"Yes," she persisted, "but isn"t the use of nitrocel ulose extra-foolish? If one wanted to murder the Queen there are more direct ways. She rides out through the parks nearly every day; it wouldn"t be difficult to swarm her carriage, or put a gun to her head. It"s happened before."
"But the Palace is an important symbol. Perhaps it"s a gesture aimed at the building and what it represents, rather than at the monarch."
"Even so, the risk of carrying in al the guncotton ... no sensible person would run such a high personal risk. Unless he was extremely desperate or utterly indifferent." He turned towards her, holding her gaze for a long moment. He looked deadly serious and odd moment for her to choose to notice this as handsome as one could look, in near-blackness.
"You"re talking about a lunatic."
"Or someone too reckless to care about his own safety."
"In practice, it"s not that different. It means we"re much less able to antic.i.p.ate what he"l do next."
She drew breath to reply and was interrupted not by speech, but by a sudden dazzle of light. In truth, it was likely no more than a warm glow. But after such prolonged murkiness, it had a blinding effect. Both froze. Held their breaths. Narrowed their eyes.
James"s hand b.u.mped against her arm and he pushed her gently upstream, a silent order: retreat.
She began to move slowly, using the noise of the newcomer"s splashing to cover the sounds of her own motion. A brief retreat was al very wel it offered time to think, to plan their next move. But it had to end soon the last thing they wanted was live flame near the guncotton. As they rounded the curve, they came to a halt by unspoken agreement.
James pul ed her near, put his mouth to the curve of her ear. "Go," he said. "Fetch help."
"Come with me. Nothing to be gained by staying."
"I"m going to try to reason with him." He pushed her gently once again. "Go. It"s our best chance."
"You can"t reason with a madman," she hissed.
"Come on. We need to get clear of the Palace before he blows it up."
"There"s no time."
"Precisely!"
They glared at each other. Had the situation been less serious, Mary would have burst out laughing this was so typical of their entire history. But the more time they wasted bickering, the more certain their deaths. Even now, as she looked into James"s eyes, his gaze frantic, insistent, she couldn"t imagine that she"d see him again. This was simply a ploy to get her to safety. To save her life at the cost of his.
She could either accept that gift or throw it back in his face, achieving nothing.
He pushed her again, firmly this time, and she relented. She wound one arm about his neck and pul ed him down, planting a fierce kiss on his lips.
"James. I-" His eyes locked with hers and suddenly, her throat closed. "I-" She tried to shape the next word, bring her tongue up to her palate. She couldn"t do it.
The intruder"s splashing grew louder and she spun away, unable to look at James for a moment longer.
As she picked her way upstream, tears already misted her vision. She clenched her teeth and forced herself to place one foot before the other. A fine thing it would be if she ruined James"s great gesture, her futile attempt to get help, by slipping and fal ing.
She came so very close. She was mere steps from the guncotton room when the light suddenly flared bright and she heard James say, "Good afternoon." His voice was steady and cool. "I wondered when you might return."
There was a distinct pause. She dared not move, lest sudden motion cause the intruder to panic. Then a new speaker said, "Ah you"re the fel ow who was mucking about down here the other night." The voice male, patrician, chalky with age instantly made Mary"s mind whirl. She knew those tones. Had heard this man before. But when? "Meddlesome chap."
"Hardly," said James. He managed to sound slightly amused. "The safety of these tunnels is my responsibility. If anything, you"re mucking up my work."
The reply was prefaced by a metal ic click. "Care to repeat that bit of insolence?" said the intruder, testy now. A short silence. "I thought not. You might cheek an old man, but not his trusty a.s.sistant."
Mary frowned, trying to make sense of the bobbing shadows and bril iant, inconsistent rays of light which obscured more than they revealed. And then her eyes caught a glimpse of the "a.s.sistant": a sleekly gleaming handgun, pointing unwaveringly at James"s chest. Her heart seemed to stagger and she stifled a useless impulse to run towards them.
