service. Her cousin, in this scenario, may have rescued her from the castle by stealth. The baron may have come to England to regain his prize by forcibly marrying her, but was caught.
5. The fact that the church records have been tampered with is testament that something significant happened at the church that someone does not want made public. I believe that a marriage between the baron and Rebecca Fogg is the only reason the records would have been tampered with.
Jordan smiled. This could be useful. No matter which scenario turned out to be the truth, the altering of church records would always make one think of a secret marriage covered ups. This Prussian baron, highly placed in Prussia's intelligence service, would cause people to think the worst.
For whatever reason, Rebecca Fogg appeared to have been this baron's lover for a time. If the gossipmongers at court were given that, she would be tainted. The queen would have to drop her favored status and Rebecca would be ostracized from court for no other reason than the possibility that she could be employed by Prussia.
Jordan sat back with a very satisfied smile, combing at his beard.
I can twist this anyway I want. Once Rebecca's relationship with her cousin is broken, I could string together this as damaging as possible. If I were forced to use it–No, I won't use this publicly. I'll only show it to Rebecca to make sure she stays in line. Anything she might say in her defense would be suspect. Destitute and under the threat of ruin, she will be at my mercy. At Nathaniel's mercy, that is. And if he gives me any trouble, he will see it, and see how damaged a woman he has taken in marriage.
Across the city at Whitehall a week later, Chatsworth went over the Verne file with Phileas Fogg, who had just returned from France. "You know what her reaction to this is going to be," Chatsworth said.
"No doubt she will hate me," Phileas said, barely holding his anger in check. "No doubt that is the whole point of this fiction. The swine means to separate her from me so he can enact whatever extortion he has in mind. Do you have any idea what that might be?"
"No," Sir Jonathan said. "While you were gone, Jordan visited her home. I assume the timing was deliberate. Could he have known you were going to Paris to see Verne?"
"He knew," Phileas said. "Jordan saw me at my club the night before. We talked about Verne's slower pace over the winter. Mention was made of troubles his auditors saw coming. I used that to end the research."
"It should all come to a head in two weeks, when Verne's last reports come in," Sir Jonathan said with a sigh. "I am having both Jordan and Rebecca watched closely. Once he takes his story to her, I will be there right after telling her the truth. You should see her afterward, to plan your estrangement."
"I want to be there when you speak to her," Phileas said.
"No," Chatsworth said, gently but firm. "She will be fresh from the shock, and I am not strong enough to hold her off you. Let me set the matter to rights before she sees you." He added a slight smile of jest, but they both knew Rebecca.
Despite himself, Chatsworth felt pity for Phileas. He still considered him an arrogant, irritating, disreputable fop. He was too high-strung and prone to fits of temper and melancholy. Despite all his advantages in education and having the chance to head the Secret Service handed to him on a platter, he had walked away into idle debauchery. Yet, Fogg does love and protect his cousin with the ferocity of a lion, which makes up for much.
Rebecca was the only close family the man had left. Losing her to the lies of a scoundrel of Jordan's caliber would drive him over the edge, just as losing his brother had. There was no love between the two men, but Chatsworth would not allow this plot to succeed.
Phileas said, "The next two weeks might be tense, depending on what Jordan has said to her. Rebecca has only asked how Verne was doing a few times since the beginning of the matter. I cannot say if she knows we are supposed to be Verne's backers yet, but we never speak of investments or what I do with her funds."
"As I suppose is the usual," Chatsworth said.
"The swine is worming into an area of trust with us. It was maddening," Phileas said, standing to move across the room.
As he left the meeting with Chatsworth, Phileas vowed that a great deal would change between himself and Rebecca. In the back of his mind, he kept hearing the indictment against him and his father's failure to prepare and protect Rebecca from this.
What arrogance said a woman could be trained to foreign intelligence work but not the running of her own estate? Why had I not turned it over to her when I inherited it?
But the first step would require humbly begging Rebecca's forgiveness for failing her.