Two minutes later Roger had her in his boat and the Spaniards were pulling lustily for the harbour. Eager as they were to question one another during the trip ashore, Georgina obeyed Roger's injunction to treat him as a stranger; so they could do no more than steal furtive eager glances at one another in the semi-darkness. It was not until they reached harbour and he had paid off the boatman that Roger could ask her:
'How in Heaven's name did you come to be here at Cadiz and in that ship?'
'I came in her from the Indies,' she replied quickly. 'She was one of Admiral Villeneuve's fleet.'
'Well, I'll be damned!' he exclaimed. 'And I was in another; at least from Madeira. To think we sailed in company and did not know it. You must then have been at the battle off Finisterre?'
‘I was, and scared out of my wits.'
'But how came you to be in a French frigate?'
'The ship in which I left Jamaica eighteen months ago was attacked by buccaneers and...'
'I know it. I saw you in a vision and you were nearly drowning.'
She pressed his arm, 'Dearest Roger. It was you then who saved me. Had I not had the sense to free myself of my skirt and petticoats before the boat I was in went down I would certainly have drowned. Even so I was nearly exhausted and the shore still distant. I recall thinking of you. Then new strength seemed to enter into me. I reached the beach of a desert island and was marooned there many months.'
'I know that, too. I went in search of you and found the place.'
'Oh, Roger, Roger. I might have known you would if you believed me to be still alive. But you came too late.'
‘I did not get there till May 12th of this year; but I knew it for certain to be the island you had been on, for I found your pearls and have ever since worn them beneath my shirt.' Suddenly he halted and began to laugh.
Turning her face up to his she said gently, 'I see nothing humorous in that. It does but show that you treasured the memory of me.'
'Nay, not that,' he strove to control his laughter. 'On the island I came upon two skeletons. One, tall and with fair hair still on its skull, I had no doubt was that of my Lord Rockhurst, with whom you travelled out. The other was short and had black hair. I believed it to be you, and was so overcome with grief that my men took me from the place. When I returned I found they had buried both. Had they not done so I'd have taken that black hair, plaited it and would be wearing it now instead of your pearls.'
Georgina then burst out laughing too. 'My dear! My dear! Just to think of you going about Europe for years to come treasuring a hank of hair you believed to be mine when it was really that of a half-caste seaman.' After a moment she went on, 'His name was Jose’ With Rockhurst and myself he was the only survivor from our boat. The poor Skiffingtons and the other men in it were all drowned.'
'But what happened later?' Roger asked quickly. 'How did Rockhurst and Jose come to die and you escape?'
'We had been on the island just on a year,' she replied, 'when the French frigate you found me in anchored off shore to water. A party of sailors from her came upon us. Little Jose had been taken with a fever and was lying in his own hut, so was helpless and must have died shortly after. Seeing me skinless and half-naked the sailors thought mc fair game for a rape. Rockhurst endeavoured to defend me but they were too many for him and he was struck down. Luckily for mc a young officer appeared at that moment and called his men to order. He took me aboard the ship and I told my story to Captain Fournier. The gallant Captain was much taken with me.'
'And then?' Roger prompted her.
Georgina giggled, 'Surely you can guess the rest. Although something of a martinet he is a handsome fellow, and after a few days at sea I made a bargain with him. I agreed to become his mistress if he would take me back to Europe. The frigate lay for some while at Port-au-Prince, then sailed down to Martinique, joined Admiral Villeneuve's fleet and recrossed the ocean.
'After the battle off Finisterre we put in to Vigo. I asked Jules Fournier to put mc ashore and give me sufficient money to journey down to Gibraltar, so that I could get back to England. But he had become quite besotted about me and behaved most ungenerously, declaring it to be his intention to keep me with him indefinitely. There have been occasions since when I could have escaped; but I dared not land penniless in a foreign port; and though I watched him like a hawk he was too clever to give me an opportunity to steal money from him.'
By this time they were approaching the 'Inca Queen', and even while listening to Georgina's story Roger had been giving half his mind to considering what it would be best to do in this most unexpected situation. Drawing Georgina into the shadow of an arch that led into the stable yard of the inn, he said quickly:
'Listen, my sweet. We are not yet out of the wood. Fournier will be coming ashore at any moment to hunt for us. If he finds us you may be certain he will force a duel upon me. I'm a good enough blade to back myself to get the better of him, but duels are tricky things and did he chance to wound me severely that would spell disaster for us both. For mc because I have information of the utmost importance that I must get to England; for you because you would be left stranded here without money or anyone to turn to. That we dare not risk, so we must get out of Cadiz as swiftly as we can.'
'Gibraltar is no great distance from here, is it?' Georgina said.
'Stap me!' Roger exclaimed as an idea suddenly came into his head. 'I have it. To Gibraltar you must go. Though I cannot.'
'But why?' she cried. 'Oh Roger, having found one another again must we part so soon?'
'Alas, beloved, I fear we must. I cannot go there because the place is besieged and the Spaniards would not let me through their lines. But they are chivalrous people and, unlike Napoleon, do not interfere with civilians from enemy countries caught in theirs by a war. You have only to tell some story to the Spanish officers at La Linea. Say that your husband is a merchant on the Rock and that when war was declared you were staying with friends in Madrid; that you have recently heard that he has met with a serious accident and wish to rejoin him. I am confident they will let you through.'
'But, Roger,' Georgina was in tears now. 'Since... since you cannot go to Gibraltar, I've no wish to go. We'll go to some other place. Anywhere as long as I can remain with you.'
'Hush, dear heart, hush,' he pleaded. 'Stop crying, I beg, and listen. In this we must think not of ourselves but of our country. It is of the utmost importance that I get a message to the Governor of Gibraltar as swiftly as possible. And you can take it for mc.'
He then told her of Napoleon's orders to Villeneuve to leave port and join Gantheaume's fleet from Brest which, unless Villeneuve could be intercepted, would make the French masters of the Channel.
Georgina realized at once how vital it was to get the information through and that by taking it to Gibraltar she could get it there perhaps as much as a week earlier than Roger could himself. So she dried her tears and made no further protest about being separated from him again so soon.
While they had been talking in the shadow of the arch several people had passed them, and back in the big yard of the inn a team of horses was being harnessed to a coach while it was loaded up. Glancing in that direction, Roger said:
'Wait here one moment, dearest, while I enquire of an ostler where that coach is bound for. It is most probably going to Seville, as that is the main road into central Spain; but he will be able to tell me the hour at which the one for Algeciras leaves in the morning, then we'll find some small inn at which Fournier is unlikely to enquire for us, and there pass the night.'