Chapter 24 #2
“I appreciate the irony, but as I believe I pointed out at our last meeting, I am not a widow yet.”
“It is truly a shame. But you are right. Well, Lady Evangeline. It has been a pleasure.”
Dismissed. Evie turned to leave, her mind whirring at the sudden lack of ceremony. She reached for the door handle.
It would not budge. She rattled it, but the lock held fast.
“Oh my,” the woman murmured, directly behind her. Evie whirled around and found herself staring down the length of a very small, very steady pistol.
Evie froze.
“How very clever of you to bring me a tampered list,” the Baroness said. “I very nearly did not notice it was false.”
“It is not false. It may not be the original, you are right, but it is complete. I saw it at the inn.”
“What did you do with the original?”
“I burned it.”
She hissed.
“But as I have an excellent memory, I was able to reconstruct it. I even included my brother’s name, though I might easily have left it off.”
“That does not change the fact that you deceived me.” The Baroness stepped closer. “I find myself wondering why.”
Evie’s heart began to hammer. She prayed that Hartenberg had followed her and was just outside the door. Could he hear what was happening inside?
“I did not deceive you,” she said, raising her voice. “I never lie where my brother is concerned.”
“You are a sly little thing, are you not?” The Baroness tilted her head. “And I daresay you did not come alone.”
“My companion is with me, naturally,” Evie replied coolly. “One cannot visit coffee houses unaccompanied. It is not ladylike.”
“There was an unusual amount of activity outside. The street is swarming with agents.”
Was it? Evie had not noticed.
The woman laughed softly. “How clever of them to send you in as bait, imagining that sort of manoeuvre would work with me. They have clearly underestimated me.”
Evie’s fingers cramped around the Manton inside her muff.
“But your dear betrothed did not consider one thing.”
“What?”
“That by sending you in here alone, you are virtually on the sacrificial plate for me.” With a movement as swift as a cobra’s, the woman’s hand slashed out and pulled her close, just as the door crashed open and Hartenberg and his men stormed in.
Evie felt the cold barrel against her temple. But she had expected that move. She drove her elbow hard into the Baroness’s ribs, twisting her head clear in the same instant. The grip loosened for a single fraction of a second, and that was enough.
The pistol went off with an ear-splitting crack. The shot buried itself in the door frame, inches from where Hartenberg stood. Plaster dust hung in the air. The room filled with the sharp bite of powder smoke, and for one suspended moment, nobody moved at all.
Then Evie levelled her own pistol squarely at the Baroness’s chest.
“I don’t like it when strangers touch me, you see,” Evie said sweetly.
The woman gave a disbelieving laugh.
“Evie.” Hartenberg’s voice remained perfectly calm. “You may lower your pistol.”
His men swarmed the room, pushing the woman back against the far wall with their weapons levelled at her chest.
“What a clever little thing you are. Outplayed and outmanoeuvred; I ought to have expected it, of course.” The Baroness dropped her empty pistol to the floor with a clatter and began to peel off her black lace gloves.
“Don’t move,” Evie warned her.
“I am merely removing my gloves, if you will permit me. There is no harm in that.” She peeled back the first glove with unhurried fingers. Evie’s grip tightened on the trigger.
“The truth is, I did expect it,” the Baroness continued conversationally, as though she were presiding over a salon rather than facing a circle of armed men. “One never goes into these situations imagining they will unfold precisely as one wishes.” She drew off the second glove.
It was then that Evie saw it: a small vial, tucked inside the silk, now nestled in her palm. Before Evie could speak, the woman flicked her wrist and sent the glass spinning towards them.
The flash came first, followed by a deafening crack, and then the room dissolved into a cloud of thick, acrid smoke.
Through the billowing grey, Evie caught the Baroness’s silhouette in motion. She fired.
A cry pierced the haze. Then came the frantic thud of a door and retreating footsteps, followed by a sudden, heavy silence.
When the smoke thinned at last, the Baroness had vanished. Only a smear of blood remained on the floor where she had stood, trailing towards a concealed door in the panelling that hung open onto the darkness beyond.
