The lantern appeared as soon as the door was shut. Harry, turning, saw that whoever had pressed the knife in his back had stayed outside. Apart from the man with the lamp they were alone with McGillivray.
‘Please follow me, Captain,’ the giant said. He walked up the passage, took the lantern, dismissed the man holding it, and opened the door to a comfortable parlour. ‘If you’d care to take a seat, gentlemen.’
It was James who replied. ‘I don’t think I want to do that until you tell me who you really are.’
‘I’ve already done that.’
‘You say your name is McGillivray, which is clearly of Scottish origin, yet you expect us to believe that you’re an Indian chieftain of some substance.’
That made McGillivray smile. He had a mouth full of large white even teeth that were near to sparkling. ‘It must sound strange to your English ears, I know.’
‘And if I’m not mistaken, sir, you even have a Caledonian lilt to your voice.’
James pronounced this with all the dislike that he felt for Scotsmen evident in his tone. Harry considered it was a subject on which his brother was barely rational. Their sister had married an impecunious Scottish lord when James was still a youngster. That brother-in-law, Lord Drumdryan, who’d seen fit to take a hand in his upbringing and dictate matters in their family home, he held to be typical of the race, and since he despised Drumdryan, he allied himself with those Englishmen who, greedy for political favour and seeing the northern interlopers prospering, hated the Scots.
‘My father was Scottish,’ McGillivray replied. ‘He married my mother, who was half Creek Indian and half French. In the Creek nation the bloodline is female, and my mother was a member of the Wind clan. That is the clan that stands highest in the eyes of our spirits. So I inherited my position from my mother.’
‘You said your daughter was on the Gauchos,’ said Harry.
A slight pause. ‘She was. Sequoy Marchand McGillivray.’
‘And how old is she?’
The answer didn’t come immediately. It was as though McGillivray had to count the passage of time. ‘Sixteen years by a European calendar.’
‘Was she alone?’ asked James.
‘She was on the Gauchos with Captain Rodrigo.’
Harry cut in. ‘Were there any other passengers?’
‘Not that I was aware of.’
Even by the faint light of the candle Harry could see that James was perplexed. ‘Is it not unusual to send a sixteen-year-old-girl abroad unattended?’
‘Perhaps we don’t count New York as abroad,’ McGillivray replied sharply.
‘New York!’ Harry barked. ‘Was that the ship’s destination?’
‘Why does that surprise you?’
‘I had assumed that it was bound for Spain.’
McGillivray shook his head. ‘Captain Rodrigo was carrying his cargo to New York. The first granulated sugar ever processed by human hand. Unfortunately he didn’t even get a hundred miles from the mouth of the delta, if the rumours I have heard are true.’
‘They are, I’m afraid,’ Harry replied. ‘We came across her not much more than a day’s sailing from Fort Balize. Rodrigo’s body we picked up closer to the delta.’
McGillivray sat forward eagerly. ‘Please tell me what you found.’
Harry hesitated for just a moment, still trying to fit the ship’s destination and the way McGillivray referred to the cargo into what had happened with de Carondelet. He was also slightly troubled by the reference to the man’s daughter. He distinctly remembered the unoccupied look of the cabin, with the chest that contained the clothes of what appeared to be a young girl. The one with the older woman’s clothes and vomit-stained sheets had certainly been used. Surely that denoted another passenger? There was Rodrigo’s wife, but it couldn’t be her. Sailing with her husband, she had her quarters in the main cabin.
‘Captain Ludlow?’
He brought his attention back to McGillivray, who was clearly anxious to hear what he had to say. He explained how they’d found the ship and how whoever had approached and boarded had almost certainly been known to the Captain. That made the giant Indian stiffen slightly, but he didn’t speak. Then, without mentioning open boxes of sugar, Harry went on to describe Rodrigo’s cabin, set for dinner, and what he’d found in the accommodation below decks.
‘Did they go down with the ship?’
