It was a lie, of course. The work was Laplace’s but Pegel had no uncle and had never been introduced at any Lodge. He knew enough about Freemasonry to fake his way along with a green boy like Florian though, just as he knew the right air of wistful longing to assume when talking about the higher dreams of men.
He felt a touch on his sleeve and found Florian had reached forward to place a hand on him. His face was terribly earnest. ‘Oh, but there is! There is a purpose, a great purpose.’ He withdrew his hand, and it seemed to Pegel that the room suddenly became a little colder. ‘You must have been wondering why that man attacked me; you have been terribly good by not asking.’
Pegel gave a little attention to the fire. ‘Not my concern, Florian. Don’t want to intrude.’
The young voice became firm. ‘It would give me great pleasure to talk on these matters. Before I do though, I must ask you, Jacob Pegel, to swear to keep secret what I reveal to you, by everything you hold dear. I don’t want to sound like an idiot, but it is terribly important.’
‘I’ll swear if you like,’ Pegel smiled. ‘Don’t worry, Florian. I know how to keep a secret.’
II.6
The sisters left the palace and entered the gardens that lay to the north of the house. Harriet looked over her shoulder. This side of the building was painted pink and white. Huge windows glittered down over them. Directly behind the palace was an artificial lake, large enough to boat on, with another central fountain. Beyond it reared an artificial waterfall and it was guarded by a series of marble heroes and Graces. The high hedgerows behind the statuary were cut into doorways.
Harriet still thought Rachel’s colour high and her eyes over-bright, so at first she simply told all the news she could think of from Hartswood, then the news of their friends elsewhere.
‘So Crowther’s nephew has a son?’ Rachel asked. ‘How was Sophia’s confinement?’
‘Sophia seems to have managed very well once she was able to find an accoucheur that Crowther did not think a fool. She is comfortably established in Bath, though I suspect she finds it a little lonely. Did you receive my letter about the Almshouses I plan to have built in the village?’
‘Yes, while we were in Berlin. We were pleased to hear that you had …’ Her sentence trailed away.
‘… found some occupation other than the investigation of murder?’ Harriet said a trifle dryly. ‘Well, you cannot blame me for involving myself on this occasion.’
Rachel blushed. ‘I know how it must seem to you, given I have been so opposed to you and Crowther helping others, then to be in so much need of you myself. Perhaps there is some justice in it.’
Harriet came to a halt and turned her sister towards her.
‘Rachel, never say that. There is no justice in this.’ She felt herself watched suddenly and looked about. There were a number of other finely dressed ladies and gentlemen in the garden wandering alone or in small groups. She felt their casual glances touch her and lowered her voice. ‘You do not think I have come here to crow over you? You cannot.’
‘No, Harry, of course not, but I have said such things to you in the past. You would have the right.’ Then Rachel seemed to become aware of the looks of the strangers around the lake. ‘This place! They have nothing to do but study each other. Come, this way.’
She led Harriet through one of the arches in the hedge and Harriet found herself in a small garden room: it contained a number of flower-beds and stone benches, the pathways between them mosaiced with chips of red porphyry and quartz. Rachel, it seemed, was not disposed to linger, but led her through another arch into another such miniature garden, this one with the centrepiece of an ornamental bird-bath, where one of Titan’s handmaidens eternally poured water from a conch for the palace sparrows to wash.
‘Rachel, if you leave me now, I shall be lost for ever.’
Her sister tilted her head to press her cheek briefly against Harriet’s shoulder. ‘I have spent the last forty days wandering through here.’
‘Like Christ in the wilderness?’
‘My feelings have been hardly Christ-like, and this is an unusual wilderness. Wait until you see the place I am taking you to.’
‘The air is doing you good. You sound more like yourself. Now tell me frankly, do you think you are with child?’
‘I knew you would realise at once. I was horribly sick this morning, so I suspect so.’
‘You must take care of yourself, Rachel. And we must get you home to Caveley.’
‘But Caveley is not my home any more. I know that’s not what you meant exactly, Harry, and just hearing you say it, part of me is sad that Caveley isn’t home any more, but it’s not, not now I am married.’ She lifted her hands as if to examine the wedding ring on her finger, then dropped them again. ‘Have I mentioned that I am terribly, terribly glad that you are here?’
‘You have.’
While Harriet was in the gardens with her sister and Graves was making the acquaintance of Chancellor Swann, Crowther found himself at leisure to arrange his room to his liking and read those documents provided by the District Officer that he had not yet been at liberty to peruse. His respect for Mr von Krall continued to grow. In England he had found, to his cost, that justice was administrated in an arbitrary manner by unimpressive men. What they could not understand made them angry, so they cast about for a solution, and when they had fixed on one, rigorously ignored any contrary evidence presented to them, locking their fleshy jaws remorselessly around the first explanation available.
Things seemed different here. No matter how convinced the authorities were of Daniel’s guilt, no short-cuts had been taken. No half-measures pursued. Pages and pages of transcript had been collected, every word spoken by Daniel, by the haberdasher, by anyone who had conversation with Lady Martesen that evening, or with Clode. It seemed the lady had become detached from her party a little earlier than Daniel. She had not been seen at the ball at all, though no one had thought at that point to be concerned. Crowther put another page down, not convinced he was learning anything very material to the case in hand, but with a growing sense of admiration for Krall and for Maulberg. When he heard a knock at his door, he half-expected to see the District Officer, but instead there was a gentleman hovering in the doorway of about his own age, and dressed in the splendid green and gold of the soldiers who had accompanied them from the border. Though this gentleman had a great deal more braid about him.
They made their bows. ‘Forgive the disturbance,’ the military man said in English. He was a vigorous-looking specimen, and showed no sign Crowther could see of the usual dissipation that seemed to come to military men. His skin was clear and his eye sharp. ‘I am Colonel Padfield, and you are Mr Crowther, of course.’
The man had a trace of a West Country burr lingering on his tongue. ‘I am glad to meet you, Colonel Padfield. Mrs Clode has told us of your kindness. I am afraid she and Mrs Westerman are in the gardens at the moment.’
‘No matter. I shall have the pleasure of making Mrs Westerman’s acquaintance this evening, but I was wondering if I might have a moment of your time.’
Crowther nodded and gestured to the chair by the fire, but Colonel Padfield preferred to stand.
‘Ticklish times,’ he said, after a considerable pause.
‘Are they?’ Crowther said, and put his fingertips together.
‘Indeed they are, Mr Crowther. You know the Duke’s bride is to arrive here in four days’ time. There are any number of court entertainments planned. Dinners. Concerts. Hunts. Maulberg wishes to make you welcome, of course …’