Stone's Fall

He shrugged. 'I have learned over the years to concentrate on essentials. I suggest you do the same.' He had a quiet, gentle voice, I thought. Entirely reasonable.

'But you did steal Ravenscliff's papers?'

'I have them.' He didn't seem inclined to elaborate.

'Anyway,' I continued, trying to digest this, 'in my opinion, this had nothing to do with Ravenscliff. He was arrogant enough not to doubt his own judgement. He could not believe any decision of his could go wrong. He was supremely confident that this gamble of his would work. There is no sign that he was worried on that score at all.

'But he was coming to grips with the one thing he feared more than anything. His companies had come alive; he had created a monster, and it was acting in its own interests, no longer taking orders. Its job was to maximise its profits; Xanthos saw a way to make them astronomically large and enrich himself at the same time. And when Ravenscliff threatened to stop it, I believe his own invention killed him. I doubt that Xanthos personally pushed him out of the window. But I am fairly certain that he was responsible for it; he threatened to kill me a few days ago. A man called Steptoe was killed by him a few days ago; another employee at Beswick died as well. I don't know if he was acting in concert with other managers. Bartoli, Jenkins, Neuberger, may all be part of it, or they may have been even less aware of what was taking place than Ravenscliff himself. I don't really care. That's your job.'

'And that is your understanding of what has taken place?'

'Yes. Ravenscliff was much too clever to channel money for an assassination through his own companies. He was a master of the art of hiding much larger sums. You were meant to trace the money. Heavens, even I managed it.'

'Interesting. I had assumed Xanthos was operating on Ravenscliff's instructions. Are you sure he was not?'

'He would hardly have had to spend so much time finding out what Xanthos was doing if he already knew. And Lady Ravenscliff would have been nowhere near Cowes yesterday. I mean, in the matter of assassinations, why not let the professionals get on with it?'

He thought this one over. 'In that case I think I may owe Lady Ravenscliff an apology. She must think very poorly of me. Thank you, Mr Braddock. You have been most informative. I wish I'd talked to you earlier. You must forgive me; I assumed that you must have had some hidden role. Certainly you did seem to go out of your way to draw attention to yourself.'

'I thought I was being discreet.'

'Yes, well. There we must differ.'

He stood up and folded his newspaper. 'I do hope you recover properly, and with good speed. But I'm afraid I must leave; I have a great deal to do; giving Lady Ravenscliff her freedom, of course, being somewhere near the top of the list.'

And he quietly left me alone to my thoughts, which were in some turmoil after what I had just said. I beat the mattress with my fist in frustration, so hard that my shoulder opened up again and I had to be rebandaged by the nurses, who scolded me, then gave me some nasty-tasting medicine which made me drowsy once more.

When I woke up again it was night, and she was there. Heavens but she was beautiful, so delicate, and lovely, sitting and looking out of the window so I could study her for a long time; the only time I had caught her unaware that she was being looked at. I could see what she was really like when no one else was watching.

There was nothing; she merely sat, waiting, totally immobile, with no expression on her face, no movement at all. Just perfection, no more and no less; a work of art so exquisite that it was breathtaking. I had never encountered a woman so lovely, and in all the years afterwards never met anyone who came close.

And when I moved, she turned and smiled. I felt a glow spread through me. Just to be the recipient of such warmth and concern made me feel better.

'Matthew, how are you? I've been so worried for you. I cannot apologise enough.'

'I should think not,' I said with an attempt at a smile. 'You did shoot me.'

'I have been in agonies about it. Terrible thing. Terrible. But you are still with us – and so is the Tsar.'

'When did you know he was the target?'

'Not until Jan stepped forward. He'd told me to come with him, that this was important. We stayed in a boarding house for a night. He was unusually terse and ill-humoured. But wouldn't say anything. I tried my best, but he became threatening. So I had no choice. I just had to stay with him. I knew something was going to happen, and I began to worry about what it might be. It was only when he stepped out that I was certain and knew what I had to do. About the same time that you realised as well. I'm sorry I shot you, but you would have been no match for him. He would have murdered the Tsar, even with you hanging on to him. I couldn't take the risk.'

'I quite understand,' I said gallantly. 'And what is a little bullet wound in comparison to a European war?'