Weighed In The Balance Part 8

"Then surely it seems most likely that if Friedrich was killed, it was to prevent him from returning and leading the fight to retain independence," she said with growing conviction.

"Yes..." he agreed. "If, in fact, he really was considering going home. We don't know that he was. But it is possible that that is why Rolf was in England that month, in order to persuade him. Perhaps Rolf was closer to victory than any of us thought."

"Then Gisela might have killed him rather than have him leave her!" Hester said with more triumph than was becoming. "Isn't that what Zorah will say?"

"She may, but I find it hard to believe." He looked back at her, a curious expression on his face which she could not read. "You didn't know Friedrich, Miss Latterly. I cannot imagine the man I knew leaving Gisela behind. He would have made it the price of his return that he should take her with him. That I could believe easily. Or else he would have refused the call."

"Then one of Gisela's enemies may have killed him to prevent that," she reasoned. "And at the same time perhaps they were pa.s.sionately for unification and saw it as an act of patriotism to stop him from leading the fight for independence. Or could it be someone who was secretly allied with one of the other princ.i.p.alities, who hopes to become the leading power in a new Germany?"

He looked at her with sharpened interest, as if in some aspect he were seeing her for the first time.

"You have a very keen interest in politics, Miss Latterly."

"In people, Baron Ollenheim. And I have seen enough of war to dread it anywhere, for any country."

"Do you not think there are some things worth fighting for, even if it means dying?" he said slowly.

"Yes. But it is one thing to judge the prize worth someone else's life, and another judging it worth your own."

He looked at her thoughtfully, but he did not add anything further to the subject. She collected the marigolds, and he walked back towards the house with her.

Victoria accepted Robert's apology and was quick to return only two days later. Hester had expected her to be uncertain in her manner, afraid of another attack sprung from a fear Robert could not help, or from anger which was only fear in disguise, and directed at her, because in his eyes she was less vulnerable than his parents.

Hester was in the dressing room next door, and she heard the maid showing Victoria in, and then her retreating footsteps as she left them alone.

Robert's voice came clear and a little abashed. "Thank you for coming back."

"I wanted to," Victoria replied with certain shyness, and Hester could glimpse her back through the open crack of the door. "I enjoy sharing things with you."

Hester could see Robert's face. He was smiling.

"What have you brought?" he asked. "Sir Galahad? Please sit down. I'm sorry for not asking you to. You look chilly. Is it cold outside? Would you like me to send for tea?"

"Thank you, yes it is, and no, I'd like tea later, if I may, whenever you are ready." She sat carefully, trying not to twist her back as she arranged her skirts. "And I didn't bring Galahad. I thought perhaps not yet. I brought one or two different things. Would you like something funny?"

"More Edward Lear?"

"I thought something much older. Would you like some Aristophanes?"

"I have no idea," he said, making himself smile. "It sounds very heavy. Are you sure it's funny? Does it make you laugh?"

"Oh, yes," she said quickly. "It shows up some of the ridiculousness of people who take themselves terribly seriously. I think when you can no longer laugh at yourself, you are beginning to lose your balance."

"Do you?" He sounded surprised. "I always thought of laughter as a little frivolous, not the stuff of real life so much as an escape."

"Oh, not at all." Her voice was full of feeling. "Sometimes that is when the most real things of all are said."

"You think the absurd is the most real?" He sounded puzzled, but not critical.

"No, that is not what I mean," she explained. "I do not mean the laughter of mockery, which devalues, but the laughter of the comic, which helps us to realize we are no more or less important than anyone else. What is funny is when things are unexpected, disproportionate. It makes us laugh because it is not as we thought, and suddenly we see the silliness of it. Isn't that a kind of sanity?"

"I never thought of it like that." He was turned towards her, his face absorbed in concentration. "Yes, I suppose that is the best kind of laughter. How did you discover that? Or did someone tell you?"

