‘I am sorry your husband was killed, Mrs Westerman.’ Manzerotti still had the trick of making every phrase he spoke sound like a snatch of music in his lightly accented English. He crossed his legs and the black silk whispered. He seemed quite calm.
‘Murdered. On your order.’ She rolled one of the lead bullets around the centre of her palm.
‘All wars have casualties. Your husband sank many ships, drowned many men, and was called a hero.’
Harriet made a sound of disgust in her throat.
Manzerotti continued as if he had not heard her. ‘I regret his death now. It proved unnecessary, given my identity was already discovered, but we were not to know that then.’ Harriet picked up the gun again and examined the mechanism. ‘But then I was not the only person to order a murder, was I, Mrs Westerman?’
She paused. ‘I do not know what you mean, Manzerotti.’
He watched her carefully, examining her face as if he were about to draw it.
‘I think the authorities would have preferred my friend Johannes delivered to them alive, yet he was given over to an angry mob. Mr Crowther is hardly the creature to do such a thing unprompted. His blood, for the most part, runs too cold.’ Harriet felt herself flinch, felt it seen. ‘No, Mrs Westerman, I believe it was you that ordered Johannes’ death. Asked Crowther to perform that act of revenge on your behalf from your husband’s bedside. Johannes had been my companion since childhood, you know.’
Harriet tried to concentrate on the pistol, heavy in her hand, and tapped powder into the muzzle. Her hand had begun to shake a little. ‘He was your knife-man. Did you keep a tally of the murders he did for you?’
Manzerotti nodded, his eyebrows slightly lifted as if considering what she said. ‘I am sure you thought the murder justified. Though I have never murdered for revenge. And that is what it was, my dear, revenge.’ She dropped the ball into the barrel and rammed home the charge with all her strength. ‘And you have killed since, I understand, with your own hand. Some evil-doer in Keswick, was it not? The same man who shot Mr Crowther?’
‘I was defending my son.’
‘I applauded you then, as I do now, but tell me, do you think that business would have been tidied away so neatly, just as the removal of Johannes was forgiven so completely, were you not thought of as useful? I suspect England holds you in reserve.’
‘Your point, Manzerotti?’
‘My individual talents have made me of help to many governments, and many individuals; my sins have likewise been occasionally overlooked. I can be useful too, Mrs Westerman. I might even be of help to you. What do you know of this place? These people?’
Harriet pointed the pistol at Manzerotti’s chest; she could feel the pulse of blood in her brain. ‘We are not the same, Manzerotti.’
He licked his lips. ‘No, my dear, I do not think we are. In fact, I seem to be betting my life on it. I only say we can be of use to each other. Now either you must shoot me, or we must come to some sort of accommodation. The world is too small to prevent us from bumping into each other from time to time.’
‘Why are you here? Why have you come to Maulberg?’ Her mouth was dry, each word came painfully from her lips.
His eyes glittered. ‘One step at a time. This I shall tell you, Mrs Westerman: I do not come for you, or Mr Clode.’
Her finger tightened on the trigger. She felt the grief of every day since James had died wash over her in a black tide, seemed to live again that moment she had watched him die, felt him torn away from her, leaving this creeping dark at her core. She closed her eyes as it fell over her, then opened them again. Manzerotti was still watching her with that close attention, but there was something in his eyes more human than she had ever seen before, some reflection of her grief. The wave retreated, she became aware of the sound of the wind breathing through the trees. He spoke again, softly, kindly.
‘Where is Mr Clode’s mask, Mrs Westerman? Ask District Officer Krall that, and he will know what to do.’ He tilted his head to one side. ‘The moment has come, my dear. You must shoot me or set that pistol down. Know only that in my mind, we are even in blood.’
Harriet felt a tremor run through her arm, then she laid the gun down in its case. She felt as if the life had drained from her body and left her suddenly powerless; all she could do was listen to the leaves shivering on the branches, the distant trill and burst of the song thrush.
Manzerotti, however, seemed suddenly renewed. He slid along the bench like a child, spun the gun case towards him and as he spoke began to disassemble the charge. ‘Excellent, my dear. If you would just give me a moment to render this safe … it would be too bathetic if I blew my own leg off carrying it down the hill again.’ In the middle distance, Harriet could hear her sister calling her. ‘Ah, the cavalry approach,’ he added.
