'Better that than that the Spaniards should read 'em,' said Hornblower with all the patience he could muster.
'I could look after them for you,' said the duchess. 'Indeed I could.'
Hornblower looked keenly at her.
'No,' he said, 'they might search your baggage. Probably they would.'
'Baggage!' said the duchess. 'As if I'd put them in my baggage! I'll put them next my skin — they won't search me in any case. They'll never find 'em, not if I put 'em up my petticoats.'
There was a brutal realism about those words that staggered Hornblower a little, but which also brought him to admit to himself that there was something in what the duchess was saying.
'If they capture us,' said the duchess, '—I pray they won't, but if they do — they'll never keep me prisoner. You know that. They'll send me to Lisbon or put me aboard a King's ship as soon as they can. Then the despatches will be delivered eventually. Late, but better late than never.'
'That's so,' mused Hornblower.
'I'll guard them like my life,' said the duchess. 'I swear I'll never part from them. I'll tell no one I have them, not until I hand them to a King's officer.'
She met Hornblower's eyes with transparent honesty in her expression.