"I thought about it a lot. I had much time to read and to think. That is the magical thing about books. You can listen to all the greatest people who have ever lived, anywhere in the world, in any civilization. You can see what is completely different about them, things you never imagined." Her voice gathered urgency and excitement, and Hester could see through the crack in the door that she was leaning forward towards the bed, and Robert was smiling as he watched her.

"Read me your Aristophanes," he said softly. "Take me to Greece for a little while, and make me laugh."

She settled back in her chair and opened her book.

Hester returned to the sewing she was doing, and a little while later she heard Robert's voice in a loud guffaw, and then a moment after, another.

As Robert grew stronger and needed less constant care, Hester was able to leave Hill Street on occasion. At the first opportunity she wrote to Oliver Rathbone and asked if she might call upon him at his chambers in Vere Street.

He answered that he would be pleased to see her, but it would be necessary to restrict the meeting to a luncheon because of the pressure of the case he was preparing.

Accordingly, she presented herself at midday and found him pacing the floor of his chamber, his face showing the marks of tiredness and unaccustomed anxiety.

"How very nice to see you," he said, smiling as she was shown in and the door closed behind her. "You look well."

It was a meaningless comment, a politeness, and one that could not be returned with any honesty.

"You don't," she said with a shake of her head.

He stopped abruptly. It was not the reply he had expected. It was tactless, even for Hester.

"The Countess Rostova's case is causing you concern," she said with a faint smile.

"It is complex," he said guardedly. "How did you know about it?" Then instantly he knew the answer. "Monk, I suppose."

"No," she replied a trifle stiffly. She had not seen Monk in some time. Their relations.h.i.+p was always difficult, except in moments of crisis, when the mutual antipathy between them dissolved in the bonds of a friends.h.i.+p founded in instinctive trust deeper than reason. "No, I heard from Callandra."

"Oh." He looked pleased. "Would you accompany me to luncheon? I am sorry I can spare so little time, but I am having to deal with other matters rather hastily in order to try to gather some of the defense in what I am sure will prove a very public affair."

"Of course," she accepted. "I should be delighted."

"Good." He led the way out of his office; through the outer room, past the clerks in their neat, high-b.u.t.toned suits, pens in hand, ledgers open in front of them; and out onto the street. They spoke of trivial matters until they were seated in a quiet corner of a public hostelry and had ordered a meal of cold game pie, vegetables and pickle.

"I am presently nursing Robert Ollenheim," Hester said after the first mouthful of pie.

"Indeed." Rathbone showed no particular interest, and she realized he had not heard the name before and it had no meaning for him.

"The Ollenheims knew Prince Friedrich quite well," she explained, taking a little more pickle. "And, of course, Gisela-and the Countess Rostova too."

"Oh. Oh, I see." Now she had his attention. The color deepened in his cheeks as he realized how easily she had read him. He bent his head and concentrated on eating his pie, avoiding her eyes. "I'm sorry. Perhaps I am a trifle preoccupied. Proof for this case may be harder to find than I had antic.i.p.ated." He looked up at her quickly with a slightly rueful smile.

A buxom woman pa.s.sed by, her skirts brus.h.i.+ng their chairs.

"Have you learned anything yet from Monk?" she asked.

He shook his head. "He hasn't reported back to me so far."

"Where is he? In Germany?"

"No, Berks.h.i.+re."

"Why Berks.h.i.+re? Is that where Friedrich died...or was killed?"

His mouth was full. He glanced up at her without bothering to reply.

"Do you think it might be political?" she said, trying to sound casual, as if the idea had just occurred to her. "To do with German unification rather than a personal crime...if indeed there was a crime?"

"Quite possibly," he answered, still concentrating on the pie. "If he returned to his own country to lead the fight against forced unification, he would almost certainly have been obliged to leave Gisela, in spite of the fact that he did not apparently believe so, and that was what she dreaded."

"But Gisela loved him so much, and always has done. No one at all, except Zorah, has ever questioned that," she pointed out, trying not to sound like a governess with a slow child, but she heard her own voice sounding impatient and a little too distinct. "Even if he returned for a short while without her, if he succeeded in the fight for independence, then he could demand she return also as his queen, and they could not deny him. Does it not seem at least equally possible that someone else would have killed him to prevent him returning, perhaps someone who wanted unification?"

