London Gambit

by Tracy Grant

  "It's not the revelations. I thought Malcolm couldn't get past those, but somehow he has. But I think the numbing day-to-day reality of realizing, a bit at a time, what he's lost is what could destroy us."

  "I thought that about Harry. That he'd look at me across the breakfast table and remember something. That he'd meet one of my ex-lovers or hear a bit of gossip and each one would be a cut that would make our marriage bleed a bit more. But so far, it doesn't seem to have happened. Despite the fact that my former lovers have a distressing tendency to become entangled in our adventures."

  "You and Harry are remarkable. But you aren't isolated. I'm afraid of what boredom will do to us."

  Cordelia's gaze had darkened with concern, but she smiled. "I don't think the two of you could be bored if you tried. I'm sure there are things to investigate in Italy."

  Suzanne managed a smile. "Perhaps. In any case, there's nothing for it but to forge ahead as best we can."

  Cordelia paused on the pavement in front of the Berkeley Square house, her fingers curled round her husband's arm. "I still can't really believe they're going."

  "Nor can I," Harry said. "I don't imagine it will sink in until tomorrow or the next day, when we realize we aren't seeing them."

  Cordelia looked up at her husband. "You knew." It wasn't quite a question.

  "Suspected." He met her gaze. "I couldn't—"

  "No, I quite see that. It wasn't your secret to share." She swallowed. Her chest was hollow with a loss she hadn't quite accepted yet. "Their marriage used to give me faith that ours could work."

  Despite everything, the ghost of a smile lifted Harry's mouth. He put his lips to her hair. "Well, perhaps that's more true than ever."

  Cordelia pressed her face against her husband's shoulder. "Let's go home, darling. I have the most absurd desire to hug my children."

  Suzanne closed her valise. She'd found room for both the pomegranate and coral dresses. Not practical, perhaps, but comforting. Cordelia's farewell hug and Harry's kiss on her cheek lingered in her memory. Not the time to think about when she'd see them again. Not the time to think about the last time she'd seen Livia and Drusilla, or what questions Colin and Jessica and Emily would ask.

  She looked up at the creak of the door. Her husband stepped into the room. Suzanne got to her feet and met his gaze. They'd both talked to nearly everyone they needed to since their world fell apart, she realized. Except each other. But then, of course, they'd have a long time for that.

  "I've written out letters for the servants," Suzanne said. "I thought we'd gather everyone together and talk to them before we leave."

  Malcolm nodded. "Do you have any more letters to post? Valentin can see them delivered."

  She gestured towards her dressing table. "I've written to Manon and Bel." Poor Bel, her marriage in a crisis and Suzanne wouldn't be there to offer support. Or to see Manon's baby.

  "We'll be able to write from the Continent," he said. "It's not as though—"

  "We'll be completely cut off? Of course not." She folded her arms, gripping her elbows.

  Malcolm took a step forwards. "Suzette—Mel—"

  "No, don't." She put out a hand to forestall him. "Wait until we're on the boat. Plenty of time then."

  And she really, really couldn't afford to break down before they left. Couldn't let herself think about what she'd brought him to. "The life of an agent," she said. "A mad rush and then interminable waiting. If—"

  Malcolm crossed to her side and put his hands on her shoulders. "I love you. More with every day that passes. Whatever's to come, never forget that."

  Tears stung her eyes. Unvoiced feelings choked her throat. "Darling—"

  He bent his head and kissed her, the way she had kissed him before Waterloo. As though imprinting a memory against what the future might hold.

  A rap fell on the door. "It's me," Simon said.

  Malcolm drew back. "My dear fellow. Come in."

  Simon came quickly into the room. "I saw Laura. She told me to come up. Thank God. I was afraid I wouldn't catch you before you left."

  Malcolm turned to face his friend. Suzanne could feel the echoes of the past between the two men. "David's talked to you?"

  Simon nodded. Then his gaze went to Suzanne. He crossed to her side in two strides and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You're a marvel. I always knew it, but never more so than tonight."

  "Simon—" Suzanne's voice caught. She turned her head away.

  Simon pressed her head into his shoulder for a moment, his fingers gentle on her hair. "I won't keep you long. I know you must have preparations to make. I wanted to be sure I got to say goodbye."

  "You knew we'd be leaving?" Malcolm asked.

  "I know how your mind works," Simon said. "It's all right, I won't ask where you're going. Probably safer if you keep it to yourselves. But I hope you can write eventually."

  "You couldn't stop me," Malcolm said.

  "For what it's worth, David's seen sense enough to admit he doesn't want to destroy your lives. You needn't fear he'll try to stop you."

  Though her face was still pressed against Simon's shoulder, Suzanne could feel the relief that ran through her husband.

