The Episode at Toledo

by Ann Bridge

  At the Italian Embassy Luzia more or less joined up with the Marchants—Hetta had told Maud that she was not going herself. But she knew plenty of people in Madrid, and was by no means at a loose end. Presently Sir Noël came up and greeted her.

  ‘Where is your pretty hostess?’ he asked presently.

  ‘At home—she decided not to come, but to rest a little.’

  ‘She isn’t unwell, is she?’ the Ambassador asked. His Counsellor’s wife was normally unfailingly dutiful in her attendance at such events.

  ‘No, just a little surmenée,’ Luzia said.

  Sir Noël was slightly disconcerted. He did not yet know about Hetta’s pregnancy, and her absence confirmed his impression that something really had upset her at lunch-time—something to do with the Hungarian chauffeur. He wished she had told him about it, but she was a stubborn little cuss, he said to himself affectionately, and did as she chose. As it was, he was left to his rather uncomfortable speculations.

  Heads of missions seldom take any action themselves that can properly be delegated to their staff; it works better that way. Possibly Sir Noël would not have done what he did that evening if on his return to the Embassy he had not happened to run into the local member of British Intelligence. On an impulse—‘Come into my study, Ainsworth, if you’ve got a moment,’ he said. In the study—‘Have you got anything on your files about that chauffeur of the Parrotts, Luis?’ he asked.

  ‘Not that I know of.’

  ‘Well, you might check. He’s a Hungarian, you know.’

  ‘I didn’t know. I thought the Peabodys brought him with them from the States.’

  ‘They did, but he was a Hunk refugee, all the same.’ He went on to repeat what Mansfield had told him.

  ‘Ah, I see. So all the screening he’ll have had will have been done at this Camp, Kilmer, or whatever it is. In that case we should hardly be likely to have anything, if they gave him American papers.’

  ‘Just so.’

  Major Ainsworth looked rather hard at the Ambassador, whose face remained expressionless.

  ‘Well, they must have his record, such as it is, over there,’ the Major said. ‘No good talking to my opposite number here, the chauffeur man has been here so long. Might it be as well, Sir, for me to make a signal to Washington, and have it looked up?’

  ‘Yes, I think so. Or do it through London, and let them pass the enquiry on—whichever is simplest. It ought to be a full report, to be of any use.’

  ‘Any hurry?’ Ainsworth asked. He was dying to know what had prompted this enquiry, but knew the Ambassador too well to ask.

  ‘The sooner we hear the better, certainly,’ Sir Noël said, evenly.

  ‘Right. I’ll see to it at once. Goodnight, Sir.’

  ‘Goodnight, Ainsworth. Thank you. Let me hear what you get,’ he added, with the slightest emphasis on the word ‘me’, as he got up.

  Now why, the Major wondered, as he went back to his office, was the Old Man being such a clam about this? But he did exactly as he was told, peculiar though it all seemed to him.

  Chapter 3

  The report from Washington was rather slow in coming in, and when it did it was completely neutral: Lajos ánay had been screened at Camp Kilmer in the ordinary way, along with scores of others, with negative results; he had therefore been given a green card, and set free to earn his own living. But what Major Ainsworth found even more peculiar was that a few hours after he received this report another telegram arrived from the office in London; decoded it ran: ‘Are you fully satisfied about security arrangements for Luxworthy? Not really your pidgin but we have had tip-off from usually sound source about some risk.’ It was signed Torrens.

  Now it so happened that Ainsworth had managed to catch the Ambassador and deliver the Washington message, as instructed, to him personally almost at once—Sir Noël had put the slip of paper away in his safe, and thanked him with a brevity that amounted to a dismissal. The Major hesitated whether he ought to go and bother him again? He fully realised the connection between security for Admiral Luxworthy and the reliability of the American Naval Attaché’s chauffeur, but it was curious that London should be worrying about the security angle too. Was there a connection, or had Torrens got some other idea in mind? He did telephone through to ask the private Secretary if H. E. was available, but he had gone out, and in the end Ainsworth decided to leave it alone—the Old Man didn’t like to be bothered for nothing.