“Evie!” Hartenberg rushed towards her, took her face between his hands and turned it to the left and right. “Are you hurt?” He ran his hands down her neck, along her shoulders and arms.
“I am not hurt.” He gathered her closely to him. She could feel his heart race.
“Thank God, thank God…”
“But I do not think you are well at all,” Evie murmured, still pressed against his shoulder because he was holding her so tightly to himself. “Are you shaking? But I was never really in any danger at all, not really.” She patted his shoulder blade with one hand.
His grip on her tightened, squeezing the breath from her, then he loosened his hold and stepped back.
His hands travelled up again to her face, as if he still could not believe her unhurt.
Then he kissed her forehead, her temples, her eyes, her nose and at last her lips, again and again, seemingly unaware of what he was doing, as though it were merely the natural continuation of his inspection.
With kisses.
His kisses slowed, then lingered, growing languid and unhurried, and it was altogether wonderful. By the time Evie’s wits returned to her and she realised quite what was happening, they were rudely interrupted.
“She disappeared, Your Excellency.” Schneider barged back into the room. “Oh. I b-beg your pardon. I will return lat—”
“Stay and report.” Hartenberg’s voice was a bit hoarse.
“There is a back door hidden by the curtain, leading to a courtyard. She must have had this planned. The vial she chose was a cheap stage trick favoured by magicians.”
Evie, still dazed that she had just had her first kiss in such unromantic circumstances, rubbed her lips in wonder and understood only half of what Schneider had just said.
“Though I must say, that was quite a trick with the flash and the smoke. Lady Evangeline, are you well?”
“Yes, of course.” She cleared her throat.
“Evie!” Clara rushed into the room, looking pale and distraught. “Are you all right?”
“I truly am, Clara. I am unhurt.” She pressed Clara’s hands.
“You gave me such a fright! First you disappeared, then when I went after you I saw all these armed men rush into the room asking everyone to leave. I got into an argument with one of them because I refused to leave without you. Then I heard the shot and I vow, I’ve never been so frightened in my life. ” She pressed her hand to her heart.
“Really. Clara, nothing happened.”
She was about to recount the whole of it, when a guard stepped up to her. “If you will allow me to guide you safely outside, miss, for we need to evacuate the premises.”
“I will follow anon,” Evie told her.
Clara nodded and left.
Turning to Schneider, Evie said, “I am furious that I missed that woman. I never miss, you see.”
“You did hit her, Lady Evangeline.” There was a note of admiration in Schneider’s voice. “She is definitely wounded.”
“Still. If I had aimed a little more to the left—”
“I told you to stay in the room, wait for her arrival, hand her the blasted list and to do nothing more,” Hartenberg snapped.
“Why is it that you are so utterly incapable of following instructions? You nearly got yourself shot. When someone points a weapon at you, you freeze. What if she had not missed her shot?”
“But she did not,” Evie said reasonably. “It is precisely that she never expected me to move in that moment that gave me the advantage. It is the surprise of the moment, which surely, as a field marshal, is a battle tactic you, of all people, ought to understand.”
“Throwing yourself headlong at your enemy who points a loaded gun at you is not a battle tactic, but folly of the first order! It is the single most reckless thing I have witnessed in twenty years of war,” he roared. “There truly are no words for this lunacy of yours. You could have died!”
“But I did not!” Evie shouted back. “I am alive and well, without a single scratch on my body. Nothing happened except that she got away. And if I am to be blamed for anything at all, it is for that.”
Schneider cleared his throat behind them. “If I may be so bold as to interrupt…”
Hartenberg finally let her go.
“We have discovered that there was a coach waiting in the back, with which she must have escaped, and there are further traces of blood. She must have been more badly injured than we thought. We have alerted all the gates to be closed. There is yet a chance to find and arrest her.”
Hartenberg gave a curt nod. “Well done, Schneider. As for Lady Evangeline, take her home and make sure she is guarded at all times.”
“I do not believe Lady Evangeline would be a target, sir,” Schneider countered.
“They are to guard her from herself.”