Traitors Gate - Anne Perry [28]
Nobby turned to Christabel.
“How very nice to see you, Mrs. Thorne. I am sure I know your companion, but it is some little while since we met, and I am embarrassed to say I do not recollect her name. I do apologize.”
Charlotte smiled, both with genuine friendship—she had liked Nobby Gunne greatly—and with amusement at her tact.
“Charlotte Pitt,” she replied graciously. “How do you do, Miss Gunne. You seem in excellent health.”
“I am indeed,” Nobby answered, and she looked happier, and not a day older, than when Charlotte had seen her several years earlier.
They chatted for a few moments about various subjects, touching on the political and social events of interest. They were interrupted when a tall, lithe man with a heavily tanned complexion accidentally backed into Nobby in his effort to avoid a giggling young woman. He turned to apologize for his clumsiness. He had an unusual face, far from handsome: his nose was crooked, his mouth a little large and his fair hair was receding very considerably, and yet his presence was commanding, his intelligence apparent.
“I am sorry, ma’am,” he said stiffly, the color spreading up his bony cheeks. “I hope I have not hurt you?”
“Not in the least,” Nobby said with mild amusement. “And considering the encounter you were avoiding, your haste is understandable.”
The color in his cheeks became even deeper. “Oh … was I so obvious?”
“Only to one who would have done the same,” she replied, meeting his eyes squarely.
“Then we have something in common,” he acknowledged, but with no indication in his voice that he wished to continue further or to make her acquaintance.
“I am Zenobia Gunne,” she introduced herself.
His eyes widened; his attention became suddenly real.
“Not Nobby Gunne?”
“My friends call me Nobby.” Her tone of voice made it apparent he was not yet included in that number.
“Peter Kreisler.” He stood very upright, as if it were a military announcement. “I also have spent much time in Africa and learned to love it.”
Now her interest was quickened also. She introduced Charlotte and Christabel only as a matter of form, then continued the conversation. “Have you? In what part of Africa?”
“Zanzibar, Mashonaland, Matabeleland,” he answered.
“I was in the west,” she responded. “Mostly up the Congo and that region. Although I did also travel up the Niger.”
“Then you will have dealt with King Leopold of the Belgians.” His face was expressionless.
Nobby schooled her features just as carefully. “Only in the very slightest,” she replied. “He does not regard me in the same light as he would were I a man; for example, Mr. Stanley.”
Even Charlotte had heard of Henry Mirton Stanley’s triumphant progress through London only a week or so since, when on April 26 he had ridden from Charing Cross Station to Piccadilly Circus. The crowds had cheered him to the echo. He was the most admired explorer of the age, a double gold medalist of the Royal Geographical Society, a friend of the Prince of Wales and a guest of the Queen herself.
“There is some good fortune in that,” Kreisler said with a bitter smile. “At least he will not ask you to lead an army of twenty thousand Congolese cannibals up to defeat the ‘Mad Mahdi’ and conquer the Sudan for Belgium!”
Nobby was incredulous. Her face was comical with disbelief.
Christabel looked shocked. Charlotte for once was speechless.
“You cannot be serious!” Nobby cried, her voice rising to a squeak.
“Oh, I am not.” Kreisler’s mouth was touched with humor. “But apparently Leopold was. He had heard that the Congo cannibals are excellent warriors. He wanted to do something to make the whole world sit up and take notice.”
“Well that would certainly achieve it,” Nobby agreed. “I can scarcely imagine what a war that would be! Twenty thousand cannibals against the hordes of the ‘Mad Mahdi.’ Oh, my God—poor Africa.” Her face was touched with genuine pity beneath the wry amusement and the bantering tone. One could not mistake that she was conscious of the human misery it would involve.
Beyond their introduction, Kreisler had so far practically