  Luzia, like most women, was less inclined than men to leave things alone. While she and Hetta awaited a reply to their communication to Mrs. Jamieson, the girl occupied herself in cultivating Lieutenant Ellington; if anything had eventually to be said or done he, she decided, would be much the best person to deal with. Since he was dancing attendance on Joy and her Mother she met him constantly, and it was not difficult to get on to confidential terms with him—in fact the young man was in the early stages of a heart-fall for this lovely creature, and impressed by her knowledgeableness, not only about Spanish art and architecture, but about the European situation, which she discussed as readily as American girls of her age discuss frocks and boy-friends. It seemed quite natural to him that she should ask if he himself knew the Rota base—he didn’t.

  ‘But when the Admiral goes you go also?’

  ‘I imagine I’ll have to.’

  ‘Shall you fly? It is a very long drive.’

  ‘I fancy that will depend on how much time the Admiral has in hand. He prefers going by automobile, to see more of the country; but the Ambassador would rather fly, and if he’s out of quarantine I presume he will go along.’

  ‘Ah, so then they will go in one of the Embassy cars. That is good; for a long, hot drive in a very big car is important—one gets less tired.’

  Luzia passed this on to Hetta.

  ‘They would do better to fly,’ Mrs. Atherley said. ‘Couldn’t you persuade this nice Ellington to arrange it? He seems épris with you.’

  ‘I could try. I wish Miss Probyn would write.’

  But when Julia Jamieson’s letter came it did not help them very much. She carefully began with news of Mrs. Hathaway and the baby, mentioning, as a family item, that her husband was in the Middle East. ‘As for Luzia’s old acquaintance at Gralheira, I spoke to him on the telephone, and passed on your message, and he said he would make enquiries. I haven’t heard since.’

  ‘This is tiresome,’ Hetta said impatiently. ‘She does not say if he comes—Torrens, I mean. I wonder what we should do now?’

  ‘Of whom do you suppose Major Torrens makes his enquiries?’ Luzia speculated.

  ‘I imagine there is someone from Intelligence here,’ Hetta said, frowning. ‘But I do not know who it is.’ (In fact British Intelligence tends rather to keep itself to itself abroad.)

  ‘Would not Richard know?’

  ‘Yes—but then he will ask why I wish to know, and say I am fancying things,’ Hetta said, frowning more than ever.

  ‘Let us think about it till tomorrow. Admiral Luxworthy does not come for a few days yet, Ellington told me. Come,’—looking at her watch—‘we ought to get dressed. Joy and Mrs. Luxworthy asked us to come in good time.’

  To return so much hospitality Mrs. Luxworthy was giving a cocktail party in their hotel, the new Castellana-Hilton beloved of American visitors because, as Richard Atherley said, practically the whole staff not only speak, but think in American. Rather reluctantly, Hetta went to dress, still uneasy in her mind. She was never one for postponements.

  The Castellana-Hilton is as functional and impersonal as any other international hotel—bright, glittering with chromium and mirrors, giving no hint, inside, of what country it is in. The party was being given in a large private room, and since Ellington was largely in charge of the arrangements, the same man had been hired to announce the guests as had functioned at the Parrotts’ own cocktail—Commander Mansfield was also in attendance. Very few people had arrived when Hetta and Luzia walked in except the Parrotts themselves.


  ‘Well now aren’t you nice, to come along in good time,’ Mrs. Luxworthy said warmly to Hetta; Joy greeted Luzia, and drew her to one side.

  ‘D’you like this dress? I got it all in a hurry, this afternoon; Balenciaga had just got some new things in, and everyone had seen all my others so often.’

  ‘Turn round,’ Luzia said. The dress was a vivid tangerine, long and full-skirted; it suited the girl very well, with her dark hair and complexion.

  ‘Yes, I like it very much, Joy. Tomorrow you can take it back and make them alter it a little—the waist could fit more closely, and it dips the least bit at the back.’

  ‘But it’s all right for tonight?’

  ‘Oh yes. The colour is perfect.’

  Captain Parrott came up to them, a tall pale man with the peculiar American look of being almost antiseptically clean.

  ‘Good evening, Countess. Joy, I think your mother would like you to go and stand with her—people will be coming along in a minute.’

  Joy went over to her Mother; Captain Parrott took Luzia to one of the buffet-tables and gave her a champagne cocktail.

