Scoville had to restrain himself from reaching to touch his own head, where the stitches were still annoying. “That’s a bit too close for comfort.”
“Yes, my lord—it is suggestive. We had dealt with this fellow before—that is to say, our intelligence chaps had—and his information was generally reliable. Captain McDonald’s orders were to make contact and exchange a small parcel of gemstones for a handful of very important papers.”
“Gemstones being untraceable?”
“Precisely.”
“Did he succeed?”
“We don’t know. McDonald’s whereabouts are unknown at this point. We had expected him to arrive in Vienna at least a day before you did. He seemed convinced that someone—the Prussians, or perhaps the French—were having him followed. That was why you were enlisted. A chance meeting of an old military acquaintance would be natural enough, and he would have had no obvious contact with this embassy or our staff, who are of course known to all the local agents of other powers.”
“Would the papers be of use to anyone else, sir?” Darling asked.
“Oh, certainly. Anyone in France or Italy would be as interested as we are in knowing what sort of weapons the Germans are building. There are rumours of chemical weapons, poisons—these documents should confirm the rumours and might even contain a formula. The Germans will surely be trying to get them back, if they know of their loss. We hope that Captain McDonald is simply lying low, waiting to rendezvous with you tomorrow at the Sacher Café.”
“So am I, Sir James.”
“If he does, we’re past subtlety now. Bring the documents here straightaway and we’ll send 'em out in a diplomatic pouch. We appreciate your assistance, but it was never our intention to put your life at risk. If McDonald was being followed, his attempt to contact you on the train may have brought you to the attention of whoever killed his German contact. You are armed, I hope?”
“Yes, we both are. I need to ask, sir, at what point in this exercise am I supposed to visit the Baron?”
Woodward’s eyes sought the heavens. “That damned—I’m sorry, my lord, please forget you heard me say that. While you were en route, the Baron managed to utter two more idiotically belligerent statements—I hope it’s still only two—and for you to convey Her Majesty’s warm wishes would give him altogether the wrong impression. The Ambassador will be paying the visit himself, and encouraging the Baron to express his opinions a bit more diplomatically.”
“Will that help, do you think?”
“No, but you know how it is—it’s the look of the thing. One never knows what seemingly insignificant comment will blow up into a storm, so we must keep on top of the matter, just in case.”
“I’m sure you have it well in hand, Sir James,” Scoville said. “It’s a pity you diplomatic gentlemen don’t get the credit you deserve.”
“Ah, but that’s the trick of it, my lord.” Sir James permitted himself a small smile. “If we do our job properly, it appears that we’ve done nothing at all.” He scanned the single sheet of paper before him, and said, “I think our immediate business is finished, unless you have any questions.”
“None at the moment, sir. If our expedition tomorrow is successful, we’ll be back here as fast as a cab can carry us. We are to meet Captain McDonald at one in the afternoon, so I hope to see you before three.”
“Very good. If you require assistance, just send a messenger detailing time and place. We have guards here at the Embassy who are prepared to supply the sort of help that you might not wish to ask of the local police.”
“Thank you, sir. I appreciate that, and I shall bid you good night.”
“The same to you. A good and uneventful night—it would be best if you keep your man close by until this affair is concluded. “
“I will, Sir James. Until tomorrow, then.”
“Good night.”
~
When they reached their suite at the Sacher, Jack Darling was pleased to see that the hotel staff had been as thorough in its preparations as he would have been himself. The lamps in their rooms had been lit, there were fires in the grates, and the golden silk and damask of draperies and coverlets gave the rooms a warm, welcoming air. He turned the key in the lock with a tremendous feeling of relief.
Jack was looking forward to a good night’s sleep, especially after the previous night’s alarums. But the evening was still fairly young, and Lord Robert seemed restless. He picked up the book he’d brought along, a new novel by the American humorist Mark Twain, then put it down in what looked like annoyance and spent a minute or two gazing down at the street, only to give that up and return to his book. But after finding his place, he closed it again and was back at the window once more.