"Now," said the intruder, sounding rather pleased with himself, "march. Go on. You know where I want to go."
"You must have paid the watchman a neat sum,"
said James, holding his ground.
The man snorted an authoritative, impatient sound that was maddeningly familiar to Mary"s ears.
"Don"t stal , young man; I"m not here to play about.
March, or I"l shoot you here and now."
The sound of steady, sloshing footsteps came as a relief to Mary. While James was no fool, he was quite capable of asking one too many questions.
She squinted towards the light, but could see only James"s profile and a flare of lantern-light nothing beyond that. There was no way of timing her escape and so she remained, statue-like, a yard from the half-step up to the guncotton room. She was so very near. There was less to be gained from blind risk than from caution.
The intruder"s snort stil echoed in her ears. Where had she heard it before? She summoned the last the only image she had of him, punting that little barge down-sewer. Physical y confident. Square-shouldered. Intent.
A total stranger, and yet not quite.
She almost gasped when, at last, it came to her: Honoria Dalrymple"s stepfather, the Earl of Wintermarch! He was the intruder. The man who"d bowed out of dinner with the Queen at the last moment. The man who prowled through the sewers by night, looking for the secret access point. The man who"d instructed Honoria to find the access tunnel from the Palace kitchens. She"d seen him the previous night on the servants" staircase, in confidential conversation with Honoria. And the snort was familiar as a masculine version of Honoria"s own sound of disapproval and disbelief.
But even with this identification, she"d stil no clue as to his motives. It made no sense: Honoria"s family was part of the elite and her position as lady-in-waiting affirmed that. Despite her family connection to the disreputable Ralph Beaulieu-Buckworth, they were stil part of the inner circle. Why would her stepfather a retired general, she knew, and by reputation a very distinguished gentleman want to do the Queen harm?
She ought never to have been this much in the dark. If Anne and Felicity had given her the background information she"d requested, it was just possible that this entire crisis might have been avoided. It was an unusual slip, a grave one and yet it wasn"t the first, even during the s.p.a.ce of this a.s.signment.
She stil couldn"t see where Wintermarch"s gaze might be focused but the two men were drawing perilously near. She had to move. In three slow, gliding steps she reached the half-wal . So far, no alarm. But the most difficult part stil lay before her: climbing up to the raised chamber. She risked a glance at the men and almost immediately that voice barked, "Who"s there?"
She went perfectly stil . Lowered her eyelids, but kept her gaze on the source of the light.
"A rat, probably," said James. His tone was pa.s.sably dismissive, but Mary couldn"t miss the underlying tension in his tone. "What else might it be?"
"Wel , now, that"s an interesting question. Keep moving."
A long pause.
A wave of the gun.
James"s steps resumed, slower now, his unspoken reluctance practical y audible in the silence to Mary, at least. "Where are we going?"
No reply, the answer being only too obvious.
They were perhaps twenty-five yards away. It was either stay here and be trapped, or risk being seen.
Mary grasped the ledge, found the smal est of toeholds in the crumbling brick and began to pul herself up.
"Halt! Don"t move."
She ignored this command. A moment later, bruised shoulder burning in protest, she lay sprawled with less elegance than efficiency on the ledge. She was there. She had done it. She had only to climb the ladder and make her way through the tunnel.
Surely the army had arrived. Surely she could persuade them of the truth.
"There"s nothing there, you old fool." That was James"s voice.
"In that case, your confederate won"t flinch if I put a bul et in your thick skul ."
Mary went stil .
"Precisely. A pointless bluff," said James. But his bold words were fol owed by the faintest of gasps.
It was enough to make Mary glance back.
James"s back was to the wal , the barrel of a pistol at the centre of his forehead. Wintermarch had thoughtful y raised the lantern to il uminate the metal"s dul gleam, James"s defiant expression.
"Hear me, sirrah?" cal ed Wintermarch down the tunnel, making it ring with echoes. "Show yourself, or this young piece of impertinence dies." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "And then I"l keep shooting. Either the guncotton wil explode or this mouldering heap of bricks wil col apse on you.
