Free The Scent of Betrayal by David Donachie

the more likely it is that one of them will end up as a victim. Then list the different distances between their various choices.’
    ‘You think they’ll plump for New Orleans?’
    ‘I can’t say that with certainty. But if you put it the right way then I think you’ll get the result you want.’
    ‘I have no interest in the result, James,’ said Harry.
    ‘That is not true. Unless you harbour a deep desire to satisfy the reservations of Oliver Pollock regarding French colonists.’
    The use of the name raised two emotions. The first was a fond memory, but the other was a feeling of slight betrayal, as though by minding his own business Pollock had been callous.
    ‘Rest assured, James, that he doesn’t come into it at all.’
    ‘He should, if he was right.’
    ‘About colonists?’
    ‘No, Harry. About the reactions of the Spaniards. If they’re thinking of coming into the war on the side of France, New Orleans would be a bad destination.’
    Harry shrugged. ‘I don’t see we have to worry about that, brother. There’s no news come to any of the islands of such a event.’
    ‘Would it come here first?’
    ‘It would certainly get to the Caribbean before it reached the Gulf of Mexico.’
    James frowned. ‘He did say we wouldn’t be welcome even in peacetime.’
    ‘I doubt they’d throw us a celebratory ball. But they won’t dare interfere with a British ship, James. There’s no country in the world more careful of her maritime rights than Britannia. There is one way to guarantee a war with King George. Infringe them! The War of Jenkins’s Ear was begun for that very reason and a race that remembers Drake will remember that. Besides, we’ll only be touching at the mouth of the delta. We can drop our passengers and head straight back out into the Gulf. As long as they see we’re not going to hang around in their bailiwick, they will be happy.’
    ‘Well, that’s fine,’ said James gaily. ‘Since the only problem left is to persuade our passengers.’
    Harry glared at him. ‘I’ll try persuasion first, James. But if the sods don’t agree, I’ll damn well tell them.’
    ‘That’s the spirit, Harry. Quiet diplomacy. But just as a precaution I should sound out Lampin and Couvruer first.’
     
    That was a piece of advice Harry was happy to take, though implementing it without causing suspicion proved to be difficult. Examining the problem objectively, he could see that James was right. It wasn’t malice that was keeping them from a collective agreement, but pure indecision. They’d been through a lot in the last few years, turfed out of St Domingue by the slave revolt, then out of Guadeloupe by the arrival of Victor Hugues. As a group they’d come to rely on their late Captain to decide everything for them. Now they must do so for themselves, and the method of leaving St Croix had done little for their self-confidence. His talk with the two Frenchmen was of necessity brief. But he secured what he needed, a definite agreement that Pender’s assessment of the situation was correct: that animosity and fear were growing, with violence not far below their surface calm.
    For a man who’d set out to persuade rather than dictate, Harry showed scant patience. Faced with a sea of surly faces, and being a person who preferred to command rather than plead, his voice soon lost the tone designed to gently nudge them in the rightdirection. Instead, made worse by his less than perfect French, he became harsh, practically accusing them of ingratitude, especially in the matter of their treasure.
    ‘Do you think I’d touch a sou of your money?’ he growled. ‘I wouldn’t. Every coin that’s in there now will be with you when you go ashore, you have my word.’
    Faced with his angry glare, several heads dropped. Harry sensing the opportunity, and guessing that they liked to be led, told them he was going to the Mississippi delta; that he would put them ashore there; and if any of the party didn’t like it,