‘He tried to kill me,’ Adam said, still scarcely believing the truth.
‘Tried to kill Rallis as well,’ Quint replied. ‘’E did kill the tall bugger. Poor old Andros.’
‘Where is Rallis?’
‘On the road back to Salonika. Garland told two of his men to get him to the Catholic sisters there. Fast as possible.’
‘Will he live?’
Quint shrugged.
‘’E’s got an ’ole in him ’alf the size of an Essex Pippin. But ’e probably will. The professor here didn’t catch him full on like the tall cove.’
Adam walked away from the sorry sight of Fields’s body. His manservant followed him, a pace behind.
‘ ’E ’ad you fooled as much as me,’ he said, managing to sound both truculent and plaintive at the same time.
Adam made no reply.
‘ ’E’d ’ave got ’old of that Euphorion book with or without me.’
‘I have no doubt that he would.’
‘I don’t do what any old swaggering Bob tells me to do. But I thought ’e was the boss.’
It was as near to an apology as Quint was ever likely to offer.
‘I do not blame you, Quint,’ Adam said. ‘The responsibility for all this lies with Fields. Let us bury all that has happened with him.’
‘I cannot say how happy I am to see you unharmed, Mr Carver. Such terrible pictures filled my imagination as we approached the camp. Of you wounded. Or dead.’
Emily, who had left Garland to supervise the care of the horses, approached Adam as if unsure of the greeting she might receive. Quint, showing unwonted tact, immediately retired.
‘As you can see, Miss Maitland, I have survived my ordeal.’ Adam looked to catch Emily’s eye but she turned away.
‘I rejoice to know that we arrived in good time and that you are unhurt.’
A silence fell between the two.
‘Oh, Emily,’ Adam said, after a long pause, ‘how long ago it seems since you came to Doughty Street for the first time. When Quint broke the plates.’
‘That was not my first visit. I came to your rooms several days earlier. When neither you nor Mr Quint were present.’
‘Of course,’ Adam said, smiling wrily. ‘I had forgotten. My landlady — a formidable termagant named Gaffery — saw you as you left. I am surprised that she did not attempt to detain you. Or have you arrested.’
‘I was convinced that she would.’ Emily laughed. ‘She watched me descend the stairs with the door to her own rooms ajar. But she did not show herself any further.’
‘I think perhaps she must have feared that the respectability of her house would have been compromised had she confronted you. But she spoke to me. She berated me fiercely.’
‘I am sorry to cause you such trouble.’
‘It was nothing. Her bark is worse than her bite. But how did you breach the Gaffery fortress in the first place?’
‘There is another lodger on the floors above you.’
‘Dupont? The Frenchman?’
‘Is he French? I knew only that he was not English. I approached him as he was leaving the house. I told him that I was your lady friend and that I needed to leave you a message.’
‘And he believed you.’ Adam could easily envisage the delight with which Dupont, an engaging and chatty salesman for a French furrier in Mayfair, would have responded to Emily’s approach. He would have been only too pleased to assist a beautiful woman in any scheme he thought might further a romantic dalliance.
‘He let me in. I thought perhaps you would not have locked your doors. But I could find no way to enter your rooms.’
‘So you returned a few days later.’
‘On the Tuesday, yes.’
‘But why did you leave us so abruptly? Was Quint’s clumsiness with the plates so terrifying?’
Emily paused. For a moment it seemed as if she might not reply.
‘You were so kind to me. Such a gentleman. I grew ashamed of what my father had asked me to do. When Mr Quint provided the distraction, I decided to leave.’
‘Ah, your father. I had not realised that Creech was your father until Fields informed me of the fact. I am sorry that he met his death so cruelly.’
Emily bowed her head.
‘We should not have plotted to deceive you. But my father was eager to learn as much of you as he could. That is why he wished me to make your acquaintance.’
‘And Garland? When did you meet Garland?’
‘As you must surely be aware, my father and Lewis Garland were boys together at school. We have known one another for a long time.’
‘Of course, he is your godfather.’
There was another pause as Emily turned her head towards Garland, thirty yards away, who was pointing to the horses and delivering instructions to two of the servants.
‘Mr Garland is not my godfather.’
Adam waited for her to say more.
‘He is my fiancé.’
‘That cannot be,’ the young man blurted out and would have spoken further, but Emily held up her hand to stop him.
‘There is no more to be said, Adam. I am engaged to Lewis Garland and that is all that you need to know.’
‘But the difference in your ages.’
‘Many a happy marriage has been contracted between a man of mature years and a younger woman.’ Emily spoke with a confidence that Adam was certain she did not feel. He stared miserably at the distant mountains. The highest peak of Mount Olympus, where the gods of the ancient Greeks held court, glittered in the afternoon sunshine. They would be looking down and laughing at this latest unexpected twist of fate, he thought.
‘I can think little of a man who would place the woman he loved in such danger,’ he said eventually. ‘Garland should never have allowed you to leave Salonika with him.’
‘It was at my insistence, Adam.’
‘She was really most persuasive, Mr Carver.’ Unseen by either of the young couple, Lewis Garland had left the horses by the camp. He was now standing six feet from them. Adam noticed once again the deep black of his hair and beard, so dark that it must be dyed. He felt he should hate this older man, engaged to marry the woman he now recognised he loved himself, but he found that he could not. ‘I defy any man to resist the arguments she used to carry her case.’
‘I am still uncertain why you travelled out here from Salonika in the first place. Although I am glad, of course, that you did.’
Garland took two paces closer to them and rested his hand on his fiancée’s arm. Was it Adam’s imagination, or did Emily move ever so slightly away from him as he did so?
‘I was curious as to why my old and — forgive me, my dear — wicked friend Sam Creech was interested in this place Koutles. He had told Emily that he was. Although he had told her little else. We were spending time in Salonika anyway. As you know, Emily and her mother live here. I thought it would be easy enough to satisfy my curiosity by an excursion out here.’
‘He was blackmailing you, was he not?’ Adam could see no reason now to beat about the bush or indulge in the evasions of polite conversation. Garland looked startled at first by his directness but he rapidly recovered what little composure he had lost.
‘Yes — the ties of old friendship meant little to Sam where money was involved. And then, after he was killed, the canary man came calling. Also intent on extorting money from me.’