Carlisle stood up. He was immaculately dressed as usual, but he looked anxious, even distressed, and as if he had not slept.
‘I apologise for troubling you,’ he began, ‘especially at this hour in the morning, but I think the matter is urgent.’
‘Then you are probably right,’ she agreed, reasserting the composure for which she was so much respected, sometimes even held in awe. ‘In all the years we have known each other, I have not seen you panic.’ She sat down, so that he might also. ‘What has happened?’
His quirky face still held its usual humour, but also a shadow of pain.
‘I have had time to think very hard about what I have done in my outrage at Kynaston’s treason,’ he replied. ‘And I realise that part of my reaction was fear. We have not so very long to go before the turn of the century. Much will change. The Queen is old and, I believe, very tired.’ His own voice sounded weary as he said it. ‘She has been alone for too many years. Because it has been so long in coming, I think the new reign will be very different.’
She did not interrupt him. She had had these thoughts herself.
‘Powers are shifting,’ he went on. ‘I see shadows in many directions. Perhaps it is just they that are frightening me, but I don’t think so. We cannot afford treason now. The world political situation is growing more tense. Nevertheless, I acted …’ he looked for the right word, ‘… I acted without foreseeing some of the results of what I was doing, or how they might affect others. Pitt did not charge me, and he easily could have.’ He looked very directly at her, his eyes deeply troubled. ‘I owe him a debt that I need to repay.’
She wished very much to help him, but there were bounds she could not cross. ‘If you are looking for information, my dear, I cannot help you,’ she told him. Her voice was gentle, but there was steel in it. She could not allow him to think that she would relent.
Humour flickered across his face and vanished. ‘If you did, I would hate it more than you can imagine,’ he replied. ‘You are a fixed part in a constantly eroding universe. We have to have a Pole Star, one true north.’
She blinked rapidly to hide the tears that sprang suddenly to her eyes. ‘That is quite the oddest compliment I have ever received,’ she said a little huskily. ‘But unquestionably one of the best. What is it that I can help you with, if not information?’
‘Tell me of something I can do to help?’ he replied.
‘What could you do that they are not already doing?’ She was puzzled. Did he have something in mind, or was he searching as discreetly as it seemed?
‘Many things,’ he said with a gesture of his hands as if to encompass a vast space. ‘I am not restricted by the law. I know it quite well, but there are areas of it for which I have little regard. And if I can take risks when it suits me, I can make it suit me now.’
She looked at his face, the desperation in his eyes, and believed him. ‘Please do not steal any more corpses and put them in dramatic and important places,’ she said wryly. ‘There are other ways of attracting people’s attention.’
He gave a very little smile. ‘You must admit, there are very few that work as well!’
‘I do admit it, but I doubt any judge would dare to, whatever he actually thought. Not many of them have a lively sense of the absurd. How could they? But regardless of that,’ she continued before he could answer. ‘It will not work again for some time!’
‘Please?’ he begged. ‘Something …’
What could she tell him, without breaking Pitt’s trust?
Carlisle leaned forward a little in his chair, his face grave. ‘Kynaston is selling our country’s secrets to the Swedes, and God knows to whom they will then sell them on. Lady Vespasia, it matters too much to indulge in emotional self-protection. I don’t know why he is doing it! But I do know he is, and I imagine his sister-in-law is involved, and possibly that rather rough lover of hers, Talbot. Although I have no idea whose side he is on. Possibly his banker’s. And I apologise if I malign the man.’
‘Do you think so?’ she asked quickly. ‘That he lives beyond his means? A judgement, not merely an impression.’
He looked at her very steadily, unblinking. ‘Would you like to know? More than just out of … curiosity?’
She knew what he was asking. She hesitated only an instant. It was like jumping off a cliff into an ice-cold sea, far below you. If you hesitated, actually looked down, you would never do it.
‘Yes. I think I might like to know that very much,’ she replied. ‘I do mean know, not suppose. I suppose it already.’
He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the cheek. It was a touch of the lips, an impression of warmth, no more. Then he stood up and left. She heard his voice saying goodbye to the maid in the hallway, and thanking her for allowing him to wait for Vespasia, then the sound of the front door closing.
She sat quite still for half an hour. She watched it on the mantel clock. Then she rose and went to the telephone to call Pitt. She did not panic until she found that she could not reach him.
What danger had she pushed Carlisle into? This was not some game, it was treason. If not yet murder, it could be any day. They hanged people for murder, piracy — and treason. If he were guilty then Talbot had nothing to lose by killing him.
She must steady herself. She had prompted Carlisle to go after proof of Talbot’s involvement. It was her responsibility to take care of him now. If she could not reach Pitt, then she must call Narraway. What he thought of her was irrelevant, however much it might hurt. And it would. Now, when she might be about to lose it, she realised his good opinion of her mattered more than that of anyone else, and in a different kind of way. She understood with an amazing degree of pain that she loved him.
One did not fall in love at her age. It was undignified and absurd! And yet it was also as real as the passions of youth, and deeper. There was all the past hunger and laughter and experience to add to it, and experience of pain, and the infinite sweetness of life.
She picked up the telephone and asked for Narraway’s number, her hands shaking. It seemed like minutes before she heard his voice at the other end, but it was actually barely a few seconds.
She began immediately. ‘Victor, when I arrived home I found Somerset Carlisle waiting for me, in a state of some distress …’
‘What has happened?’ he interrupted. ‘Are you all right?’
She sounded panicky. She must control it. ‘Yes, thank you, I am perfectly all right. It is not myself I am concerned for. Please listen to me.’ She could not allow him to think of her comfort now, and then find it impossible to tell him about Carlisle’s danger.
‘His distress was regarding his actions with the corpses, and the general … horror of it all,’ she continued more levelly. ‘He cares desperately about the treason. He sees a darkness coming, more than just a change. He is afraid for the future for all of us. The turn of the century will bring much that is new, shifts of power in Europe …’ Her voice was rising and beginning to sound panicky again.
She took a breath and resumed, more calmly. ‘He is afraid that time is short to stop Kynaston, and that if we delay he may escape, or whoever he is giving the secrets to may find other ways to continue. They are selling our secrets to the Swedes, who could then sell them on to … anyone-’
‘I know that, my dear,’ Narraway cut across her. ‘Time is very short. But if we do not find proof of Talbot’s involvement, there is nothing we can do. And to arrest Kynaston and not Talbot, if he is our go-between, is only half a result …’
‘Victor! Please … Carlisle seems to know that Talbot is involved. It all fits together too well for him not to. He has gone to try to find proof that Talbot has money he has not earned. He is continuously living beyond his means …’
‘Gone where?’ Narraway said with surprising calm; there was barely an edge to his voice.
‘I don’t know. I imagine to Talbot’s house, or wherever he might hope to find proof of his income …’