The Rain-Soaked Bride (12 page)

Toby smiled. He had certainly assumed that had been her main motivation.

‘I don’t want you thinking I’m my brother’s keeper,’ she continued. ‘This isn’t a family outing.’ She patted Fratfield on the thigh. ‘People always get confused when I turn up. I imagine they forget I’m influential enough to have you all shot let alone fired.’ She grinned at him. ‘But don’t let me intimidate you, my lovely little secret service man, you were going to give us the private tour, I believe?’

August gritted his teeth, pulled the car through the opening gate and onto the drive.

‘Yes,’ said Fratfield, ‘well, I’m sure you’ll be a great asset.’

The drive ascended upwards before cresting and dropping back down, presenting them with a wide view of the house and grounds beyond. It was a large, two-storeyed building split into three sections. The central section was slightly receded, a triangular roof-piece topping off an impressive four-columned portico. From there, steps divided off to either side and descended to the large gravel forecourt. In front of the Hall, the garden was laid to lawn with a central fountain.

‘Lufford Hall,’ said Fratfield. ‘Jacobean, though the inside is so baroque it makes your hair stand on end. Like most of these old piles, it’s spent a good number of years as an albatross around the neck of the fading aristocrats saddled with it. Military hospital during the Second World War, government property thereafter.’

He reached between the front seats and pointed to the left of the main building. ‘Extensive stables to the one side, mainly office space now, though they keep a few horses to entertain the foreign dignitaries. You know what these places are like once we get hold of them, half office block, half bauble to dangle in front of diplomatic visitors.

‘The gardens are mainly landscaped lawns, though there’s a rather ragged box maze to the right and a sculpture park, of all bloody things, to the rear. I think they let tourists potter around it in the summer.’

‘Got to pay its keep,’ said Shining.

‘Madness, isn’t it? But nobody can keep the fires burning in a barn like this without a good chunk of funding. I think we get something from the arts council for letting the local college use some of the facilities. Though, obviously, that’s off for the next few days. No visitors allowed.

‘Behind the house, the grounds rise up towards woodland. That’s the most vulnerable area, frankly, we’ve got the rest well eyeballed. Still, even if someone did get over the wall and through the trees, they’d have to cross an open rear terrace that we have tabs on. The wall’s wired too.’

‘I noticed that,’ admitted Toby. ‘Movement sensors?’

‘Dotted around the perimeter,’ Fratfield replied with a nod. ‘Recent additions. We decided to take advantage of the extra day afforded us by Sir James’s death to throw some extra bells and whistles around the place. Hopefully we’ve got the place tight now.’

Shining pulled up in front of the Hall.

‘You can park at the stables,’ said Fratfield pointing towards the left. We’re trying to keep the main entrance clear.’

‘No problem,’ said Shining, driving the car around and parking next to an army jeep. He nodded towards it. ‘We’ve got uniforms on top of the private boys?’ he asked.

‘Actually, that belongs to one of the kitchen staff. King decided it would look better without a load of khaki about the place.’

‘I don’t imagine they would have been very useful anyway,’ said Shining as he climbed out. ‘If the threat is as supernatural as it seems, a rifle bullet isn’t going to slow it down much.’

‘Yes,’ Fratfield laughed. ‘Well, we have to take all things into account.’

‘I sense the awkward sound of a cynic,’ said April, getting out of the car after Fratfield.

‘Well,’ he admitted, ‘I don’t know anything about the subject. It all seems a bit bizarre to me but, and this is the important thing, your files tell a different story. I can keep an open mind.’

‘Then you’ll never get anywhere in the Service,’ she said, ‘but good for you anyway.’

‘Leave your bags,’ Fratfield said. ‘We’ll have them sent up to your room shortly.’

‘Once you’ve had security give them a once-over?’ asked Toby.

‘Naturally.’ Fratfield shrugged. ‘I’m afraid it’s all belt and braces here for the foreseeable. I take it you haven’t got any phones on you?’

‘No,’ Shining assured him, ‘or laptops, tablets, anything along those lines. We’re positive Luddites.’

‘Good job. Come inside and I’ll introduce you to whoever’s about.’

b) Lufford Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire

The entrance hall was big enough to play sport in, thought Toby as they stepped inside, though doing so was bound to result in the destruction of something cripplingly expensive. The floor was laid in large black and white tiles running at a diagonal across the room. Entering was like walking across a mammoth chessboard. The ceiling and walls were, as Fratfield had promised, covered in baroque plastering, the details picked out by concealed lighting. A twin set of staircases held the room as if in a pincer, running up either side of the hall and meeting in the middle. Looking up, Toby felt almost dizzy as his focus was lost amongst the glittering shards of a giant chandelier.

