The Lost Empress

by Steve Robinson

  ‘Archie’s first day at the office,’ Rachel said. ‘July 1913.’

  ‘That’s the Old Admiralty Building in the background,’ Brendan said.

  Tayte looked more closely. ‘London?’

  ‘Yes, those towers are unmistakable. If the picture were in colour, you’d see them capped with copper, turned verdigris by the weather. It would have been taken from Horse Guards Parade.’

  Tayte got his notebook out. When Brendan had said that Archibald had followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Navy, and that he thought he had died during the First World War, Tayte had imagined the sailor had served aboard one of His Majesty’s warships. Yet this photograph confirmed that Archibald had served at what was, in 1913, British naval headquarters. He wrote the details down and made a note to look into Archibald Ashcroft more thoroughly when had the chance.

  British naval headquarters . . .

  The discovery prompted Tayte to wonder what the young officer’s chief responsibilities were prior to the outbreak of war, and in light of Alice’s albeit alleged spy activity, whether he had ready access to information that might prove useful to an enemy. Whatever Archibald’s responsibilities, given where he worked, Tayte believed it was highly likely that he did.

  Chapter Twenty

  Thursday, 30 April 1914.

  Just over a week had passed since Alice had made the discovery that she was not the only person at Hamberley spying for the kaiser. In that time she had travelled to numerous harbours and ports along the South Coast of England, adding Portsmouth, Southampton, Folkestone, and Newhaven to the list of places she had visited at Raskin’s behest, to observe and report on Britain’s naval activity. Accordingly, she had spent little time at Hamberley, and, day by day, the lie that she was visiting her sick friend in Margate had escalated to the point that her friend was now, as far as her parents were concerned, at death’s door. Alice hated lying to her family, and she had come to despise herself for it—and for everything else the people now in control of her life had forced her to become.

  The train carrying her home after a thankfully uneventful day in Poole hissed to a stop as it came into the next station. The compartment Alice was sitting in cleared of the middle-aged couple who had been her travelling companions on the London & South Western Railway since Winchester, and she slowly turned her head to the rain-streaked window beside her, noting from the sign on the concourse outside that she was in Woking. She had lost count of how many towns she had passed through. It was already nearly an hour past dark, and she knew it would be very late by the time she was back at Hamberley.

  She shifted in her seat, and her focus snapped to the dark reflection gazing back at her. She thought how tired she looked and how changed she appeared even to herself after all that had happened. She thought the old Alice she had known in Holland little more than two weeks ago had now passed beyond both recognition and redemption. Settling back in her seat again, she closed her eyes and forced the only happy thought she could muster into her head.

  She saw Chester as she had seen him before she set out that morning, fully recovered, in his little riding breeches, excited to be spending the day with his grandmother and the new pony Alice suspected had been bought for him on account of his recent fever. She pictured Charlotte in the kitchen with Mrs Morris, cake mixture on her nose and a toothy grin on her face, and she was thankful that her mother and the household staff had taken to keeping the children amused during her absence. The images Alice conjured in her mind brought her comfort, but even those happy thoughts were tainted by her situation, because it meant she had not been with her children to share those memories.

  Somewhere outside the carriage a whistle blew, loud and shrill, and a few seconds later the train was moving again to the slow puff, puff, puff of the Adams T3 class locomotive that Alice hoped would soon arrive at London’s Waterloo Station. From there she would take the London, Chatham and Dover Railway to Rochester and her bed, and she could not wish herself there soon enough. She wondered how many more tasks she would have to endure, and how many more tiresome train journeys she would have to undertake in the process. She closed her eyes more tightly; with the compartment now empty, she thought she would allow the carriage to rock her to sleep until London, but the sound of the compartment door opening caused her to open her eyes again.

