“What is in the portfolio?” I demanded.
His smile faded.
“It seems that you have seen too much this evening.”
I was not surprised that he chose not to answer the question. Still...I needed to buy time with the hope that bell pull might summon someone.
“And the mark on your wrist? A wolf’s head, much like the decorations on your tailcoat?”
“You are quite observant.”
“The mark of others in that exclusive club that met at St. John’s Wood.” Not a question. I was through with them.
Not quite as eager to leave now, he turned to face me.
“What do you know about that?”
“Meetings with ‘gentlemen’ that included the Foreign Secretary and others, that no one was ever to know about. And Steiner?”
A murderer who had already killed once and had tried again with that attack on Brodie.
They had gone to great lengths to keep their meetings secret at St. John’s Wood. It was obvious that no one was to know about their scheme.
The Foreign Secretary, a man in a position of power and influence in diplomatic matters. The man who stood before me, Sir Smith-Thomas, Lord of the Admiralty.
Were there others? Who else was part of this?
His expression changed, from surprise to curiosity.
“You seem to know a great deal, Lady Forsythe.”
“And Burke’s murder was part of it. He could be persistent.” I knew that as well as anyone. “Eliminated, no doubt, because he had discovered something that was supposed to be secret? That threatened to expose all of you. Yet there was one thing you hadn’t counted on. That Adele DeMille would go to him. Therefore, she needed to be eliminated as well.”
“Things you should not know, Lady Forsythe,” Sir Smith-Thomas replied with growing coldness in his voice. “Since you seem to know so much, tell me—where is Mademoiselle DeMille now?”
Not bloody likely, I thought.
“She is safe,” I informed him as he moved closer. “As is the journal she kept.”
I saw by his reaction that he had not known of it.
Bravo, Adele! I thought. She had written down everything she overheard or saw of those secret meetings at St. John’s Wood, even though it might have cost her life.
She had feared that she had sinned because of what she was subjected to while there. She had not! She had survived, as I told her, a miracle with what we now knew.
And now?
I was well aware that it was dangerous and, absurd as it was, I thought of that saying,‘in for a penny, in for a pound.’I was far beyond a handful of pennies.
“And then there is B-10, in that graving dock at Gosport,” I added. “Something you would know a great deal about. Is that what is in the portfolio? Information about B-10?”
Smith-Thomas scowled as he pulled that ceremonial saber from the scabbard under his coat and came at me.
“Far too clever! You will not leave this room alive!”
He came at me, and slashed with that sword...
Sixteen