‘Homely,’ he said. ‘I could fit my whole apartment in here.’

‘Wait until you see the conference room,’ said Fratfield, leading them up to a door on the right, beneath the stairs. He gestured inside the pink-walled room. It looked like the belly of a whale, a whale that had swallowed a massive mahogany meeting table. ‘I run every morning, trying to keep in trim, if it rains one day I could just do a couple of circuits in here. Damn room needs three fireplaces to keep it warm.’

‘It would take a lot of your fifty pees to keep the place going,’ Toby whispered to April.

She tutted and nodded. ‘Never own a dining room you can get lost in,’ she said. ‘They’re more trouble than they’re worth.’

Fratfield led them back out into the entrance hall and across to the other side. They were in a corridor winding its way around more function rooms and living areas. Each took on a bold colour, leavened by stark white cornicing.

‘We’ve hired in a fully vetted catering team,’ he said, gesturing vaguely towards another set of stairs leading down from the corridor. ‘Kitchens and staff quarters are down there. There’s also a second stairwell servicing the other wing. This place is a rabbit warren, built in the times when servants walked a different route to guests. I’ll be shocked if you don’t get lost during your first day. I’ll happily admit to a frustrating twenty minutes I spent yesterday wandering around the cellar.’

‘Cellar?’ asked Toby, conscious of security.

Fratfield smiled. ‘What isn’t taken up by the kitchens and staff quarters is just storage space. You can’t move down there for relics and dusty paintings. There’s no external access and it’s been thoroughly swept for possible threats. Very thoroughly, given that I couldn’t find my way back out again. Whole place is sealed up. Not my job, really, but Rowlands’ boys appreciated the helping hand. You’ve seen the size of the place.’

They had reached the rear of the building, the corridor opening out into a large conservatory filled with potted plants, extensive seating and a bubbling water feature. The sudden rush of light through the glass walls and ceiling made them realise how dark the rest of the building had been by comparison.

‘Talk of the devil,’ said Fratfield, nodding towards a man sat at a small table in the corner who was working his way through a stack of paperwork. ‘Morning, Mark.’

Mark Rowlands looked up as they approached and Toby was all too aware of an appreciative sigh from April.

‘Ah,’ he said, with an affable smile, getting to his feet, ‘the spooks have arrived.’ He shook Shining’s hand and then turned to Toby. ‘Good to meet you, we have a mutual acquaintance, actually, Jeffrey Dean?’

‘Oh,’ said Toby, feeling immediately uncomfortable. ‘Yes, Jeffrey.’

‘Took over from you handling the music chap.’

‘Yoosuf.’

‘That’s the one. Gave you quite a beating, I heard?’

‘Not really, just got the jump on me.’

‘Bust of Beethoven wasn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

‘All better now?’

‘Much.’

Yoosuf had been his last assignment before being sent to Section 37, an asset he had let slip, a mistake for which his previous Section Chief had struggled to forgive him.

Toby wondered if he could make his awkwardness any plainer to Rowlands.

‘Your loss,’ said Shining, trying to turn the conversation around, ‘was definitely our gain. Toby’s a real asset to the department.’

‘I’m sure,’ said Rowlands, giving Toby one last appraising look before turning back to Shining, ‘and what a department! I was very surprised when Bill told me just now that Clive King had brought you onboard. I’ve only just finished looking at your files. Still, I’m sure he knows best.’

‘Hello,’ said April, pushing her way through, her initial impression of Rowlands fractured by his attitude towards Toby and her brother. ‘I’m April Shining. On attachment to HMDS.’

‘Yes,’ said Rowlands, distractedly, ‘another late addition.’ He glanced at the paperwork on the table. ‘I don’t seem to have a dossier for you.’

‘Never mind,’ she said, ‘all you need to know is that I’m here and there’s nothing you can do about it. Now, if you’ve quite finished swinging your dick around and being patronising?’ She turned to Fratfield. ‘Any more to see?’

‘No need to be rude,’ said Rowlands, sneering at her. ‘For a diplomat, that’s a remarkably big mouth you have.’

