Fate, The Relentless Hunter.

Two years later. Nov. first, 1816. St Petersburg, Russia.

Two years later, in the Autumn of 1816, a year after the hostilities brought about by Napoleon had begun to fade; one member of the British ambassadorial staff (and a frenchman himself) saw his wife and younger daughter placed aboard a merchantman bound for England, where their family would be re-united.

It was important that they leave now, and not any later in the year. The Baltic could freeze at any time now, making such a journey impossible until the following spring. To think of leaving by any other route, overland, was not to be considered just yet. The devastated Russian countryside still seethed with distrust of strangers and especially of foreigners, and was hungry for revenge even four years after Napoleon’s disastrous retreat out of Russia in one of the worst winters ever seen. Bones and shreds of clothing still littered their course. The Czar was not inclined to be helpful that way.

The family of the ambassadorial attaché was bound eventually for London, though the ship needed to make other calls before then, to drop off supplies to a relatively isolated settlement that might not see a ship for another eight months. He would not be able to leave himself for a few more days, and by then it might be too late to leave that winter, with few other ships likely to risk being trapped in ice. It was possibly the last ship to be calling in at St. Petersburg until after Winter had relaxed its murderous grip. Even though it would be two weeks or more, before reaching London, it would be infinitely better than being trapped in St. Petersburg for yet another interminable winter.

Then, just a few days later, and before he was likely to be trapped for the winter himself, he was unexpectedly able to find passage on board another ship escaping the Baltic. The Osiris, also late in leaving for warmer waters, had deviated from its course and called into St Petersburg to discharge an important passenger who was suddenly taken ill. When she left again, the Osiris would be making straight for London.

His family might not be several months ahead of him now, but even a few days behind him. With luck, he would be able to meet them at the dock in London, and they would be reunited once more, and truly safe for the first time since his second daughter had been born. Far from being a man without a country, he found that his service to both the British and the Russians had made him a respected and honored man in both countries, while creating many more enemies in the country of his birth, France. He knew that he would receive a better and more secure welcome in England, where there were other relatives, a father and a daughter, waiting for them.