Then as the Secretary of State seemed to have some difficulty in finding his words, the Duke said,
“If you are going to suggest that I climb the Himalayas or wear a disguise which involves walking barefoot through Arabia, the answer is ‘no’!”
The Earl laughed.
“It is not quite as bad as that this time, but I desperately need your help.”
“Why?” the Duke asked shortly.
“Because I know of no one as clever as you are when it comes to identifying people and solving a conundrum that has defeated all of us.”
“I would like to help you,” the Duke said, “but I really am busy with my own affairs.”
“I am aware of that,” the Earl said disarmingly, “and that is why I have hesitated to ask you until I was sure no one else could discover what I have to find out.”
“You are trying to make me curious,” the Duke said accusingly, “and I tell you frankly, I am growing too old to sleep on rocky ground or in some filthy cave that has been used by animals! I prefer my own bed!”
“Or that of someone very attractive,” the Earl grinned.
The Duke laughed.
“Who has been telling tales?”
“I have heard a whisper that you are somewhat engaged with a very beautiful Princess!”
The Duke smiled as he said,
“Exactly, my Lord! And I have no intention of leaving the field clear for my rivals!”
“I would not ask you to do so, Hugo, what I am asking you is if you will find out for me if there is a leak in this office.”
The Duke stared at him in astonishment.
“A leak in this office?” he exclaimed.
“Somebody and I cannot find out who it is,” the Earl of Kimberley said, “is costing us the lives of a large number of our men in India.”
He spoke very seriously and the Duke asked,
“If that is true, surely you must have some idea of who has access to secret information?”
“If it was as easy as that, I would have discovered the culprit by now,” the Earl replied, “but I have had every person in the office investigated, also in the building, and as we have come up with nothing, I am asking you, Hugo, to find out what is happening.”
Despite himself the Duke was intrigued.
“Tell me from the beginning.”
“It started about six months ago,” the Earl began, “when the Viceroy informed us that a plan to reinforce the troops on the North-West frontier which had been sent from us to him and on to the Officer in Charge must have been intercepted.”
“How?” the Duke questioned.
“The troops were moved with every possible precaution,” the Earl explained. “The men themselves thought they were going to quite a different destination from what was intended, and the Officer in Charge only received his correct orders after they had actually started out for the Fort they were to reinforce.”
“What happened?” the Duke asked.
“They were ambushed and practically every man lost his life! It took place so quickly and was so well planned that it was quite obviously masterminded by someone far more experienced than tribesmen!”
“You mean – it was the Russians who planned it!” the Duke remarked.
“Exactly!”
The Earl paused for a moment to say,
“The same thing happened in January and again last month. The last time it would have been utterly impossible for the enemy to be in any strength in the place where the battle took place unless they had previous information that our troops were being moved.”
He made a very eloquent gesture with his hand before continuing,
“I need not bother you with every detail. Suffice it to say that it is impossible to ignore the fact that information is being relayed to the enemy before it reaches India.”
“What do you want me to do about it?”
“That is what I am asking you,” the Earl replied. “I swear to you, Hugo, I have tried everything possible to discover the truth. I have had to take into my confidence one or two of my older colleagues whom I can trust implicitly.”
He paused for a moment and then added,
“I have, of course, also told my son John, who I am hoping will later follow in my footsteps. But it has all been to no avail and we have failed.”
He looked at the Duke for some seconds before he went on,
“I am afraid, actually afraid, to send messages in code because every time I do so it means the loss of more British lives.”
There was an expression in his voice as he spoke that showed how much it hurt him and he went on,
“I have coded the messages myself so that they would pass through as few hands as possible, but last month I learned that that too had been a failure.”
“If I had not known you for so long and I did not know how extremely efficient and punctilious you are, I would find your story impossible to believe!”
“It is true – dammit – it is true!” the Earl cried, “and how can I go on allowing our men to die simply because we have a spy in our midst?”
“I understand your feelings,” the Duke said slowly.
“And you will help me?”
The Duke twisted his lips before he answered dryly,
“I suppose I shall have to – but God knows how!”
“You have been so successful in the past,” the Earl said. “You have often succeeded where everybody else has failed and I can only beg you on my knees not to fail us now!”
“I have a feeling you are asking too much and as you know, on the other occasions when I have helped you, it has been more by luck than anything else.”
“You are very modest all of a sudden!” the Earl smiled and added, “but you know as well as I do that you have an instinct which few other people have.”
He paused before he carried on,
“Some men have it where pictures are concerned. They will ferret out an Old Master that has been hidden under the dirt and grime of centuries.”