‘Why?’
‘Why what, dear lady?’
‘Why must we meet?’
He blew loose powder from the muzzle and settled the gun back into its velvet seat, then flicked the box closed and snapped the catches. He did not reply until he was looking at her again. His eyes were dancing, his exhilaration obvious. ‘You are by far the most interesting woman in Europe, Mrs Westerman. I am one of the most interesting men. It could not be avoided.’
He stood and tucked the box under his arm. Harriet felt a hundred years older than she had when she arrived in Maulberg, but there was a sort of peace there too, rolling over her like sea fog.
‘The mask?’ she asked, passing her hand over her forehead.
‘They all ate the same, and drank the same. Mr Clode saw visions. If he did not eat or drink the substances that gave him those visions, it might well have come through the skin. There are drugs that can be administered in such a fashion. The mask would be the best method.’
She nodded and he turned to leave her. ‘We are not even in blood,’ she said in a dull voice. ‘We never can be.’ He did not turn back towards her.
‘Opinions differ.’ He reached the top of the stairs just as Graves was running up them with Crowther at his heels. Harriet lowered her head and stared at her hands lying idle in her lap. ‘Mr Graves, Mr Crowther. Delighted to see you again. You aimed to be my saviours? How touching. It has proved unnecessary. In any case, I doubt you could have done much for me; she is far too good a shot.’
Graves stood aside and Manzerotti skipped lightly down the steps, bowing briefly to Rachel as he went.
They gathered round her carefully, leaving Mr Al-Said waiting nervously at the bottom of the steps.
Their nearness, the looks of tender concern felt suddenly oppressive. She stood up swiftly and turned away from them, looking back towards the palace. The network of garden rooms were quite plain from here, they branched out from the central lawns in a regular honeycomb. She let her hand lie on the balustrade, feeling its chill against her skin. ‘I could not kill him,’ she said at last. ‘I had a gun pointed at his chest and I could not, though I wanted to very much.’ No one spoke, but Rachel joined her and placed her gloved hand over Harriet’s bare fingers. Harriet closed her eyes for a moment and drew in her breath. ‘Did you see how beautiful he still is?’
‘He makes me believe in devils, Harry.’
She turned back to face Crowther, who was still pale with worry. She thought of the losses and tragedies he had endured and tried to smile at him. He only offered his arm. She took it, and for the briefest of moments rested her forehead on his shoulder. Then they walked down the steps together and Harriet paused by Mr Al-Said. She drew a sharp metal sliver from her glove. ‘I do apologise, sir. I seem to have picked up one of your files as I left the workshop. Very absent-minded of me.’
Adnan took it from her and bowed.
Krall looked at his watch. It seemed there would no longer be an opportunity to meet the English today. The timetable at court was strictly observed. The party would need to change into court dress to be presented to Ludwig Christoph and that was a fussy business. Krall would not dine with them. He ha
d the liberty to demand what he wanted from the kitchen at his convenience and for now he would rather stare at the plaster cherubs cavorting over his ceiling than anything else. Time enough to meet the English tomorrow.
Since the murder of Lady Martesen, Krall had been in the habit of spending two or three nights in the palace every week to consult with Chancellor Swann and place before him the latest sheafs of reports and interviews. He would have preferred his own home, his own fireside and books, but he accepted the necessity of spending more time among the elaborate flourishes of Ulrichsberg with his usual stoicism. The manner of Lady Martesen’s death itched at him. A smothering was possible, but unlikely, the more he thought of it. The Professor from the University of Leuchtenstadt who had performed the examination of the body was an elderly gentleman, more comfortable with the teachings of Ancient Rome than anything discovered in the current century. He agreed it was a little strange there was not more blood, and supposed the lack of other signs of violence was unusual. He suggested that perhaps Miss Martesen had been transfixed with fear. Krall had thought the suggestion ridiculous. It was likely he showed it. He mentioned the pink foam around the woman’s mouth before her body was cleaned. The Professor thought it without significance. Krall suggested examining the internal organs for any sign of poison; the Professor recoiled. Krall was adamant, however, and the Professor summoned his assistant. That young man was at least efficient with his knife, but so in awe of his master Krall had difficulty getting any opinion from him. At last the young man whispered that there was no sign of damage which would suggest any poison he knew. He pointed out one or two features he thought out of the ordinary. Krall growled and spent some hours describing the corpse in as much detail as he could manage on paper in hopes the remarkable Mr Crowther might supply some answer to the riddle.
