“Yes.”
Potter nodded. “So did this fellow. I met him in Dunkirk.”
“I take it you spend a fair amount of time in France.”
“I was born there, for all that my parents were from Dover. Still got a sister in Gravelines. She takes care of the French end of the business, while I deal with things over here.”
“Convenient.”
Potter waited while a young barmaid slapped an overflowing tankard of ale on the table before him. “It is that.”
“Gravelines, you say?”
He took a deep swallow of his ale, then wiped the foam from his lips with the back of one hand. “That’s right. It ain’t like in the old days, when we used to have to collect our contraband either in the Low Countries or off neutral ships in the Channel.”
“So what’s changed?”
“Few years ago, Napoléon got clever. He realized that if he worked with us smugglers—made it easy for us to do business with France—he could use us to get French goods into England while at the same time keeping control over what we were bringing into France. So he issued this imperial decree, officially opening up a couple of French ports—first Wimereux and Dunkirk, then Gravelines—to smugglers. He even built special warehouses for us. Keeps them filled with lace, silk, leather gloves, brandy—whatever we want.”
“That was indeed clever. So what do you take to France—besides the usual spies, of course?”
Archibald Potter grinned and leaned forward. “Letters. English newspapers. Escaped prisoners of war. And gold. Lots of gold. They even built a special quarter just for us in Gravelines—they call it the ‘ville des smoglers.’”
“You’re saying the entire operation is officially sanctioned by the French government?”
“It ain’t just sanctioned—it’s controlled. Organized. They got the Ministers of Police, Finance, Interior, War, and What-have-you, all writing reports and procedures and the like. You know the French. Ain’t nobody like ’em for security passes, articles, rules, regulations, and any other kind of government paperwork a body could dream up. They’ve got something like seventy merchants and bankers in Gravelines officially designated to deal with us.”
“‘Us’ being the smugglers?”
“That’s right.”
“How many vessels are we talking about?”
“Hundreds. Most of ’em are small—under ten tons, with some of ’em smaller still. Smugglers like galleys, you see—especially for gold smuggling. They’re light and easy to build, they don’t need a lot of rowers, and they’re fast. Plus, you can turn a galley and row it into the wind if you’re unlucky enough to stumble upon the bloody Water Guard.”
Sebastian ran one finger up and down the side of his tankard. “Tell me about Rothschild.”
Archibald Potter hunched his shoulders and leaned in closer, dropping his voice lower. “They call them ‘the Family,’ you know. Ain’t nobody more active in the Channel than them. Lots of other London merchants and bankers finance operations. But the Rothschilds, they run their own bloody ships, specially constructed with secret compartments. They don’t just use kegs with false heads and hollowed-out pigs of iron hidden under the ballast. They’ve got secret drawers built into the binnacles that open by springs, false ceilings—anything you can think of and probably more than a bit you can’t. And they’re all flying flags with that Rothschild red shield and gold eagle.”
“So they don’t get stopped,” said Sebastian. The Rothschilds paid a number of officials in various countries to look the other way. And even those who weren’t paid off were frequently too afraid to tangle with such a powerful, wealthy family.
“They don’t get stopped very often—that’s for sure. And if they do get caught with contraband, all Nathan Rothschild needs do is claim he doesn’t know anything about it—just lays the blame for any illicit cargo they find on the crew and captain. That way the ship’s not forfeit, and it’s the crew that gets hauled off into custody.”
“I wouldn’t think they’d keep quiet.”
“They do if they’ve any sense. A revenue cutter stopped a Rothschild ship just a few weeks ago—the Viking—with a secret cargo of guineas in her stern. The revenuers took the captain and crew into custody, but a few days later they just”—Potter fluttered his hands through the air like a conjurer doing a trick—“disappeared. Everyone knows Rothschild’s got friends in high places—people who make sure anything he wants to happen, happens.”
Sebastian felt a quickening of interest. “When did you say the Viking was stopped?”
Potter shrugged. “First part of the month—during that nasty Great Fog we had.”
According to Nathan Rothschild, Jane Ambrose’s final lesson with little Anna Rothschild had taken place on a Tuesday at the end of the Great Fog. It could mean nothing, of course. But then again . . .
He became aware of Archibald Potter studying him with renewed interest. “You got Scottish in you?” asked the free trader suddenly.
Sebastian shrugged. “Some. Why?”
“You remember that fellow I was telling you about—the one with the yellow eyes?”
“Yes.”
“He had a Scottish name, for all he was a French colonel.”
Sebastian kept his hands steady by pressing them flat on the table. “Oh? What was his name?” he asked, his voice sounding convincingly casual.
“Mac-something. Can’t recall exactly. But he looked more than a bit like yourself—except older, of course. Old enough by now to maybe be your father, I reckon.”
“Interesting,” said Sebastian, his features carefully schooled into an expression of polite boredom even as he felt the blood coursing through his veins hard enough that for one pulsing moment he heard a roaring in his ears.
Leaving the Cat and Fiddle, Sebastian turned his steps toward the river, his gaze on the heavy white clouds pressing down on the city. But his thoughts were in the past.
He was the third son and fourth child born to the marriage of the Earl of Hendon and his beautiful, restless wife, Sophia. He’d always known he was different from his brothers, Richard and Cecil—different in looks, interests, talents, and temperament. And so very, very different from their father, the Earl. He’d grown up feeling like