  When she saw who had entered, all thoughts of sleep left her. It was Raskin, in a pair of loose-fitting trousers and a thick Aran cardigan, as if he’d just stepped off a fishing boat. The Dutchman filled the doorframe to such an extent that he had to stoop as he entered the carriage. He neither spoke to Alice nor looked at her, and the sight of him caused her to catch her breath, more out of surprise than fear—although fear was never far away when Raskin was around.

  Alice watched him close the door and turn into the compartment, carrying his hat and coat and a brown leather case, which he placed on the seat beside him as he sat opposite her. He pushed his fair hair back off his brow and settled. Then at last he looked at her, smiling the well-practiced smile that Alice had learned to see through. She glanced at his hat, a navy-blue peaked cap, the likes of which she had seen aplenty around the docks and harbours she had recently frequented. She noticed it was dry, suggesting he had been on the train for some time, because it had been raining for several stops.

  ‘I can see you are puzzled to see me, Alice.’

  Alice relaxed her brow, which she now realised was set in a deep furrow. ‘Yes,’ she said. She was really past caring how this man came and went about his business with such stealth, but on this occasion she had to admit that she was intrigued to understand how he knew what train she would be on, and more importantly, why he wanted to see her before their usual time. It had become routine for her to hand over her report at night below the garden terrace at Hamberley. Surely he knew today’s report would not yet be ready.

  ‘How did you know where to find me?’

  ‘Find you?’ Raskin laughed softly. ‘My dear Alice, I never lost you. I’ve been in your shadow all day. First to Poole Harbour where you took refreshment at Harvey’s Tea Gardens, and then to the quay. As dusk fell, I boarded the train after you, and I have been looking in on your compartment at every stop, waiting for our chance to talk.’

  ‘Why? What about?’

  Raskin took an apple from his pocket and began to toss it slowly from one enormous hand to the other as he spoke. ‘I have something important to tell you. I must remain in London tonight, so I cannot collect my report in the usual way. I will collect it when we next meet, which I hope will be tomorrow. What I have to say cannot wait.’

  He reached into the folds of his coat on the seat beside him and withdrew a curved knife that was about eight inches long. Alice locked eyes on it at once and followed its shining steel to the apple that Raskin began to slice, as if he were carving a fine sculpture. He took a piece of apple to his mouth on the edge of the blade and their eyes met.

  ‘Do you like my knife?’ Raskin offered it out. ‘It’s a whale flensing knife. It used to belong to my father. I’m from a long line of whalers. The handle is made of whale bone and brass. It’s very strong and easy to clean.’

  Alice did not like it. She had never heard of a flensing knife before, but she could imagine its purpose. She turned away in disgust and looked out the window, but it was so black outside that all she could see was the compartment and the Dutchman’s angular features reflected back.

  Raskin laughed and continued to carve his apple. ‘I have a new task for you, Alice. Something different.’

  Alice turned back to him. ‘Different?’

  ‘Yes, a very special task, in fact.’

  Alice knew she had not been recruited in this manner merely to count ships. She had always known there had to be more to it.

  ‘What is it? What must I do now?’

  Raskin sighed as though contemplating how best to tell her. A mom
ent later he said, ‘Traditionally, Britain’s enemy has been France, and so your sea defences are largely concentrated along the South Coast, leaving the eastern shores of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk wide open. We are aware that your government, in conjunction with the Admiralty, have prepared plans for the defences of East Anglia, such that Britain would be better prepared to repel an invasion targeted at England’s East Coast by a new enemy.’

  ‘Germany?’ Alice said.

  ‘Germany, yes. And Austria-Hungary and Italy. There will be other nations, too. It goes without saying that these plans would be of significant benefit to Germany, come the day.’ Raskin paused and leaned forward on his elbows, apple in one hand, knife in the other. ‘Put simply, Alice. I want you to photograph them for me.’

  Alice’s jaw dropped. It seemed laughable to her that she could even get close to such information. Then a terrible thought struck her, and she understood precisely what Raskin had in mind. There was only one way she could do it, and the idea left her numb. She stared at Raskin as he chewed his apple, and then he began to nod slowly, confirming her thoughts, clearly aware that she had just realised what she had to do.

