Soon enough we turn a corner and the rear of Derwent Manor comes into view. It is vast and even grander than it looks in the pictures online.
“Whoa,” I breathe. “It’s blummin’ gorgeous. And so old! I wonder if it’s haunted. I wonder if Lady Derwent sleeps in a four-poster bed. Ooh, do you think there’s a scullery?”
Cooper ignores me, purposefully striding towards a tall black cast-iron fence enclosing the whole back of the building. I’m about to ask Cooper how the hell he figures we’re going to get over the fence, but before I can, he starts quietly counting the iron bars. “There should be a small lock about one hundred and fifty railings to the left,” he murmurs to himself.
We start counting the bars together and, just as he said, there’s a lock at number one hundred and fifty. The railings here are slightly thicker, and in the middle of one of them is a small rusting space for a key.
“A secret gate!” I breathe, straight-up enchanted. I think this is what having fun feels like.
Cooper reaches into his inside jacket pocket and pulls out a Swiss Army knife, inserting one of the fittings deftly into the keyhole and wiggling it from side to side, his tongue poking slightly between his teeth.
“Picking a lock!” I exclaim, impressed despite myself.
“You going to narrate this whole thing?” He flashes me a look before giving the lock one last firm yank. The hinges squeak open with a noise that suggests it’s not been touched in perhaps a century.
“We have to leave you here,” I say to the sheep lingering behind us. “We’d take you with us but it’s too dangerous.”
Cooper turns to the sheep. “Thank you for helping us to get this far,” he adds, straight-faced and earnest. “But your stench would arouse too much suspicion.”
“We will never forget you.” I reach out to pat the sheep on the head but decide against it because Cooper is right about the stench andsheepis not a good bouquet on anyone trying to attract the man of their dreams.
“Goodbye, Special Agent Balthazar.” Cooper says with a solemn bow of the head.
Special Agent Balthazar?
I bark out a laugh so loud it shocks me and makes the sheep literally shit on the grass beneath him.
“Come on, Delphie,” Cooper scolds, as if he weren’t the one just fooling about. “This ruse is a long way from over.” His eyes glint excitedly, cheeks lightly flushed. Is…is he enjoying himself?
We clamber up to a small grass verge until we reach some sort of outhouse connected to the main building.
Cooper reaches into his inside pocket and pulls out a folded piece of paper, opening it up to reveal a printout of an architectural plan or something.
“Is that Derwent Manor?” I gasp. “You printed outplans?”
“Of course. How else would I know there was an outhouse?”
He hands me the paper and hops up a step to peer through the window of the outhouse. “I need a rock.”
A task for me at last. I search for the best rock I can find. I pick up two and discard them, settling on a large round one that’s heavier than the others.
“Good rock.” Cooper nods his approval, bounding back down off the step and passing it between both of his hands. “Next, I’m going to throw this through that window.” Hepoints at the outhouse window. “According to the most recent fire safety report of Derwent Manor, there’s a fire alarm just to the left of the window. I’m going to set it off. Everyone will be brought outside for a count, at which point we will slip into the crowd. I’m betting that guests will be irritated enough by the interruption that no-one will ask to see tickets for a second time. And you and I? We will smoothly saunter back in with everyone else. Just like we’d always been there.”
I grin. “I’m impressed, Cooper.”
“We can’t rest until we have that first glass of champagne in our hands. That’s when we’ll know we have successfully infiltrated the event.”
“And I can finally,finallyfind Jonah!”
He nods, face suddenly serious again. Then he steps back, and with much more force than I personally believe is necessary, he chucks the rock through the outhouse window.
27
The window shatters so loudly I’m afraid the whole party must have heard it.
“Shit, Cooper! That was bonkers loud. What if—”
“There’s a ten-piece swing band playing in the hall,” Cooper assures me, hopping back up to the outhouse and carefully reaching his arm into the window. “No-one heard.” He squints for a moment, feeling around the inner wall before his eyes light up. “Got it! Okay. When this goes off, we’ll go round to the front and melt in with the others. Are you ready?”