Either way, you"re both dead."
"You"re talking to the echoes," said James. He sounded more angry than afraid. "Wasting time."
A soft, unpleasant chuckle. "We"l see about that."
Wintermarch turned his head towards Mary, pressing the muzzle hard into James"s forehead.
She flinched involuntarily at the sight, and a faint smile curved the old man"s lips. "Show yourself. I"l give you to five.
"One.
"Two."
He meant it. What had she said about madmen?
"Three.
"Four."
"Don"t shoot." Her voice was hoa.r.s.e, and for a panicked moment, she thought he"d not heard. "I"m coming."
"G.o.d d.a.m.n it, Mary, run!" shouted James, apparently oblivious of the gun pressing against his skul .
But Wintermarch only chuckled. "As I thought.
Although I"l confess I didn"t expect a woman." He turned towards Mary. "Show yourself then, missy."
"She"s done nothing wrong. Please, let her go."
There was a faint tremor in James"s voice that moved her more than any protestation of devotion.
Mary clambered down. Despite the icy knot of fear at her core, she felt a ravening curiosity. What on earth did the Earl of Wintermarch hope to accomplish with this scheme? It defied al logic. She walked towards the two men, into the circle of light.
He was carrying, she noticed, another etched-gla.s.s lantern, like some sort of lunatic"s cal ing-card. "Here I am, your lordship."
Wintermarch"s eyebrows, a pair of thick, tufted caterpil ars, shot up. "Got it al worked out, have you, missy?"
She inclined her head very slightly an imitation of Honoria"s haughty manner. "The Earl of Wintermarch, of course.
Stepfather to the Honourable Honoria Dalrymple, Her Majesty"s lady-in-waiting. And a not-so-distant relation of the Honourable Ralph Beaulieu-Buckworth."
The old man actual y grinned. "At your service.
You"l forgive my not asking your names; I don"t much care for rabble."
Mary stepped forward so that she stood next to James, the two of them facing Wintermarch side by side. "Rabble we might be, but we uncovered your scheme. You"re too late, you know the Palace was evacuated nearly an hour ago. The Queen is safe."
Amus.e.m.e.nt flickered across his corrugated features. "Balderdash. That incompetent she-toad could never bestir herself so quickly."
"Have you not had word from Mrs Dalrymple?"
asked Mary, genuinely startled. "Even the servants have escaped."
He was suddenly annoyed. "Enough chitter-chatter. Move." He brandished the gun in the direction of the guncotton room.
"It"s an excel ent question: what d"you hope to accomplish in blowing up an empty Palace?" asked James, even as they began to walk. It was a curious sort of death march, accompanying an armed madman with live flame into the presence of high explosives.
"I"m not here to satisfy your desire for a story,"
sneered Wintermarch. "Especial y with such clumsy questioning."
"You don"t feel even the slightest inclination to boast of your clever scheme?" asked Mary. She felt cheated. If she was to die, she at least wanted some answers first. And more than cheated, she felt angry.
She was going to die in this sewer, at the caprice of a crazed aristocrat who didn"t care whether he himself lived or died. Her death wouldn"t even be useful or meaningful.
For answer, he waved the pistol. "Up."
First she, and then James, hauled themselves up into the room. The earl remained in the tunnel, smirking up at them. "Would you like a hand up?"
asked James.
Wintermarch snorted. "I may be old but I"m not a fool. You want to push me off balance, or at least wrest the gun from me. No, thank you, Easton: I"l do very wel standing right here."
"But what are you going to do?" asked Mary.
"You"l not achieve much by blowing up the Palace and murdering a couple of commoners. And in present circ.u.mstances, you can"t even manage that without kil ing yourself, too." She was scarcely able to keep her voice from shaking, from fury rather than fear. She thought of Lang, sick and alone in Cradle Tower, waiting for a visit that would never happen.
He would a.s.sume she"d changed her mind, turned coward, broken her promise. Disastrous reversals seemed to run in the family.