  ‘Your good friend Archibald Ashcroft will help you,’ Raskin said. ‘I believe he will do anything you ask of him, with a little encouragement.’

  Alice was already shaking her head in defiance. ‘I won’t do it.’

  ‘But you must.’

  ‘How do you know all this? You can’t know how Archie feels for me.’

  ‘I am a very good spy, Alice. I know many things. Besides, I heard the two of you talking on the terrace that night I first came to you at Hamberley.’

  The idea of the man eavesdropping on her private conversations repulsed Alice, but she thought Raskin would have to understand the depth of Archie’s feelings far better than could be gauged by overhearing what was said between her and Archie that night to believe he would betray his country for her. It occurred to her then that someone at Hamberley must have told him that Archie would do anything for her, and she was reminded of the telephone conversation she had recently overheard in her father’s study, which had told her she was not the only spy at Hamberley.

  ‘I can’t ask it of him.’

  ‘You can, Alice. And you will. Or you know what will happen.’

  Even if Archie agreed to it, Alice thought she would sooner leap from the train than use his love for her so cruelly against him, but the thought passed when she considered what would happen to Henry and her children. Their lives were more important to her than the betrayal of a friend or a few secrets that might never come to be of any use to anyone.

  ‘If I do this, will my husband be released? Will all this stop?’

  ‘I cannot say,’ Raskin said. ‘Such decisions are for others to make. But I am sure it will bring that happy day much closer.’

  Alice wondered whose decision it was to make. She wanted to ask Raskin who he reported to so that she might make a plea to him, but she knew she would get no answer from the Dutchman, and her impertinence would only anger him, which was something she did not want to do at any time, let alone while he was holding that awful flensing knife.

  Raskin picked up the brown leather case he had been carrying when he came into the compartment. He opened it and withdrew a black metal object that was rectangular in shape and roughly the size of a house brick.

  ‘It’s a prototype camera called the Ur-Leica,’ he said. ‘It was developed last year in Wetzler, Germany, by Oskar Barnack, an optical engineer at the Ernst Leitz Optische Werke. It’s really a very clever design. It uses 35 mm cine-film. See how small it is.’

  Alice took it with a heavy heart, as though doing so meant that she had now accepted the task. ‘It’s quite heavy,’ she said, but she had to agree that it was small compared to all the other photographic cameras she had seen. She thought her Uncle Oscar would love such a device.

  Raskin proceeded to give Alice a few instructions, letting her know how to release the shutter and wind the film on, adding that everything else was set up.

  ‘You will need as much natural light as possible,’ he added. ‘Use of a flash lamp is out of the question. I’m told the lens is designed to cover a wide angle, so it will be difficult to miss your subject as long as you are not too close. A couple of feet should do.’

  ‘When would you like it back?’ Alice asked.

  ‘Tomorrow evening.’

  ‘And where should I take it?’

  ‘I will find you,’ Raskin said, and Alice did not doubt him.

  Alice alighted from the train at Rochester station, still thinking about Archie and the seemingly impossible task Raskin had set her. She had called Archie from a public telephone kiosk as soon as she arrived in London, saying only that she was in trouble and that she needed his help, and Archie had agreed to collect her from Rochester without a moment’s hesitation. Alice never doubted he would come. He’s such a sweet boy, she thought, wishing now that she had agreed to go for a ride with him in his motorcar when he’d visited Hamberley to see the children the previous Sunday. It had been the only day she was allowed off from her spying escapades, and only then because the railway service was generally so poor on Sundays.

  Alice came out from the station building and saw Archie’s car waiting. It wasn’t raining, but she could see from the puddles here and there that it had been, and the yellow and silver Vauxhall C10 had its folding roof up. She stopped and stared into its bulbous chrome headlights for several seconds, wondering how she could go through with this. She had prepared her lines on the train journey and had rehearsed them over and over—lies she knew could not fail to manipulate Archie into doing whatever she asked of him. But even now, she considered whether to just tell him the truth about everything that had happened and leave the rest to chance. She wanted to tell him, but she could not gamble with the lives of her family.

