The Zenda Vendetta (TimeWars 4)

“I will give you my instructions when I meet you there,” said Falcon. “Go now.”

She turned and walked calmly up the staircase toward her bedroom on the upper floor.

“I must be dreaming,” Lauengram said. “That is no woman. It is Satan with breasts.”

“Ah, but what breasts!” said Hentzau.

“What do we do now?” said Lauengram.

“Do? Why, we do what Satan tells us,” Hentzau said, grinning. “Didn’t you hear? Our pay is being doubled. Go on with you. Get Michael and drive His Would-Be Majesty to Zenda. I’ll join you later.”

“She said for both of us to go,” said Lauengram.

Hentzau winked at him. “I have some unfinished business to attend to.”

He went over to Bersonin’s corpse and retrieved his sabre, examining it to see that it was not damaged.

“I believe that if she were really Satan, you would still not be deterred,” said Lauengram. “I shall have to have a long talk with the others. We did not bargain for this.”

“Do what you will,” said Hentzau. “As for me, I go my own way.”

“You always have. But you may have gone out of your depth this time,” Lauengram told him. “A woman like that is no fit mate for any man.”

“Yes, well, I am not just any man,” said Hentzau. He tossed off a casual salute to Lauengram and followed Falcon up the stairs.

He had one very immediate purpose in mind, but his thoughts were racing. Suddenly, everything had changed. The balance of power had shifted and new opportunities were beginning to present themselves. He had to consider them all quite carefully. He took the stairs two at a time, then moved briskly down the hall towards Sophia’s rooms. He paused outside and tried the door. It was unlocked. He smiled to himself and pushed it open.

She was not there. He called her name several times, but there was no answer. He frowned as he walked through the suite, determining that it was in fact empty. Where the devil had the woman gone? Systematically, he searched every room on the floor. There was no sign of her. Outside, he heard the coach driving away and he went to a window in time to see it turn into the street with Albert driving.

Had she gone in the coach? But no, she had ordered both of them to go and she would have wanted to know why he was absent. She had to be still in the house somewhere. He searched every room in the mansion, ignoring the frightened servants until it finally occurred to him to question them, but no one had seen her. It was as if she had simply disappeared.

Hentzau sat down and ordered one of the servants to bring him some wine. He smoked a cigarette. Clearly, there had to be a way out of the house he did not know about. But what was the woman up to? The thing to do now was to consider all the aspects of the situation and find the one that would most benefit Rupert Hentzau. He would have to alter his own plans for tonight now.

On the other hand, he thought, perhaps not. One had to explore all options.

It was late and the streets were mostly empty as the royal coach drove from the palace.

“It was very kind of you to see me home,” said Flavia. “It was not necessary, you know.”

“A fine suitor I would be,” said Finn, “if I simply had the coach deliver you to your door as if you were a package.”

Flavia suppressed a smile. “It would not have been the first time,” she said.

“I’ve treated you dreadfully, haven’t I?” said Finn. “I don’t know what could have been wrong with me. From now on, I shall make it up to you, I promise.”

She looked at him and smiled. Finn felt wretched. The worst part of it all was that he really liked her. He had never been very good at concealing such things and she obviously was responding, which had been the whole idea. However, now he was beginning to have regrets, for her sake.

“Poor Michael,” he said to change the subject. “He did not even stay for dessert.”

Flavia shook her head. “You pushed him too far, Rudolf. There was murder in his eyes when he looked at you tonight.”

“Is that what it was? And I believed it to be indigestion!”

“You may joke,” she said, “but where before he may have envied you, you have now given him more than enough reason to truly despise you. You made him out to be a fool in front of everyone. I beg you to be wary of him, Rudolf. I fear that he may stop at nothing.”

“You worry too much,” Finn said. “It is merely the rivalry of brothers and nothing more.”

“Surely you do not believe that.”