Treason at Lisson Grove - Anne Perry [137]
He stood up and went to find Stoker rather than sending for him, because that would draw everyone’s attention to the fact that he was singling him out. Even with Stoker’s help, success would be desperately difficult.
“Yes, sir?” Stoker said as soon Pitt had closed the door and was in front of him. He stared at Pitt’s face, as if trying to read in it what he was thinking.
Pitt hoped that he was a little less transparent than that. He remembered how he had tried to read Narraway, and failed, at least most of the time.
“We know what it is,” he said quietly. There was no point in concealing anything, and yet even now he felt as if he were standing on a cliff edge, about to plunge into the unknown.
“Yes, sir …” Stoker froze, his face pale. On the desk, still holding the paper he had been reading, his hands were stiff.
Pitt took a breath. “Mr. Narraway is back from Ireland.” He saw the relief in Stoker’s eyes, too sharp to hide, and went on more easily, a darkness sliding away from him also. “It seems we are right in thinking that there is a very large and very violent plan already begun. There is reason to believe that the people we have seen together, such as Willy Portman, Fenner, Guzman, and so on, intend to attack Her Majesty at Osborne House—”
“God Almighty!” Stoker gasped. “Regicide?”
Pitt grimaced.
“Not intentionally. We think they mean to hold her ransom in return for a bill to abolish the hereditary power of the House of Lords—a bill that of course she will sign before, I imagine, her own abdication …”
Stoker was ashen. He looked at Pitt as if he had turned into some nightmare in front of his eyes. He swallowed, then swallowed again. “And then what? Kill her?”
Pitt had not taken it that far in his mind, but perhaps it was the logical end, the only one they could realistically live with. In the eyes of Britain, and most of the world, as long as Victoria was alive she would be queen, regardless of what anyone else said or did. He had thought things could not get worse, but in one leap they had.
“Yes, I imagine so,” he agreed. “Narraway and Lady Vespasia Cumming-Gould have gone to Osborne, to do what they can, until we can send reinforcements to deal with whatever we find.”
Stoker half rose in his seat.
“But not until we know whom we can trust,” Pitt added. “The group must be small enough to be discreet. If we go in with half an army it will be far more likely to provoke them to violence immediately. If they know they are cornered and cannot escape, they’ll hold her for ransom—their freedom for her life.” He felt his throat tighten as he said it. He was fighting an enemy of unknown size and shape. Moreover, elements of it were secret from him, and lay within his own men. For a moment he was overwhelmed. He had no idea even where to begin. Every possibility seemed to carry its own failure built into it.
“A few men, well armed and taking them by surprise,” Stoker said quietly.
“That’s our only hope, I think,” Pitt agreed. “But before we do that, we need to know who is the traitor here in Lisson Grove, and who else is with him. Otherwise they may sabotage any effort we make.”
Stoker’s hand on the desk clenched into a fist. “You mean you think there’s more than one?”
“Don’t you?”
“I don’t know.” Stoker pushed his hand through his hair, scraping it back off his forehead. “God help me, I don’t know. And there’s no time to find out. It could take us weeks.”
“It’s going to have to take us a lot less than that,” Pitt replied, pulling out the hard-backed chair opposite the desk and sitting on it. “In fact we must make a decision by the end of today.”
Stoker’s jaw dropped. “And if we’re wrong?”
“We mustn’t be,” Pitt told him. “Unless you want a new republic born in murder, and living in fear. We’ll start with who set up the fraud that got rid of Narraway and made it all connect up with Ireland, so he would be in an Irish prison when all this happened.”
Stoker took a deep breath. “Yes, sir. Then we’d better get started. And I’m sorry to say this, but we’ll have to consider whoever Gower worked with as well, because