“Shall I mix a nightcap, my lord?” Jack asked after several repetitions of this exercise. “The cabinet is well-stocked with refreshments.”
“Yes, thank you. A small brandy, if we have it. Fix something for yourself, if you like.” He put the book down again, but stayed in his chair. “I’m sorry, Darling. You must be on your last legs. Why don’t you toddle off to bed?”
Even though he’d just been thinking of sleep, Jack resisted the suggestion. “It’s early, my lord,” he said as he poured the drinks. “And I’m wondering if I ought to spend the night on your sofa.”
“What, in here?” Lord Robert shook his head. “Nothing doing. You can’t have got more than a few hours’ sleep last night.”
“It looks comfortable enough.”
“We can put a couple of chairs in front of the doors and pile our luggage on them. No one would get past that without one of us noticing.”
Jack put the drink on the small table near the window, where his lordship was seated. “I supposed you’re right, my lord.”
“I know I’m right. Besides, that’s a fine piece of furniture, but it’s too short. The only sensible alternative would be for you to sleep in here with me. The bed’s big enough, but I hardly think you’d appreciate the offer. Cheers.”
For one mad instant Jack wanted to say, “Yes, please!” to the offer. He forced a smile instead. “I doubt it would matter, my lord—you’re a gentleman and I’m a sound sleeper.” He took a sip of the whiskey and soda he’d mixed for himself, glad to have something to do.
“Well, in any event, the fellow who left the trinket in my trunk must know you’d have found the thing when you unpacked, and the Sacher does employ a hotel detective. A stranger roaming the halls would be bound to excite suspicion.”
“I suppose so, my lord. I’ve been wondering if we might not get that snuffbox back in the morning and see what’s inside it. Cocaine, certainly—but we don’t know whether that’s anything but a distraction. There might be a message of some sort beneath it.”
“We may as well. In fact, we should have taken it to Sir James. It’s possible that little souvenir has something to do with our mission. Sit down for a moment, would you?” Lord Robert looked at his book again, lifted the cover, then flipped it shut and placed his drink on the table. “Darling, there’s something I need to ask you. It’s prying—damned rude, in fact—but I’m not asking out of personal curiosity.”
Darling took the chair on the other side of the table. “My lord?”
“This business with McDonald—much as I hate to admit it, I’m reluctant to trust him.”
“I agree, my lord—and I see nothing rude in that.”
Lord Robert smiled faintly. “I haven’t got to the nosey part yet. Darling, when you first met Cecil McDonald, it was pretty clear you didn’t think much of him. I didn’t want to press you then—none of my business, really, and he was gone the next day. But under the current circumstances I’d like to know why you dislike him. You’re a perceptive chap. What put you off?”
Jack hesitated. “I meant no offence at the time, my lord. It seemed that the two of you were old friends.”
“We’d known each other at Oxford,” Lord Robert said “Our paths crossed occasionally after that, but by the
time I arrived in India, I hadn’t seen him in ages. The friendship was casual at best, we had little in common, and I found that he had changed in ways that I could not appreciate. What was your impression?”
Jack hated to resurrect the old complaint, but he couldn’t think of any other way to explain his dislike. “Captain McDonald did make an unfortunate first impression, my lord. As I recall, your orders were along the lines of seeing to his comfort, finding him a room and something to eat.” He glanced at the curtains stirring lightly in the gentle spring breeze. “You might say he put an unreasonably broad interpretation on the term ‘comfort.’”
Lord Robert’s eyes narrowed. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
Thank God for a good vocabulary; this was definitely an occasion for euphemisms. “Captain McDonald was under the misapprehension that the scope of my service to you was of a more personal sort, and that your orders included similar service to himself. Service of what I might call an intimate nature.”
A slow flush crept up Lord Robert’s fair skin. “That—that smirking son of a bitch!”
