“Oh?” A second voice answered the first through the cool dark.
The speakers were on the extended open terrace that jutted from the owner’s private sitting room into the courtyard. The second speaker reclined on a sofa piled with silk cushions, while the first paced the edge of the terrace, his bootheels creating a quiet tattoo-one that held a certain tension.
A third man watched silently from an armchair beside the sofa.
The night’s shadows cloaked them all.
“Damn Govind Holkar!” The first speaker paused to rake a hand through thick hair. “I can’t believe he left it this long to send word!”
“Word of what?” the second asked.
“He lost my last letter-the one I sent over a month ago trying to persuade him to give us more men. That letter.”
“By lost, you mean…?”
“I mean that it went missing from the desk in Holkar’s room at the governor’s palace in Poona while that damned hound of Hastings’s, MacFarlane, just happened to be there, waiting to escort the governor’s niece back to Bombay.”
“When did this happen?” The second voice was no longer so languid.
“On the second of the month. At least that’s the day Holkar realized the letter was gone. That was also the day MacFarlane left Poona with his troop and the governor’s niece at dawn. Holkar sent his cultists after them-”
“Don’t tell me.” The until-then-silent man’s baritone rumbled, a contrast to the others’ lighter voices. “They killed MacFarlane but didn’t find the letter.”
“Exactly.” The first speaker’s voice dripped frustrated ire.
“So that’s why we killed MacFarlane-I did wonder.” The second speaker’s cool tones showed little emotion. “I take it they didn’t learn anything pertinent from him before he died?”
“No. But one of the sowars who made a stand with him eventually revealed that MacFarlane gave the governor’s niece a packet before sending her on.” The first speaker held up a hand to keep the others from interrupting. “I got word from Holkar only this morning-when he realized the letter had reached Bombay, he decamped to Satara, then he sent me word.”
“We can deal with Holkar appropriately later,” the second speaker put in.
“Indeed.” Anticipation colored the first speaker’s voice. “We will. However, once I knew about the letter, I had Larkins see what he could ferret out from the governor’s staff. Apparently, Miss Ensworth, the niece, was greatly distressed when she rode in, but later that afternoon, she took a maid and went to the fort. The maid was overheard saying that, on learning at the gates of MacFarlane’s death, the lady searched out Colonel Delborough, found him in the officers’ bar, and gave him a packet.”
“So there’s no reason to pursue this Miss Ensworth. Even if she read the letter, she knows nothing of any worth.”
“True.” The first speaker added, “And that’s just as well, because she’s leaving any day to return to England.”
The second speaker waved. “Ignore her. So Delborough has the letter, and Holkar is therefore compromised. All his own fault. We’ll just have to find another source of men, and the way our recruitment efforts have been progressing lately, I can’t see Holkar as any great loss.”
Silence fell, but it was strained, pregnant with unresolved tension.
The first speaker broke it. “That’s not why we have to get the letter back.”
The man with the deeper voice spoke again. “Why bother? It’s not as if Delborough can make anything more of it than of the other missives of ours his little group has gathered. They don’t contain anything to link you, personally, with the Black Cobra. Any suspicion he bears is simply that-suspicion. Suspicion he won’t dare air.”
“It’s not what’s in the damned letter that’s the problem.” Again the first speaker raked a hand through his hair. He turned from the other two, pacing again. “It’s what’s on the damned letter. I sealed it with my personal seal.”
“What?” The second speaker’s voice was incredulous. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but what chance was there this letter of all letters-going to Poona-would end back in Bombay, in Delborough’s hands?” The first speaker spread his arms. “It’s bizarre.”
“But what possessed you to write a letter from the Black Cobra and use your own damned seal?” The baritone’s accents were sharply condemnatory.
“It was necessary,” the first speaker snapped. “I had to get the letter off that day, or we would have lost another week-you’ll remember we discussed it. At the time we were desperate for more men, Delborough and his cohorts were making life difficult, and Holkar seemed our best bet. We agreed I should write, and it was urgent. But the Poona courier decided to leave early-the officious beggar actually had the gall to stand in my doorway and watch me finish the letter. He was itching to leave-if I’d ordered him out, told him to close the door and wait outside, he would have left. He was looking for any excuse to go without my letter.”
Still pacing, the first speaker twisted the signet ring on the little finger of his right hand. “Everyone in the office-the damn courier included-knows about my seal ring. With him standing there, I could hardly reach into my pocket, draw out the Black Cobra seal and use it-with him watching my every move. In the circumstances, I decided using my own seal was the lesser of all evils-it’s not as if Holkar doesn’t know who I am.”
“Hmm.” The second speaker sounded resigned. “Well, we can hardly allow you to be exposed.” The second speaker exchanged a glance with the baritone. “That would definitely put a dent in our enterprise. So”-gaze reverting to the pacing man, the second speaker briskly stated, “we’ll just have to locate Delborough and get this incriminating letter back.”
September 16, the following night
Bombay
“Delborough and his three remaining colleagues, together with their households, left Bombay two days ago.”
Silence greeted the first speaker’s terse announcement. Once again the three conspirators had gathered in the night-shrouded courtyard-one on the sofa, one in the armchair, the other pacing the terrace above the glimmering pool.
“Indeed?” the second speaker eventually said. “That’s disturbing. Still, I can’t see Hastings acting-”
“They haven’t gone back to Calcutta.” Reaching the end of the terrace, the first speaker swung back. “I told you a week ago-they’ve resigned! They are, by all accounts, heading back to England.”
Another lengthy silence ensued, then the baritone inquired, “Are you sure they’re even bothering with this letter? Easy enough to miss a seal, especially if concentrating on the information inside. They’ve laid hands on similar letters before, and known well enough such documents would get them nowhere.”
“I’d like to believe that-that they’ve given up and are on their way home-believe me, I would.” The first speaker’s agitated pace didn’t ease. “But our spies have reported they met in a back room in some seedy bar in town two days ago. When they came out, each was carrying one of those wooden scroll-holders the locals use to ferry important documents-and then they parted. Went their separate ways. Those four have been together since long before they reached these shores-why would they each go home by completely different routes?”
On the sofa, the second speaker sat straighter. “Do you know which way each has gone?”
“Delborough’s done the obvious-he’s taken a ship of the line to Southampton. Exactly as if he were simply heading home. Hamilton took a sloop to Aden, as if he were ferrying some diplomatic communication along the way-but I’ve checked, and he isn’t. Monteith and Carstairs have vanished. Monteith’s household is due to leave shortly on a company ship for Bournemouth, but he’s not with them and they don’t know where he is. Their orders are to go to an inn outside Bournemouth and to wait there until he comes. Carstairs has only one man, a Pathan who’s as loyal as they come, and they’ve both disappeared. I’ve had all the passenger and crew lists combed, but there’s no sign of anyone who might conceivably be either Monteith or Carstairs leaving Bombay by sea. Larkins believes they’ve gone overland, or at least by land to some other port. He’s put men on their trail, but it’ll be days, perhaps weeks, before we hear if they’ve located them.”