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hadn't hurt—Jason had
grown up to be a mocking, arrogant devil, a gleam of taunting laughter never
far from his emerald eyes. Young Savage was very sure of himself. But then he
had reason to be. The only child of a wealthy Creole mother and a rich,
aristocratic Virginia planter, he'd grown up without questioning his right to
do exactly as he pleased. A selfish man? Yes! Not
because he was selfish by nature, but because of the time and environment that
had bred him. To his credit, he was not impressed with his own power or
possessions, nor was he content to waste his days lazily throwing away a
fortune on a Sybaritic existence.
    Yet to imply that Jason was
a paragon of diligent virtue would be untrue. He was quite as capable as the
next young man of gaming through the night, losing and winning vast sums of
money in the gambling halls of New Orleans, then sauntering down the street to
whore away the time, until bored and restless, he'd slip deep into Spanish
territory, spending weeks hunting the wild mustangs or trading with the
Comanches for their highly prized spotted ponies before finally returning to
Beauvais.
    Yes, Jason Savage was
exactly the sort of man that Jefferson needed—young, intelligent, well-bred,
tough, capable with a blade or pistol, and upon occasion quite, quite ruthless.
There was one other reason that Jefferson needed him—Jason's uncle, Guy's half
brother, was the very powerful and politically discreet duke of Roxbury.
    For a moment Jefferson
smiled to himself and blessed the whim that some fifty years ago had taken the
old duke of Roxbury to Louisiana to inspect a tract of land he had won on the
turn of a card. It was there that he had met and taken as his second wife the
young Frenchwoman, Arabella St. Clair. Guy was the result of that marriage, and
it was his older half brother who was now the present duke of Roxbury, and—most
importantly to Jefferson— personal advisor to Prime Minister Addington. Roxbury
had been advisor and confidant of more than one prime minister of England, but
it was his current connection to Addington that interested Jefferson—that and
the fact that young Savage would be staying with Roxbury for part of his time
in London.
    With that in mind,
Jefferson asked, "Well, Jason, are you going to do it—carry my dispatches
to Rufus King?"
    Jason's
lips quirked into a rueful smile. "Why not?" he replied
in a slightly accented voice. "I don't care for the present
situation in New Orleans. The Spanish closing the port last month to the
Americans was a stupid thing to have done, and I definitely would not like to
see Napoleon annex the territory. Are you certain of your facts?"
    Jefferson bit his lip, his
forehead wrinkled into a frown. Finally he admitted, "No, I'm not
certain—no one is. But there is no denying the fact that rumors from high
places are currently circulating Europe that Spain by a secret treaty has
turned the Louisiana Territory back to France. I have Livingston in Paris
trying to discover if there is any basis in the rumor, but so far France has
been excessively coy with her answers. Unfortunately, I must make plans for
the possibility that France is the new owner of the territory. And it is for
that reason you will carry orders to Rufus King in London for him to seek an
alliance with England. A military alliance with England is repugnant to me, but
it is the only hope we have except to pray that France and England will soon
renew hostilities. And there is every sign that they will! No one expects this
treaty of Amiens to last. But in the meantime, it is imperative that we
negotiate with England, for I believe that she does not desire, any more than
we do, a French empire in the new world."
    Silently Jason concurred.
No one wanted Napoleon in New Orleans—except perhaps Napoleon and the French
population of Louisiana. Jason certainly didn't. And it was for that reason he
had agreed to carry Jefferson's letters to Rufus King, currently the American
minister in