The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear (the best electronic book reader TXT) 📗

The upshot of the discord between Payot and Chaput, together with Chaput’s personal doubts, was that the group walked right into an ambush. Chaput, Payot and one other man survived. Apparently in his report Chaput took responsibility for the deaths, though he also reported Payot for insubordination in a time of war—which is tantamount to mutiny.”

“So you could say your friend Miss Hunter was right about honor.”

“Yes, I suppose you could ” She checked the time. “Billy, there’s a pub called the Waterman just this side of Vauxhall Bridge—Iwant to go over there to speak to the landlord, and it should be open by the time we get there. I’ll tell you more in thetaxicab on the way.”

As Maisie took out her key to lock the office door, the telephone began to ring.

“You go and flag down a taxicab, Billy, while I answer this call.” Maisie picked up the receiver.

“Maisie, Julian here. Look, I hate to disappoint you, but I’ve had one hell of a job finding out about your man. However,I do have a couple of pieces of information for you.”

“Good of you to telephone me, Julian.”

“I’m glad to say a bit of digging revealed something rather nasty about the chap—I wouldn’t like to come back to you empty-handed,so to speak.” He cleared his throat. “One of my old colleagues put me in touch with Hackett’s commanding officer. He knewwho I was asking about immediately, and said the man had a temper on him—apparently he would start a fight with anyone overanything. Had rather a violent streak—and as we know, war is already a stage set for violence, but he was in another leaguealtogether. Very questionable individual. It seemed as if being a soldier gave him leave to indulge his love of violence.The most extraordinary thing is that it appears he might have saved the life of a French officer during the war—a fight inan estaminet that turned very nasty indeed.”

Maisie recounted details of the incident involving Chaput that Gabriella had described in her letter.

“Pretty much the same, Maisie.” Lord Julian paused, and cleared his throat again before continuing. “If that is the case,then do take care, won’t you? I don’t like the sound of this man—not only does Arthur Hackett hold a grudge, but from hiscommanding officer’s account, he is one to want recompense for his favors too.”

“Please don’t worry, Julian. I’ll be in touch.”

Maisie left the office and made her way along Grafton Street toward Tottenham Court Road, where Billy was waiting alongside a taxicab. As soon as they were on their way, he ensured that the glass partition between the driver and his passengers was closed, and turned to Maisie.

“All right, miss?”

“It was Lord Julian, confirming some of what we already know—but good to have the information. He gave me some additionalintelligence too.”

“So what do you think is going on, miss?”

Maisie took a deep breath. “First of all, we know the dead man who was drawn from the river was Claude Payot, and not d’Anjou.”

“Right, he was a Frenchman, and he’s the one who caused trouble for Chaput.”

Maisie shook her head. “I learned more from Gabriella’s letter, and her manuscript. Payot was actually French Canadian bybirth, and he fought in the last war as a young man. He came over to France from Quebec. However, instead of joining a Canadianregiment as part of the British Empire forces, he enlisted with the French.”

“And then he went to Syria with Chaput?”

“Indeed—though as far as Chaput was concerned, he would never see him again after the disaster in Syria. But when he turnedup again in London and presented himself to the Free French, once more offering his services for the love of France, it wassomething of a reunion between him and Major Chaput.”

“Oh, blimey.”

“Blimey, indeed. Chaput believed that when they were in Syria, Payot had in effect caused the unit to walk into an ambush resulting in the deaths of all but two of the men. In addition, while in the unit, Payot had the support of one of the men, who egged him on and became another thorn in Chaput’s side—Payot’s French cousin, whom he met as a boy when his family sailed from Canada to France to see their people—and not surprisingly, he had a reunion with the cousin when he landed in France to join the French army. The cousin came from a village somewhere in the Lot region, but again, not so important, though it seems that at the time he was a naive country boy, easily led by his more worldly cousin. Yet in a way Payot was also naive, chasing the dream of being a hero for the old country—but morally corrupt in the manner he chose to exercise his so-called heroism.”

Billy was thoughtful. “I can see all that, miss—but what I still don’t get is why Miss Hunter was attacked.”

“To stop me finding out what had happened and to stall the investigation.” She turned to look at Billy and pointed to thedriver. “I cannot say any more at this moment—I don’t want to take the risk. But I’ll fill in the gaps for you later.”

“Looks like we’re here anyway, miss. The Waterman. Not one I’m that familiar with—and it’s not far from where—”

“I know, Billy. Come on. According to Gabriella’s letter, a man named Sharpe is the landlord.”

 

“What can I do for you, sir, madam?”

“Half a pint of light ale for me and a cream sherry for the lady, if you please,” said Billy. He looked at Maisie and nodded.

“Right you are,” said the publican as he lifted a half-pint glass, put it under the tap and drew a half-pint of light ale,filling the glass slowly and leaving a perfect one-inch head on the beer. He placed the ale in front of Billy before takingup a sherry schooner.

“Oh, just a small one, if you please, Mr. Sharpe,” said Maisie. “If I drink a whole schooner of sherry, I might never leave.”

Sharpe raised an eyebrow, smiled, and exchanged the schooner for a smaller