There was a knock at the door, and with his gruff consent a footman entered. As always, Krall marvelled at how clean the servants kept themselves. It was as if they were scrubbed on the hour. This one he knew a little. Wimpf. A good young lad who had polished his riding boots to such a shine, Krall had sworn at first they were not his. Krall suddenly realised his boots were not that clean any more and resting on the bed. He swung them off rather guiltily. The boy grinned. Krall knew his family, had known them for years. Strange to think this shiny boy had sprung from that farm, neat as it was. He had a look of his mother about him. Hair so fair his eyebrows and lashes seemed white, and he had her trick of turning away a bit to hide a smile. Though he had the cleft chin of his father.
‘What’s afoot, Christian?’
The footman held out a note, and Krall took it with a look of great suspicion.
‘From Mrs Westerman, sir. With her compliments.’
He harrumphed then read through the note twice. ‘Looks like I need to ride back to Oberbach tonight, my boy. If anyone needs me, I’ll be back before the Duke wakes in the morning.’
The footman bowed and retreated, and Krall read the note once more. Interesting.
Harriet sat in front of the mirror while her maid arranged her hair. She studied her own face and wondered if it had changed in the course of the day. It was true that she had asked Crowther to make sure the assassin who killed her husband would die. She remembered the weight of the gun as she had it aimed at Manzerotti’s chest and wondered why she had not pulled the trigger. It was not, she admitted to herself, wondering what grief she would cause to her family. It was not even for her children, and it was a lie to say, as she had said, that she simply could not. She could have done it; no hysterical passion prevented her from squeezing the trigger, no sudden regard for the sanctity of life. At first she wondered if she had simply chosen not to be the sort of person who shoots another in cold blood. Manzerotti was clever to provide the gun. If she had had the opportunity to stab him with Al-Said’s file at that first moment of meeting, she might have done it, but the gun, while being a more reliable method of execution, was also slower. She had been forced to hear him speak, and had discovered in those moments that she did not loathe Manzerotti as much as she had thought. It was not his talent, the beauty of his voice, nor of his person. No, suddenly it seemed to her that hating Manzerotti was like hating storms and high-gusting squalls that cracked the masts and cast a ship about with no care for the souls it contained. And in his utter lack of compunction, in his undoubted brilliance, he was like them, in his way, magnificent.
‘Dear God, what have I become?’ she said to the mirror.
‘Madam?’ the maid said, confused, not quite understanding.
‘Nothing, Dido. Fetch me my pearls.’ The girl padded over to the press and returned with Harriet’s jewel case. She unlocked it with the key from her pocket, took out the necklace and matching eardrops, and placed them in Harriet’s hands. They had been a wedding present from James, and an extravagant one it had seemed in those times before his luck and skill as a naval commander had made them rich.
There was a tap at the door and Rachel slipped into the room like a shadow. She was still wearing her day dress and Harriet remembered what she had said about avoiding dining with the court. ‘You look very fine, Harry.’
‘All Dido’s work,’ her sister replied and caught the maid’s smile in the mirror.
‘Harry, do you think, if you are not too tired, I might sit with you a while by ourselves after supper?’
‘Of course, my dear.’
Rachel smiled briefly and retreated as quickly and quietly as she had come. Harriet frowned at her reflection.
Dido began the work of fixing yet more pearls into Harriet’s hair and sighed.
‘What is it, Dido?’
‘Well, ma’am, I have no aim to marry myself, but it seems to me, judging from my sisters and cousins, the first months of marriage are hard enough without your husband being locked away for murder.’
Harriet smoothed down her sleeves. ‘I can hardly remember, it seems such an age since I was a bride. Will you make sure she eats something this evening, Dido?’
‘That I will, ma’am.’ She stepped back. ‘There, Mrs Westerman. You are ready.’
