“Do you recall that bet you and Lucas lost just before we clocked out on this mission?”
Finn blinked. “What the hell has that got to do with anything?”
“Not a great deal, except that it enabled me to understand a few things better,” Andre said. “I imagine that you and Lucas thought that I had spent the whole night rutting with that male whore and it amused me to allow you to believe that. In fact, I was far too drunk to have much interest in sex, though I did ask him to illustrate some things in a purely clinical fashion.
We talked for most of the night. Thanks to the implant programming, I’m a great deal better educated than I ever dreamed I would be, but as I’ve already told you, my education was incomplete in some respects. He was an excellent teacher, though not in the way that you must think. He was very good at explaining the various physical and emotional aspects of love, something I knew next to nothing about. What I found most fascinating was something he called ‘chemistry.’ I understand that it’s a very old expression used to describe- ”
“I know what chemistry is,” Finn said, irritably.
“Well, I didn’t,” Andre said. “When he explained it to me, I found it a bit difficult to accept. Maybe it was because I had too much to drink or because nothing like that had ever happened to me, but the idea of two people having such a strong emotional response to one another with no real knowledge of each other seemed somehow improbable to me. Yet, I strongly suspect that that was what must have happened between you and Marguerite.”
She paused, watching him.
“Your silence tells me that I’ve guessed correctly. In any other circumstance, I’m sure it would be wonderful for both of you. However, in this case, the problem is that you know and understand what happened, while Marguerite is hopelessly confused. She thought that her husband had grown bored with her at first, then she believed that Blakeney came to hate her because of St. Cyr. Now, she knows that her husband loves her, lusts for her. What’s more, she suddenly finds herself loving and lusting for her husband, a man who had never affected her that way before. She’s also noticed that, in many ways, he’s changed. His taste in food is different. Suddenly he can hold his liquor better than ever before. Someone at the first party that we had here reported your verbal fencing match with Pitt to her almost word for word and she was both delighted and astonished at your newfound ability. Finn, do you know what she asked one of the servants yesterday? She was afraid to ask me because she thought it might get back to you, so she went to the gamekeeper, who’s served the family for years. I know about it because I’ve been following orders and keeping an eye on her. I eavesdropped. She asked the old man about your relatives.”
“My relatives?”
Andre nodded. “She said she knew that you were an only child, but she was curious if you had any cousins, perhaps, who looked a great deal like you.” She paused. “Of course, Algernon Blakeney didn’t have a brother or a sister, so Percy obviously couldn’t have any cousins who were his identical twins, could he?”
She approached Finn and took the bottle from his hand. “I can’t really help you anymore with Marguerite,” she said. “She keeps asking questions and I’m running out of answers. l don’t know how you’re going to handle this, Finn, but you’re going to have to do it. I can’t do it for you. She’s just on the verge of believing the impossible, that her husband is an impostor. As Forrester might have said, she feels it in her gut. What are you going to do when it works its way up to her brain?”
Taking the bottle with her, she left the room and softly closed the door.
8
They sat together amidships on board the Day Dream as Captain Briggs piloted the boat across the Channel. They had sailed on the morning tide. It was a clear day and the wind was brisk and cold, sending sheets of sea spray across the deck, the droplets pattering down like grapeshot. Finn held his short clay so that the bowl of the pipe was shielded by his hand from both the wind and spray as he stretched his legs out before him. The crew did not intrude on his and Lucas’s privacy and Tony Dewhurst and Andrew Ffoulkes were both below in their cabins, having no desire to remain on deck in such damp and windy conditions. For Finn and Lucas, it was an ideal opportunity to talk. En route to Dover, Finn had told Lucas all about his meeting with TIA agent Cobra and his talk with Andre the night before.
“So she suspects that something’s wrong,” said Lucas. “That could be a real problem. I knew that you felt something for her, but I thought that maybe it was only sympathy or that she turned you on or perhaps a little of both, but this… You had to go and lose your head over a pretty face. Worse, you let her know it. Hell, Finn, you’re supposed to be a pro. Andre’s a rookie and she’s handled herself better on this mission than you have.”
“You just don’t understand,” said Finn.
“No, I guess I don’t.”
“She’s not just another pretty face, Lucas. I’m telling you, this is the real thing. I know it probably sounds corny, but Andre called it, there was something happening between us from the very start. I’ve just been refusing to admit it to myself. Hell, I’m not some lovestruck kid, I’m old enough to be your grandfather and then some, but I’m telling you, I’ve never felt this strongly about anyone before. It’s a revelation.”
“It’s pathetic, is what it is,” said Lucas, dryly. “The problem is, what are you going to do about it? What can you do?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Finn said. “Blakeney’s dead. Even when this adjustment is over, when the Scarlet Pimpernel retires, someone is going to have to continue being Percy Blakeney. Forrester said that it might be indefinite, but since I’m already on the spot, why not make it permanent?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. Why not?”
“Christ, Finn, I can give you several obvious reasons why not,” said Lucas. “For one thing, you’re in the First Division. Adjustment specialists are just too valuable to waste on temporal relocation. You ought to know that. Besides-”
“They can’t turn me down if I request a transfer,” Finn said. “With my mission record, I’ve got that option.”
“Technically, yes, you do,” said Lucas, “but you’re not thinking, Finn. You must really have it bad, because I can’t believe you’d be so stupid. To begin with, if Fitzroy found out about this, he’d probably put you in for reeducation when this was over, after which you wouldn’t even remember Marguerite, much less the fact that you wanted a transfer, which they wouldn’t give you anyway, at least not to the relocation units. In fact, that might not be a bad idea. It would certainly solve your problem.”
“It wouldn’t help Marguerite very much,” said Finn.
“Oh, I’m glad to see you’ve finally thought of how this would affect her,” Lucas said. “Have you thought of what would happen when you clock back to Plus Time and someone from the relocation units gets sent back to substitute for Percy Blakeney, someone she’d have to live with for the rest of her life? If the two of you got together, would somebody else be the same? Even if you were allowed to remain here with her, there’s one basic difference between you and someone from the relocation units. You’ve had antiagathic treatments and you’re far too old to have them reversed. She’d age at the normal rate and you wouldn’t. Leaving aside the fact that it would be a little difficult to explain to all your friends, how do you think she’d feel, watching herself grow old while you remained the same? How would you feel?”