"Do you mean someone in the pay of one of the other German states?" he asked, considering the question.

"Possibly. Could the Countess Rostova have made the charge at someone else's instigation, trusting that they know something they have not yet told her but will reveal when the matter comes to trial?"

He thought about it for a few moments, reaching for his gla.s.s of wine.

"I doubt it," he said at last. "Simply because she does not seem like a person who would follow someone else's lead."

"What do you know about the other people who were at the house?"

He poured her a little more wine. "Very little, as yet. Monk is presently learning what he can. Most of them have gathered together there again, I presume to defend themselves against the charge. It is hardly the sort of thing an ambitious hostess wishes said about her country house party." A very brief flicker of sardonic amus.e.m.e.nt crossed his face and was gone almost instantly. "But that is no defense for the Countess Rostova."

She studied his features carefully, trying to read in them the complexity of his feelings. She saw the quick intelligence that had always been there, the wit, and a flash of the self-a.s.surance which made him at once attractive and irritating. She also caught a glimmer that it was not only this case itself which caused him concern, but the flicker of doubt as to whether he had been entirely wise to take it in the first place.

"Perhaps she knows it is murder but has accused the wrong person?" she said aloud, watching him with gentleness which surprised her. "She may not be guilty of either mischief or spite, simply of not having understood the complications of the situation. Or is it possible Gisela was the one who gave him the poison without realizing what it was? She may be technically guilty and morally innocent." She had forgotten the almost finished pie on her plate. "And when it is proved, she will withdraw her charge and apologize. And then perhaps Gisela will be sufficiently glad that the truth is known and she will accept it without seeking recompense or punishment."

Rathbone was silent for some time.

Hester started to eat again. She was actually hungry.

"Of course it is possible," he said after a while. "If you had met her you would not doubt either her perception or her integrity."

Hester would question that, but realized with a jolt of surprise, and amus.e.m.e.nt, that Rathbone had been profoundly impressed by the Countess, so much so that he suspended his usual caution. It made her extremely curious about Zorah Rostova, and perhaps just a little piqued. There was rather a lot of enthusiasm in his tone.

It also showed a human vulnerability in Rathbone she had not seen before, a gap in his usual armor. It made her angry with him for being too naive, frightened that he should prove more fallible than she had imagined. She was surprised at herself, and at him, and aware every moment that pa.s.sed of an increasing protectiveness.

He did not seem to have realized the heat of the emotions which were aroused by such a great public romance, the dreams quite unconnected people invested in it. In some ways he had lived a curiously protected life, from comfortable home, excellent education, exclusive university, and then training in the best solicitor's office before being called to the bar. He knew the law, few better, and he had certainly seen crimes of pa.s.sion and even depravity. But had he really tasted any breadth of ordinary human life, with its frailty, complexity and seeming contradictions?

She thought not, and the lack frightened her for him.

"You will need to learn as much as you can about the politics of the situation," she said earnestly.

"Thank you!" There was a flicker of sarcasm in his eyes. "I had thought of that."

"What are the Countess's political views?" she persisted. "Is she for unification or independence? What about her family connections? Where does her money come from? Is she in love with anybody?"

She could see by his face that he had not thought of at least the last question. A moment of surprise lit in his eyes, and then he masked it.

"I suppose there is no chance she will withdraw the allegation before the trial?" she said without hope. He must already have tried everything he knew to persuade her.

"None," he said ruefully. "She is determined to see justice done, whatever the cost to herself, and I have warned her it may be very high."

"Then you cannot do more," she said with an attempt at a smile. "I have talked with Baron and Baroness Ollenheim about it when I have the opportunity. She sees it all very romantically. He is a little more practical about it, and I gathered the impression that he did not greatly like Gisela. Both of them seem convinced that she and Friedrich adored each other and he would never have considered going home without her, even if the country were swallowed up in unification." She sipped her wine, looking at him over the top of the gla.s.s. "If you can prove murder, I think it will be someone else who is guilty."