She smiled. ‘All the better to eat you up and spit you out, my dear.’ She walked back into the house. ‘Come on then, some of us have work to do.’

c) Lufford Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire

‘Well,’ said Fratfield, as he led them back towards the main entrance hall, ‘so glad there won’t be any squabbling between sections.’

‘There won’t be a problem,’ Shining assured him. ‘My sister does tend to get easily riled.’

‘Something of a character flaw in her line of work, I’d have thought.’

‘You don’t have to worry about me,’ she said. ‘I just can’t stand jumped-up office boys, that’s all.’

‘In fairness,’ said Toby, ‘as security’s his show, you can’t blame him for being put out when three extra people get dropped into the mix. As far as he’s concerned, we’re extra complications.’

‘Ah yes,’ said Fratfield, stopping in front of a large oil painting of red-jacketed huntsmen being beastly to a stag, ‘on the subject of which … obviously your role is clear, Miss Shining, but the Korean contingent have been told Section 37 are here as independent security consultants. We didn’t really want to get into the whole, erm …’

‘Preternatural is a good word,’ said Shining, ‘it sounds more scientific than some of the alternatives.’

‘Fine,’ Fratfield nodded, ‘yes, we didn’t want to go into the whole preternatural angle. King felt it was best to be vague about that side of things. Not just because …’ he struggled to think of diplomatic phrasing.

‘Nobody believes in it?’ suggested Toby.

‘It’s not that,’ said Fratfield. ‘As I said, your record stands for itself. It’s just not a discussion King thought would be helpful. Better all round if we’re seen to be adopting a wide-ranging response to security matters.’

‘Just not
too
wide-ranging?’ Toby asked.

‘Hell,’ Fratfield sighed, exasperated, ‘you’re here, aren’t you? I’m sorry, I’m not dismissing your work, just asking you to be discreet.’

‘I can’t see that being a problem,’ said April, staring at him, an open challenge in her eyes, ‘can you?’

‘Absolutely not,’ he replied. ‘Anyway,’ he smiled, eager to change the subject, ‘I should introduce you to the rest of the diplomatic gang.’

He looked to Shining and Toby. ‘Can I leave you to it?’

‘Of course,’ said Shining, giving him a friendly wave.

Fratfield began to lead April away when a last thought occurred to Shining. ‘Oh!’ he said, ‘one other thing before we get stuck in. Our bedrooms?’

‘Ah … yes.’ Fratfield looked awkward again. ‘Bit of a snafu with that, actually. They’ve put you downstairs.’

‘Downstairs?’ asked Toby. ‘As in the basement?’

‘Servants’ quarters. Sorry, I’ll try and have a word and see if we can’t get it shifted to the guest rooms. No idea what they were thinking.’

With that, he made a break for it, April complaining in no uncertain terms as she followed on behind.

‘Bloody servants’ quarters,’ Toby muttered. ‘Nice.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Shining, ‘in fact we might be better off down there.’

‘Really?’

‘Well, if someone is determined to bump off the delegates, I’m happy to be sleeping a couple of floors away,’ he grinned. ‘Let’s go and take a look, shall we?’

d) Lufford Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire

‘Well, yes,’ said Shining, stuffed into the corner of a room that felt like a prison cell. ‘All it really lacks is a window.’

‘And a bathroom,’ added Toby, sat on a bed whose springs were slowly but surely giving out beneath him, inclining him towards a piece of graffiti that had been chipped into the plaster of the wall. ‘Sven fucks Janice,’ it warned, though whether that was an ongoing situation or an ungrammatical yell of pride, nobody could tell. ‘And a wardrobe,’ he added, ‘and more than one pillow, and an absence of mildew.’

‘Well, it’s bound to be a bit damp down here,’ said Shining. ‘We’re planted in the Warwickshire earth like a potato.’

‘A sad and uncomfortable potato.’

‘We could list its deficiencies all day,’ Shining admitted, ‘though we’ve probably got more important things to do.’

‘Like pop out to the car for a kip on the back seat so we don’t suffer from a lack of it in here tonight?’

‘Oh, cheer up, mine’s just as bad.’

‘That doesn’t make me feel any better. You’re like my mother, trying to put a smile on my face by discussing the starving in Africa. I never quite got the logic of being cheered by the fact that others were worse off than me.’

‘It’s the sort of logic that has kept the secret service happy for years. Comparative misery.’

‘Then I should be the happiest spy in active service. Let’s leave now before I start laughing and just can’t stop.’