Imogen Robertson - Circle of Shadows

He tossed his head and Michaels stood up. The man looked as if he were made of china, his pointed little chin aiming at the air, his ridiculous quiff. This is what has come of his father’s lifetime of work then, he thought. Money enough to stuff a man’s shoulders with horsehair.

‘He taught you then?’

‘Not as such. I never spent enough time curled up over his damned books to be thought worth teaching. But I watched in my youth and that’s how I learned. He talks to himself as he tends his furnace.’

‘Thank you. But I like the way my wife looks right now.’ Michaels turned towards the door. Kupfel stood holding out his hand.

‘Perhaps if you could leave by the back way? We wouldn’t want you to have another sneezing fit, now would we?’

Crowther had not yet returned to the palace, and Rachel and Graves had once more headed up towards Castle Grenzhow. Harriet tried to read, briefly, and considered to whom she should write, and what she could or should say, then picked up her cloak once more and headed for the gardens. Her footsteps took her towards the automata-makers. Her theft of the file was not mentioned. News of the demonstration of the mask had drifted up the hill towards them too.

‘I had thought there was an agreement to not let that news out,’ she said, accepting a glass of tea from Sami.

‘Mr Manzerotti is a keen collector of works such as ours,’ Adnan said. ‘He knows we are friends of Mrs Clode’s and while examining our wares let a few details slip. We of course gave him a very reasonable price.’

‘What did he buy?’

‘The caged songbirds.’

‘Naturally.’ Harriet thought of Manzerotti and wondered whom he was working for now. The King of Prussia? Why not. He was a powerful man who would of course be interested in a state such as this, squeezed in between the kingdoms of Austria and France. She tried, as she watched Adnan work, to think like a King. To have Maulberg strong must be to his advantage. If Austria were to absorb it, Prussia must feel threatened, but if Prussia were to try and claim it overtly, then Austria would protest. Poor Maulberg, she thought, all these great powers grouped round it, watching each other, laying a claim for influence. Then these Masons with a revolutionary bent. Did they exist? And if they did and did manage to destabilise Maulberg, didn’t they realise they would be swept away in the flood as France, Austria and Prussia tried to rush into the gap. She sighed.

‘Mr Al-Said, explain this marriage to me.’

Adnan set his file to one side. ‘Mrs Westerman, I am a Turk and a commoner. Why do you believe I can tell you anything of the matter?’

Harriet picked up one of the brass keys in front of her and spun it between her fingertips. ‘For just that reason. You and Mr Sami have been here nearly two years, but you have observed, not been drawn into it all. How did you come here?’

‘We knew that the Duke liked to spend generously on items such as ours. We had hoped to tempt Count Frenzel too.’ Adnan blew the fine metal shavings away from the brass disc on which he worked. They glimmered. ‘He once had a reputation for buying works such as ours, but as far as we know, he has not bought anything from us yet.’

Harriet lifted up the key and smiled with artificial brightness. ‘What makes this place tick?’

‘Same as any court. Gossip. Intrigue. Alliance. Influence. Power,’ Adnan replied.

‘Power. A strange concept in a state with an absolute monarch.’

‘Indeed. It can bestowed and whipped away again at any moment. People contort themselves in many ways to try and capture it, retain it.’

‘Explain.’

‘They watch each other. They impress or indulge each other. Some buy amulets from any fakir who comes through the city that promise to make them invulnerable.’

She smiled and sat back a little. ‘Do they really?’

‘Oh yes. When money and influence pass so quickly, so … whimsically, people will cling to whatever they can convince themselves will help them.’

‘This marriage is important, is it not?’

‘Yes, I think it is. The Princess is the only child of the Elector of Saxe Ettlingham. It is not a large kingdom, but it has tactical advantages.’

‘And it borders Maulberg.’

‘Indeed. The Duke has some interests in it through his mother’s family. In agreeing to marry the Princess to him, the Elector has named the Duke his heir.’

‘So Maulberg should rejoice? Yet the wedding negotiations seem to have been carried out very quietly.’

‘Indeed. Six months ago when the Duke announced his betrothal, the news fell on the court like a thunderclap. The Duke seems to have kept his secret even from his most intimate friends.’

‘Why?’

Adnan examined the air above her head. From outside Harriet could hear a cuckoo calling. She had never liked the birds since she first heard the stories of their breeding. Creatures that grew fat on the labours of others.

‘I think he likes to surprise. He has such a love of spectacle, to drop this coup of a marriage into the court … pleased him, I suspect.’

‘How was it arranged then?’

‘Colonel Padfield seems to have had a hand in the negotiations, and Count Frenzel.’

Harriet rested her cheek in her hand, placed the key on the workbench and spun it on its axis with a fingertip. ‘Why do I feel not everyone is delighted?’

‘I cannot say why you feel what you feel, madam.’

‘Mr Al-Said …?’

‘A shift of influence, of power perhaps. Also, the Princess has been granted the great indulgence of bringing a number of gentlemen from her own court and placing them in positions of power here. Some members of court also wished the Duke to marry a different Princess. One with less powerful friends.’

She watched him work a few minutes more, finding the patience and exactness of his movements deeply calming. ‘I can see why my sister has found refuge here, Mr Al-Said.’

‘I shall tell you what I have told her, Mrs Westerman,’ Adnan said. ‘Remember it is a false refuge. We are still in the grounds of a palace, not lost in the woods.’

Harriet had intended to read the papers she had received from Herr Dorf in the quiet of the gardens on leaving the Al-Saids, but as she emerged into the spring air she found Michaels outside, in conversation with the metalworker, Julius. The latter was in full conversational flow, speaking in the local dialect. As soon as he noticed Harriet he switched to French and made his bow.

‘Mrs Westerman! Delighted to make your acquaintance. I understand you gave up a rather pretty necklace yesterday. Would you like to commission a replacement? I shall make you something so charming you will be glad you gave the first away. Gold and emeralds to bring out the colour of your eyes. What do you say?’

She shook her head. ‘Is there anyone who doesn’t know the details of the demonstration?’

‘I rather suspect the Duke is preparing the court for Clode’s return from Castle Grenzhow by letting little details slip. How about a gift for Mr Clode? A snuffbox, perhaps. Enamelled?’

‘The Duke is still considering whether to release Clode. I would not want to presume, and in any case I have not come to Maulberg to spend my housekeeping.’

‘Another serious lady! Thank the Lord not all of your sex can refuse me so easily. I should starve.’ He frowned for a moment. ‘What about an Athenian Owl! Perfect emblem for a seeker after truth such as yourself, and I’ve already …’ He suddenly blushed. ‘Forgive me. That would be tasteless in the extreme.’

Harriet shook her head, confused. ‘You shall not tempt me, but why should it be tasteless?’

His face was still very red. ‘I did make one before, but it was for Lady Martesen. She wore it often. The idea of offering you a replica, in the circumstances … I apologise, I have no idea what I was thinking.’ Harriet felt rather sorry for him.