The Duke smiled because he knew it was true and the Earl went on,
“Explorers tell me they have the same instinct when they find a statue that has been buried for over a thousand years or a vase that has been thrown onto the dung heap by someone with no idea that it originated in Ancient Greece!”
“I am not an expert in any of those things,” the Duke admitted.
“Perhaps not,” the Earl replied, “but you have an uncanny aptitude for recognising a man who has changed his whole identity and even the colour of his skin.”
“I have also had my failures,” the Duke remarked dryly.
“If you have, I have not heard of them and what I am asking you to do now is to find the man who is receiving secrets from this building – secrets which in the wrong hands are more deadly than a bullet!”
The Duke sighed.
“I suppose, as you are so persuasive, that I shall have to agree to do what you want and, although you have put your trust in me, I am afraid you are going to be disappointed.”
The Earl’s face lit up.
“You mean you will help me?”
“You make it impossible for me to refuse!”
“Thank you,” the Earl said with a sigh of relief. “I don’t mind telling you, Hugo, it is a problem that has kept me awake night after night. Now, for the first time for a long time, I shall be able to sleep peacefully.”
“For God’s sake, don’t do that!” the Duke retorted. “I cannot work in the dark alone. I want a list of every person who is employed in this building together with your personal comments on them.”
“You shall have it within twenty-four hours,” the Earl promised.
“I need too to know exactly the procedure by which all secret information is relayed outside. I know how it operates from this end.”
“Yes, of course,” the Earl agreed quickly.
The Duke rose to his feet.
“As far as anybody else is aware, I have come here today to ask you to
stay with me and to give out the prizes in the local Horse Show two weeks from now.”
“Good Lord!” the Earl ejaculated. “Do I have to do that?”
“Can you think of a better reason why I should have come here in person?” the Duke asked.
The Earl nodded his head to show that he understood and said as they walked to the door,
“I cannot thank you enough. I know it is an imposition to ask for your help once again, but I am really desperate!”
“Then we must just keep our fingers crossed,” the Duke replied lightly, “and remember when I have gone to say what a bore I am to make you give away the prizes!”
“I shall certainly say that with an element of truth in my voice!” the Earl replied.
The Duke laughed.
As he opened the door, he said in a voice loud enough to be heard by the people in the corridor and those in the office opposite whose door was open,
“I am very grateful to you, my Lord, for saying you will officiate at my local Horse Show. I can now have the leaflets printed and I am sure we shall have a record number of entrants, thanks to you!”
“I must say,” the Earl replied, “you put a heavy strain on our friendship and I am a very busy man.”
“Nonsense!” the Duke laughed, “it will do you good to get out into the fresh air for a change! You are beginning to look older than your years, being incarcerated in this musty old place!”
“You insult me!” the Earl retorted.
They were both laughing as they walked towards the door where the Duke’s phaeton was waiting for him.
“Look at those horses,” he said, “do they not make you envious?”
“I shall look forward to riding one of your best Arab-bred stallions,” the Earl replied, “so do not disappoint me.”
“I will not do that,” the Duke promised.
He walked down the steps of the India Office and climbed into his phaeton.
When he looked back, the Earl waved to him.
Then, as the Secretary of State walked back to his office, those who he passed could hear him muttering,
“Damn nuisance, I have no time to go to the country at this moment, but I suppose I shall have to do what the Duke asks!”
Thinking of the Earl now, the Duke thought how his party for this weekend had been planned to amuse the Princess Zenka Kozlovski.
She was quite the most attractive woman he had met for a long time.
She was a widow, and she had come to London because she said she was tired of all the pomp and grandeur she had to endure in St. Petersburg.
The Duke had met her at a dinner party given by the Duchess of Richmond and he had been aware as soon as he saw the Princess that she was the most beautiful person he had seen in a long time.
There was also something about her that appealed to his body as well as his eyes.
It was a vibration which seemed in a way to set him alight and to feel an unusually fiery desire even before they talked to each other.
He was aware as they met that she felt the same.
It was only a question of time before they were involved in a wild love affair that had the gossips whispering the moment they appeared together.
Chapter Three
As the Duke suggested, Solita went upstairs to lie down.
As she climbed into bed, she realised that she was very tired and she fell asleep almost at once.
When she awoke, it was to hear somebody moving about the room and found that it was the maid who was preparing her bath.
It took Solita a moment to accustom her eyes to the glamour of the room.
With its painted ceiling, antique inlaid furniture, mirrors surrounded by cupids and pictures by Master artists, it was a dream of luxury.
The villa where she had lived in Italy had been beautiful, but in a very different way from The Castle and certainly not so impressive.
When the maid had finished preparing her bath, Solita stepped into its scented water and thought how lucky she was.
She knew from the very limited amount of money she had left that she would only have been able to afford a small room at a second class hotel and doubtless it would have been on the top floor.
