David Dickinson - Death on the Nevskii Prospekt

Two days after the meeting with Sir Jeremiah a rather nervous Lady Lucy spoke to her husband after breakfast. Powerscourt was feeling cheerful that morning. The day before he had delivered the proofs to his publisher and he was looking forward to resuming work on his second cathedral volume.

‘Francis,’ Lady Lucy began, ‘I’ve just had a note. It’s from one of my relations.’

‘What of it, my love?’ said Powerscourt. ‘You must get one of those a couple of times a day, if not more.’

‘Well, this one’s from a cousin of mine, not a first cousin, a second cousin, I think. Anyway, he wants to come and see you at eleven o’clock this morning.’

‘Never mind, Lucy. All kinds of people come and see me, even now.’ Powerscourt regretted those last two words as soon as he said them. He saw the look of pain cross Lucy’s face. ‘Didn’t mean that last bit, so sorry, my love. I suppose I have to meet this person if he’s a relation. What is his business?’

Lady Lucy looked sadly at her husband. ‘He’s a politician, Francis, member for some constituency in Sussex, I believe.’

‘Name?’

‘Edmund Fitzroy.’

‘You’re keeping something back from me, Lucy, I can tell from the look on your face.’

‘He was in the army, Household Cavalry or one of those. Now he’s a junior minister in the government, Francis.’ Even before she finished the sentence Powerscourt knew what was coming. ‘In the Foreign Office.’

‘Is he, by God?’ said Powerscourt. ‘Never mind, Lucy.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’ll just have to see him off like that other fellow.’

Edmund Fitzroy was a plump young man in his middle thirties with sandy hair and dark brown eyes. He looked older than his age, always a useful asset for a politician. Powerscourt thought when they met in the drawing room that he would go down well with old ladies. Fitzroy had one main objective from Sir Jeremiah. He was to find out why Powerscourt had given up detection. Once he knew that, Reddaway felt, he might be closer to success.

‘You would think,’ Powerscourt said to Lady Lucy and Johnny Fitzgerald later that day, ‘that even a politician would try to be polite to his host in his host’s own drawing room.’ But it was not to be. Fitzroy was rude from the beginning and grew progressively ruder as the conversation continued.

‘I’ve heard from Sir Jeremiah Reddaway about your disgraceful attitude over this Russian business, Powerscourt, and I think you should be ashamed of yourself,’ was his opening gambit.

‘Really?’ said Powerscourt, resolutely avoiding all eye contact with the man.

‘You’re a disgrace, Powerscourt,’ Fitzroy went on, ‘refusing to serve your country when we ask you. Just remember the oaths you swore when you accepted Her Majesty’s commission all those years ago. Now you seem to think they mean nothing, nothing at all. I too have sworn the same oaths and regard myself as bound by them today as I was twelve years ago. You seem to have decided that patriotism is something you can put on and off like a coat on a rainy day. Others may have to endure much in the service of their country while you indulge your conscience or your reluctance for the fray in the luxury of your drawing room.’

‘I think you’ll discover,’ said Powerscourt, in the most patronizing tone he could muster, ‘if you take the trouble to find out about these things, forgive me for sounding arrogant, that my service to this country is considerably more distinguished than yours, which consisted, as far as I know, of remarkable courage shown on the parade ground at Aldershot, and bravery under fire while in charge of Royal Salutes at Windsor Castle.’ Lady Lucy had passed on this last piece of information just as Fitzroy was ringing the doorbell.

‘That’s not the point, Powerscourt, and you know it.’ Fitzroy had attended too many political meetings to be deterred, even by such a direct hit. ‘I am still prepared to serve my country. You are not.’

‘I served my country for many years in a variety of dangerous situations. This, thank God, is still a free country. A man may retire from the military with full honours without being bullied by politicians who never saw a shot fired in anger.’

‘You’ve lost your nerve, Powerscourt, and you know it. Why did you stop investigating, for God’s sake? Was one bullet in the chest enough to put you off? Did you just run away?’

‘It was my decision, and none of your damned business, Fitzroy,’ said Powerscourt, struggling to keep his temper. He could see perfectly clearly what the man was trying to do. He hoped to taunt Powerscourt with suggestions of cowardice so he would announce he was not afraid and volunteer to take on the Russian commission to prove it.

‘But why, man, why? For years you were one of the best investigators in Britain, then you just throw in the towel. Why? Did Lucy make you retire?’

‘It was my decision and I have no intention of telling you anything about it.’

Something about the look on Powerscourt’s face when he mentioned Lady Lucy made Fitzroy think that she may have had something to do with it. But he had another line of attack to press.

‘That’s another thing, Powerscourt, the family. Not your Irish lot, but your wife’s family, the Hamiltons. They’ve been in the army for hundreds of years. Military service, military loyalty is in their blood. They’re not going to be pleased when they hear that an addition to the family has let the nation down.’

‘Are you going to hand over the four feathers in person, or are you going to get Sir Jeremiah to do it for you in a special ceremony at the Foreign Office?’ asked Powerscourt, anxious now to be rid of this incredibly offensive person.

‘The family will remember, Powerscourt. They don’t take this sort of thing lying down, I can tell you.’

‘Right,’ said Powerscourt, taking three rapid strides to pull the bell and call for Rhys the butler. ‘I have had enough of this discussion. Rhys will show you out. I regard your behaviour here in my house this morning as beneath contempt. It is a disgrace to the good name of the military and unworthy of a gentleman. Don’t ever try to come back here. You will be refused entry. Now I suggest you take yourself and your disgusting manners back to the gutter where you belong. Good morning.’

With that Powerscourt left his drawing room and went to the upper floors in search of a twin or two to calm him down.

‘Bloody man, bloody man,’ Powerscourt said later to Lady Lucy. ‘He practically accused me of being a coward. I tell you what though, Lucy. He is never to be admitted to this house again. And will you please tell your relations that if he is invited to any social function, wedding, funeral, christening, death of the first-born, ritual character assassination, afternoon tea, we shall not be attending.’

The following morning Powerscourt had gone to look up some information in the London Library in St James’s Square. Just after eleven o’clock a very grand carriage drew up outside the Powerscourt house in Markham Square. Lord Rosebery, former Foreign Secretary and former Prime Minister, was ushered respectfully into the drawing room. Lady Lucy was not sure her hair was what it should have been, nor was she certain of her dress, but Rosebery, apart from his public functions, was a very old friend of her family’s in Scotland. As a boy he had attended her christening, as a man he had attended both her weddings, he was one of the three people allowed to call her Lucy. Because of his great position as a former Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister she had never been able to call him anything other than Lord Rosebery.

‘Please forgive me, Lucy,’ Rosebery began, ‘for calling on you out of the blue like this. I will be perfectly honest with you, my dear. I am here at the special request of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Office about this Russian business. I feel I am better placed talking to you than I would be talking to Francis. That Foreign Office fellow thinks I can change Francis’s mind. I am not so sure. Only you, I believe, can do that.’