“Yes, my lord. I told him that he was mistaken. He declined to believe me. I concluded the discussion by advising him to consult with you if the accommodations did not meet his needs, and I left the room. I may have judged him harshly—he made no attempt to interfere with me in any physical way.”
“I should hope you’d have knocked him on his arse if he had!”
Jack released the breath he’d been holding. “Indeed, my lord.”
“That explains it, then,” Lord Robert said. “He made himself obnoxious that night, teasing me about my devoted, ‘darling’ batman and—well, suffice it to say I saw nothing amusing in his attempt at humour. Even if the fool weren’t completely mistaken about you, to suggest that I would take advantage of a man under my command—!”
His face was still flushed—whether with anger or embarrassment, Jack could not tell. “It was enough to make me wish for the old days of pistols for two at dawn and coffee for one afterwards. I wanted to smash his teeth in.”
Jack said nothing. He didn’t dare. The truth was stirring in him like a living thing, but he simply did not know what to say. No, he wasn’t mistaken. I would love to have you take advantage of me! That would hardly do. In fact, he was grateful for his lordship’s integrity. How wretched it would have been to serve under an officer who expected sexual favours, if the attraction were not mutual.
But was it mutual? Jack could not deny what he himself felt. And hope stirred again, a tenuous thread of possibility. A man who would not take advantage might be exercising self-restraint, not indifference. Did he dare speak?
Lord Robert was still fuming, oblivious to Jack’s dilemma. “He must have thought me absurdly naïve. I suppose I was. It had never occurred to me that anyone would stoop so low as to make such an assumption about me. Or about you!” He looked up, his eyes full of some unspoken emotion. Anger? Guilt? “My dear fellow, I am deeply sorry. You must believe I never intended to subject you to anything like that. I can’t do a damned thing about my own nature, and I’m grateful beyond words for your tolerance. I had no idea you would be offered such an insult.”
“Insult, my lord?” Jack’s chest felt tight, and his heart was suddenly pounding. Here it was, then—the chance of fulfilment or the destruction of all he had come to know.
“That you were my—that I would—” Lord Robert flung a hand into the air, helplessly.
“The only insult Captain McDonald offered,” Jack said carefully, “was the assumption that I would be willing to lie with him.”
It was Lord Robert’s turn to hesitate. “I’m not certain I understand.”
Their eyes met once more, and Jack could not look away. “He was not mistaken about my nature.” And, since at this point there could be no going back, he added, “Nor my feelings for you.”
His heart sank at the look of shock on Lord Robert’s face, and he rose hastily. “I’m sorry, my lord. I’ve said too much, I’ll go to my—”
“No.” Lord Robert caught his hand. “Jack, sit down, please. I had no idea—”
Someone knocked on the door.
They just stared at one another for a moment. The knock came again. “I’ll see who it is,” Jack said automatically, not moving.
“Yes. Do.”
Another knock, and Jack shook himself out of his paralysis, moved to the door like a sleepwalker, and opened it.
Cecil McDonald stood outside, a carpetbag in his hand. “Don’t just stand there, you fool,” he said, shoving past Jack. “I’ve had a hell of a day.”
Lord Robert was on his feet, his face a courteous blank. “So have we,” he said icily. “You’re making quite a habit of ill-timed visits, aren’t you?”
“I needed to change our meeting tomorrow,” McDonald said. “I’d have told you so last night, but your nursemaid wouldn’t let me in.”
“He was acting on my instructions, Cecil,” Lord Robert said. “And if you came here to insult my man, you can leave now. You’d have saved us both some trouble if you’d just told him what you were about last night. Saved even more trouble if you had delivered the parcel to him while you were there.” He did not seat himself, nor did he offer McDonald a chair. “And where were you at seven this morning?”
“I was in a damned Austrian police station, answering stupid questions. They took me off the train at Linz. Some fool of a French detective had mistaken me for someone else and told them I was carrying stolen goods.”
“And were you?”