She knew the Duke was being kind, at the same time she still resented his attitude towards her father’s death. Any real friend, she thought, would have wished to fight back at the Russians, certainly not entertained them in their own home.
She was intelligent enough however to realise that the Duke was right in saying that she must be polite as long as they were his guests.
She knew also that she could not start a lone battle with the Russians without somebody to support her.
At the same time, she swore that she would hate them for the rest of her life.
She would never forgive them for not only killing her father, but so many British soldiers on the North-West frontier.
The maids had unpacked for her and she fortunately had one of her prettiest gowns in her luggage
Her ‘Aunt Mildred’ as she called the Duke’s cousin, had been very generous in the way she dressed her.
Miss Leigh had been quite a rich woman, but it had never crossed Solita’s mind that when she died her money would all go back to her family.
She had therefore been unable to make any provision for the child she had more or less adopted so generously.
Solita was to learn this from Mildred Leigh’s Solicitors in Naples.
They arrived as soon as they learned of her death and, without any warning, Solita found that she had no home and no money.
She had sat down and considered her position with a good sense that was far beyond her years.
She had been deeply resentful and hurt by the Duke’s indifference, but he was the one person who would know what had happened to her father’s money.
She felt that he must have left some and the only thing she could do in the circumstances was to go to England to find the Duke.
She had brought away with her everything she possessed which filled a considerable amount of trunks. Some of them contained books which her adopted aunt had given her because she knew how much she appreciated them.
They were in fact books in every language, mostly history and to Solita they were her most treasured possessions.
It hurt her to have to sell her jewellery, but there was nothing else she could do and what she obtained for it had paid for her fare to England.
She was wise enough to know because she was alone that it would be a mistake to travel anything but First Class.
Although, when she arrived in London it left her practically penniless, she had at least she thought, enough clothes to last her for a long time.
When she learnt that the Duke was at The Castle, she hoped he would allow her to stay for one night, but had never expected nor contemplated that it might be longer.
She had asked the butler at Calver House in Park Lane if she could leave her trunks there until she sent for them.
“That can be quite easily arranged, miss,” he replied.
Solita had therefore taken with her only a small trunk which she knew had been packed with everything she was likely to require.
It was fortunate that it contained a really lovely evening gown.
She had actually packed this particular trunk so that it could be used for several days in London or until she found somewhere to live without having to unpack the rest.
As she looked in the mirror, she thought the Duke would not be ashamed of her appearance amongst his smart friends.
The gown was a Paris model. The soft blue silk which matched her eyes had been swept back into a small bustle at the back.
It was decorated round the hem of the skirt with pink roses and the same flowers adorned the décolletage of the bodice, which rested on the edge of her shoulders.
It made her waist look tiny and gave her an elegance that was unusual in such a young girl.
She walked slowly down the grand staircase.
She felt as if she had stepped onto the stage of the Opera House and was taking part in one of the elaborate performances she had seen in Rome.
A footman escorted her across the hall.
He opened the doors of a large salon in which Solita realised many of the Duke’s guests had already assembled.
Her eyes were dazzled for a moment by the enormous crystal chandeliers that hung from the ceiling.
She was dazzled too by the large amount of jewellery worn by the ladies in their hair, round their necks and on their arms.
Solita had however seen quite a number of well-dressed women when she was staying with her school friends and in the last year she had even attended some of the parties that her friends’ parents gave.
In Naples too, Mildred Leigh before she became ill, took her to several balls and receptions.
She was therefore quite at ease as she walked towards the Duke.
He detached himself from the people to whom he had been talking and met her halfway down the room.
“You are rested, Solita?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you.”
He looked at her, she thought critically, so she said,
“I hope, if you are intending to introduce me as your ward, you will not be ashamed of me!”
“Now you are fishing for compliments. You know as well as I do that you look lovely.”
The Duke led her towards his guests and introduced them, noting as he did so that Solita’s curtsy was very graceful.
He was prepared for the astonishment of his friends when he told them that Solita was his ward.
“Why have I not heard about Miss Gresham before?” one lady enquired somewhat querulously.
“Because she only returned this afternoon from Italy, where she has been living,” the Duke explained.
They were prevented from asking any more questions, for at that moment the door opened and the butler announced,
“The Princess Zenka Kozlovski and Prince Ivan Vlasov.”
Solita stiffened.
Because she was so curious, she tried not to stare at the new arrivals.
Then, as the Duke hurried to greet the Princess, she saw that without exception she was one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen.
Her hair was dark and swept back from her oval forehead, which made her look different from every other woman in the room who were all wearing fashionable fringes.
Solita and the Spies Page 4