Chapter 27
In which plans go awry
Distrust a strong sensation of boredom. Often it is disguising something else.
— from Lady Avely’s Guide to Guile and Peril
When they reassembled the council of war, Mrs Ulrich had some unsettling news: Baron Quarles had left early that morning for Exeter. He had taken his valise, but left his telescope, and had not informed Kynver when he would return.
“Never mind,” said Judith. “We must be ready to apprehend him as soon as he reappears. Trebellow, I shall rely on you for that.”
Trebellow puffed out his chest manfully, and Judith turned her mind to overseeing the resurrection of her old plans, with some modifications.
The long, warm hours of the afternoon were filled with activity, primarily with establishing a safe hidey-hole for the duke. It was to be out of sight and barricaded by Illusion, Defence, and Diplomacy: all the magicks at her disposal.
Mrs Ulrich helped Judith to select a small sitting room adjoining a large bedroom in the east wing.
Robert, putting aside his ire, cast an Illusion charm over the communing door so it now showed a seamless continuation of the bedroom’s striped wallpaper.
Then Trebellow spent hours casting Defences into the same door and surrounding walls, so that not even an army might break into it.
And Mrs Ulrich wove an enchantment over the whole bedroom, which Judith had taken to calling the Humdrum Spell, for as soon as one walked into the room one began yawning and feeling utterly uninterested in everything, especially the incredibly boring striped wallpaper.
“Don’t cast it so powerfully,” she advised Mrs Ulrich. “Otherwise, someone might be overcome with apathy and fall asleep on the bed, right in our way.”
Still, she was pleased with the end result: an unremarkable (vastly boring) master bedroom that hid a secret retreat.
Drumpellier might search the castle from top to bottom and not discover it at all.
And of course, Mrs Ulrich had employed her other talents in doom and gloom in another part of the house, as a decoy.
When night finally fell, the Baron still had not reappeared.
Trying not to worry, Judith took her place in the Blue Drawing Room.
Did the Baron know that they had captured Miss Onslow?
But he had not made it back to Lanyon Castle, and now the tide was in, so he could not disrupt their plans tonight.
Impatiently, she waited for Perry. He finally arrived an hour after sundown. When he materialised by the window, she marched forward and grabbed his arm, dragging him to a seat.
“Right,” she pronounced. “Eat now. You will need your strength, and you must rest for a quarter of an hour before you Travel again.”
Perry looked around, weaving slightly on his feet.
Robert stood uncomfortably by the fireplace and nodded a greeting.
Marigold waved from the back of the armchair, wearing a hastily constructed cape of black cotton, tied with string and fortunately covering all of her.
Wooten, fetched by Judith earlier from Miss Onslow’s room, was tucked up in the lavender silk kerchief, with a whole settee to himself.
He ignored Perry entirely, a dreamy expression on his face.
“Oh hoh,” said Perry. “You’ve marshalled the troops, I see.”
“Yes,” said Judith with dignity. “We are going to rescue the duke tonight.”
“Pardon me, Mother?” said Perry in disbelief. “I thought we were going to let him sacrifice himself on the altar of duty?”
“We cannot be sure he is in his right mind,” replied Judith, putting aside the thought of the very lucid letter she had received from Dacian yesterday.
“And we have new information to leverage for his freedom.” Briefly she explained the matter of Miss Onslow, which Perry took with a suitable expression of shocked horror.
“The charming young lady who fed Wooten?” he exclaimed. “Good Lord, Wooten, I hope you didn’t pick up any treasonous inclinations.”
Wooten merely yawned, showing his tiny fangs. “I said a cow would be preferable.”
Perry chuckled, then cast a rather acute look at Robert, who was staring stonily at the carpet. “Still, I never suspect such depths to her. She’s just a girl, after all.”
This irritated Judith, perhaps because she had fallen prey to the same prejudice. “Yes, well, young women can be extremely resourceful. Consider your sister, for example.”
“Yes, but that’s Elinor,” said her brother dismissively. “She’s different to most girls. Clearly, she inherited her streak of recklessness from you, Mother,” he added, with some disapproval. “What is that you want us to do now? Blow up a wall of the fort with the shatterstone?”
The smooth grey rock remained on the mantlepiece, somehow ominous in its simplicity. Judith hadn’t wanted to touch it, wary of how it might detonate. “No, but I want you to explain how it works, in case we should need it.”