‘No. My servant brought them off before Gauchos sank.’
McGillivray sounded resigned. ‘So they are in the hands of Governor de Carondelet.’
‘Actually,’ said James, ‘they are still on board.’
‘I have been told that de Carondelet left your ship in possession of a chest.’
‘That was a different one, sir.’
A moment’s silence followed. Both brothers were surprised that McGillivray evinced no interest in that other chest – not that either of them would have told him what it contained. Still, his lack of curiosity was odd.
‘How was she sunk?’
‘They sent someone down to the bilges to knock out the planking,’ Harry replied. ‘I don’t think they did a very thorough job.’
‘And there was no sign of a struggle.’
‘There was spotted blood on the deck, plus a great pool by the bulwarks. But when I examined that I was sure it was animal blood. There was nothing below decks or in the Captain’s quarters.’
‘Animal blood?’
‘Pork has a very peculiar smell, even raw. I think the blood on the deck was from a slaughtered pig. The manger and the hencoop were empty. I can only think whoever took the Gauchos was short of stores, but lacked the means to transport them live.’
‘Something small, then?’
‘Very likely,’ Harry replied.
McGillivray sat down suddenly, hands clasped before him. ‘I have ten thousand questions in my mind, Captain, most of which would probably make no sense to you.’
‘I’ve told everything I know, sir. And I must add that a great deal of what I have imparted is mere speculation.’
‘What will you do now?’ asked James.
McGillivray’s black eyes fixed on him for a moment, with a threatening look. Then he stiffened, as if seeking to control himself.
‘All the evidence points to a kidnapping. That’s the long and the short of it.’
Harry’s next question was posed tentatively.
‘When you say ‘kidnapping,’ do you assume she – your daughter, I mean – will be held for ransom?’
‘Of course, Captain. I am, through my own efforts and that of my father, seen as a very rich man.’
‘Whoever would do such a thing can only be either an enemy or, at sea, a pirate.’
‘That is so.’
‘What if I was to say that the Gauchos wasn’t taken by a pirate?’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because we met the fleet of galleys that had just cleared out Barataria Bay off Fort Balize. A man called Charpentier was on one of them, in a cage.’
‘He is a prominent member of the fraternity, but he’s not the only one.’
‘Captain San Lucar de Barrameda said he chased all the others into the swamps.’
‘I would beware of placing too much credence in the claims of Spanish officers.’ McGillivray paused before proceeding, unaware of how his opinion had pleased Harry. ‘But I agree with you, it was unlikely to be a pirate.’
‘Why?’
There was another slight hesitation before McGillivray replied, which this time entirely robbed his answer of verisimilitude.
‘Because everyone in New Orleans knows who I am, just as they know the identities of the Barataria Bay pirates. Charpentier could have been picked up in any one of a dozen taverns in the last month.’
‘Knowing who they are is one thing, sir.’
McGillivray emitted a hearty laugh, which given his distress over his daughter was singular.
‘Do you think any of our buccaneers spend all their time in
Barataria Bay? No, gentlemen. And if you had been to that godforsaken place you’d know why. They’re no different to other men, they like their comfort, especially when fortune favours them with a good capture. You’re as likely to find them drunk in the tiendas outside the northern wall as on their ships. Given coin to throw around they’ll do so and it’s not long before they run short.’
‘A description that fits nearly every sailor I’ve ever met,’ said Harry.
‘And there’s precious little honour amongst them. If they were holding anything of value …’
‘Like a rich man’s daughter,’ James added.
‘Exactly! Then the first one to run out of money would have sent me a message’
‘So who are your enemies?’
McGillivray’s shoulder heaved in a gesture of ironic humour. ‘It would take a week to list them.’
‘Try, sir,’ said James, solicitously, ‘in case it sparks some hidden memory.’
