Fields could clearly contain himself no longer and now spoke loudly.
‘I will not have our plans affected by worrying about a pack of damned rogues who ought to be rounded up and fogged.’
‘It is a complicated question, this question, Professor.’ The Greek lawyer made a determined effort to recover his good temper. He turned now to speak directly to Fields. ‘You English are famously virtuous. You have won a great empire through your virtue. And so you look at our bandits and you see only thieves and vagabonds and murderers. But we Greeks are not so thoroughly virtuous. We look at the klephts from the mountains and we remember how they fought in our War of Independence. And so we see a little of the hero in the brigand chieftain as well as a little of the villain.’
For a moment it seemed as if the professor might continue the argument, but he was mollified by the conciliatory note in Rallis’s voice. He examined the unfurled map on the table.
‘I can only repeat, Rallis, that we know the risks.’ He pushed back the inkstand slightly to reveal a little more of the map. ‘We will not allow them to interfere with our plans but we will acknowledge that they exist and we will act accordingly. We must not travel in a large group. Only the five of us in this room will go. I assume that you are intending to bring along the giant who stands behind me?’
‘Andros will be worth, as you say, a weight in gold.’
‘Five will be enough. There will be safety in numbers but, paradoxically, the safety will lie in small numbers.’
‘And what shall we carry with us?’ Adam asked, relieved that the discussion had returned to practical matters.
‘Our baggage must be light. Each of us must have no more than can be strapped to the back of a horse or mule.’
‘The professor is right,’ Rallis said. ‘We must not overload ourselves.’
‘We will have our bags in which to sleep. We will carry what food we can. Cheeses and bread. Smoked meats. We will need little else. A book or two, perhaps.’
‘Bottles of wine?’ Adam suggested.
‘We can live a few days without the pleasures of the grape. It will be more important to have medicines. Quinine, for example. We must have quinine or we run the risk of being racked with fever.’
‘I ain’t spent a week without a drink since I was a nipper.’ Quint, still standing guard next to the door, was again moved to contribute to the discussion. ‘It ain’t natural. Or healthy.’
‘Many things that are wholesome in one country, my dear Quintus, are deleterious in another.’ The professor had entirely recovered his good humour.
‘Not liquor,’ Quint said, disbelievingly.
‘You will recall from our days in Salonika that the spirits to be found there were not always beneficial to your constitution.’
‘If you mean, they give me some stinkin’ ’angovers, I ain’t goin’ to argue. But a week without a drink is more than a man can stand.’
‘You will have to learn the arts of abstinence, Quint,’ Adam said. ‘It will not be beyond the capacity of a resourceful man.’
The manservant retired once more into sulky silence.
‘We need someone to gather together the equipment we shall be taking,’ his master continued.
‘I think we can leave that to the man who knows the city better than we do.’ Fields waved a hand amiably at Rallis, who bowed in response. He had now, it seemed, become the very man on whom the proposed expedition could depend.
‘And what of a guide to the land beyond the border?’ Adam asked. ‘Shall we not require a dragoman?’
‘Rallis can be our dragoman,’ Fields said. ‘We shall need no other.’
‘I shall be honoured to undertake the tasks you have entrusted to me.’ The lawyer bowed again. ‘Let us all meet again tomorrow and I will let you know what success I have had. Let us join together again at the Oraia Ellas. “Beautiful Greece”. What better name for a café in which to drink a toast to the success of our expedition?’
Constitution Square was, as it seemed to be both night and day, a hive of activity. As he emerged from the hotel, Adam was immediately thrust into crowds of Greeks hurrying about their business. Crossing the square in the direction of the embassy building, he was accosted four times in the space of two dozen yards by beggars with hands outstretched for alms. It was one of the perils of looking so obviously English, he thought, as he waved them apologetically away. He made his way across town to the British embassy. He found a café, one that provided a clear view of the embassy entrance, and took a seat outside it.
He did not have to wait too long for what he had hoped to see. For an hour, a steady stream of visitors passed in and out of the embassy doors. At one point, he saw Samways walk up the stone steps to the main entrance, in animated conversation with another gentleman Adam recognised from the pews of St Paul’s. Sitting on the uncomfortable chair the café provided and drinking two cups of its foul coffee, he watched as other men approached the embassy, on foot or by carriage, and entered its portals. He began to amuse himself by trying to guess the nationality of each visitor. The English, he decided, were easily distinguished, as were two men with identical imperial beards and expressive hands who were clearly French. Others were less readily identified. Adam was puzzling over a swarthy individual in European dress and red fez, who had marched confidently into the building, when he saw two women emerge into the square. One was dumpy and dressed in black; the other was Emily.
Looking carefully from right to left and back again, they made their way through the traffic and headed towards a tree-lined garden close to the square. Adam threw a silver half-drachma on the café table and hurried after them.
He caught up with the two women as, parasols raised to protect them from the morning sun, they approached a fountain amidst the trees and shrubbery. He raised his hat and bowed slightly to them.
‘We meet again, Miss Maitland, I am delighted to say.’
The young woman did not look equally delighted by the encounter. She half turned away from Adam, as if searching for a means of escape from him. Finding none, she turned back and forced a smile to her face.
‘You chance upon us taking the air, Mr Carver.’ She waved her hand towards the sky. ‘It is impossible to stay indoors on a day such as this, do you not think?’
‘Some ladies I know would never venture out into the sun for fear of spoiling their complexions.’
‘Oh, I have no anxiety on that count. I have my parasol.’
His hat in his hand, Adam could feel the sun beating down upon the top of his head.
‘I am particularly delighted that we should meet in this way, Miss Maitland. I am eager to continue the discussions we have had in the past. Perhaps I could walk with you a while and we could speak. In private.’ He glanced meaningfully at Emily’s short, middle-aged companion. Was this perhaps her mother? The young woman had said that her mother was with her in Athens just as she had been in London, but Adam had never met her or seen her. This lady in black did not, however, look very motherly.
‘Leave us, Jane,’ the young woman said, after a moment’s hesitation. ‘I shall meet you by the statue over yonder in ten minutes’ time.’
Jane gave Adam a hard stare. She made no attempt to move.
‘Go, I tell you,’ Emily said, more sharply. ‘I shall be safe under this gentleman’s protection.’
The woman in black turned, with a distinct flounce, and walked away from the fountain.