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Stralick.’
    â€˜If that was meant to be reassuring,’ Lady Rose said, ‘then I’m afraid it failed by a considerable margin.’
    â€˜Mother–’
    Lady Rose shook her head. ‘Don’t protest, Aubrey, you’ll only back yourself into a corner. Caroline.’
    Caroline blinked. ‘Lady Rose?’
    â€˜Whatever it is that’s going on, can I be assured that you and George are involved? That you’re staying close to my son?’
    Aubrey watched with fascination as Caroline sorted through the implications of those questions. Eventually, she nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said guardedly.
    â€˜My dear,’ Lady Rose said to Sir Darius, ‘I’m afraid that’s about the best that can be done. If George and Caroline are part of this – whatever this is – then they’ll temper the worst of Aubrey’s excesses.’
    The telephone rang. Aubrey noticed how his father stiffened, and how the four of them waited in silence while the butler answered it. It was with a sense of dread and certainty that they watched Harris approaching after he’d replaced the receiver.
    â€˜Sir? It was the Foreign Minister. You’re needed at the Foreign Office.’
    â€˜My hat, Harris.’ Sir Darius squeezed his wife’s shoulder. ‘I had been hoping we could lunch together.’
    â€˜I’m afraid not.’ Aubrey thought his mother’s attempt at indifference was half-hearted. ‘Anyway, I have a meeting of my own. At the museum.’
    â€˜Good, good,’ Sir Darius said absently. He was already on his way up the hall toward the front door. He took the hat and gloves that Harris offered him, then he looked up, sharply. ‘Aubrey, I’ve had a report land on the desk about the incident with Prince Albert. I know you’ve told me everything, but I think you need to know that it’s on the record now.’
    â€˜On the record?’
    â€˜An attempt on the life of the heir to the throne? Of course.’ Sir Darius must have caught the dismay on Aubrey’s face, for he went on. ‘Don’t let it worry you. My own dossier has some appalling things on it.’
    â€˜It has?’
    His father smiled. ‘As Prime Minister, I’m able to examine all top secret documents, my own dossier among them.’ He stroked his moustache. ‘Your case is different. You weren’t responsible for what happened. My blunders, however, were all my own.’ He turned to Lady Rose. ‘I’m afraid I don’t know when I’ll be back.’
    And he was off. Harris closed the door behind him, and Aubrey’s determination to live up to his father’s example was only increased.
    Lady Rose put the basket of herbs on a hall table. ‘I’m off. I shan’t be back for the rest of the day.’
    With more than a little disquiet, Aubrey watched his mother’s brisk preparations to leave, noting the concern in her eyes that she attempted to hide. Like his father, she was extraordinarily capable, but she did pride herself on her self-reliance – to the extent that, at times, she found it difficult to confide her fears in others.
    Caroline interrupted his thoughts. ‘Aubrey, I’m assuming you have a plan?’
    He never wanted to disappoint Caroline, even though he had no idea what she was referring to. ‘Of course.’
    â€˜For finding von Stralick.’
    â€˜Oh.’ An item rose from his back-of-the-mind ponderings. ‘Refugee communities.’
    â€˜I’d been thinking along the same lines. So where do we start?’
    Aubrey was inordinately pleased that they thought along the same lines. He filed it in his ‘Reasons to be Optimistic’ folder.
    â€˜South of the river,’ he said, remembering their recent encounter with Count Brandt and his displaced Holmlanders.
    â€˜Which is half the city,’ Caroline said gently.
    Aubrey had an idea. ‘Cook.