‘The Kentuckians, who want more Creek land as well as trading concessions on the west bank of the Mississippi. The Georgian land speculators, the same. French trappers, the fraternity of coureur de bois who would like a monopoly of the trade in furs being exported through the colonial government – at present that is a position I hold. The French colonists of Louisiana. They resent the fact that I do business with the Spaniards and prop up what they see as a usurping power, the Dons themselves, who don’t really trust the Creeks, and are sure we are just waiting to betray them to the Americans.’
‘Is there anyone left?’ asked Harry.
‘Oh, yes, Captain. My business competitors, or any villain that would seek to make a fortune by exploiting any perceived weakness in my defences.’
‘I take it you’re known to be attached to her?’
McGillivray put his face in his hands. ‘I am.’
‘Then pray to whatever gods you worship, sir,’ said James.
‘I do, daily.’ Suddenly he rubbed his face vigorously and looked at the two brothers. ‘Thank you, gentlemen. Allow me to apologise for the manner in which you were brought to this room. Please understand that I was anxious.’
‘Of course.’
‘I shall await a demand. No doubt it will arrive in time. The lack of specie in the area will make it difficult to meet, but I cannot gnaw on that problem until it arrives. After all, it is only three days since the taking of the Gauchos. All I ask is that you return her possessions to me. Who knows, she may have left a clue.’
‘Harry,’ said James, ‘you can’t leave matters like this.’
Harry looked at James, his face free of any expression. But as he turned back to the half-breed Indian, James was sure he saw the ghost of a smile.
‘Mr McGillivray … I don’t know if what I’m about to tell you will ease your mind or trouble you further.’
The black eyes were on him now, as hard as agate. And Harry’s voice, had a light, inappropriate quality for the purveyor of chilling news. ‘The day after the Gauchos sank, we found more than the body of Captain Rodrigo. The raft was towing half a dozen casks, which we assumed to have been used as a slow method of disposing of others.’
James interrupted in a more solicitous tone. He described slowly what they’d found, then Harry took up the conversation again.
‘There’s no concrete evidence to suggest who the victims were.’
‘The method was certainly barbaric,’ said James.
‘It does not bode well,’ added Harry gravely.
McGillivray seemed strangely untroubled by this, which made James continue: ‘It seems to me that you are operating on a false assumption, which is that the Gauchos was taken because your daughter was on board. It gives me no pleasure to disabuse you of this notion. When we boarded the vessel we found dozens of boxes, which we subsequently confirmed contained sugar, which was granulated by a new process invented here in New Orleans.’
McGillivray interrupted swiftly, waving a huge arm dismissively. ‘I know of this. If you are attaching some importance to that in the matter of the loss of the ship, I must tell you it means nothing.’
‘They were all opened,’ said Harry, in a slightly pedantic way, ‘with the top layers of their contents removed.’
McGillivray shrugged. ‘The value of those casks is long term, to both Louisiana and the sugar trade.’
Harry nodded. ‘Carondelet implied much the same.’
‘So what is it that is designed to change my perception of why the ship was taken?’
‘I won’t bore you with what happened off Fort Balize, but we were obliged to come upriver to New Orleans, because of stating that one observation to Captain San Lucar de Barrameda. Here we met the Governor, and though he did not set out to tell us so, he managed to inform us that the Gauchos was carrying a large quantity …’ Harry paused, long enough to draw his listener forward in his chair, ‘of gold and silver.’
McGillivray shot to his feet.
‘Bullion,’ Harry continued, ‘to the value of two hundred thousand Spanish dollars. I fear whoever took the ship was not in pursuit of any ransom, nor there to kidnap anyone’s daughter. It is my supposition that they knew the gold and silver was on board. Not only did they remove it, but they also took everyone off the ship.’
‘Why?’
‘I believe I have already said it can only be because either their vessel was known or they were themselves familiar enough to be recognised without causing fear.’
‘I don’t mean that, Captain,’ McGillivray said with a touch of asperity. ‘Why would de Carondelet want to ship a fortune in bullion to New York?’
