Mississippi Raider (17 page)

Much to
Belle
’s
satisfaction, as they were subjects generally regarded as being
male-only accomplishments—especially by members of her class,
especially in the Southern states—and of which she suspected her
aunt did not entirely approve despite appreciating how useful
having them was likely to be, there had been fields in which it was
considered she already possessed a sufficiency of competence.
Because of the training she had received at her father’s
instigation, she had a superlative ability at riding a horse
sidesaddle or astride across the most difficult terrain, a skill
that was to serve her so well in her career.

Furthermore, having
demonstrated it in practice, the girl
’s ability in the use of firearms of
various kinds had received praise. On having put to the test her
ability at fighting, as opposed to formally fencing, Dartagnan,
being an acknowledged master at both, had claimed that the lessons
learned from Captain Anatol de-Farge had been so comprehensive in
their scope that there was nothing further he could teach her. The
devices for self-protection supplied by the gambler had met with
the approval of everybody to whom they were shown, as did the
modification she had had made to her skirts at his suggestion. To
the former implements, she had added the kind of most effective
concealed and disguised weapon that her aunt possessed, and one of
them would be an important factor in her later survival. It was
claimed that the instructions in detecting and even using some of
the methods employed by dishonest professional gamblers, given by
an old friend of her family to add to her other unconventional
accomplishments, might serve another useful purpose when she
commenced her duties.

As time went by and she
realized she was gaining an
ever-growing satisfaction over the way her
training was progressing, Belle had begun to become impatient to
commence active duties. Although she never forgot her desire to
take a justifiable revenge upon Alfred Tollinger and George Barmain
for the murder of her parents—Rose having contrived to learn that
they had joined other “liberals” in a section of the Yankee Secret
Service that was less efficient than the branch run by Allan
Pinkerton without as yet finding out where they might be
serving—she had accepted that they were probably beyond her reach
in the line of duty. What was more, she never allowed herself to
forget the promise she had given on her word of honor to her aunt
on the night they met, and continually swore to herself she would
never turn aside from her duty should she learn where she could
find them.

The chance for the girl to be
sent into what her companions referred to as
“the field” came as the result
of complaints from their superiors being received by Rose Greenhow
in a coded message. There was a serious leakage of information
taking place in Atlanta, and Belle was sent with Dartagnan to help
try to locate, then stamp out, the source. At her suggestion, made
because Higgins had said his specialized services might prove
useful and asked her to make it, he was included in the small
party. On arrival and after establishing contact, they had found
that the local agents had made considerable progress in the matter,
but felt their assistance would be of little use in bringing the
matter to a conclusion.

As a result of the investigations carried
out on the spot, it had been ascertained that the first part of the
problem was almost certainly the result of a small number of Army
and Navy officers—not all of whom were young and of junior rank—and
others in positions allowing access to items that the North would
find of use, being regular participants in the games of chance
offered at a high-class gambling house in the city. Several were
known to have sustained heavy losses and lacked the financial means
to settle their debts, yet they had not appeared to be pressed by
the owners to do so. In fact, there had been rumors that some had
had the liabilities discounted supposedly on grounds of loyalty to
the Southern cause. While such a contingency was possible, the
local operative had stated that the owners of the gambling house
would be most unlikely to show generosity in such a fashion, as to
do so would establish what they were almost certain to regard as a
dangerous precedent.

Wanting the matter investigated, Colonel
Charles Jeremiah Mason, the head of the Secret Service in Atlanta,
had suggested that the matter be handled by the visitors from
Richmond, since they were strangers in the town and less likely to
arouse suspicion than any of his men, all of whom—with one
exception—had been residents for some time and had never shown any
interest in gambling, even before taking up their duties.

On being introduced to the exception, Belle
had been delighted to find that he was Joseph Brambile, who in
addition to being a successful professional gambler was an old
friend of her family. Without waiting to be told of the
accomplishments she had added since their last meeting, as he had
heard what happened to her parents, he guessed what had motivated
her to join the Secret Service. Therefore, he had suggested a means
by which proof might be obtained about the honesty of the gambling
house if nothing more positive.

“
Ole
Dixie,” as the Colonel was cheerfully and respectfully referred to
behind his back by his juniors on account of his being a descendant
of one of the men who surveyed what had already become known as the
Mason-Dixon line and accepted as separating the Southern “slave”
and Northern “free” states, had agreed that the proof would at
least allow the establishment to be closed and its owners and
employees to be run out of town. However, it was apparent to Belle
from the way he had looked briefly in her direction that—due to his
upbringing as a Southern gentleman—he had been far from enamored of
making use of her services in the capacity that was suggested.
However, Brambile had insisted that she was a most essential part
of the deception he was planning, and Dartagnan had rallied to her
support by declaring that there was no woman more capable of
self-protection should the need for this arise. Accepting both
points, Mason had given what was clearly an acceptance filled with
unspoken misgivings.

Because the matter was regarded as being of
the greatest urgency, no time had been wasted in putting the plan
proposed by Brambile into effect. To avoid being recognized,
although he had not been even close to Atlanta in several years, he
had adopted the attire of a well-to-do plantation owner older than
Brambile himself. For her part, Belle had donned a blond wig of a
suitable style to go with the expensive dress and other
accoutrements—including the protective devices from de-Farge and a
fancy parasol of a style copied in every respect from one in the
possession of her aunt—to add credence to the character in which
she had been introduced: his less-than-bright and insipidly
garrulous, albeit trimly curvaceous and beautiful companion whom he
claimed to be his niece but who gave the impression of qualifying
more accurately as his mistress.

