Dennis Wheatley - The Rising Storm

She turned a trifle pale, but her low voice was firm. "You are right. Only now has my danger become acute. Yet to leave home prematurely would be to throw away all that we have gained. On the plea of health I shall drink naught but water and place myself on an even stricter diet."

A few minutes later they were in the coach on their way to the Embassy villa, with the intention of dropping Roger there. It had not proceeded fifty yards before Don Diego said to his wife:

"Senor Godoy has warned me that this mission has been under consideration for some time; so Her Majesty now wishes it to leave with a minimum of delay. We are to set out next week, so it would be well for you to start tomorrow on your preparations for our departure."

Roger was filled with admiration for the steadiness of Isabella's voice, as she replied: "If that is your wish it is for me to obey you. But have you as yet given full thought to our child? He is not yet a month old and we could not possibly expose him at so tender an age to the hazards of the journey. For another month at least he should have my personal care. Would it not be best if I remain with him till mid-May, then follow you to Paris ?"

For a long moment Don Diego remained silent. Roger and Isabella hardly dared to breathe. For them everything now hung on this decision, and they both knew that should it prove unfavourable to them she could not possibly disobey her husband.

After what seemed an eternity Don Diego said: "I judge you right, Madame. You had best remain here with our sonf or another month or so."

When they dropped Roger at the villa he waited there for half an hour to give ample time for the coast to be clear, then walked round to see Georgina and the Colonel in their Moorish pavilion.

As soon as he told them how perfectly the plot had worked they both expressed their pleasure for him, but Georgina was very far from being in her usual good humour.

"Oh, damn you, Roger!" she exclaimed, after a moment. "Paris is the very last place to which I would wish to go, now 'tis in the hands of those vile revolutionaries. Yet on your account I am committed to it."

"Knowing your reluctance to do so, I am all the more grateful," he said gently. "But you have said several times that you are not yet disposed to break with Don Diego, and now you can both travel with him on the greater part of your journey home and remain in Paris with him as long as you wish."

"But now that spring is here, 'tis at Stillwaters I wish to be," she murmured petulantly.

He smiled. "It has ever been your nature to wish to have your cake and eat it too; but you cannot both be soon at Stillwaters and keep Don Diego. You told me last night that rather than give him up you meant to stay on here for some time."

"I did indeed. The dratted man holds some special fascination for me. Yet I think by the end of the month I might have worked myself free of it. And you know well my habit of letting things slide until some incident causes me to take a sudden decision. As long as Papa and I remained here we could at any time by way of Lisbon have got home in a month; whereas now it will take us much more than that to get to Paris; so I'll be lucky if I see Stillwaters before June is gone."

"Come, my dear," Colonel Thursby said quietly. " 'Tis not like you to grudge some upsetting of plans for your own pleasure in the urgent service of so old a friend as Roger."

"Nay," she replied, with a sudden smile. "I fear I am being plaguey churlish, Roger dear. I beg you to forgive me."

"There is naught to forgive." He took her hand and kissed it. "I am beyond expression grateful for all you have done and are about to do."

They arranged that Georgina should again contrive for Isabella to come to the pavilion on the following day; then Roger took his leave.

The demands of his own affairs during the past thirty hours had by no means put out of his mind Mr. Pitt's business; so next day, in the cool of the morning, he went to the Palace and waited upon the Caballero Heredia.

The Spaniard expressed courteous surprise at receiving a second visit from him after a lapse of only two days; but Roger again stressed the urgency of the matter upon which he had been sent to Spain, and asked when he was to have his audience with the Count Florida Blanca.

"I fear, Monsieur, that you have failed to take into account the fact that many urgent matters must always claim the attention of a Prime Minister," the Caballero replied blandly. "And at present His Excel­lency happens to be particularly heavily engaged. I have no doubt that he will make time to receive you in the course of the next few days, or early next week at the latest. In the meantime perhaps you will permit me to show you something of our beautiful Spain. Have you yet visited Toledo?"

Roger had to admit that he had not; and, although he was most loath to leave Aranjuez even for a night, when the diplomat offered to take him there he felt that he could not possibly refuse the invitation.

So it was arranged that the Caballero should call for him next morning in a carriage, then they would spend Wednesday night in Toledo and make the return drive on Thursday morning.

As Roger strolled back along the leafy avenues leading from the Palace, he decided that, although diplomatic politeness had forced him to accept this first invitation, it did not require him to suffer any further attempts on Heredia's part to gain time by taking him on such expeditions. Before leaving he had again pressed most strongly for an early audience with the Prime Minister, and if it was not granted by the end of the week he meant to begin making Heredia's life a misery by going to badger him every day.

King Carlos' words—"He could, at the same time, press them on that other matter", when referring to the envoy he was sending to condole with the French Sovereigns on their misfortunes—had not escaped Roger; and he felt certain the "other matter" was to secure a definite promise from the French that they would honour the Family Compact in the event of Spain going to war with Britain over Nootka Sound. Although there was no outward sign of it he knew that the arrival of a personal representative from Mr. Pitt must have set the Court of Spain in a fine flutter. And that, he guessed, was the reason why Don Diego was being hurried off to France with barely a week's notice, instead of being allowed to set out at his leisure.

When Roger met Isabella in the afternoon he had from her an exciting confirmation of his suppositions. At eleven o'clock that morning her husband had received an order to wait upon Count Florida Blanca in the evening to receive his instructions. The note had further stated that Don Diego was now to be ready to leave Aranjuez not later than Thursday morning, and to make arrangements for the bulk of his baggage to follow him, as he was to proceed to Paris with all possible speed.

Roger had no doubt at all that this un-Spanish haste was the direct result of his call on Heredia some two hours before Don Diego had received the order; and was overjoyed by it. Actually, like Georgina, he was still far from convinced that Isabella's husband had ever had any intention of poisoning her; but the possibility that there might be real grounds for her suspicions was quite enough to cause him incessant anxiety. And now, the putting forward of Don Diego's departure reduced the time left him in which to make an attempt on her to less than two days.

For three happy hours they managed to put her danger out of their minds. When they parted it was with the terribly exciting thought that although, owing to Roger's trip to Toledo, they must somehow get through the awful strain of Wednesday without meeting, by Thursday afternoon Don Diego would be gone. The cover provided by Georgina would no longer be necessary. Roger would have only to slip through the gate for them to continue to meet in secret with little risk in the pavilion; and that when they next did so, in forty-eight hours' time, Isabella would be safe and free.