McDonald gave an unpleasant smirk. “You’re in fine form this evening, Robert. You might offer me a drink.”
“Certainly. What would you like?”
“Gin and tonic. A large gin and tonic.”
Lord Robert nodded to Darling, who silently fixed the drink and handed it to their unwelcome guest.
“The police couldn’t find any reason to hold me, so they finally let me go. I took the next train to Vienna and only arrived here an hour ago.” McDonald threw himself into the chair Darling had just vacated. “I knew I was being followed. I didn’t realise it was the police; I thought it had something to do with the parcel I have to give you.”
“If you were arrested,” Lord Robert said, “I presume you were searched. How is it they didn’t find that parcel?”
“I wasn’t stupid enough to have it in my possession. The papers are in a safe place, here in Vienna. I came straight here from the station to change the time of our meeting.”
“You could have arranged that last night. Darling knows my schedule better than I do.”
“My orders were to contact you, not your servant. Why should I assume he was in your confidence?”
“You didn’t need to, did you? You could simply have said you wanted to meet me—somewhere—for a chat. There’d be nothing top-secret about that!”
“Well, you don’t have to fly off the handle,” McDonald said crossly. “Do you want the papers, or not?”
“Of course. The sooner the better. Right now would be best.”
“I don’t have them with me,” McDonald said. “They’re in a safe place—I need to go fetch them. When would you like to meet?”
“Would it be possible for you to retrieve them now and come right back here?”
“What, tonight?”
“Why ever not? If you’re concerned about being seen in daylight tomorrow, why muck about?” Lord Robert pulled out his watch and consulted it. “It’s not quite nine. It would be convenient if you could be back in two hours. I’m still feeling a bit rocky from being knocked on the head, and I want to see if the Turkish bath downstairs is open. Could you return at eleven p.m.? If you’re worried about being out past midnight, I’m sure the Sacher can find you a room.”
McDonald frowned at Lord Robert, then at Darling. “I must say you’re taking a matter of national security very casually.”
“Oh, I’m taking it seriously,” Lord Robert said. “You have no idea how serio
usly. It’s your Cheshire Cat behaviour that fails to impress.”
McDonald snorted, and tossed down the rest of his drink. “Very well. I’ll see you here at eleven p.m.—if I’m not murdered by footpads. Do have a lovely time together in the bath, won’t you?”
He closed the door behind himself with a little more force than necessary and once more the two of them were left to stare at one another. The moment stretched out with no end in sight, and Jack was almost afraid to speak for fear of saying the wrong thing. What more could he say? Finally he tried, “I have a suggestion, my lord.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you think we might let the personal matter lie for a little while? I would hate to say or do something hasty and risk making a mistake about something so important.”
“But—” Lord Robert stopped, considering. “Yes,” he said. “I believe you’re right. And in any case, we have all the time in the world for that. We need to keep our minds on the job at hand.”
“All the time—” Jack caught himself. “Then you wish me to stay in your service?”
“Jack, for God’s sake—yes, of course I do. But you’re right, we have two separate matters to think about. There’s no point in getting them muddled. Once we have Cecil’s papers in hand and deliver them to the Embassy, our time is our own. We can sort it out then.”
Lord Robert held out his hand, not a gesture a man would make to a servant. “In the cab, I told you I was lucky to have you. I meant that.”
The firm, warm touch was almost painfully intimate. Jack fell back on force of habit to break the mood. “Did you also mean what you said about visiting the bath?” he asked, releasing the handclasp. “If so, I should inquire immediately.”
“Yes, I did. Still do.”
“Very good, my lord. And—my lord, if Captain McDonald had been taken into custody this morning, doesn’t it seem likely Sir James would have heard of it?”
“Yes.” He shrugged as if shaking something off his shoulders. “I wonder if anything Cecil said just now was true. It’s rather sad, but after being around him for even those few minutes, I feel the need for a thorough cleansing. Just ring for the bellboy, would you?”
Speak Its Name Page 10