  ‘You’ve been terribly good to that child—in fact you’ve done so much for both of them,’ he said. ‘It could have been a little awkward, with the Ambassadress laid up, and Nell so new to everything. I don’t know where we’d have been, but for you and Mrs. Atherley.’

  Luzia asked how Mrs. Packer was?

  ‘Not all that good. It’s a nasty thing, scarlet fever. The Ambassador is getting a bit worried about her. It couldn’t have come at a more awkward time, either, with this visit. It puts a lot on Nell.’

  While Luzia was sympathising with him a very young man from the American Embassy hurried up.

  ‘Will you excuse me?’ he said politely to Luzia; as he spoke he took a slip of paper from his pocket. ‘This has just come in, from Paris,’ he said to Parrott. ‘I thought you ought to know at once, and Mrs. Luxworthy too.’

  Also excusing himself, Parrott unfolded the paper.

  ‘Well for mercy’s sake!’ he exclaimed. ‘He’ll be here tomorrow! But that means the whole schedule will have to be rearranged! I’d better get started right away. Does the Ambassador know?’

  ‘Yes, I rang through to him before I came along here. He was pretty upset—he says he’ll still be in quarantine.’

  ‘Why in tunket did he have to go and change everything this way?’ Captain Parrott exclaimed—and then checked himself. ‘If you’ll excuse me,’ he said to Luzia, and hurried over to where his wife stood with Mrs. Luxworthy. His news brought a general stir and exclamations.

  ‘Well isn’t that too bad! If only he’d come today, he could have been at the party!’ Mrs. Luxworthy said, with genuine regret.

  ‘I’ll have to leave you, Mrs. Luxworthy,’ Parrott said—‘I’m terribly sorry, but there’s a lot to arrange. Please pardon me.’

  ‘Oh Walter, you can’t!’ Nell protested. ‘Not twice over!’

  ‘I have to,’ he replied brusquely, and hastened away.

  Hetta was talking to the Italians, politely regretting that she had missed their party—she didn’t hear this interchange. Nor did Ellington; he was seeing that the Moroccan envoy and his wife and son were being supplied with soft drinks, as befitted devout Muslims, instead of any form of alcohol—it was the sort of thing he had been sent to Europe to do. Luzia drifted in his direction, greeting people as she went; presently he noticed her, and as she had expected, as soon as he could he joined her.

  ‘I think it’s going all right,’ he said. ‘Do you?’

  ‘Yes.’ The room was beginning to fill; people were eating, drinking, and some already even smoking; as the noise of voices increased everyone was talking louder, sure sign of success at a cocktail-party. There were a few chairs and small tables arranged round the walls—‘Let’s go over and sit down for two minutes, where we can talk,’ the young man said. ‘I think I rate that much for myself!’

  ‘Do you dislike such parties?’ the girl asked, smiling a little.

  ‘Not in moderation. But there has been quite a lot of it lately, you must admit. And one can never be quiet and talk to the people one wants to talk with,’ he said, looking rather meaningly at her.

  ‘We are talking now.’

  ‘Yes, Heaven be thanked! But either my conscience, or Walter Parrott or someone, will hunt me out of this chair in no time, you’ll see!’

  She laughed at his rueful expression.

  ‘It will not be Captain Parrott, because he has just left,’ she said.

  ‘Left? Why in the world?’

  ‘Because Admiral Luxworthy returns tomorrow.’

  ‘How in all the earth do you know that?’ he asked, staring at her.

  ‘I was with Captain Parrott when a young man from the Embassy brought the message. So now he goes to see about altering the time-table.’

  ‘But why is the Admiral doing this? It’s a hell of a thing,’ Ellington burst out, looking aghast.

  ‘Perhaps he wanted to see his wife! Captain Parrott was vexed also.’

  ‘I’ll bet he was vexed. It’s a hell of a thing to do,’ the young man repeated—‘with the Spaniards of all people.’ He got up. ‘Didn’t I tell you Walter, or my conscience, would soon hunt me out? We’ve had no time at all.’

  ‘Sit down again for one moment,’ Luzia said. As he did so—‘Your Ambassador will still be in quarantine for some days, will he not?’