  "You weren't sure, were you?" Simon asked. "My God, what we've come to. I tried to reason with him. I tried every argument I could think of—"

  "Simon." Suzanne stepped out of his arms to look at him. "David's right. I did betray Britain."

  "Because you were doing your job. In the service of your own country."

  "Which was at war with his. I don't agree with David, but I can understand why he sees it this way."

  "Then you're more tolerant than I am, Suzie."

  "Simon." Malcolm took a step towards his friend. "That's why Carfax told David. To drive a wedge between the two of you. He admitted as much to me."

  Simon's mouth tightened. "I guessed as much. I'm sorrier than I can say that the two of you were tangled in Carfax's war on David's and my relationship. If it weren't for this investigation—"

  "Something else would have brought it to a head. Simon." Suzanne gripped his arms. "If you let this come between you and David, you're playing right into his plans. Don't let Carfax win."

  Simon gave a twisted smile, though his gaze was a wasteland. "In general, I'd be willing to go to almost any lengths to keep Carfax from winning. But the man is damnably perceptive. He hasn't created a rift, he's opened up one that was already there. David and I view the world differently. We always have."

  Suzanne saw Simon and David the night she'd first met them at Lady Frances's house. So effortlessly in tune with each other. "You and David share more than any other couple I know."

  Simon shook his head. "There are different types of sharing. Different types of love. And relationships change."

  Those quiet words were like a knife thrust. She'd thought there was nothing worse than seeing her actions threaten her own family. But to see another family begin to unravel because of her—

  Malcolm had gone still. Every emotion held in check. For Simon. Or perhaps for her.

  "Simon," she said, her voice dry, "you wouldn't—"

  "Leave him?" Simon's voice had the blunt edge of the flat of a sword. "I would have done, once. Before we had the children."

  Amazing how his reaction echoed her own. "Children change everything," Suzanne said.

  "Of course," Simon continued in the same voice of hammered steel, "that doesn't mean he won't leave me."

  "He won't," Malcolm said with assurance. "If I know him at all. David's loyal. And the person he's really angry with is me."

  Malcolm met Simon's gaze. The past hung between them. Something had smashed in the past hours, something older than her and Malcolm's relationship or even David and Simon's. Something that had sustained all three men since they were little more than children. A cry nearly tore from Suzanne's throat.

  "It's our lookout," Simon said. "Our efforts to find a way to go on, after a fashion. You need to look after yoursel
ves."

  Colin peered over the prow of the boat. Moonlight shimmered against the dark water, hiding the greasy patches, turning it into a thing of magic and mystery. Lamplight glowed along the edges of the river. "Are we escaping?" he asked.

  "Nonsense." Suzanne shifted Jessica against her shoulder. It was past midnight, but things like bedtimes seemed singularly unimportant just now. Eventually, somehow, they would get back to some sort of routine. Not that there was ever much of a routine in their household. "We're going on a journey."

  Colin twisted his head round to look up at her. "In the middle of the night."

  Malcolm put a hand on his son's back to steady him. "Not the first time we've done so, lad."

  "I know. We've escaped before." Colin looked between his parents as though to offer reassurance. "It's all right. I like escaping. So does Jessica. Emily doesn't mind, do you, Em?"

  "No. But I can't see." Emily gripped the ship's rail and pulled herself up onto her tiptoes.

  Raoul swung her up onto his shoulders. "Better?"

  Emily gave a crow of delight, then looked down at Raoul. "Are you coming all the way there with us?"

  "All the way," he assured her.

  Further along the rail, Addison slid his arms round Blanca's waist, above the curve of her abdomen. "I have fond memories of the Italian villa."

  They'd gone there, all of them, on a holiday when they were living in Paris. Watching Blanca lean back against Addison, Suzanne wondered if that trip might have been a key turning point in their relationship.

  On Raoul's shoulders, Emily cast a glance back in the direction from which they had sailed. "I miss our home," she said in a small voice.

  "We'll be back," Laura said in a firm voice, reaching up to touch her daughter's hand.

  "I've had lots of homes," Colin said. "Some I don't even remember."

  Suzanne touched her son's hair. "We can always make a home as long as we're all together, darling."

  She pulled Jessica closer and looked from her son to Raoul, Emily, and Laura, to Blanca and Addison, to Malcolm. And back to the cabin where Berowne was curled up on a cushion with the ease of a seasoned traveler. It was the sort of thing a mother said. The sort of thing she'd once have dismissed as trite. Yet oddly, as she framed the words, her fingers in her son's thick hair, she found she believed her own reassurance. The pressure of unshed tears stung her eyes. Her throat ached from unspoken words and unvoiced cries. They hadn't any of them really begun to mourn what they had lost. She wasn't blind to the risks ahead, to her family, to her marriage. But they still had their foundation. Colin was right. They had had a home long before they came to Britain and would have one after they left.