"I am already aware of the ramifications." He kept his voice steady, even trying to make it buoyant, and failing. "And that the Countess will be extremely unpopular for leveling such a charge. Breaking dreams never makes one liked, but sometimes it is necessary in pursuing any kind of justice."

It was a brave speech, and the fact that he made it showed the level of his anxiety. He seemed to wish to confide in her, and yet to take the discussion only to a certain point, as if perhaps he had not yet thought beyond that point himself.

She also felt a trifle defensive against this woman who had disturbed Rathbone so uncharacteristically.

"She seems a woman of great courage," she remarked. "I hope we shall be able to find enough evidence to open up a proper investigation. After all, it is in a sense our responsibility, since it happened in England."

"Quite!" he agreed vehemently. "We cannot simply allow it to slip into a legend that is untrue without at least a struggle. Maybe Monk will uncover some facts which will be helpful-I mean simple things, like who had opportunity..."

"How does she believe he was killed?" she inquired.

"Poison."

"I see. Everybody thinks that is what women use. But that doesn't mean to say it was a woman. And everyone may not want what they say they do regarding unification or independence."

"Of course not," he conceded. "I shall see what Monk has learned and what new light it throws on the situation." He tried to sound hopeful.

She smiled at him. "Don't worry yet. This is only the beginning. After all, no one even thought of murder until the Countess said so. Everyone was happy to accept that it was natural. This may waken all sorts of memories, if we work hard enough. And there will be friends of independence who will want to know the truth, whatever it was. Perhaps even the Queen? She may be of some a.s.sistance, even if only by lending her name and her support to learning what really happened."

He pulled a rueful face. "To prove that one of the royal family committed murder? I doubt it. It is a terrible stain, no matter how she may have disliked Gisela."

"Oh, Oliver!" She leaned a little farther across the table and, without thinking, touched his fingers with hers. "Kings have been murdered by their relations since time immemorial! In fact, long before that. I think time immemorial is quite recent in the history of kings and ambition, love, hate and murder. No one who has ever read the Bible is going to find it so difficult to believe."

"I suppose you are right." He relaxed and picked up his wine again. "Thank you for your spirit, Hester." He tipped the gla.s.s a fraction towards her.

She lifted her own, and they touched rims with a faint c.h.i.n.k, his eyes gentle over the top of his gla.s.s.

She learned in a brief note from Rathbone when Monk returned from Berks.h.i.+re, and the day after she went to see him in his rooms in Fitzroy Street. Their relations.h.i.+p had always been volatile, often critical, poised on the edge of quarrel, a curious mixture of anger and trust underneath. He infuriated her. She deplored many of his att.i.tudes, and she knew his weaknesses. Yet she also was absolutely certain that there were dishonesties he would never commit, cruelties or acts of cowardice he would give his life rather than allow. There was a darkness in him, the voids in his memory, which frightened him more than they did her.

There had been moments, one in particular, when she had thought he might love her. Now she did not know, and she refused to think of it. But the bonds of friends.h.i.+p were unbreakable, and strong beyond any nature of question. She was only just in time to catch him. He was already packing to travel again.

"You can't leave this case," she said indignantly, standing in the middle of his reception room, which she had designed, over much objection from him, in order that his clients, and prospective clients, might feel more at ease to confide in him their problems. She had finally succeeded in persuading him that people who were not physically comfortable would be far less likely to remain and to find the words to tell him the difficult and perhaps painful details he would need to know about in order to help. Now he stood by the fire, his eyebrows raised, his expression slightly contemptuous.

"Rathbone needs you!" she said, angry that he should need to be told. He should have understood it for himself. "He's fighting against far greater odds than he realizes. Perhaps he should not have taken the case, but he has, and there is no purpose now in wis.h.i.+ng otherwise."

"And I imagine, in your usual governess fas.h.i.+on, you told him so?" he inquired, responding to her criticism as usual.