That was an understatement if ever there was one.
“We are both tired, and perhaps fatigue is clouding our judgment,” he added. “Let us go to bed. Come morning, we may see things in a clearer light.”
Morning, however, brought only more shadows within shadows. Grentham arrived at an ungodly early hour, and much as Saybrook muttered about refusing him entrance until breakfast was finished, Arianna signaled for the footman to set another place at the table.
“Thank you, but I’d rather be fed some useful information instead of shirred eggs and ham,” growled the minister, who looked as if he had been up all night.
“Alas, we have none to offer,” replied Saybrook after buttering a piece of toast. “Arianna had no connection to Madame Gruzinsky. As I imagine you already know, it was Miss Kirtland who met the baroness at her Bluestocking soiree, and thought her havey-cavey enough to merit a private meeting.”
To Arianna’s surprise, Grentham appeared taken aback by the news—though he masked his reaction so quickly that she decided it might only have been a quirk of the light coming in through the windowpanes.
Saybrook, however, had noticed it as well. “Have you not spoken to her about it?”
The minister ignored the question. “I assume you took care to leave the scene of the crime unaltered,” he said to Arianna.
“I’m aware of the importance of not meddling with any of the evidence,” she said tartly. “I didn’t need to move the body to ascertain the cause of death. As for the jewelry box, its contents were strewn on the rug, and neither Sophia nor I touched any of the baubles.”
Grentham’s lips thinned in frustration.
Despite a warning glance from Saybrook, her conscience couldn’t allow her to keep mum about the note.
“The only thing we did do was searchthe empty box and the baroness’s reticule for any hiding places . . .”
Grentham paused in mid-reach for the coffee pot. “And?”
“And we did find a note secreted in the lining of the reticule.”
Saybrook muttered an oath.
The minister finished fixing himself a cup of the devil-dark brew before asking, “Must I resort to unpleasant interrogation methods in order to learn what it says?”
“It was merely a name and an address.”
Grentham heaved a martyred sigh.
“Mine,” added Arianna. “Though I can’t imagine why.”
“Let us all refrain from lurid speculation,” said Saybrook. “Which would only be a waste of breath.” He looked at Grentham. “Especially as I suspect the minister knows a great deal more about the situation than he has told us.”
“I am as much in the dark as you are as to what prompted Madame Gruzinsky’s visit to London and why she was murdered,” replied Grentham.
“Then even more reason for us to decline your request that we travel into the belly of the beast,” retorted the earl.
As they sat staring daggers at each other, Arianna considered the conundrum. She wanted to believe that Grentham was being forthright with them. But the very essence of his work required that he engage in an unrelenting game of deception and subterfuge. And friendship, she knew, would always have to play second fiddle to Britain’s best interests.
Saybrook was thinking the same thing. “Bloody hell, Grentham! What is it that you’re not telling us?”
“Nothing that affects themission you’ve been asked to undertake,” replied the minister. “I would not deliberately put either of you in danger.”
Arianna didn’t doubt his sincerity. Still, missing pieces of a puzzle could create unintended consequences.
“You’re asking us to believe that you’re as much in the dark as we are about the murder of the recently arrived confidante of the Tsar’s mother and the fact that her killer ransacked her jewel box?” demanded Saybrook. “Forgive me if I think that you’re lying through your teeth.”
Grentham shifted, his expression turning hard as stone. “The conspiracy within our government is more deeply rooted than it first seemed several months ago.”
A chill ran down Arianna’s spine as she recalled how close a cabal of villains involving senior members of both the Foreign Office and the military command at Horse Guards had come to seizing power within the government. Their cunning plot had contrived to make Grentham look guilty of treason and forced him to flee the country to avoid arrest. She and Saybrook—along with Sophia—had played a key part in proving his innocence and preventing an attack on Tsar Alexander and the Duke of Wellington that would have tipped the balance of power in Europe to the conspirators.
And the late Prince Orlov had been working hand in glove with the villains.