Perry blithely told her that she must simply lob it like an orange at her intended target, whereby it would violently explode upon impact.
“I can throw better than you,” he added with great condescension. “I’ll carry it. We wouldn’t want you to miss at a critical juncture.”
Robert repressed a grin, which, frankly, Judith was glad to see as a sign of brotherly feeling.
“Certainly not,” she said crossly. “We leave it here, safely out of the matter.”
“But why did I bother to fetch it, then?”
“Be sensible, Perry.” Carefully, she rolled the shatterstone further back away from the edge of the mantlepiece, hiding it behind the clock. “We shall not need it. The plan is to move with stealth, not loud explosions.”
“Pity.” Perry sighed, then cocked his head. “I thought you wanted to negotiate with Drumpellier now. What’s the call for stealth?”
She put her chin in the air. “I’ve decided that it is better, in this instance, to take first, then ask later. I don’t trust Drumpellier to be reasonable. And I want to explain matters properly to his grace.”
Perry raised his brows. “So you are going to snatch the duke instead?”
“If necessary,” said Marigold, from the armchair. “And we’re all going to help.”
The look of dismay on Perry’s face was comical. “All of you?”
“Not Wooten,” put in Robert stiffly. “He’s staying behind. But you’ll need me to cast your disguise, and Marigold will find Yvette, who should tell us where the duke is being kept. Judith plans to use the ring, so Marigold can go with her.”
“What are you going to do, Mother?” demanded Perry, with great suspicion.
“I’m going to distract Drumpellier, or whatever guards he has on the fort tower.
While I’m kicking up a fuss, you’re going to find Miss Belfleur and the duke and whisk them out of there.
That way, I have an alibi for when the duke vanishes.
Drumpellier can scarcely blame me if I was talking to him at the time. ”
“I don’t know,” said Perry sceptically. “Sounds to me like Drumpellier will certainly blame you.”
“Which is why you need to hide his grace.” Judith rang the bell at her elbow, and Mrs Ulrich and Trebellow stepped into the room.
She introduced them to Perry and explained how they would assist. Perry eyed the massive bulk of Trebellow, and the martial glint in Mrs Ulrich’s eye, and swallowed any objection he might have made.
“All right then,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.” Then he grinned. “A snatch and stash job, I like it. Not sure his grace will, though.”
Twenty minutes later, Judith reeled against the stone wall in the tower of Fort Pendennis.
The ring was warm under her fingers, and hastily she slipped it back into her pocket. Marigold climbed out of the other one, already in her bat form, and took off without a word through one of the deep-set windows.
Alone, Judith looked around the tower room, relieved despite herself that Drumpellier was not lying in wait for her.
The small square of carpet, she realised, was obviously a Travel landing pad.
Drumpellier must have a Travel charm that brought him here just as promptly as hers did.
Well, she needed to give him a good reason to use it.
She marched over to the desk and pulled the drawers open loudly, rattling the contents.
What a delightful wad of coded messages!
She resisted the urge to shove them all into her pockets.
However, she was currently playing the role of a respectable, righteous widow, not one who pilfered military dispatches.
Her banging and stomping soon worked. Within minutes, the tower door swung open—but more tentatively than she had expected. And rather than Drumpellier’s furious face, she saw Ltn Greene peering anxiously around the door.
“Lady Avely!” he said, in a shocked voice. “What are you doing here?”
She slammed the drawer shut. “I need to speak with your captain immediately.”
Ltn Greene gaped. “Oh? What about? I am afraid that the captain is absent at the moment.”
“I can see that!” She paused, and then the meaning of his words sunk in. “You mean he is not at Fort Pendennis at all?”
“Yes, he’s off on some Custos business. Top secret stuff in Ireland. He left this morning, and I don’t know when he’ll be back.”
Judith heard the truth in his words, and her shoulders sank at this unexpected intelligence.
“Curse the man!” She drew a breath, reevaluating her options, then narrowed her eyes at Ltn Greene.
“Well, you may escort me to Custodian House, and I will wait for him there. I insist on seeing him as soon as possible.”
The lieutenant swung the door open and smiled at her. “I have a better idea than that. You want to speak to your duke, don’t you? I can take you to him right now.”
“What?” she said inelegantly. This was all wrong: she couldn’t be seen anywhere near the duke. How could she conceivably refuse the invitation? Ltn Greene would grow suspicious immediately.