II.8
Harriet, Graves and Crowther were gathered in the Garden Salon to meet another officer of the court whose particular business it was to introduce strangers to the nobility in general and to the Duke in particular. This gentleman must be occupied indeed, for it was already a quarter after the hour that they had been asked to meet him. Harriet, as was her habit, paced back and forth, the wide silk skirts of her court dress running after her over the polished boards, while Crowther watched her. Graves, bewigged and in a splendidly embroidered coat he obviously hated, was sprawled in an armchair, admiring the view of the lawns, and entertaining them, in a glum tone of voice, with a list of some of the titles and sinecures available at the palace. Harriet suspected he was trying to stop her thinking about Manzerotti, and was grateful to be distracted.
‘There is an Admiral here! An Admiral for four pleasure boats kept on the Neckar! We now wait for the Palace Marshal, and there is a man maintained in Paris at great expense whose sole, sole duty is to write a monthly report on the fashions.’
Crowther examined his fingernails. ‘You know, Graves, it is not my disposition to praise luxury, but Maulberg is not England. There are many noblemen with titles that will fill pages who dine on soup at home in order to wear silk at court. Status is important here. Do remember to call every man you meet Your Honour, and every woman My Lady, or Gracious Madam. To use a simpler form of address might make you an enemy for life.’ Graves sighed. ‘And stop picking at your lace, Graves! It was a great deal worse when I lived here twenty years ago. Incorrect seatings at dinner could cause a storm of pamphlets and a number of legal cases.’
‘Did it not send you quite mad?’ Graves said.
‘Graves, Crowther would never have come into company. He will have spent his days and nights in study. I can only imagine he read about the pamphlets in the newspaper.’
‘Mrs Westerman is quite rig
ht,’ Crowther admitted. ‘I did dine with my professors from time to time, but they did not have the rank to indulge in such flummery, and I did not have the inclination.’
Graves abandoned his attack on his lace cuffs. ‘Still I am curious to see His Serene Highness Ludwig Christoph, Duke of Maulberg. He must cut quite a figure if he is not dwarfed by the magnificence of his surroundings.’ Then he added, ‘Mrs Westerman, are you really resolved to stay here with Manzerotti in residence?’
She stopped walking. ‘I am not happy to be here at all, Graves. But I can bear him.’
‘He is a fascinating man,’ Crowther said.
‘He is a monster,’ Graves said, plucking at his lace again.
Harriet straightened her back. The weight of her gown felt as if it would drag her to her knees.
‘Graves, you have seen enough of the anatomical curiosities Crowther has collected to know there is no contradiction between his monstrosity and Crowther’s fascination.’
The door opened, and a rather wizened-looking gentleman made his slow way towards them with the aid of a pair of ebony canes. He introduced himself, though Harriet got a little lost in the list of titles. He produced a watch, enamelled with the Arms of Maulberg and tapped it unhappily.
‘I must take you in almost immediately! Well, we must do what we can in the minutes that are left to us. Though,’ he squeezed his eyes almost shut, ‘I would normally insist on an hour at least. We have our ways in Maulberg, and we expect them to be honoured. Forgive my lateness. The new Duchess means we have many strangers in court, and they must be accommodated and introduced in the proper fashion. Now a few words on the correct form for meeting the Duke and how to address His Highness …’
The twenty minutes that followed were the longest in Harriet’s life.
As Harriet entered the ballroom on Graves’s arm, with Crowther a pace behind them, she caught her breath. The long hall was lit by a series of magnificent crystal chandeliers, great fountains of light. Above them the ceiling curved, its height amplified by trompe l’oeil that made the walls into the walls of temples, reaching up in romantic pediments and balconies into a false sky of pinks and reds full of angels. The polished floors glistened. The English party found themselves surrounded with men and women in the full costume of the Ulrichsberg court. Every variety of blue and gold was worn, skirts of huge width and flounces, hair piled high and padded, white faces, rouged and painted, in the French fashion, pursed lips. Gold lace, jewels at every neck and waist. It was an assault on the senses that left Harriet’s throat rather dry. There was, she was happy to see, no sign of Manzerotti in the crowd.
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