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Hazelwood looked briefly at the floor. Malikov had taken the bait. “A thousand pounds would suit me.”

Malikov laughed. “Really, Hazelwood, you do not understand the situation here.”

“No ready cash available? Suppose we settle on something else. Jane Fawkener leaves your company now. When her friends report that she’s safely among them, I take you to the map.”

There was a silence in which Hazelwood thought he could hear the coals hissing in the grate before Malikov laughed, a hollow unpleasant sound. He stood. “I fail to see the advantage of your offer, Hazelwood, but you do give a man ideas.” He nodded to his henchman, who steadied the pistol in his hand, and left the room.

* * * *

As soon as Malikov’s footsteps retreated, Hazelwood crossed to Jane’s side and pulled her to him. Their guard reacted with a snarl of unintelligible words and a threatening wave of the pistol.

“I don’t think he speaks English,” Jane told him. “Turkic, perhaps.”

“Interesting. I noted the coffeepot. Let me warm your hands,” Hazelwood suggested, ignoring another outburst from the guard. He began to chafe her hands, keeping her gaze on him, trying with his fingers to determine whether he could loosen her bonds at all.

“H-H-Hazelwood, don’t provoke him. He’ll shoot us.”

Hazelwood glanced at their guard. “He won’t shoot without orders. Malikov wants the map, so he still needs us. Let me warm you, love, before Malikov returns.”

“You don’t believe M-M-Malikov will let us go in exchange for the m-m-map, do you?”

“Sadly, not at all. He can’t risk either of us talking. But I’ve made him think. We may get out of this yet.” He didn’t know how long Blackstone and Clare would delay. So far he had avoided involving them in treason.

“H-h-hurts,” she said, as he warmed her hands.

“I imagine.” He kissed the top of her head. The imperfect moment was of a piece with the way his life usually went. Something he very much wanted was his briefly under threat of being snatched away.

“Hazelwood, Malikov betrayed my father, didn’t he?” her voice was a low shaky whisper.

“With help from someone inside Chartwell’s office.”

“Clive.” She said it sadly. “He worked there. He knew my father’s plans. He gained from my father’s death.”

“Clive is a proper scoundrel. You didn’t suspect him before tonight, did you?”

“No. But at the ball Allegra said something. I hardly had time to think about it before Count Malikov came to tell me she needed me.”

“You didn’t get my message?” There was a mystery there, but he would think about that later, if there was a later.

“No,” she said. He could feel her spirits reviving. “I don’t want Malikov to get away with betraying my father.”

“I share the sentiment, but unless we catch him dealing in secrets with something in his possession that more rightfully belongs to the government, he walks.”

“Like our map? But you don’t have our map.”

“Malikov doesn’t know that.” Hazelwood felt her hands begin to warm.

Jane was shaking her head. “Malikov will be looking for a specific map. He will spot a fake or a copy.”

“True. The plan has some flaws. But it should work well enough for you to get away. My friends are coming. They’ll create a distraction. Promise me you’ll leave.”

She shook her head.

“There is an unguarded back door,” he said gently. “Use it when the time comes. You can go your grandmother or to the chemist’s shop.” He hated to confess that the whole of his plan was to save the one thing that mattered to him, even if she would never be his.

“What if,” she said, “Malikov were to be holding the map in his hands when your friends arrive?”

“That would be brilliant.” There was a flaw in her plan, but he would not mention that now. “If you are determined not to leave, can you faint on command?”