Jane Feather - Charade by Unknown (howl and other poems .TXT) 📕

five out with usat any one time. Apart from the increased danger of detection,DreamGirl cannot safely carry more than ten passengers."

"How the

deuce

are we to getthrough the gates anyway?" Westmoredemanded.

"Ah, we shall use farm carts. The messenger from St. Estephe has givenme the idea. We will be French farmers, gentlemen." Danny smiled insmug satisfaction. "We will enter the city at dawn in the company ofall the others with produce to sell and we will leave at sunset withthat produce we were unable to sell. We can hide people beneathcabbages or some such . . . that is a mere detail." She waved an airyhand. "If we act our parts well, we shall go undetected. The guardscannot possibly search every farm cart; there are far too many of thempassing through at those times of the day, and they cannot deny themleave to pass since the city would otherwise starve. It is simple, isit not?"

"To you, maybe," Julesgrumbled. "How are we to find carts and cabbages,in the first place?"

"We will steal them," Danny informed him outrageously, her eyestwinkling. "Well, perhaps not exactly. We will take them at dead ofnight, and we will leave money in their place."

"You are quite mad," Julian stated definitively. "And so, clearly, amI."

Succeeding events did nothing to dissipate this conviction.

Dream Girl

sailed with the evening tide one Friday at the beginning of Julyunderthe command of a dour Cornishman who seemed quite unaffected by hisextraordinary orders.

"Jake knows the Brittany coast like the back of his hand," Danielleinformed her colleagues with a serene smile. "He will find us a smallbeach where the rocks are not too treacherous and thesurf not too high. One of the sailors will row us to shore in thedinghy and then return to

Dream Girl.

On the tenth day

they will lookagain for us. We shall flash a light from the beach. If we have notdone so by the thirteenth day, I have said that they should return toMervanwey." She shrugged and they all fell silent, occupied with theirown thoughts.

Three days and a hundred miles later, near the town of Brest, Jakefound what he was looking for. A small inlet in the barrier of jaggedcliffs that made up the wild rugged coastline of North Brittany.Dragon's teeth reeks rose high in the water on all sides and the whiteflecks of breaking water indicated to the wary the presence ofconcealed reefs. Only a small dinghy could negotiate these hazards, buta rower in such a fragile craft would not be able to handle the tidalstreams ripping parallel to the coast. But at the point Jake hadchosen, the rocks and reefs stretched only two miles from theunfriendly coast and

Dream

Girl

could sail that far inlandwithoutdanger, and the dinghy could be lowered beyond the riptide.

It was a black night when the brawny Cornish sailor ran the dinghy ontothe tiny beach and they spoke

in whispers as if danger lurked in thecove and on the cliff tops rising high above. There could be none,though, Danny reassured herself. They were too far from Paris and theBreton people were as reclusive as their Cornish ancestors. It was themain reason why she had picked this approach. The Bretons would beunaffected by the revolution; it was even possible that it had escapedtheir notice in these remote parts. Four men and a boy appearingmysteriously from the sea would perhaps cause a raised eyebrow, butthese people were too busy wresting a living from the unfriendly watersand the wind-torn, infertile land to ask questions.

Horses were their first priority and those Danny decided they wouldacquire legitimately. For the right price, they could be found on thesmall struggling farms and if her plans worked they could return them

at journey's end and use them again on the next occasion. But theycould do nothing until dawn, so behind the shelter of a small rockyoutcrop beneath the cliff they settled down, wrapped in cloaks, to

wait out the night.

Danielle fell asleep almost immediately. She had learned to sleep bythe roadsides, in barns, and under haystacks; to sleep with one earcocked for the sounds of approaching danger, until the Earl of Linton

had happened upon her and removed all need for such self-protection.Amazingly, though, the old habits reasserted themselves automaticallyas, once again on her own soil, once again faced with a long anddangerous journey, her real identity became subsumed by the simpleneeds for survival and secrecy.

Unused as yet to any form of discomfort, the others remained awake,saying little as they kept vigil until the sky began to lighten, atfirst imperceptibly and then with a pinkish tinge to the east. Dannywoke instantly, sat up, rubbed her eyes, and grinned at them."Breakfast," she announced.

"Allons-y."

As she had expected, their appearance in the fishing village causedlittle remark. They were received in

a manner that was neither friendlynor hostile. Their money was good and bought them breakfast and horses.Three days of hard riding and three nights of hideous discomfort in theprimitive country inns along the road brought them to the outskirts ofParis.

"We must wait until night before we go in search of carts," Daniellestated, turning her mount off the

road and into a wood bordering thepasture of a small, well-maintained farm. "They will fill the cartsbefore retiring so that they may make an early start in the morning."

"How do you know that?" Sir Anthony wiped his perspiring brow with thebright checkered neckcloth

that formed a part of his farmer's costume.

"Because, when I traveled from Languedoc to Paris, Tony, it was alwaysthe way." She dismounted, knotted the horse's reins, and flung herselfon her back in the grass. "We will harness our own horses to the cartsand take them back with us to Brittany." She chuckled lazily. "On ournext visit, we shall find both horses and carts awaiting us and matterswill proceed more easily. We can fill them simply enough from thevillage markets along the way so that we can enter Paris fully