  The car’s headlights winked at Alice, and a moment later Archie stepped out. She started walking again as he came to meet her, and he was full of smiles, despite the circumstances that had brought them together for this late night rendezvous. It began to rain again as they met, and Archie laughed.

  ‘This isn’t at all what I had in mind when I said I wanted to take you for a spin,’ he said. ‘We shan’t see anything of the countryside.’

  ‘I know, Archie. I’m sorry. We’ll go for a very long drive together when all this is over, I promise.’

  The heavens opened then, and they ran to the car.

  ‘That’s a deal,’ Archie said. He dashed ahead to open the passenger door. Then he held Alice’s hand and helped her inside. ‘Mind the running board. It’s a little slippery.’

  The bench seat inside the two-seater was so narrow that when Archie climbed in beside Alice, his shoulder was pressing against hers. ‘It’s a little cosy,’ he said. The engine was already running. ‘Listen to that,’ he added. He revved it harder. ‘Have you ever heard such a roar?’

  ‘No, I’m sure I haven’t.’

  They set off for Hamberley, turning out onto the High Street, and when the car had settled into its stride, Archie said, ‘Now then, what’s this all about? If you’re in trouble, Alice, I’m your man.’

  ‘I know you are, Archie, but I really can’t tell you what it is just now. I need you to trust me. You do trust me, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, of course, but—’

  ‘Good,’ Alice cut in. ‘I promise I’ll explain everything when this is over. You’ll understand then—I know you will. Now drive slowly. There’s something I have to tell you. It’s the reason I couldn’t go for that drive with you last Sunday.’ Alice bit her lip then and delivered what she knew would be the first of many painful lies that evening. ‘You see, Archie, I was too afraid.’

  ‘Afraid? Whatever of?’

  ‘I was afraid of getting too close to you. Seeing you again after so long brought back
such fond memories. I’m afraid my feelings have been very confused of late, but not any more.’

  ‘However do you mean?’

  ‘I think you know what I mean, Archie. You were plain enough about your feelings for me when you rescued me from my father’s interrogation that night after dinner, when you took me out onto the terrace for some air. My father was right in supposing that everything is not all it seems between Henry and me.’

  ‘It’s not?’

  Alice could already hear the hope rising in Archie’s voice as he spoke. She despised herself for leading him on like this. ‘No, Archie,’ she said. ‘Henry wasn’t delayed on business at all. We quarrelled and I came home to Hamberley with the children. We’ve quarrelled so much recently.’

  ‘I see,’ Archie said.

  A single tear fell onto Alice’s cheek. She wiped it away and turned to Archie, forcing herself to go on with her pretence. ‘Do you, Archie?’ she said. ‘I wonder if you really do see what I mean.’

  Archie shifted in his seat, and Alice noticed that the car had slowed to a crawl. He didn’t look at her. His eyes remained fixed on the road ahead as he said, ‘Perhaps you should tell me, so there’s no misunderstanding.’

  ‘Very well,’ Alice said. Then she choked back another tear and delivered the lie that hurt the most, partly because it was no lie at all. ‘I love you, Archie Ashcroft.’

  Their eyes found one another’s in the near darkness, and although Alice couldn’t quite make out the dimples on his cheeks, she knew they were there, exaggerated by his smile. All her memories of their happy times together seemed to rush her at once, and she began to shake as she fought to control her emotions.

  ‘I’m sure I’ve always loved you,’ she added, her voice trembling. Then somehow she managed to deliver the remainder of those hateful lines she had practiced on the train, to that sweet boy she knew deserved so much better. ‘But if we’re to have any future together, there’s something I need you to do for me first. Perhaps it’s too much to ask of you.’