  Malcolm took a step closer and dropped a kiss on her hair. "It's what lies ahead that matters."

  Historical Notes

  I have taken some liberties with the Duke of Wellington's Waterloo banquet. Wellington probably did not give his first banquet for Waterloo veterans at Apsley House until 1820, and the first of his banquets took place in a dining room that could only seat 35, so the guests were limited to senior officers. After the Waterloo Gallery was completed in 1830, up to 85 guests could attend, including guests who had not been present at the battle, but the guest list was limited to men.

  Wellington's brother Richard, Marquess Wellesley, purchased Apsley House in 1807 and engaged James Wyatt to improve it (with the assistance of Thomas Cundy). Wellington bought Apsley House from his brother in 1817 (to help Richard out of financial difficulties). In 1818 Wellington engaged Benjamin Dean Wyatt to make repairs to the house. Wyatt installed the nude statue of Napoleon by Antonio Canova, which Wellington had acquired. But Wellington was still British ambassador to France in 1818. Because echoes of Waterloo reverberate through London Gambit, I have taken the liberty of having Wellington in London for the battle's third anniversary and having him give a banquet at Apsley House with a guest list that accommodates most of the key characters in the book.

  I am indebted to a wonderful research visit to Apsley House and to the Victoria and Albert Museum's excellent publication Apsley House: Wellington Museum (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2001).

  Fitzroy Somerset was still Wellington's secretary at the British embassy in Paris in 1818, though he did stand for and win a parliamentary seat at Truro in the general election in August of 1818, and he was in Truro for the election.

  Hortense Bonaparte did travel into Switzerland in 1811 to give birth in secret to her child by the Comte de Flahaut (who joined her for the birth). Mélanie Suzanne Lescaut and Julien St. Juste did not accompany her. But if they had . . .

  A Reading Group Guide

  LONDON GAMBIT

  Tracy Grant

  About This Guide

  The suggested questions are included

  to enhance your group's reading of

  Tracy Grant's London Gambit.

  Discussion Questions

  1. The book ends on the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. Discuss how echoes of the battle reverberate through the book and influence the various characters.

  2. Do you think Suzanne was right to keep the Phoenix plot from Malcolm at first? What do you think would have happened if she'd kept it from him longer?

  3. Suzanne worries about the dilemma Malcolm would face if Raoul were involved in the Phoenix plot. How do you think Malcolm would have handled that situation?

  4. Malcolm says Laura and Raoul's future "rather comes down to what Laura decides she wants as she comes back to herself. And if O'Roarke can give it to her." What do you think Laura will decide she wants? And can Raoul give it to her?

  5. The end of London Gambit sees a major change in the Rannochs' circumstances. Some of Suzanne's worst fears have come to pass. How do you think Suzanne and Malcolm will cope with their new circumstances individually and as a couple?

  6. What do you think lies ahead for David and Simon?

  7. Do you think Malcolm and Suzanne really were "collateral damage" to Carfax?

  8. Who do you think Julien St. Juste really is?

  9. Oliver and Isobel Lydgate both seem to have had stronger feelings for each other than the other realized. Do you think they can salvage their marriage?

  10. Do you think the revelations about Maria Monreal strained the Davenports' marriage or left it stronger?

  11. Discuss how Harry and Cordelia reacted to the revelations about Suzanne. How might some of the other characters who haven't learned the truth yet react? Lady Frances? Rupert? Isobel?

  12. Carfax tells Malcolm that David couldn't be happy if David didn't do his duty. Do you think that is true?

  13. Harry and Malcolm both say that they choose to believe their wives won't betray them again. Do you think the marriages could survive new betrayals?

  More by Tracy Grant

  Rannoch / Fraser Series

  Incident in Berkeley Square

  The Mayfair Affair

  London Interlude

  The Berkeley Square Affair

  The Paris Plot

  The Paris Affair

  His Spanish Bride

  Imperial Scandal

  Vienna Waltz

  The Mask of Night

  Beneath a Silent Moon

  Secrets of a Lady

  Traditional Regencies

  Widow's Gambit

  Frivolous Pretence

  The Courting of Philippa

  Lescaut Quartet

  Dark Angel

  Shores of Desire

  Shadows of the Heart

  Rightfully His

  About the Author

  Tracy Grant studied British history at Stanford University and received the Firestone Award for Excellence in Research for her honors thesis on shifting conceptions of honor in late-fifteenth-century England. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her young daughter and three cats. In addition to writing, Tracy works for the Merola Opera Program, a professional training program for opera singers, pianists, and stage directors. Her real life her
oine is her daughter Mélanie, who is very cooperative about Mummy's writing time. She is currently at work on her next book chronicling the adventures of Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch. Visit her on the Web at www.tracygrant.org

  Photo Credit: © Raphael Coffey Photography