The Viscount's Dangerous Liaison by Louise Allen

Author:Louise Allen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2018-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

‘Laura?’

She realised that they were all staring at her. Where had that coin come from? Then she realised. ‘It was on the floor of the cut under the tomb. I landed on it when I fell in. I was groping around and my fingers found that just after I felt what I thought was a human bone with my other hand. I must have pushed it into my pocket while I was flapping about panicking.’

‘A profitable business, smuggling,’ Perry remarked as Theo picked up the gleaming object.

‘I am sure it is.’ Theo brushed away a crumb of dirt and lifted the coin to eye level. ‘But this cannot be part of the Reverend Swinburn’s ill-gotten gains. This is a fifty franc Napoléon minted in the Revolutionary year An 12, which, if memory serves me right, is more or less equivalent to 1803. That is eight years after Swinburn died.’

He passed the coin to Laura and she bent over it. On one side was the profile of a young Napoleon with the words Bonaparte Premier Consol. On the other side, a laurel wreath with 50 Francs inside, surrounded by Republique Français, An. 12, a tiny cockerel and the letter A.

‘That is the mint mark for Paris,’ Will said when she passed it to him. ‘There was an article about the French currency in the Gentleman’s Magazine a while ago.’

Finally Perry put the coin back on the table. ‘So the crypt has been used since at least 1803.’

‘Wait a moment.’ Theo got to his feet and began to pace. ‘This is all wrong. Smugglers are importing goods into this country, yes? We no longer smuggle goods out, the days of illegal, untaxed wool exports is long past – ’ He stopped and stared at them expectantly. ‘Yes?’ When they nodded he began to pace again. ‘So the smugglers would be buying things in France – brandy, lace, tobacco and so forth, spending English money. That is one of the objections to smuggling – the flow of English gold into France, into the pockets of the regime we are at war with. So in that case, what is a high-denomination French coin doing over here?’

‘Picked up as a souvenir and dropped?’ Will hazarded.

‘Fifty francs? In gold? That is not going to change anyone’s life, but I’d be irritated if I lost it and a working man is going to be downright annoyed. He’d search for it, I’d have thought,’ Theo said.

‘So either he could not go back to look for it or whoever dropped it had so many that they did not notice one lost,’ Laura said. ‘But many French francs, in gold? Here? Someone has been selling something valuable to the enemy if that is the case.’

‘And that’s a wonderful motive for attempted murder,’ Perry said triumphantly.

‘What a relief to know why I was attacked,’ Will said faintly. ‘I feel quite relaxed about it now.’

‘Sorry,’ Perry said ruefully.

‘But all we need to do to make you safe is to announce our find,’ Theo said, coming to a sudden halt in front of the fireplace.

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