‘That is a question we have been asking ourselves,’ Harry replied, nonchalantly, ‘ever since you mentioned it.’
CHAPTER TWENTY
MCGILLIVRAY sat down again, leaning forward, his black eyes aimed at the brothers. Yet he wasn’t looking at them so much as through them, as he tried to fit what they’d just told him into the mass of thoughts which must now have filled his head.
‘I must tell you that having lost his original consignment,’ Harry continued, ‘he has taken possession of a chest full of treasure I was carrying and intends to use it as a replacement.’
‘Sorry,’ said McGillivray, who’d been so lost in his thoughts that he’d barely heard. But he forced himself to attend to what Harry said as he listed the events which had occurred since they’d berthed. The odd quick question helped him to avoid any misunderstanding, though the information he was receiving was clearly not doing anything for his confidence.
‘You know more about matters in New Orleans than either of us, Mr McGillivray.’
‘If you’re asking me to advise you, Captain Ludlow, then I’m not sure I can oblige.’
‘I rather thought you were seeking our assistance, sir.’
McGillivray nodded sharply, though his eyes carried a different message.
‘That is something we can hardly do in ignorance. How well do you know Barón de Carondelet?’
‘We’ve met simply because it is necessary. He has a deep suspicion of both me and the six tribes of the Creek nation.’
‘Why?’
McGillivray smiled slowly. ‘My agreements regarding the fur trade monopoly and defending the west bank of the Mississippi were made with his predecessor, Governor Miro. So in part it’s just the usual official attitude which maintains that nothing which happened before his tenure has any value. But just recently I went to New York, along with several other Creek chiefs, to negotiate with the American government over land-grabbing by their citizens. Speculators in the east sell land they don’t own and when the people that have bought it turn up they find Indians occupying what they think is their property. That leads to conflict.’
‘I take it the good Barón didn’t approve of your journey,’ said Harry.
‘No. I tried to make sure that everything was open and above board.’
‘Did your mission succeed?’ asked James, nonplussed as to why Harry shot him a hard look.
�
��I received guarantees from George Washington himself that they’d respect our territorial rights. I have to tell you that the President is as upright a man as you’re ever likely to meet, and I feel that as long as he is in office, or has any influence over policy, we are safe. Unfortunately, de Carondelet will not accept that Washington is honest and well intentioned. He suspects that there may be some secret protocol in which we have undertaken to ally ourselves to the Americans in a way that will harm Spain.’
‘Is that why you don’t wish to be seen here in the city?’ demanded Harry.
‘Yes. If my presence here is reported to the Governor he’ll wonder what I’m up to. He likes me to stay north of Pointe Coupée, on Creek land. The idea that I might be dabbling in politics worries him.’
‘I suppose it’s pointless to ask if he has a reason,’ Harry continued, smoothly. McGillivray looked at him keenly. ‘Do you dabble in politics?’
‘It’s impossible not to. I’ve already listed my enemies. But they’re not against me, or the Creek nation, for any personal reasons. We live in an unstable part of the world, gentlemen, where many different bodies are competing for advantage. So many that the Governor of Louisiana has trouble keeping an eye on all of them. His recent activities have done little to ease his predicament. That money you mentioned, if I’m correct, has been gathered in by de Carondelet’s agents over the past six months. It has led to the worst shortage of hard coin I’ve ever known. We’re practically reduced to a barter economy throughout the territory.’
‘I’ve already said that if we are to aid you it would help us to know something of this, if you could spare the time to enlighten us.’
It was now James’s turn to look questioningly at Harry. There was nothing in his demeanour to suggest he cared two hoots for McGillivray’s daughter. But he did care about the money they’d lost. The Indian couldn’t help him with that, but if Harry was about to embark on a quest for de Carondelet’s ingots then such a man could provide invaluable information. Was it that supposition, the feeling that he was indeed being used, that caused their abductor to adopt such a biting tone?
The Scent of Betrayal Page 19