After a long moment he smiled back.
‘Also,’ he said coolly. ‘I will be here. I will continue to be here. I do not give up easily.’
There was a knock at the door, followed by the voice of one of the maids telling us dinner was ready. I started for the door.
Tony got there ahead of me.
‘It wouldn’t help Schmidt’s reputation if this affair were made public,’ he said meditatively. ‘I don’t suppose you intimated – ’
‘Why, Tony,’ I said, with virtuous indignation. ‘That would be blackmail! Would I resort to such a low trick?’
‘Of course not. Schmidt offered you a job because of your brilliance. I’m brilliant too,’ said Tony. ‘I imagine Herr Schmidt could find another job at the Museum, if I asked him nicely . . .’
Blankenhagen stood up.
‘You talk to me of rascals!’ he exclaimed. ‘You are an unprincipled dishonest – ’
I left the two of them jostling each other in the doorway and went humming down the corridor. The next five years were going to be fun.
If you enjoyed Borrower of the Night why not join Vicky Bliss on her next adventure in . . .
Street of the Five Moons
by Elizabeth Peters
The strange case of the jewel of Charlemagne
What does it all mean? The note with the hieroglyphs was found in the pocket of a man lying dead in an alley. The man also possessed a small piece of jewellery, a reproduction of the Charlemagne talisman. The reproduction is so exquisite that expert art historian Vicky Bliss thought she was being shown the real thing . . .
Vicky doesn’t know what to make of it all yet. She packs her bags for the sun-drenched streets and moonlit courtyards of Rome determined to find the answers, even if it kills her. But that dangerously exciting Englishman might just get in her way before she gets the answers she wants.
£6.99 paperback
Coming soon in Robinson paperback
Silhouette in Scarlet
by Elizabeth Peters
Is Vicky to be cast adrift or will love save the day?
One red rose, a one-way ticket to Stockholm and a cryptic message in Latin intrigue Vicky Bliss – just as they were meant to. Vicky recognizes the handiwork of her former lover, jewel thief John Smythe. She takes the bait, eagerly following Smythe’s lead in the hope of finding a lost treasure.
The trail begins with a priceless fifth-century chalice, which will place Vicky at the mercy of a gang of ruthless criminals who have their eyes on an even more valuable prize. The hunt threatens to turn deadly on a remote island, where a captive Vicky must dig deep at an excavation into the distant past…
Published August 2007
£6.99 paperback
Coming soon in Robinson paperback
Trojan Gold
by Elizabeth Peters
A traditional fairy tale Christmas? Or is it a mask for murder?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words but the photograph Vicky Bliss has just received gives rise to a thousand questions instead. The blood-stained envelope is all the proof she needs that something is horribly wrong.
The photograph itself is very familiar: a woman dressed in the gold of Troy. Yet this isn’t the famous photograph of Frau Schliemann – this photograph is contemporary. And the gold, as Vicky and her fellow academics know, disappeared at the end of the Second World War.
Vicky and her fellow experts gather to renew the search and enjoy a festive Bavarian Christmas together. Their efforts are soon marred by a determined killer in their midst . . .
Published August 2007
£6.99 paperback