~*~

“
Yes,
Colonel,” Martin Jacques confirmed with the suggestion of bonhomie
he always exuded so convincingly when addressing men he knew to be
very wealthy and less-than-successful gamblers. Big, burly, with
features just short of ugly, he was excellently and expensively
dressed in a manner that gave no indication of how he earned his
living. He glanced quickly to where his partner, David Hunt—whose
lean and gaunt physique was clad in a similar fashion—stood close
by listening to what was said while studying the “blonde” in a
frankly lascivious manner. “We most certainly
do,
and it is always our pleasure to see
it go to a gentleman of distinction like yourself.”

“
There, Maggie-child,” Joseph Brambile boomed in the manner
of speech he knew the man he was impersonating invariably used. “I
told you we’d come to the right place.”

“
That
you did, Third-honey,” Belle Boyd asserted, giving her companion’s
left arm a squeeze suggestive of affection, in keeping with the
character she wanted to establish for “Magnolia Beauregard,” the
name she had chosen to use and would often use in the future as
being indicative of her birth and background. “But then,
you’re
always
right about
everything,
I do declare.”

“
What
will your pleasure be, Colonel?” Jacques inquired, and waved a fat
hand in a leisurely fashion around the big room. “As you can see,
we offer a variety of games of chance, and although I say it
myself, you won’t find any better served nor more honest no matter
where you go.”

“
If I
doubted that, sir,” the disguised gambler replied with the same
feisty bombast, “I would not have brought my niece here in the
first place. By the way, allow me to present her. This is Miss
Magnolia Beauregard.”

“
Proud
to make your acquaintance, ma’am,” the bulky man said formally,
with a bow that was deeper than required by convention.

“
Enchante, m’sieur,”
Belle responded in poorer French than she would
normally have employed, while giving a curtsy that allowed Hunt an
opportunity that he took the most advantage of to see down into the
daring décolleté of her white crinoline gown’s bodice. ‘Third-honey
does so
love
to gamble, and I enjoy him doing it.”

“
Perhaps you would care for a libation while you are making
your choice, Colonel?” Jacques suggested, drawing the intended
conclusion that Magnolia Beauregard found the participation in
gambling served to stir her elderly keeper sexually. “And you, of
course, Mam’zelle Beauregard?”

“
Can I
have some champagne, Third-honey?” Belle cooed. “You know how I
dearly
love
what it does to m—the way the bubbles tickle my
nose!”

“
I
certainly
do
and you most certainly
may”
Brambile authorized, also keeping the impression
that there was a special significance in the way the first part of
the explanation was worded before being altered to something more
innocuous. “I’ll take a bourbon, sir, while I’m looking around and
deciding at which game I will do my winning from you.”

“
How
do you think it’s going, Third-honey?” Belle inquired, just loudly
enough for Brambile alone to hear, after they had accepted the
drinks that were brought by a colored waiter in response to a
signal and order from Jacques and they had started to walk slowly
across the room.

“
What
a name you’ve picked, Maggie-child,” the gambler replied no more
loudly, pleased and amused by the way in which the girl was making
it appear that she was cooing sweet nothings into his ear. “But
everything’s going along quite satisfactorily so far. The fat
feller’s obviously heard of Colonel Ebediah F. Culpepper, which I
expected to be the case, but hasn’t made his acquaintance
face-to-face.”

“
That
could have been difficult.”

“
It
could, although I calculated the odds to be in our favor against
its having happened. Even if it did, unless they had been on close
terms, I was confident I look and sound enough like the good
Colonel for him to assume it was only the passage of time which
caused any minor discrepancies.”

At first, although the girl
thought the surroundings were even more opulent than those of
Captain Anatol de-Farge— which was understandable, as Baton Rouge
was a smaller town than Atlanta—neither paid any particular
attention at that moment to the various games of chance that were
taking place. Rather, they subjected the people who were present to
their
scrutiny. The staff were well-dressed and, except for the
half a dozen large men who loafed around without doing any kind of
work or participating in the games, appeared courteously
efficient.

The players were mostly military or naval
officers of differing ranks and civilians whose attire implied
affluent circumstances. However, there were a few women present.
These were alike in being well-dressed and bejeweled. Belle was
just wondering which of them were employed by the house. She was
just about concluding that she could not tell if this was the case,
or they were there either as companions brought by the players or
even as participants at the games in their own behalf when she
received something of a surprise. It took all her willpower to
prevent her perturbation from becoming apparent.

Standing at the faro bank table, which was
doing the most business and appeared to have the highest stakes,
clad and jeweled as well as any other woman present, was the
curvaceously close-to-buxom and attractive English redhead who
called herself Roxanne Fortescue-Smethers!

For a moment
Belle
’s eyes
locked with those of the redhead.

Then Roxanne looked away and gave her
attention to the man by her side.

“
What’s wrong, B—Maggie-child?” Brambile asked sotto voce,
making the alteration to the name he had meant to say even though
he was not likely to be overheard. “You look as if you’ve seen a
ghost!”

“
Is
it
that
obvious?” the girl asked, having felt sure she had just
managed to prevent her surprise from showing on her
face.