Dennis Wheatley - The Shadow of Tyburn Tree

"So that was the way of it," nodded Roger. Everything was plain to him now except the attack on Zaria; but, perhaps after all, Ostermann's first theory had been right, and she had been the victim of a thief. She should have been in the bedroom watching Yagerhorn, but if she had heard a noise in the sitting-room she would have come out to see who was there. She might have come upon the thief before he had had time to take anything, and the cries that the Doctor had heard were her efforts to rouse the house; but the thief had overcome her, thrown her down the stairs, and fearing that someone else might come on the scene, hurriedly made his escape. With Zaria suffering from concussion the wretched Count had been left to his fate, and died horribly in consequence.

"I should like to tell you the truth of the matter," Roger said, after a moment. "But only if I may rely on you regarding what I say as in the strictest confidence; for another person is involved in this."

"You may rely on my discretion, Chevalier," the Doctor bowed. "And you refer, I take it, to the Baroness Stroganof?"

Roger gave him a swift glance. "Is it generally known that 'twas she who preceded Yagerhorn to my apartment?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Nay, only that a woman of quality who often came to visit you, dined with you there before the Count's arrival. I guessed that it must be she from knowing of your association with her in the ship that brought us from Sweden, and from having more recently met her once or twice on the stairs."

"That relieves me mightily. For the sake of her reputation I have been at some pains to conceal her identity; so although Ostermann knows her well by sight I doubt if he knows her name. Her only part in this was giving the Count a rendezvous in my apartment; and that she did at my most earnest solicitation and without previous knowledge of what I meant to do to him. She left before myself and can have had no more idea than I of what befell him later. So you see what a terrible thing it would be if she were charged with me in having assisted at his murder?"

"I do not think there is any great fear of that, Chevalier, unless you deny that it was you who lolled him. The police of Petersburg are argus-eyed but very discreet. The odds are that they have known for a long time past about the Baroness's visits to you; but they will not drag her into this unless compelled to it. She has many powerful relatives, and moreover, the Empress does not like scandals in con­nection with her ladies, so they will not stir up trouble for themselves unless it proves unavoidable."

"You mean that if I take full responsibility they will be satisfied with that; but should I protest my innocence they will then be forced to turn their attention to the Baroness in the hope of getting a state­ment from her that will convict me?"

"Exactly. The present assumption is that the lady who dined with you was an innocent party to the affair. 'Tis thought that the Count was also in love with her and having traced her to your rooms surprised you together. What followed is, therefore, put to your account. But why, in the name of reason, did you choose so barbarous a method of killing the wretched man?"

"I did not," Roger assured the Doctor, earnestly. Then he told him the whole story as he knew it.

When he had done the Doctor shook his head. "I willingly accept your word for it, Chevalier, that you had no intention of killing the Count; but that does not affect the fact that you are responsible for his death and will be held to account for it. And even if the Baroness came forward I do not see how anything that she could say would lessen your responsibility."

"I know it," agreed Roger. "So I am all the more anxious that her part in the matter should not become public. Would you be good enough to see her for me, and assure her that should she become involved it will be through no word of mine?"

The Doctor agreed to do so; and to Roger's further request, that little Zaria should be allowed to lack for nothing; then, with renewed expressions of friendship, he took his departure.

When he had gone Roger paced restlessly up and down his room. He at least knew now the way in which his plan had miscarried, but that did not lessen the acute danger of his situation. For a time he thought miserably of the terrible death that Yagerhorn had suffered, yet he felt that he was not wholly to blame for that. The Count would be alive and free had it not been for the dastardly attack on poor little Zaria.

At three o'clock the key of the heavy door grated in the lock.

Roger stood up hoping that the Comte de Segur had arrived to see him, but a woman in black with a heavy hood over her face was shown in. The second they were alone she threw it back and ran to him.

"Natalia Andreovna!" he exclaimed, as her arms closed round his neck. "You should not have cornel 'Tis madness to proclaim your association with me in this way."

"I had to come!" she cried, bursting into tears. " 'Tis my fault that you are here; but I did not learn the awful result of my impetuous act until this morning."

"Act?" He held her firmly from him. "What mean you?" "On Tuesday night I left my rings behind," she sobbed. "My carriage had carried me but half a mile when I remembered them. As I had ample time I returned to your apartment. I was looking for them in the sitting-room when the bedroom door opened, and out of it came that little baggage that you bought for a hundred roubles on your first arrival in Petersburg."

In a flash Roger saw the whole thing. To appease Natalia's jealousy he had told her that he had got rid of Zaria and that Ostermann was looking after him. On finding the girl in his room again two months later Natalia, had, not unnaturally, believed the worst.

" 'Twas you, then, who beat her and threw her downstairs!" he muttered angrily. "Did you not have the sense to realise that I had left her there to watch over Yagerhorn and release him in the morning?"

"How should I?" she wailed. "You told me that you were not set­ting out for your fishing until the morning. As you were nowhere about I thought that you had merely gone down to the privy in the back­yard, or to fetch another bottle of wine from the cellar, and would be back at any moment. You had lied to me about that pretty child and I was furious. I thought that finding her on your return with her looks spoiled would teach you a lesson."

"You broke her leg and devilish near killed her." "I care not for that. I love you, Rojé Christorovitch, and was half-mad with jealousy from the thought that you had deceived me; and kept her with you for a full two months without my knowledge."

"You wrong me by these base suspicions. She was a virgin when I bought her and is one still. I kept her only out of compassion, because she would have been so shamed had I sent her back to her father."

Natalia ceased her crying. "You do love me then! Oh, St. Nicholas be praised for that! But I could not know that you had already set out and charged her to act gaoler to Erik Yagerhorn. I guessed that only on learning last night how he had been found dead in your room. Then came the news of your arrest this morning. Oh, Rojé Christorovitch, I'll never forgive myself, and I'll die of grief if—if...." Again she burst into a fit of weeping.

Roger did not love her any more. His passion for her had died utter­ly; but it was clear that she now loved him madly, and in common decency, he strove to comfort her. For over an hour they talked round and round his plight, but saw no way by which he might evade respon­sibility for the Count's death.

The best line which seemed to offer was for him to admit to having left the Count bound and gagged, but plead that he had died only because the arrangements for his release had miscarried. If the court still judged Roger guilty of murder, Natalia would then use all her personal influence to get the sentence commuted from death to im­prisonment. They agreed that if she could be kept out of the affair her hand would be strengthened in that. And, as he did not wish to be placed in a situation where he would have to make love to her again, he persuaded her that it would be wisest to refrain from making further visits to the fortress unless she had definite news to bring him. After a last tearful embrace they summoned the warder, and she departed.