Read Online Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by James Runcie - Free Book Online

ever.’
    ‘I imagine you have plans.’
    ‘Eden will take over. He’s the heir apparent. And we want continuity. Otherwise we’ll have to have yet another conference in Berlin. The Master tells me you know the city well.’
    ‘I was there after the war.’
    ‘Indeed. Giles tells me that you have a friend there.’
    Sidney hesitated. ‘I wasn’t aware that the Master knew such a thing.’
    ‘He likes to keep his cards close to his chest.’
    ‘Clearly you both know more about me than I think is necessary,’ Sidney replied archly and then, emboldened by the confidence of his tone, he pushed on. ‘Is that why I am being followed?’
    ‘You’ve noticed?’ the Foreign Secretary asked.
    ‘I could hardly not.’
    ‘You haven’t been in any danger, I can assure you. The police knew all about it.’
    ‘Even Inspector Keating?’
    ‘Not him exactly. That would have given the game away.’
    ‘It’s not a game. I was alarmed.’
    ‘Yes, I suppose you were,’ the Foreign Secretary conceded. ‘But then we wanted you to behave anxiously.’
    ‘Whatever for?’
    ‘To show that you were not working for us.’
    Sidney was exasperated. ‘But I was working for you.’
    ‘We also needed to offer you a little protection.’
    ‘From whom?’
    ‘I think you can imagine.’
    ‘You mean that I could have been being followed by two different sets of people?’
    The Master gave the Foreign Secretary a look that prevented him going any further. ‘Perhaps you’d like a drink, Sidney? It will be Lent soon enough.’
    ‘The season when we pay particular attention to the forgiveness of our sins,’ Sidney replied, as pointedly as he could.
    The Master poured out a small whisky. ‘I can’t imagine that you have many sins to forgive.’
    ‘We pray for the sins of the world.’
    ‘And they are manifold,’ the Foreign Secretary concurred before rising from the sofa. ‘I am afraid that I must be going back to London.’
    The Master hesitated. ‘You will not stay for dinner?’
    ‘My car is waiting. I am very grateful to you, Giles. It’s been a complicated business but at least it’s over.’
    Sidney could not comprehend why they had begun a conversation that had by no means finished. ‘Wait a bit. I need to understand all this. You mean that Bartlett and Montague are our men while pretending to be KGB?’
    The Foreign Secretary was surprised that this needed confirmation. ‘You may perhaps assume that.’
    Sidney asked for clarification. ‘That’s why Bartlett’s parents didn’t make more of a fuss about his so-called disappearance.’
    ‘I did have a word with them . . .’
    ‘And Lyall was MI6?’
    ‘We have let other people believe that to be so.’
    ‘It was so. Did he volunteer to be killed?’
    ‘It is probably best that you don’t ask too many questions, Canon Chambers.’
    ‘I know that Lyall was dying.’
    ‘He fell. It was an accident.’
    ‘I understand that is the official position.’
    ‘It is what happened,’ the Foreign Secretary insisted. ‘I must say that both you and Keating have been very diligent.’
    ‘That was our job.’
    ‘Not entirely. We asked you to report on Keating’s observations rather than develop any ideas of your own.’
    ‘I could hardly help that.’
    ‘No, I suppose you couldn’t. But there are sometimes levels of necessary ignorance; when ignorance can even be bliss.’
    ‘I don’t like to think that I have been kept in the dark.’
    ‘You have known as much as you have needed to know, Canon Chambers, as I think we explained from the start. Keating has agreed to accept that Lyall’s death was accidental and the case is closed. You are free to resume your clerical duties which, I am sure, are many.’
    ‘Is that all?’
    ‘Yes,’ the Master replied firmly. ‘That will definitely be all.’
    Sidney gathered up his cloak and walked back across New Court. It was starting to snow again.
    He was angry about being used as some kind of cover for activities