Word of Honour

'Probably about the specimens they brought back from the Arctic,' Aubrey asked. Or it's about me, he thought and he fervently hoped it was the former.

Aubrey and George went to the library, where George was happy with a selection of newspapers. Aubrey flitted from one book to another, never settling on one for long, trying to distract the part of his mind that was wondering about what was going on between his mother and Caroline.

It was nearly an hour later – when the stack of discarded books by Aubrey's armchair was threatening to topple and do serious damage to a nearby potted palm – that Caroline appeared.

Aubrey sprang to his feet. 'Are you all right?'

'All right? Why wouldn't I be?'

'Of course. Naturally.' Aubrey tried to think of a tactful way of finding out what had gone on behind closed doors.

George looked up from his newspaper. 'What were you and Lady Rose talking about, Caroline? Anything important?'

Sometimes, Aubrey realised, a direct approach was best.

'Not really, George,' she said. 'Just about the attempt on Lady Rose's life while we were on our expedition.'

For an instant, Aubrey wondered if he'd swapped lives with someone in a play. 'I beg your pardon?'

'Your mother. Lady Rose. Someone tried to shoot her. That's why our expedition was cut short.'

Astonishment and incredulity combined to overwhelm Aubrey with a totally new sensation: astondulity. 'Why didn't she tell me?'

'She didn't want to bother you, apparently.'

An instant later, Aubrey was through the doorway, down the hall and knocking on the drawing room. 'Mother?'

The door opened. Lady Rose stood there, composed, regal, sardonic. 'Aubrey. That took nearly ten seconds longer than I expected. Are you getting slow in your old age?'

'Mother.'Aubrey struggled for words. 'Are you all right?'

She stood back and ushered him into her domain, a room that sported a riotous collection of her findings over the years. 'Isn't it a bit late to be asking that? It happened a month ago.'

'But you were shot at!'

'It's not the first time I've been shot at and probably won't be the last. You can't go on expedition to some of the places I've been without being shot at. In fact, it's a sign of respect in many areas.'

Aubrey sat heavily on a sofa. A large, ceremonial mask took up the space next to him. It looked as stunned as he felt. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Your father and I thought it best not to worry you. Not with your setting yourself up at St Alban's.'

Aubrey thought this over for a moment. 'So you thought you knew best, where I'm concerned.'

'Now, Aubrey, I know where you're headed. Your shameless manipulation of Caroline was an altogether different matter.'

'How?'

'You're not her parent.'

'So it's all right to manoeuvre someone around, as long as he or she is your offspring?'

'I wouldn't put it as bluntly as that.'

'I see. And my behaviour isn't simply because I come from a long line of arch-manipulators?'

Lady Rose pursed her lips. 'You are your father's son, aren't you? Look where we've got to from where we started. When you stepped through the door, you were concerned and sympathetic over my brush with death, and now you're all nettled and feeling aggrieved.'

Aubrey considered this. 'You're correct. Let's get back to your expedition. But I reserve the right to return to feeling aggrieved later.'

'If you must.'

'You were shot at.'

'It missed.'

'I gathered that. Where? Why? How?'

'In St Ivan's, our last provisioning port before we headed north. I was supervising the loading of a bale of reindeer skins.'

'It was definitely you he was after?'

'Oh yes. He called my name. When I looked around, he fired.'

'And then?'

'Well, after Caroline and I disarmed him, he ran off. We chased him, of course, but he knew the woods better than we did and he escaped.'

'Why did you cancel the expedition? That doesn't sound like you.'

'If it were just me, I would have pressed on. But I had others to think about. One attempt, I could pass off as an error, or madness. Twice, however, is rather hard to ignore.'

'You were shot at again?'

'No, no, not shot at. But the incident was undeniably hostile. That evening. We were still berthed, but fully provisioned by that time. I took my customary stroll on deck after supper. A figure came out of the shadows – burly, stinking of fish – and brandished a large knife.'

'Caroline was there?'

'Appeared, disarmed him and I rendered him unconscious.'

'I could have warned him that he'd have been better off with a rifle, 'Aubrey mused,' rather than risking coming to close quarters with you two. You handed him over to local authorities?'

'In St Ivan's? There are no local authorities in St Ivan's.' Lady Rose actually looked discomforted for a moment. 'It meant we had to take matters into our own hands, as it were. We tied him to a chair and asked him questions. The captain helped, but had to go away after a while.'

'Weak stomach?'

'Nothing so crude as that, Aubrey, thank you. He went to find some of the more prominent citizens of St Ivan's. Or less disreputable citizens, anyway. They confirmed the identity of our assailant as a renowned local layabout and ne'er-do-well. Which is quite an accomplishment in St Ivan's, it being a sort of haven for layabouts and ne'er-do-wells. They tended to believe his story about not knowing the man who paid him. They pointed out that several strangers from the south had been in St Ivan's in the weeks prior to our arrival, leaving just before our steamer pulled in.'

'Interesting. How far south, I wonder?'

'I did ask, Aubrey. Really, sometimes you seem to think no-one else is capable of clear thinking.'

'Sorry, Mother.'

'To most St Ivanians, "south" is a rather nebulous term, meaning pretty much the whole world – seeing as there isn't much that's north of St Ivan's. One of the prominent citizens – the one with two peg legs – ventured that he recognised the accent of the strangers.'

'Distinctive, was it?'

'Holmlandish usually is.'

Aubrey sat back, laced his hands on his chest and gazed at the ceiling. 'And how angry was Father when you told him that Holmland has tried to assassinate you?'

'Extremely. He went still, and when he spoke, his voice was very, very soft.'

'Ah. That angry.'

'He immediately called in Commander Tallis. I had to repeat the whole story.'

'Tallis's reaction?'

Lady Rose smiled, a little. 'He was upset. He kept using words like "underhand" and "unsporting".'

'Yes, he would.' Aubrey was puzzled. An extraordinary plot, and it showed how far Holmland's espionage services reached. The death of the Prime Minister's wife in the polar regions would be a shock, but not totally unexpected, frontier wildernesses being what they were. The taint of suspicion would hardly fall on Holmland. The result would be a distraught, perhaps unmanned, Prime Minister, as the couple were famed for their closeness.