  ‘Yes—and that’s another hell of a thing!’ Poor Lieutenant Ellington was thinking of all the various complications ahead of him—the meetings with Ministers, the dinners, the luncheons—as well as the vital trip to the South.

  ‘So when the Admiral goes to Rota he will wish to go by car?’

  ‘He’ll surely do that.’ He glanced at her curiously.

  ‘Ellington, will you listen to me? I have something to say to you,’ the girl said earnestly. ‘Will you promise to listen?’

  ‘Of course. What is it?’

  ‘You should arrange that on this trip Luis does not go with you.’

  He stared at her. ‘Luis? Do you mean Walter’s chauffeur?’

  ‘Yes. Leave him behind.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘I cannot tell you the reason now. But it is important, this.’

  Luzia felt that she had gone quite as far as she ought without consultation with Hetta; she seized this chance of catching Lieutenant Ellington before he went off to see to the readjustment of the Admiral’s programme, as she guessed he would wish to do—if she had waited she might have been too late. She got up as she spoke; so did he, and caught her by the arm.

  ‘Look, this is silly! You’ve got to tell me the reason.’

  ‘No, I have not. You promised to listen,’ she said reproachfully, looking at him with her immense grey eyes. ‘You cannot need him; there are endless Embassy cars to use, and bigger ones. Do not take him, and do not speak of it.’ Determinedly, now, she moved away, and began to talk to the French Counsellor. As soon as she could she made her way to Hetta, whose expression showed that she too now knew of the Admiral’s unexpected return even before she said, ‘He comes back tomorrow.’

  ‘I know. Let us talk in the car. How much longer must we stay?’

  ‘Only a short time,’ Hetta said. ‘We cannot leave just yet.’

  They separated; but when the guests began to leave Luzia rejoined her hostess, and they made their farewells together.

  ‘Now, what do we do?’ Hetta asked as soon as they were in the car.

  ‘I have done something already.’ Luzia reported what she had said to Ellington.

  ‘You did not tell him why?’

  ‘No, though he pressed me. I thought I had better speak to you first.’

  Hetta reflected. ‘Do you think he will act on this, what you have said?’

  ‘I believe he will,’ the girl said. ‘It was a clear warning. Why should I say such a thing without a reason? Ellington is not stupid.’

  ‘No, but will he be
able to make others do as he says? We ought to be certain. When do they go to Rota, now? Before all these functions, perhaps, instead of after? That would be much simpler; only one item to be changed, instead of several, and with their own people,’ Hetta went on, considering the thing from the diplomatic angle.

  ‘I do not know.’

  ‘Ellington may think of this—poor Walter probably not!’ Hetta said, with a faint smile.

  ‘But how do we find out?’ Luzia asked.

  ‘Oh, I shall talk to Nell. She will tell us anything she knows,’ Hetta said with assurance.

  In fact the manifest advantages of advancing the date of the Rota visit, and letting the other official fixtures stand, had occurred to Lieutenant Ellington as soon as he heard of the Admiral’s change of plan; after Luzia had left him he slipped out from the party and rang up Captain Parrott at his office from the hotel.

  ‘Walter, what are you trying to fix? I can’t get away just yet, but don’t you think the best thing would be to switch Rota only, and leave the rest the way they are?’

  ‘Yeah. The Ambassador said that just now. I was about to get through to them.’

  ‘Fine. Well just warn them that it will be sooner than we said; we’d better not try to fix a hard date till the Admiral’s actually here. Goodness knows what other idea he may get into his head! Right—I’ll be seeing you.’

  ‘Wait! They’ll be wanting to know down there if it’s to be plane or car,’ Parrott said.

  ‘Tell them to wait till tomorrow—we’ll settle all details then. I must get back now, Walter.’ He rang off.

  * * *

  It was easy for Luzia to avoid Lieutenant Ellington for the next 48 hours, as she had decided to do; he was fully occupied with Admiral Luxworthy. Both she and Hetta were enormously relieved to learn, through Nell’s ‘careless talk’, that the Rota party was going in two of the Embassy cars—‘Lieutenant Ellington says it may still be pretty hot down there, and they’ll be cooler in those big saloons. Anyway now I can keep Luis—I just hate being without a car.’