‘It is. Endorsed by the Emperor’s Chef de Cabinet.’
‘I don’t know what to say.’ Julien looked at Henry, then Jacob. ‘What do we do? It is by far the best bid. No one else can offer me this.’
Henry scowled like he was chewing a mouthful of fishbones and feared to choke. ‘The will is clear.’
Percy smiled broadly. ‘I adore the uprightness of the English legal system, second only to the Code Napoléon.’ He plucked the print out of Jacob’s hands. ‘Don’t look at me like that,moncher docteur. I have no doubt you read the thing. This now puts us on, how do you say, level pegging,hein?’
Like an actor who knows when to take his exit before the catcalls and rotten fruit start flying, Percy walked swiftly to the door. ‘À bientôt.’
The door shut behind him. Miss Petrovna shot to her feet, in her hand a stiletto that Dora hadn’t seen her pulled from a pocket sheath in her evening gown.
‘What are you thinking! You can’t let him leave with that!’ she shouted, making to follow.
Henry grabbed her arms from behind while Jacob disarmed her.
‘I’m afraid we can’t have you slitting the throat of a guest,’ Jacob said to her. ‘That would be terribly bad form.’
She was spitting mad, like a cat that has had a bucket of water thrown over her. ‘You imbecile! Do you want to lose the war?’
‘How do I know that the French having the report will have that effect?’ Jacob said with a laudably puzzled expression. ‘None of us knows what is in it.’
‘But we do! He predicts that Napoleon will lose because he dares to invade my country.’
‘Oh, I see.’ Jacob shrugged. ‘The French won’t like that, but it is too late now. Thecomtehas his estate returned fairly. They can’t ask for their money back.’
‘Urgh!’ The lady gave a cry of utter frustration at the stupidity of men. ‘Let me spell it out for you. If they are warned by such a reputable source as the late Comte D’Antraigues, they will call off the invasion. They will overwinter in Kiev or Warszawa and march in the spring. Napoleon will keep his army intact and he will win!’
‘Oh, dear. That does sound serious,’ said Henry.
The Prussian stood up. ‘We must stop the Frenchman.’
‘I’ve got men outside,’ said the Swede. ‘I’ll have him followed. We can stop any dispatches before they reach the coast.’
Good luck with that, thought Dora. Percy would be heading straight for his yacht on the Thames if his past actions were anything to go by.
Julien stood up and bashed the silver tray like a gong, startling them all. ‘Enough. Yekatarina, tell us. How do you know what was in my father’s last report?’
She blinked several times then straightened her spine. ‘He showed a draft of it to me, Julien. I didn’t know where he put the final version, but I knew what he was going to say.’
‘When did he show that to you?’ asked Jacob, following up the opening Julien had given them.
She pressed her lips together.
‘Then I’ll tell you when it was. I have spoken to your senior officer, to Count Vorontsov. He told me that his country was making approaches to employ thecomteagain as a Russian informant, writing reports for him to send to Moscow. You had been delegated to handle him, to persuade him to work again for the Tsar, to woo him, if you like.’
‘I did no—’ Her eyes were bright with exasperation. She would clearly like to strangle the whole pack of them.
‘You did. The count explained to me that Lorenzo Stelli was placed there by you to facilitate your access to thecomte. Many people would assume an attractive lady visiting thecomteby the backstairs was there for amorous reasons. Lorenzo knew otherwise. He showed you in on the day that the murders took place. You were upstairs when it happened. Are you going to tell us what he did, or shall I? By the way, Count Vorontsov is now fully aware of the events and your part in them. He had thought Lorenzo had succumbed to a fit of madness, and if you were to blame, it was for a poorly chosen operative. You had not told him you were there that morning, had you?’
The circle of listeners now seemed more like a trap than people who would back her up on the importance of the French not getting the information. Her gaze skittered around the room looking for an exit.
‘Please,’ she appealed to them. ‘This is not important. We must stop Percy!’
The Swede and the Prussian looked half persuaded. The Portuguese lady was quicker to realise what was afoot.
‘Tell us what you did,’ she said, ‘then we can deal with the French.’
‘All right!’ Petrovna turned to Julien. ‘It wasn’t meant to happen like that. D’Antraigues was so happy that events would finally lead to the undoing of his great enemy that he did not stop to think of the danger of releasing the information too early. Lorenzo and I told him that he must not sell the report– that he must not even give it to the British government.’ She nodded to Thornbury and his senior manager. ‘I told him that he had to stop, or we would stop him.’ She wrung her hands. ‘He laughed in our faces. Lorenzo took that as an instruction to shoot him. That only clipped him– Lorenzo always was a terrible soldier– so he went after him with the poignard our agents are issued for close work.’
